yeah, i can see how that's a problem. =/
i've been reading a lot of proverbs.
it's pretty much my favorite book so far.
it has some really good stuff in it.
Proverbs is great.
Psalms are wonderful, especially if you're feeling down.
David wrote a lot of them when he was in the depths of depression.
He'll cry out to God "How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?"
But at the end he always comes back to "I trust in your unfailing love."
Truly inspirational.
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
don't sulk under his loving correction.
It's the child he loves that God corrects;
a father's delight is behind all this.
it's a bit late but i thoughti'd let you know anyway - last sunday was the Catholic Church's Day for Life, and this year it was addressing mental illness. maybe a lot of us don't think of ourselves as ill, but in his sermon our priest reminded us that we all need healing by God, and help from other people. but anyway, what i was going to say was, if sometimes it seems like our fellow christians can be judgemental of us for struggling, last sunday millions of people were praying for anyone who found their own mind to be their enemy. people do care :)
I'm so frustrated lately. I hear over and over that you have to let God in to ALL of your life, and i have to wonder...why bother to do it any other way? i don't understand how people can believe in a God of "ok". I don't understand how people can let God in partway, and be content living in happy little religious clubs with fake smiles and shiny bibles. I don't understand why people bother. i don't have the luxury of being able to believe in a powerless god. maybe that's what it comes down to--desperation. i refuse to have anything to do with a god that is okay with things the way they are, because things are not okay. i've learned that inside and out. and there are times when i am not okay. there are times when i am far from god. but i have NEVER been able to lie to myself about that, and I don't understand how anyone else can. I don't see how someone can be content, be SATISFIED with the crumbs from the table.
I don't understand it. And yet everyone around me DOES seem satisfied, and they wear their happy little Jesus masks and then turn around and are completely ugly in their behaviour to the other people around them. I just don't understand. In the words of a good song..."He heard that Jesus would fill him up. Well, if this was full, then why bother?"
I am sick of people not caring. THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN JUST *OK*, and it's time we all learned it. Am I alone in this?
Amen!
I totally and completely agree!
I posted this devotional a few months ago, and it's relevant so I'll find it & repost it. If we were able to go back and look at the footprints of our life, we'd see that sometimes we went back to look at old resentments and habits. Sometimes we chose our own path or wandered onto another person's path we liked better. At other times we simply stopped because we couldn't let go of something that we couldn't take with us.
"But Father, we ended up okay even if I didn't walk with You every single day, didn't we?" He holds you close to His side and smiles, "Yes, child, we ended up okay. But you see, 'okay' was never all I had in mind for you."
[Breaking Free Day by Day: A Year of Walking in Liberty Copyright 2007 by Beth Moore all rights deserved]
Now back to my thoughts:
We can't settle for okay. God wants us to be so much more.
Even unbelievers can be okay, even successful. With God we can be victorious!
I don't understand it. And yet everyone around me DOES seem satisfied, and they wear their happy little Jesus masks and then turn around and are completely ugly in their behaviour to the other people around them. I just don't understand. In the words of a good song..."He heard that Jesus would fill him up. Well, if this was full, then why bother?"
I am sick of people not caring. THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN JUST *OK*, and it's time we all learned it. Am I alone in this?
I'm sorry, but how do you know they don't care? Have they said to you "oh yeah, I actually like behaving horribly and I don't care about being any closer to God"? Because if they haven't, then you just don't know. Like you said, there are times when you aren't as close to God as you should be, and I'm sure you don't behave perfectly all the time either. So to someone taking the same attitude as you are here, you could come across as a huge hypocrite. Maybe these people are struggling. Maybe they're trying, but we all have sins that we struggle with, and we all have times we're not close to God. Just because they don't tell you about it doesn't mean it doesn't bother them. It doesn't mean they don't care. Maybe you're right. But then, maybe you're not. Maybe you should focus on praying for them and setting a good example instead of deciding who's a 'good enough' Christian. I'm sorry, but this just comes across as unduly judgmental.
I'm sorry, but how do you know they don't care? Have they said to you "oh yeah, I actually like behaving horribly and I don't care about being any closer to God"? Because if they haven't, then you just don't know. Like you said, there are times when you aren't as close to God as you should be, and I'm sure you don't behave perfectly all the time either. So to someone taking the same attitude as you are here, you could come across as a huge hypocrite. Maybe these people are struggling. Maybe they're trying, but we all have sins that we struggle with, and we all have times we're not close to God. Just because they don't tell you about it doesn't mean it doesn't bother them. It doesn't mean they don't care. Maybe you're right. But then, maybe you're not. Maybe you should focus on praying for them and setting a good example instead of deciding who's a 'good enough' Christian. I'm sorry, but this just comes across as unduly judgmental.
I understand how judgemental that could come across. I am very frustrated with their behaviour, though. This is not really about a specific group of people, but i can tell you about a specific group of people that triggered this reaction this time. I have been close with these people for several years, and I have had many conversations with them, and I have tried talking to them, and they do not care. Before you attack me again, I will tell you that I DO pray for them and I do love them, and I don't run around pointing out their flaws all the time. This isn't me being petty and judgemental. This is me seeing people I care deeply about ruined by apathy. Several of these people are in leadership positions in the church as well, which concerns me. I never claimed to be perfect and I don't expect them to be perfect either; in fact, this isn't specifically about them. I did not post this message to critisize them--there would be no reason, because they would never read it. I posted it because I am very frustrated with the state of the world, and the fact that people seem to be walking around with their eyes willfully shut. I am frustrated with the fact that the word 'Christian' has become a synonym for someone who is hateful, spiteful, judgemental, cliquey. I have come across so much corruption in the church lately that it makes me sick--not in a 'you're so disgusting' way, but in a way that has me on my knees, sobbing, completely helpless against a monster that controls the lives of people i love and hurts people i love and it is SO INCREDIBLY WRONG for things to happen that way.
I came across more angry than I meant to. i am not angry at the people. i am angry at the force that is controlling them all, holding them all back from what they could be. I wrote that post partly to get out my frustration, and partly to say, "if you're listening--wake up. don't be satisfied with just OK, when there is so much more being offered! Reach out for life abundant!"
So, I stand corrected. =] May our God bless you and keep you, and may you grow in the love that you have displayed by standing up for those who are strangers to you. May your thirst for justice grow.
And may you never be satisfied with 'just enough'.
I posted it because I am very frustrated with the state of the world, and the fact that people seem to be walking around with their eyes willfully shut. I am frustrated with the fact that the word 'Christian' has become a synonym for someone who is hateful, spiteful, judgemental, cliquey. I have come across so much corruption in the church lately that it makes me sick--not in a 'you're so disgusting' way, but in a way that has me on my knees, sobbing, completely helpless against a monster that controls the lives of people i love and hurts people i love and it is SO INCREDIBLY WRONG for things to happen that way.
I came across more angry than I meant to. i am not angry at the people. i am angry at the force that is controlling them all, holding them all back from what they could be. I wrote that post partly to get out my frustration, and partly to say, "if you're listening--wake up. don't be satisfied with just OK, when there is so much more being offered! Reach out for life abundant!"
That really touched me that you feel so passionate about this and at church this week we talked about anger and how it is actually useful to God. If you get angry about something it shows a deep passion for an issue and you can use that anger to help others and be useful (this all stemmed from the video 'store' from the nooma series by rob bell check it out sometime they are ace). I was really reminded of this when I read that, maybe God is trying to use you to do something about people being content in their faith and not yearning for more.
What you said about being satisfied with ok can hold you back from what you could be just hit me as I was reading that all back and I just wanted you to know that even if your post sounded angry/rubbed people the wrong way i think sometimes you have to get rid off all the soft nice stuff to get your point across and that it helped me. I can't remember the exact figure, but it's like when that guy who stood up in a convention infront of lots of vicars and said 30,000 children die a day from hunger and you don't give a **** and I bet you are all more offended about the fact I said **** than the fact that many children die. Sometimes you need a big kick to realise how twisted a situation is and I think that's what you were doing/could do.
There's a guy called Paul Washer and I've watched a video of one of his sermons, it was quite long but it was very shocking. He basically told it straight, how everyone was messing up and it wasn't ok and we needed to sort our lives out. People didn't like it because he was just telling the cold hard truth and it meant that their lives weren't ok to God and that we are all doing unacceptable things, but they needed to hear it. This might just be my mind linking things randomly but your passion has really reminded me of this stuff and maybe God's trying to get you to do something more or different to help people in this situation by letting that frustration give you ammunition.
Sorry this is long and sorry if none of it strikes you as relevant but if it is I didn't want you to miss out on hearing it because I dismissed it as silly. Thank you for giving me a kick and getting me started again, God has big plans for you.
