Brace yourself; I think of strange analogies sometimes!
I recently got my hair cut. I didn’t want to at first (I loved having long hair), but having a new haircut is always thrilling–for me at least–and I got caught up in the excitement.
Today, for fun, I Googled new hairstyles I could try. My French braid turned out rather horribly, so I improvised and ended up with this:
Pardon the odd angle, taking a photo of the back of my head with a tablet was not easy!
You may think me silly, especially those of you more experienced with this sort of thing, but I was so excited! There’s something about creating anything with your own two hands and having it turn out right! I mean, it’s not perfect, but I love it!
Here’s where the analogy comes in. As I was thinking about all of this, something occurred to me. I’m a creation too.
I think we can all recognize that feeling of pride, of accomplishment when we create something. It’s the work of our hands; it’s a joy! But have we ever stopped to attribute those feelings to God? To think that He also feels that way when He looks at us?
We are His creation. We live in a beautiful world, though fallen, in which every detail was carefully crafted by Him. He lovingly designed every part of us, from our cells to our soul.
Have we sinned? Yes. Do we fall short of His glory? Yes. But thank the Lord, He loved us, His creation, enough to die for us. To save us from our sins, to pay the price for our transgressions! And because of that, we, His beloved creation, have the opportunity to come into His presence, to fall into the loving embrace of our maker.
And yes, all of this came from a braid. He works in mysterious ways! But I would like to leave you with this: Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, God loves you. He knew you before you were born. If He didn’t care about you, He could have let you continue on the path we had all chosen, the path we chose in Eden. But He didn’t. God gave His Son that you, His beloved and beautiful creation, may have life everlasting.
This weekend was beautiful. The weather was perfect (which is subjective, of course, but I’ll stand by my claim). Sunday was the type of day that makes me want to sit outside in the sun, breathe in the fresh air, and just enjoy life.
Today was less perfect. It was a little too cool for my taste, the kind of weather that makes me unsure whether I should go outside in a t-shirt and shorts or just hide inside all day wearing warm pajamas and a robe.
According to the weather people, come Thursday (happy Thanksgiving!), we’ll be “enjoying” a low in the thirties. Ugh. And that’s pretty much the fall/winter weather where I live. Just as I start to get used to a certain range of temperature, it will drop or go up thirty degrees from one day to the next.
I feel like my life’s been like that lately. I’ll enjoy a short period during which everything seems to be going well. Life is good, until the cold front blows in, and to be honest, I haven’t been handling the cold very well.
Monday night, for instance, I was feeling rather depressed. It wasn’t anything important. In fact, I imagine that if I were to share the details of what I was struggling through with a friend, they would have gladly, if possible, traded their problems for my “problem”. Putting all that aside, I was depressed and, I’m ashamed to say, crying a good deal.
I was sitting in my bathroom, feeling miserable and crying intermittently. When I was crying, all I wanted to do was stop. When I wasn’t crying, I had no idea what to do.
As I sat there, I thought of God, watching me and perhaps rather amused by how easily I cried over such little things. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that God doesn’t find my pain funny, no matter how insignificant the cause of it may have been. When we see someone we love in pain, is there any good reason for us to mock them for it? So how could God, whose love is infinitely greater and ultimately beyond our understanding, not care about us when we are in pain? How could He not care, even about the silly things, the small things? And how could He not feel pain, just as we feel the pain of our loved ones?
These thoughts slowly traveled through my mind. As I processed them, I felt a small degree of comfort, but I continued to cry. In fact, I think I started to cry harder.
I began to pray through my tears. I can’t really remember what I said. What I remember is that, at one point, I was no longer able to pull my thoughts together and put them into words. Rocking back and forth where I sat, I simply said, “I love you.” Then I said it again. And again. And again.
This wasn’t me saying, “God, I love you, so help me.” I think that the moment that I began to say those words, I realized something. God loves me. Nothing else matters. In that moment, it didn’t matter what was going on or why I was crying. What mattered was that I felt God’s love, and I wanted Him to know that I loved Him too.
God loves me. Nothing else matters.
It was such a simple thing, that realization. “God loves me”. But the truth is, it was not simple. It was great, profound, powerful. It was everything. It’s an idea that many, many people know, but not one that many people understand or take seriously. But maybe “understand” isn’t the right word, for who can completely understand God’s love? I know I don’t, but last night was a step toward something amazing. God loves me. Nothing else matters. That realization was something worth crying over nothing for.
I don’t know how long I sat there saying, “I love you”, but eventually I felt a peace sweep over me. I mean that quite literally. Before, there had been something raging inside, causing tears and pain and misery. Now, slowly, it began to calm down. And I felt at rest.
When I started this post, I hadn’t meant to write about all of this. To be honest, I began by talking about the weather because I had no idea what I wanted to talk about. I suppose God wanted me to share what He did for me, and I’ve written this gladly. It was a difficult night, that’s for certain, but ultimately, I’ve been blessed because of it.
On a lighter (maybe?) note, after all that transpired, I went back to reading a novel and within minutes it was making me cry. But that’s okay. A good book is worth crying over. 🙂
God bless!
-christrocks
After all this has passed, I still will remain
After I’ve cried my last, there’ll be beauty from pain -Superchick
One week ago, the re-make of Left Behind hit theaters. Please be aware, this is not a movie review. I have not seen the movie, and probably won’t see it until it I can borrow it from the library. (Just so you know, this applies to almost all movies my family watches, unless it somehow makes it to Netflix first.)
Now, am I absolutely sure that this guy’s theology is wrong? No. Of course not. To claim that I know for a fact that he is wrong would be to say that I know everything, which clearly is not the case. But I do believe that, Biblically, he’s made some errors, and I would like to share my thoughts. Whether you agree with me or him or neither, that’s fine. I just ask that you go to the Word first, because while our opinions (and, yes, theologies) are not infallible, God’s Word is forever and completely true.
The first thing I want to go over is what he mentioned of his struggle, in earlier years, to pinpoint a date for the rapture. Of course, this is now something he no longer struggles with since he doesn’t believe in the rapture, but I would like to point something out. Matthew 25:13 says this:
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
This statement comes at the end of a parable Jesus taught. This parable is basically a warning to always be prepared, because we “do not know the day or the hour” that Christ will return. Period. There’s no predicting it. And unfortunately, many people have overlooked this key verse and made attempts to predict the date of the rapture–and we all know how that turned out. These failed predictions have only served to weaken people’s faith regarding end-time events.
Now we come to one of the major points. The author states that no one in the church believed in the rapture until the last 200 years or so. He mentions some major figures in the history of Christianity whom he says never mentioned the rapture.
Why is this? Consider this: It wasn’t until five centuries ago, through Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, that the Gospel–salvation by grace through faith–re-emerged. Prior to that, Roman Catholic doctrine had corrupted much of the early church’s original teachings–which, I would add, included a belief in the rapture. Ultimately, we shouldn’t be looking back to a period of time in church history that, doctrinally, Christians no longer agree with to prove or disprove rapture.
Next: the idea that the Rapture isn’t mentioned in the Bible, and that it wasn’t “invented” until somewhere in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. I can understand where this is coming from. After all, you won’t find the English word rapture in the Bible. The closest you’ll come to it is a passage in 1 Thessalonians that mentions the believers being “caught up” in the air. However, in the original Greek, this phrase is harpazo, meaning to snatch or take away. In Latin, the word is rapturo.
So, yes, the word rapture is in the Bible–but does that really matter? What I mean by that is, should the fact that this word is in the Bible affect whether or not we believe in the rapture? No. A word is a word. The evidence for the rapture that we find in the Bible, that is what matters. Not what we call it.
And now, love, which is what the last point revolves around. The idea is that Jesus’ love, shown for us on the cross, doesn’t fit with the image of Jesus we see presented in both the rapture and the Tribulation. How does the enormous love Jesus has shown for us translate into the utter awfulness of the Tribulation? And beyond that, why would Jesus in His love take His church just when the world needs us most?
First of all, the Tribulation is God’s judgment of the world. God is love, yes; but He is also just. We are currently in a grace period, which is a demonstration of God’s love for us; but the grace period will end, and God will judge the world during the Tribulation.
As difficult as this may be to grasp, bear with me. Just because the church will be raptured, that does not mean there will be no more Christians in the world. For example, Revelation mentions the martyrs who were slain during the Tribulation and then went to heaven. It also mentions the 144,000 from Israel, “servants” who were sealed by God (Revelation 7). Thus, we can see that people will continue to be saved during the Tribulation.
Here we come to a very important point. The Tribulation is an example of God’s mercy. As crazy as it sounds, it’s true. He has every right to simply say, “It’s over”, and let that be it–but that’s not what He’s going to do. He gives us numerous chances to come to Him during our lives; the Tribulation is His final attempt to draw us to salvation. And the Bible shows us that people will indeed respond to this last, loving call from our Father.
Is the rapture going to happen? I believe so. I invite you to share your thoughts, but I would like to say this: I’m not trying to start a debate. I’ve shared my thoughts in response to Zack’s article, and I’d be very happy to hear your response to mine.
Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.
-C. S. Lewis
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)
I finished reading The Cinderella Rule last night. It’s the first Christian book on dating I’ve read (which is to say, first book on dating, period), and I am so glad I started with this one! That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better than other Christian dating books–because apparently I have no experience there–but I can vouch for the fact that it is an incredible book and I would recommend it to any girl who is single or dating.
The main focus of the book is announced on the back cover: Stop looking for Prince Charming. Let him look for you! The book focuses on, rather than chasing guys, allowing yourself to be pursued by a worthy, Godly man. As you delve into its fourteen chapters, you’ll find Godly advice and wisdom on things such as preparing your heart for a relationship, attire (aka modesty), boundaries in a relationship, and–fittingly the last chapter–engagement.
I loved the book as a whole, and I loved many individual things about it–too many to list (but here’s a few anyway)! One of the things I enjoyed was Bethany Jett‘s writing style. Her open, honest, and funny writing immediately put me at ease and made me want to finish the book in one sitting. (If I had had the time, I undoubtedly would have finished it within a few hours!). I also loved how she filled the book with her own experiences and those of her friends. It immediately made me feel connected to her. I appreciated the examples of what it means to be a Christian in a relationship, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized that I’m not the only girl who gets a little silly around guys. 🙂
My absolute favorite thing was how she talked about her relationship with Jesus. It gave me a desire to grow even closer to Him, and in doing so prepare myself to meet my future husband. When I meet him, I want him to find a woman that’s totally focused and in love with Jesus! (In other words, I do believe the book has done its job.)
If it sounds like this book could have application in your life, get a copy and read it! I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I did. But as a girl who has had absolutely no experience in dating (which, mind you, isn’t a complaint), you might get something different out of it than I did; I’d love to hear what! So if you’ve read this book, please let me know what you think!
Well, I hadn’t meant for that to go on so long! It kind of poured out, I supposed. This has been on my mind a lot lately. So often we’re afraid of what other people think. Afraid to the point that we hide who we are and try to act like everybody else. We’ve all done it. We all just want to fit in. No one wants to be embarrassed, laughed at, hurt, ignored. And we have decided that the way to avoid that is to be like everyone else.
But why? Even as I understand it, I can’t… well, understand it. God has made each of us beautiful, unique. Despite our fallen state, we are still His beloved creation. And when we hide who we really are, we miss out on the opportunity to be what He meant us to be.
As I say all this, I feel the need to point out that I’m not saying we shouldn’t care what other people think at all. We should. We should always be courteous and thoughtful of others. We should not, however, become so wrapped up in what other people think of us that it keeps us from being ourselves.
Helen Keller via Wikipedia
I’ve been reading The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (with additional accounts by her teacher and their assistant). It’s an absolutely beautiful story. One passage that I read about a week ago stuck with me (to my frustration, I have been unable to find it again; so note that the following is purely from memory). It spoke of Helen’s gracefulness and her carefree spirit. Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, commented that it was a result of her not being aware of any need to worry about people watching her, judging her. She was free from that burden and was able to truly be herself. Reflecting what I said above, this didn’t mean that she was unconcerned with other people. From what I can gather from the book, she was very sweet and compassionate.
Anyway, that passage struck me and has stayed on my mind. To be honest, it left me rather envious of her ability to be totally free of the worry of what other people were thinking of her. There is no switch, unfortunately, that can cause us to stop being so self-conscious. It would better be described as a process–one that, I assure you, I have not yet mastered. I think that, the closer you grow in your relationship with God, the better you are able to leave behind the weight of self-consciousness. As we come to know Him better, we realize more and more how much He loves us exactly the way we are. He sees us made pure through Jesus, and He continually tells us that we don’t need to make ourselves different just to please others. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t try to change at all; much of growing in our relationship with Him involves putting off bad habits and overcoming sin.
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
I would just like to encourage you today to be who you are. To realize that God has known you and loved you since before the creation of the world. To know that ultimately, it is not what other people think but what God thinks that matters. To rest in the knowledge that you never have to pretend to be someone you’re not.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
God loves you just as you are. He always has. And He always will.
-christrocks
(Note: I want to point out that the song above is directed more towards girls and addresses the pressure to meet society’s standard of “beauty”, but it still applies to this post. It’s a wonderful song; the bridge is especially powerful.)
Neighbors. An interesting Daily Prompt, I thought when I read it this morning. For one, I’ve never paid that much attention to who our neighbors were until we moved into our current house. Second of all, we’re going to be moving (and therefore saying goodbye to our neighbors) in one week! So I just thought that it was interesting timing.
I would definitely consider the neighbors that live across the street from us to be the nicest. An elderly lady and her husband live there. The woman often comes out to say hello and chat a little bit when we’re outside. After my back surgery last summer, she frequently asks how I’m doing and if I’ve had any updates from my doctor. (Speaking of which, last month the doctor told me that I’m free to do whatever I want! Hooray!)
The neighbors to our right are nice people. Unfortunately, they’re a bit on the loud side. They like to leave music playing outside even after they’ve been inside for an hour. They have a police siren on their car and frequently use it for no apparent reason (I’m not exactly sure how that’s legal). But, overall, they’re pretty nice people. I’ve even babysat their kids a time or two.
Then there’s the neighbors to our left. We don’t know much about them, except that they apparently have some sort of band. So at eleven at night, you can hear them practicing whatever song with (can I be honest?) some not-so-good vocals. And it’s quite normal to hear them playing drums throughout the day. Not the greatest neighbors to have.
So what’s the point of all of this? I’ve established that I have some very nice neighbors, some so-so ones, and the type that no one wants to have as neighbors. The thing is, the word “neighbors” doesn’t just have to apply to people who live next-door to you. The people you meet in your every day life, the ones you interact with, even the people you bump into at the supermarket–those are your neighbors. And some of them are nice, some aren’t, and others are so-so.
Here’s what I want to ask you. When you run into your “neighbors”, how do you respond?
The nice people in your life are the easiest. These are probably your family or friends. It’s easy to respond in a great way to someone who’s already nice to you. But what about the way we react to people who are rude, selfish, or uncaring? What does the Bible have to say about this?
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy .But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.” (Matthew 5:43-47)
This passage says it all. Really, what does it mean if we’re nice to those who are nice to us? Anyone can do that! It’s loving our enemies, those who hurt us, even the “so-so” people in life, that takes a God-like love. No one said loving your enemies was easy; it takes the love of Jesus, overflowing from inside of us, to do what otherwise would have been impossible.
The love that Jesus gives goes beyond loving the nice neighbors but not the annoying neighbors. It’s loving how He did–and still does. Because when we didn’t deserve it and couldn’t return it, God loved us anyway.
My challenge to you? To me? To all of us? Go, and love others the way God loved us.
TTT 