Indistinguishable Loyalties - May 29, 2006 -
This weekend I was at a friend’s house for a graduation party. Being a 90+ degree day, everybody was rather hot, and so the party inevitably took a turn into becoming a water fight. And as is our custom, we went a bit over the top.
It started with water balloons being tossed and a bunch of us as we were playing basketball. This turned into buckets of water being filled (not just small buckets, but buckets of all sizes). And it was only a matter of time before the hose was brought. And then it became a mind game as to who was on who’s side, with various alliances being made in order to “get” another person. What started out a simply toss of a water balloon turned into an all out war, with people being tackled and thrown all throughout the area.
The climax of the event occurred when there was a desire among a few to “get” someone who was sitting inside of the house, but had made an hit on someone outside. So the ammunition was being loaded, and the only issue was grabbing the target and bringing him outside. There were some mixed alliances here, and when the first attack came to pull the guy out, there was an unexpected help in keeping him inside. After a bit of a wrestle indoors, there was a stand-off, which turned into a 3 vs 8 matchup. Obviously, I was the 3rd member in the 3, because my boy was the unexpected help, and I couldn’t turn my back on him. With a rare turn of events, the crew of 8 took a plunge at my boy to drag him outside and “get” him, so I jumped in to keep him in the house. During the struggle, the original target came in to try to help, but not knowing who was with who, took a yank at me and ripped a huge hole in my shirt. After a bit more of a scuffle, the parties separated again, and we were all licking our wounds.
It got me thinking, why did I get attacked by the person who was on my team? The one I attempted to protect in the first attack, he turned on me. We were both trying to save the same person, yet in our attempts I turned out to be just another target for him. And then it hit me.
To him, I was no different than anyone else. In the massive struggle going on, he was not able to decipher who was on what side. There was nothing that distinguished me from everyone else. We all were just tugging and pulling on this one guy, and so his instinct was to simply pull off anyone who looked as if they were endagering his compadre. If I acted differently, such as trying to reason or made it somehow more clearly that I was trying to save him, I would not have gotten a ripped shirt.
There’s a much bigger battle going on in the world…a battle of good versus evil. And I wonder from an outsiders perspective, can they tell which side I’m fighting on? I know that I’ve got the Lord on my side, and I know that my desire is to fight for my God and for good in every and all circumstances. But when others see me, what is it that they are seeing? When they see the battle, do I look any different than anyone else? Can they tell that I am for Christ and not against Him? And even if they “know” that I’m fighting with Christ on my side, do they see a difference in the way that I fight that battle as opposed to the others who don’t have Christ?
As Christians, we’ve been called to be different. We’ve been called to be set apart, go against the grain, turn the other cheek. When the world raises fists for conflicts, we are to be stretching out hands to help others up. Regardless of what you are fighting for in your heart, those on the outside might not see your motive…and a raised fist is a raised fist. We need to recognize that our image is always on the line, and we are called to be reflections of Christ. When others see us, they need to think, “Those people are different” and recognize that it’s because of Christ. What purpose do they see in turning to Christ if we look so similar to everyone else? If it wasn’t for Christians misrepresenting Christ by our lifestyles, there would be so many more believers in the world. I’m tired of being a hindrance to the gospel message. I want people to be able to recognize that I am truly different. For the glory of God.
Skewed Surrender - May 18, 2006 -
The word “surrender” has been thrown around my entire life. A lot of times, it was used in the context of war or battle, where one side is dominating another, and so the weaker end “surrenders” so as to save themselves. It was almost used synonymously to “give up”. Meaning if you didn’t surrender, you weren’t giving up, and would continue to fight.
Because I have a strong Christian background, the term surrender was used a lot more regularly too. You’re constantly told to surrender everything to God’s plan. Whatever God’s will is, you must submit to it. Get rid of all your preconceived notions and your own agendas, and surrender. And for most of my life, I’ve had this mentality that when I’m supposed to surrender things to God, or when I decide to surrender things over to God, what’s supposed to happen is I’m supposed to give up everything and do a complete 180.
But the more I think about it, the more I recognize that my thinking is not right. I’m starting to see surrendering as being the willingness to follow another’s direction, to let someone else lead instead of yourself. But just because I’m letting someone else lead, that doesn’t mean that I was headed in the wrong direction to start. Sometimes, you can surrender an area of your life over to God, without actually changing your direction, but more just changing your process and your thinking.
My education and future have been big things that I’ve been trying to surrender to God. I truly don’t have 100% direction as to what I’m supposed to be studying, and what my future holds. But when I say that I’m going to “surrender” that aspect of life to God, am I supposed to change my major now? Am I supposed to find another career opportunity? I don’t think so. Before I surrendered, decisions were made because I was selfish and looking out for simply myself, and I would be too stubborn to change any part of my thinking. But now that I’m surrendering it, I’m continuing down the same road, but this time it’s with a greater vision for God’s kingdom, seeing how this affects other people, and I’m willing to make changes if need be. That is surrendering.
So many times we fall into this false mentality that every act that we’ve made without giving it up to God is the wrong act. The act itself might not be wrong. The part that is initially wrong is the motive of your heart. Obviously, there will be times when our acts truly are wrong, and we do need to make a 180 degree turnaround to fix it. But we shouldn’t simply assume that that is the case. That’s like the easy way out. Instead, we need re-evaluate everything, and recognize first where our heart is at. Then, by changing our hearts towards the Lord’s, we can start to plan out our lives again. Maybe the Lord will tell us He wants us to do something completely different. Or maybe He wants us to continue down the same path, but just with a different heart. If you weren’t surrendered with your first decision, don’t believe that just doing the opposite is surrendering. That’s just false assurance that you’re doing what is right. This life is not made of cut-and-dry, black and white decisions. God’s not sitting up in heaven just watching where you are walking, and thinking “ooh, if he went right, he would have been in the good area.” No, it’s more than that. God wants us to think. He wants us to reason. He wants us to understand things. This life is filled with grey areas, and He wants us to be able to take past experiences and prior knowledge of Christ to know and understand what to do in those situations.
Surrendering is important. The will of God is greater than any of our wills. We need to be more willing to have the heart of surrender, more so than just the act of it.
natemathai |
filed under: insight, personal
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Summer Biltz - May 7, 2006 -
Matthew28:18
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I’ve always felt like some of the most powerful times for me spiritually are when I was on campus. During the school year, I’ve got two different ministries in ICF and CFC (as well as a ‘part-time’ ministy with CMTC). Everywhere I turn I have a chance to serve and an amazing chance to grow and learn. And being surrounded by so many people with the same, if not greater, passion than I do, I get so excited about the work that God is capable of doing.
But as I continue to think about it, I feel as though the summer should be an even more exciting time for me. Looking at the big picture, there is so much potential for greater things. Think about it. We’ve spent like the past 8 months getting trained, learning, growing, encouraging and strengthening each other. We’ve been serving and preaching the Word, but it’s been done on a such a small scale, when you think of the world vision. But now summer hits. And now the Lord takes each one of us and scatters us throughout the world to take the things that we’ve learned and use it. He sending people to third world countries, many go back to their home churches and high school friends, and others stay back to keep serving at the present location. During the school year we are all focused on one area, but now we are asked to cover a much more land, and reach so many more people. Aren’t you excited to be a part of that?
We’ve gone through many months of training in order to take these next few months and just let loose on those who don’t know. Now’s the time to hit the world harder than they’ve ever been hit before. They won’t see it coming. We’ve been quiet in our little corners of our comfort zones for awhile, and now’s the time for us to break out…it’s time for the summer blitz.
This summer has so much potential. There is great opportunity for revival. Revival in your home churches, in your families, in your communities, in this world. Don’t you want to be a part of it? This is one missions opportunity I do not want to miss out on. Brothers and sisters in Christ scattered throughout the world to reach as many people with what little time we have. Three months to blitz this land with the Word of God. he desires to send revival…let’s do our part. Do not let this summer be a time where you are distant from God, where you become dry in your faith, or where you limit your serving. This world has enough Sunday Christians, enough “School-time” Christians, enough moral people. We need more people willing to live out loud, 24-7-365.
natemathai |
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