Wednesday, July 29, 2009
balance
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out
This has pretty much been my prayer, the cry of my heart. Worship AND service. I know both are absolutely essential. Please, please pray for me to have the right balance. I don't want to be so caught up in my personal relationship with God that I forget his heart for other people. And I don't want to be so focused on works that I take my eyes off of Jesus.
Jesus said to him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? And he replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live [enjoy active, blessed, endless life in the kingdom of God]. Luke 10:26-28
This is clearly the heart of God. Loving him (worship) and loving people (service). I feel as though in different periods in my life I've been more focused on one or the other.. but I don't think that's right. We can't just choose the parts of God's call that we like and leave out the rest. Over the past couple years, I've focused a lot on Shane Claiborne and Bill Johnson. I believe they each encompass God's call, though it looks very different. And I think that's ok. They are both loving God and loving others. I just want to sort out how that looks in my own life.
For most of my life I think I was significantly more focused on learning who God is and delving deeper in my relationship with him. That's a beautiful thing, but it stayed primarily internal. As of late, a passion for social justice has been so stirred in my heart.. and I want to embrace that- but without neglected the former.
I'm sure this is something that will balance out over the course of my life. I feel like I'm stepping into my call and it's very exciting. I just want to be sure to stay on the right track.
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Two of my favorite people to follow on Twitter are @hardlynormal and @holycowcreative. One pushes for Christians to get out of their churches and into the streets, supporting and helping the homeless, and the other attempts to show churches how to be creative, communicative, and ready for the modern day world.
ReplyDeleteThey talk back and forth quite a bit, and yesterday they had a long conversation about whether it's okay for Christians to just love God, or if they absolutely need to be helping people in this world.
I say all this to show that no one has this balance right - both of these people are extremely savvy, popular, and leaders of their fields. Neither has that balance down.
Truly though, where does that balance lie? Where are we supposed to be in life? What should we be doing with our time?
Unanswerable questions, unless we repeat that mantra above - to be consumed from the inside out . . . to be completely and radically changed, and to abandon our own ideals. What a way to live - and what a way to seek God's heart.
Wow I can't believe I just now read this. This is something I've been thinking about ALOT and especially today. I wonder about these same things.
ReplyDeleteGod, as we seek Your Kingdom, I pray You would give us Your heart for You, ourselves, and for the people around us.
God will reveal to you all that you need to know...
ReplyDelete:)
I love how honest all of your posts are. It IS such a hard balance to find, one that I struggle with as well. For me, it can get so overwhelming to see/feel everything inside of me, that I can lose focus on the fact that I'm a minister of Christ's love to the world around me.
ReplyDeleteI pray that we would all find the balance between the internal workings, and how that translates into our external lives.
Thank you, all :)
ReplyDeleteIt's so rewarding to get feedback... to know that my thoughts are relevant, my struggles are understandable and my questions are worthwhile.
I love each of you!