Sunday, October 2, 2011 - Where the Gold Hides

I didn't know the rabbit I started chasing yesterday would twitch its nose again today, but Max Lucado answered my questions in his entry for today.


My Questions:
How many decisions have I made because I liked the "looks," the "power," the "perks" but didn't take a long, hard look at what the decision could cost me in the long run?"  How many "red flags" have I turned pink or simply ignored?  Why do we choose "exciting" over "reliable?" 


Lucado's Answer: Fear of insignificance
"Fear of insignificance creates the result it dreads, arrives at the destination it tries to avoid, facilitates the scenario it disdains."  (Live Loved, Max Lucado)


God calls His "fearfully and wonderfully made" creatures to pursue a life of humility yet our Egos argue, "No one will notice me; I won't get credit; I have more important contributions to make;" and so forth. Do we see God's way as boring and unproductive because the world demands we have something big, different, shiny, powerful or expensive to symbolize our success? Are we chasing Hollywood's lights, limos, castles, glamour and gossip because living as God calls us to live doesn't provide enough entertainment? 


Even those who don't believe Jesus was God's Son wouldn't call Jesus' life on earth boring, yet He owned nothing and His symbol is the cross. The handful of previously vocation-oriented men who answered His call admitted they couldn't capture all His miracles and deeds in the books they wrote about His life. People who came for the show, for the miracles, or to be fed soon fell away, but those who stuck close to Him never went back to their previously-scheduled lives. After Paul met Jesus, he traveled, preached and healed. "Bored" wasn't in this missionary's vocabulary. And when John, the last living disciple, was exiled to the rocky, desolate island of Patmos, God opened the heavens to show his child the new heaven and the new earth. God and Boredom; oil and vinegar.


The only difference between these people and us is we haven't let go of all that glitters to take hold of Christ's humility where the gold hides.

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

marvelous are Your works, and that my soul, knows very well." 

Palm 139:14

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

 which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10

Father, we're so cock-sure we know the way to satisfaction yet we're simply following the wishy-washy and easily led crowd.  "Safety in numbers;"  "But everyone else is doing it, wearing it, saying it;"  You didn't create us to be like everyone else; on the contrary, we're to live up to Your high calling and take the narrow road of Christlikeness. Fill us with the courage to do so today. Even at church we can play follow the leader instead of letting You breathe Your Spirit into our hearts and minds to transform us.
In the Name of Jesus, Whose Life we are to imitate