Blessed Beyond Comparison

♪You're rich in love and you're slow to anger. Your name is great and your heart is kind. For all your goodness I will keep on singing, ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.♫ -Matt Redman "10,000 Reasons"

This song has been on repeat for a while in my iTunes. I wish it would have been out a year and a half ago. If it had been, my very first blog post would have been based off of it. It is a perfect example of why I began my blog and is an archetypal example of the title of my blog, Blessed Beyond Comparison. I began this blog almost as a form of worship. I wanted nothing more than to talk about my God and how great He is and how wonderfully he has blessed me. I have had posts here and there that had no religious affiliation and I have had a few that were just venting or ranting, but for the most part I feel like I have continued to boast about God in most of the posts.


My favorite lyrics in the whole song are posted above. We serve a loving and kind God and for that and thousands of other reasons, we can rejoice and praise Him. Even on my worst days, I come realize that those days are not so bad. I live in America, I have a wonderful family, I have my health, and literally ten thousand more reasons as to why my God is AWESOME! But if all that were to be taken from me, I would still have my God, and because of His goodness there will be no cease to my praises.


I challenge you to realize you have so many reasons to live and so many reasons to praise God for His goodness.


Blessed Beyond Comparison

Sit Down, Shut Up

"Be still and know that I am God." -Psalm 46:10

Layman's translation:  Sit down, shut up, quit worrying, I'm God, and I will handle this for you. More often than not, I need God to slap me in the face with that. A reminder that I am not in control and a reality check that I serve an awesomely powerful God who is capable of all things. I often overvalue my existence. My very first blog post said something about approaching the question "What would God do without me?" I came to the same conclusion then that I still come to now, a year and a half later. Without me, God would still be God. He would continue despite my absence and not a single bit of his power or control would be drained. It is here that the author of the psalm points out this very fact; that God is God, despite who we are. He is all powerful despite what we try to do about it. He is in control despite how much we try to pretend that we fill that role.

I challenge you to be sit down, shut up, and quit worrying. God is in control.

Leadership is an Art

"Leaders don't inflict pain, leaders bear pain." -Leadership is an Art by Max DePree

So something that has been on my mind a lot recently is the idea of leadership. I have been in and out of leadership roles in my life, and I am grateful for the opportunities that I have been given. At no point have I ever thought that I deserved any of them or that the position was owed to me. I hope that I have been a successful team captain, Bible study leader, head lifeguard, and many other things, here's the thing that bugs me most; leaders should work harder than anyone and it is so much more than just being a boss. Leading is being the boss without being bossy.  Hence the above quote. Leaders do not inflict pain on their "inferiors" (I hate using that word to describe the leader's followers), rather, leaders are to lighten the burden as best they can for their inferiors. This may not always mean that the leader is doing their work for them, but it could mean that the leader is doing thier best to come up with the most efficient ways of doing things. That they are being a planner, but working hard nonetheless. In doing this, they save time, energy, and sometimes money.  However, other times, this means that the leader is to "step down" out of their position in order that things run smoother. They should be ready and willing to take on part of the burden of their inferiors. In contrast, if a leader is doing well, he or she may see their inferiors doing the same for them, going out of their way to make the leaders life easier and going above and beyond their job descriptions. With this in mind and these actions in play, respect is formed for and from both parties.

Now for rhetorical questions! How can you expect a group to work or stay uplifted when the leader is lazy? It is disheartening to say the least when a leader's job is to be the prime example, and the leaders could care less because they are too preoccupied with mindless distractions.  It is important to remained focused on the job at hand. How can you demand respect from your followers if you yourself are disrespecting them by not carrying your part? Playing sports growing up, I was always told "you are only as strong as your weakest player." Not only is this saying true, but never ever ever ever (!) should your leader be your weakest part! They are the leader for a reason! If one part of the team slacks, everyone else has to pick up the extra work and stress; if one part of the team fails, the whole team fails.

If you are a leader, I challenge you to be the leader, not just the boss. Be the example and do not overestimate your value to a job. Just because you have the title next to your name, does not make you better than anyone else. A team is a team.

If you are the follower, I challenge you to (respectfully) keep your leader in check. Call them out if you feel they are slacking, and encourage them when they are doing a fantastic job. We all need accountability and, coming from personal experience, it is nice to know when you are and are not doing a good job.

Cliche

John 3:16-"For God so loved the world that He gave his only son that whoever believe in Him will not perish but will have eternal life."

Bet you didn't read the whole verse above...or if you did, you just skimmed over it. You saw "John 3:16" and read the rest in your mind because this is a verse beaten into even the most unchristian-like people from the day they are born (at least in the south pretty much).  I would be willing to bet that 90% of the people I know have heard this verse from somewhere at some point in their lives. I would also be willing to bet that all my friends who are Christians probably say this verse as quick as possible, I know when I read it, it is at lightning speed because it is a verse that is second nature.

Although there is nothing I can do about it and I am very glad that this verse (and others like it) are so well known, I have to wonder how much of scripture we take for granted. How much of God's holy word are just cliches in our book? How many verses that were once life changing are now just mainstream?

I get so excited when I come across a Bible verse that strikes a chord with me that I am not familiar with. And yet I read over some of the verses that once were such a huge part of my daily walk with God and they seem to mean nothing. I have overused them (if that is possible). Their meaning has been lost in a repetitive reading of them and every time I read it again, I get further and further away from where it hit home for me.

This was a tough challenge to come up with. I challenge you to really read your Bible and dig deep for the wisdom that it provides. Even the most cliche verses can teach you something new. Do not fail to cherish God's word.

Stumbling into the Sacred

"We cannot get away from God, though we can ignore Him. We may ignore but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God-the world is crowded with Him." -C.S. Lewis

I read a story one time about a theologian and a child on a train together. The theologian promised the small boy an apple if he could answer a single question. The child agreed. The theologian asked, "Where is God?" Without missing a beat, the child replied, "I'll give you a whole barrel of apples if you can tell me where God is not."

Despite his youth, this kid gets it. It is not so much as to where God is, but rather where He is not. Needless to say, the theologian did not get his barrel of apples. God is everywhere. When David wrote Psalm 139 he said, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast." He surrounds us and is always there for us. Many people believe that God is similar to a watchmaker. That He created the world and has been distant ever since; that He is just standing back and letting nature run its course. I have to politely decline this idea. I believe the existence of a Creator is undeniable in our everyday lives.  Simple miracles are things that we consider to be "normal" because they happen every single day, but we fail to realize them as miracles. Everyday we stumble upon the sacred and fail to realize that He is the very reason of our being. He is hidden in the little things and is present among the greatest and lowest moments of our lives. He is the snow falling, He is coincidences, He is the sun rising, He is the life we have every morning when we wake up, and He is love. These miracles may seem mundane if seen through an untrained eye, but to a child of God, they are the masterpieces of our Creator.

I challenge you to slow down a bit and look for the everyday miracles that God has placed in your life.

Do More of What Makes You...

"When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other." -Ecclesiastes 7:14

This verse has been on my mind a lot recently. I personally believe that happiness is a manifestation of our circumstances and how we handle them. Romans 8:28 says, "we know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose." It is in this verse that we find that all things, both good and bad, are precious moments of life given to us from our Creator. We live a life that is not our own and every moment we borrow is one we will never get back once it has passed. Undoubtedly, we will have days that just suck. Where nothing goes right and it seems like you are taking on the whole world alone. It is in these moments that I believe that the presence of our Creator is undeniable. He gives us hard times to strengthen our faith and so that we know the good times when we see them. And even in the darkest of days, there is a possibility of the creation of a small ray of sunshine in every situation.  It is in these moments that we must seize happiness in whatever way, shape, or form it may manifest itself as. 

Unfortunately, I just wrote this whole paragraph on happiness and now I am going to shoot it to the ground in a sense.  The truth of the matter is that happiness is not our ultimate goal in life. I read a post on pinterest recently that summed up all of this...It had originally said "Do more of what makes you happy," but happy was scratched out and overwritten with "holy." Do more of what makes you holy. It is not about our happiness. No matter what, happiness will come and go, but joy, righteousness, and holiness should be ever present in our lives through the Holy Spirit. 


I challenge you to live a life of holiness. If you can manage that, I think the happiness will undoubtedly follow. 


Holiness>Happiness

Lay 'em Down

♪Come down to the river; come and let yourself in. Make good on a promise to never hurt again. If you're lost and lonely, you're broken down, bring all of your troubles come lay 'em down. All you sinners and the weak at heart all you helpless on the boulevards, wherever you are now whatever evil you've found, bring all of your troubles and come lay 'em down♫ -Needtobreathe "Lay 'Em Down"

So this song has been stuck in my head literally ALL week! I'm thinking that this will be a short blog because I wanted to blog about this song, but I think it is so self-explanatory. Basically, "bring all of your troubles, come lay em down." Give your problems over to God, lay em down and let them go. There is a certain amount of relaxation that comes with this song; it tails on the idea that we can be guilt free, fearless, and live our lives abundantly (Jn. 10:10) if we are willing to sacrifice the things of this world that hold us back. Our sin is the root of all of these feelings and, although reveling in sin can be very fun, it is not worth the after-effects. The hope we find when we lay down the things that hold us back is exponentially greater than any fun we had previously found in the sin.

I honestly do not think that you could pick a better song to start every day off with. I challenge you to remember this song when you are stressed, when you are happy, when you are feeling any sort of doubt, remember that the feet of Jesus are readily available to receive any and all of your trouble, but you have to let go of them first.