"But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights." -Jonah 1:17
It has been forever since I have blogged, but I felt the need to share something that hit me so hard this past Tuesday. I was in my Bible study group and we were talking about Jonah chapter 1. I had read chapter 1 four times prior to going to Bible study and of course I still managed to miss some things that the other wonderful ladies managed to pick up on. One of those being in the very last verse of the chapter. It is posted above.
From a young age, anyone raised in church knows the story of Jonah. Jonah was punished for his disobedience to God. ...or was he? So many people see God as a spiteful being who pours out His wrath on those who disobey Him. He sent the fish to swallow Jonah, yes; but one thing we found very interesting in verse 17 though was the word "provided." God provided a fish for Jonah to be swallowed by. That one word, often overlooked, can change the whole context of the story. Yes, Jonah was being reprimanded for his disobedience, but without the "punishment" of being swallowed by the fish, he probably would have died in the middle of the sea. He would have lost his life due to one mistake, but God so mercifully provided a way out. God still needed his work to be done and offered Jonah a second chance. The provided fish is a representative of all the roadblocks that God puts in our lives. He provides difficulties and things that may seem like punishments, so that His glory will shine though at the end of it all. In the end, He is always providing for us and has our best interest and His glory in mind.
I challenge you to switch the context next time you feel like God is working against you. Look at the situation in a different context and see if you can find how God is providing another option or a better way for you.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Nontradtional
""It's going to be an awakening experience when conservative Christians get to Heaven and realize there are no pews and everyone is acting like a fool. You can't fully worship God in the comfort of the box that you've put up around your faith." -Anna Joy Wells
I haven't blogged in over a month! This is not because I did not want to, but rather because I have not found the time to, and when I have had the time to, I just haven't had anything remotely interesting worth blogging about. But alas, that streak of nothingness ends with this blog! Recently I have been thinking a lot about worship, how it is perceived and how Christians react when it goes out of what they consider the "norm." I think we as southern baptists, Catholics, and most other denominations are too traditional. I LOVE tradition, don't get me wrong. I love hymns and tradition; but who among us has not sung a hymn and was just singing the words, has participated in other traditional conservative church service that had no meaning to them? Everyone has done it at one time or another. One question that was brought to my attention in the summer of 2011 that I really honed in on was the question, "why do we continue to follow traditional worship, if it has completely lost its meaning for some of us?" I was challenged to sort through the parts of Christianity that I have been taught all my life and to pick out the traditions that are meaningful to me and figure out why others had lost my sincerity. Because, as I have come to find, without my heart in it, "worship" is not worship.
Challenge #1-Find what traditions are meaningful to you and do those. Discover which ones have no meaning and find out why. Above all, have sincere worship however that worship my manifest itself.
In addition, a friend of mine put another idea I was thinking into words. She said, "It's going to be an awakening experience when conservative Christians get to Heaven and realize there are no pews and everyone is acting like a fool. You can't fully worship God in the comfort of the box that you've put up around your faith." I can criticize Baptists because I am one, but here's what I realized, our...umm... ostracism (for lack of a better word)...often stops people from participating fully in communal worship. As Baptists, if you raise your hands in church, you may get a weird look, but nothing too bad. If you sing super loud and off key, you may have some people around you move from their pews. And heaven forbid you....DANCE!...I think Christians, especially Baptists are in for a huge surprise when we all get to Heaven. I don't care what you say, I'm dancing in Heaven. It will all be with a heart of worship that will have thrown tradition aside and be fully engulfed in glorifying my Lord without fear of what anyone else has to say about it.
Challenge #2-Take God out of the box you've put Him in, and let Him guide your worship rather than going by what you think everyone else expects your worship to look like. I really think God could care less if your worship is traditional or not as long as your worship is directed at Him with love and sincere affection.
*I have a feeling that there will be more blogs on this idea of "nontradtion"...but here is the first of many.
I haven't blogged in over a month! This is not because I did not want to, but rather because I have not found the time to, and when I have had the time to, I just haven't had anything remotely interesting worth blogging about. But alas, that streak of nothingness ends with this blog! Recently I have been thinking a lot about worship, how it is perceived and how Christians react when it goes out of what they consider the "norm." I think we as southern baptists, Catholics, and most other denominations are too traditional. I LOVE tradition, don't get me wrong. I love hymns and tradition; but who among us has not sung a hymn and was just singing the words, has participated in other traditional conservative church service that had no meaning to them? Everyone has done it at one time or another. One question that was brought to my attention in the summer of 2011 that I really honed in on was the question, "why do we continue to follow traditional worship, if it has completely lost its meaning for some of us?" I was challenged to sort through the parts of Christianity that I have been taught all my life and to pick out the traditions that are meaningful to me and figure out why others had lost my sincerity. Because, as I have come to find, without my heart in it, "worship" is not worship.
Challenge #1-Find what traditions are meaningful to you and do those. Discover which ones have no meaning and find out why. Above all, have sincere worship however that worship my manifest itself.
In addition, a friend of mine put another idea I was thinking into words. She said, "It's going to be an awakening experience when conservative Christians get to Heaven and realize there are no pews and everyone is acting like a fool. You can't fully worship God in the comfort of the box that you've put up around your faith." I can criticize Baptists because I am one, but here's what I realized, our...umm... ostracism (for lack of a better word)...often stops people from participating fully in communal worship. As Baptists, if you raise your hands in church, you may get a weird look, but nothing too bad. If you sing super loud and off key, you may have some people around you move from their pews. And heaven forbid you....DANCE!...I think Christians, especially Baptists are in for a huge surprise when we all get to Heaven. I don't care what you say, I'm dancing in Heaven. It will all be with a heart of worship that will have thrown tradition aside and be fully engulfed in glorifying my Lord without fear of what anyone else has to say about it.
Challenge #2-Take God out of the box you've put Him in, and let Him guide your worship rather than going by what you think everyone else expects your worship to look like. I really think God could care less if your worship is traditional or not as long as your worship is directed at Him with love and sincere affection.
*I have a feeling that there will be more blogs on this idea of "nontradtion"...but here is the first of many.
Monday, July 23, 2012
The Apostle Paul and Luke Bryan
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything." -Ephesians 5:18-20
This blog may be taken as a bit blasphemous, but I promise that I mean no disrespect. Even though I am almost positive that neither Paul nor Luke Bryan had the other in mind when they wrote these two things above, I found a neat connection.
In the song above Luke Bryan is referring to a girl and he talks about drinking and talks about taking clothes off, but the point of the song is that the girl is the "best buzz [he's] ever gonna find." That her love is more addicting than any alcohol. I kinda thought about that and, through a long stretch, made it relate to my relationship with God. (I have a tendency to try to do this with almost every song I ever hear.) Again, it is a long stretch for some people, but I honestly find myself feeling "drunk" with the Holy Spirit sometimes. Above, you can see where the apostle Paul urges the church at Ephesus (and ultimately us) to be filled with the Spirit and to be thankful for everything. I believe that this song encompasses a small part of that. God's love is the best buzz I can ever find. I desire to be filled with Him and to go 'bottoms up' with His word until I know if from cover to cover. I want to be drunk on Him so much that His glory spills out of my mouth like a stream of incomprehensible babble may flow from the mouth of an alcoholic.
As I sit here staring out at the beach at in Edisto Beach, SC I am drunk on Him and high on summertime. I challenge you to be filled with Him, take Him in and be drunk on His love.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
10 OT Lessons
I have spent the last 8 weeks working in an adult outpatient rehab setting to get the majority of my hours for graduate school for occupational therapy. I have LOVED every minute of it. Here some of the life lessons and just some funny things I have learned in the last 8 weeks.
1. A good attitude can work wonders for the healing process.
2. Most people will work really hard to get back to doing the things they love most (playing golf, crocheting, making paper dolls) :)
3. I get really angry when I see a kid who has an unfortunate condition, and it is their parents fault that they are that way.
4. Both in therapy and life, discomfort is okay, but don't push it until its painful.
5. You can find a common interest with anyone.
6. The government and insurance agencies are really good at keeping people from the best possible treatments. (Drs. and therapists know what they are doing, insurance agencies don't.)
7. Some of the worst possible injuries have a story behind them that starts with "Well, I was just walking..." Walking is very dangerous! haha
8. Patients give good gifts (i.e. cards, homemade tissue boxes, muffins, recipes) :)
9. A sense of humor can lighten even the worst of situations.
10. Graduation day (the day he or she is discharged) can be the best or worst day of that person's life depending on how they felt about their therapist.
*I cannot wait to be an OT! :)
1. A good attitude can work wonders for the healing process.
2. Most people will work really hard to get back to doing the things they love most (playing golf, crocheting, making paper dolls) :)
3. I get really angry when I see a kid who has an unfortunate condition, and it is their parents fault that they are that way.
4. Both in therapy and life, discomfort is okay, but don't push it until its painful.
5. You can find a common interest with anyone.
6. The government and insurance agencies are really good at keeping people from the best possible treatments. (Drs. and therapists know what they are doing, insurance agencies don't.)
7. Some of the worst possible injuries have a story behind them that starts with "Well, I was just walking..." Walking is very dangerous! haha
8. Patients give good gifts (i.e. cards, homemade tissue boxes, muffins, recipes) :)
9. A sense of humor can lighten even the worst of situations.
10. Graduation day (the day he or she is discharged) can be the best or worst day of that person's life depending on how they felt about their therapist.
*I cannot wait to be an OT! :)
Saturday, July 14, 2012
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
Saturday, July 7, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)