Here we are, blog post #2. In this weeks blog I'm going to share some things from the new book we are in "The Life You've Always Wanted." Going to jump right into it.
Page 11. "Sometimes I am too concerned about what others think of me, even people I don't know."
I relate to this because I'm always worried about what everyone thinks of me. I don't want anyone to dislike me so I'm always trying to please everyone. Constantly my sister reminds me "You care too much about what others think."
Page 13 "I am disappointed that I still love God so little and sin so much."
"I have other ones [disappointments], darker ones, that I'm not ready to commit to paper."
I thought about all my disappointments, those that I've shared with friends, and then those disappointments that I've never shared. Why do we hide disappointments? I don't know the answer, but maybe its because we feel guilt, shame, embarrassed, or like we'll be judged? I cant answer the question, I just know that some of us have disappointments we aren't ready to commit to paper.
"The feeling of disappointment is not the problem, but a reflection of a deeper problem-my failure to be the person God had in mind when He created me."
Page 15 "The truth is the term 'spiritual life' is simply a way of referring to one's life-every moment and facet of it-from Gods perspective."
"Gods not interested in your spiritual life. God is just interested in your life."
Page 18 "One day when the human race had not heard a word of hope for a long time, a man named Moses walked past a shrub. He had seen it before, perhaps a hundred times. Only this time it was different. This time the "turn" comes; this time the bush is on fire with the presence of God. And Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." Everything turned on Moses' being willing to "turn aside"-to interrupt his daily routine to pay attention to the presence of God. He didn't have to. He could have looked the other way, as many of us would. He would have just missed the Exodus, the people of Israel, his calling, the reason for his existence. He would have missed knowing God. But he didn't miss it. He stopped. He "turned aside."
Bottom of page 18-top of page 19 "God's sense of timing seemed strange to Moses. Forty years ago maybe-forty years ago he was young and strong and the product of the greatest education the advanced civilization of Egypt could produce. But now he was a nobody, an anonymous shepherd in a forgotten desert, rejected by his own people and a fugitive from the Egyptians."
"Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" Moses asked. "Nobody knows me. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. I am disappointed in myself. I yam what I yam." God said to Moses what he has said to you and me and millions of other Moseses. "I know all about that. It doesn't really matter much. For I will be with you. Your guilt and your inadequacies are no longer the ultimate truth about you. You are what you are-but that's not all that you are. You are what you are, but you are not yet what you will be. I will be with you."
Page 21 "When morphing happens, I don't just do the things Jesus would have done; I find myself wanting to do them."
Page 33 "Instead of focusing on the boundaries, Jesus focused on the center, the heart of spiritual life."
Page 34 "The 'righteous' were more damaged by their righteousness than the sinners were by their sin."
Page 37 "Why do I constantly find myself rating other people as if they were Olympic contestants and someone appointed me judge? Why do I so often compare myself to them as if we were in some kind of competition?"
Page 38 "The pursuit of righteousness is always an exhausting pursuit when it seeks a distorted goal."
Page 42 "Trying hard can accomplish only so much. If you are serious about seizing this chance of a lifetime, you will have to enter into a life of training."
Page 43 "Given the way we are prone to describe 'following Jesus,' its a wonder anyone wants to do it at all."
Page 49 "You can go to bed without fear; you will lie down and sleep soundly. It is an act of trust: I am reminded when I go to sleep that the world is in God's hands, not mine. The world will get along very well even though I'm not awake to try and control things."
"Have you ever tried to pray when you are lacking sleep? Before Elijah was to spend a prolonged time in solitude and prayer at Mount Horeb, the angel of the Lord had him take not one, but two long naps. Contrast this with the disciples at Gethsemane, who could not pray because they kept falling asleep. Sleep is a gift from God."
Page 50 "For some of you reading this book, perhaps the single most spiritual thing you could do right now is to put it down and take a nap."
If anyone knows me they know that I rarely ever sleep. Lately I've been sleeping less and less. Between work, school, church, lay leadership, and everything else I seem to never stop. I'm constantly on the move. Its great, I love it, until I lay down at night and everything I was too busy to think about during the day hits me at night. Thankful for those distractions that keep me from thinking, but in the end I'm usually up all night with a brain overload that cant shut down. Finally I end up exhausting myself and usually can sleep 3-5 hours a night. Sometimes I'm up for 39-48 hours at a time, and the fact is im used to it. I am always tired, yet when I get those rare nights when I do sleep 8 hours I find myself worse than when I had my usual 3-5 hours. Regardless, I know it has effected alot of parts of my life.
Page 51 "The wind blows where it chooses," Jesus said "and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Page 52 "Our season of life-whatever it is-is no barrier to having Christ formed in us. Not in the least."
"Whatever our season of life, it offers its own opportunities and challenges for spiritual growth. Instead of wishing we were in another season, we out to find out what this one offers."
"One of the most basic laws of life is rhythm. Night follows day, winter follows summer, we wake and we sleep. In spiritual life, the traditional language for this is rhythm. There will be times of consolation and times of desolation. In times of consolation we pray because God seems close, the Bible seems alive, sin looks bad, and stoplights all seem green. Times of desolation are just the opposite: The Bible seems dry, the prayer grows hard, and God is far away."
This is the end of my blog post. I actually have been reading a chapter a day instead of reading the plan which I believe is something like (8-9 pages) a day. Thats why this post was a bit longer than normal. This book is life changing.
Check back next week for blog post #3. Stay tuned the next chapters all deal with an individual spiritual discipline.
-Tiffany
No comments:
Post a Comment