The need for speed

 I caught myself in something this morning.  I saw a headline in one of my news feeds that was something that I had already read in another news source and I got annoyed.  "Don't they know this is already old news", I thought to myself.  After all, my time is precious and I need something new this morning, not something old news.  I recognized in myself a trend that is present in my life in other areas as well.  I get annoyed if there are two or more cars in a drive thru that is supposed to make my life quicker and easier.  I get near angry if I am waiting in a line and it does not move as quickly as I think it should.  Time seems to be a priority to me.  But I am not worried in these moments about using my time for the glory of God, I am instead annoyed that "my time" is not being respected or used as well as it should be.  I am inherently selfish and demanding that the rest of the world operate on my schedule as if there are not other souls that God has plans for on any given day or that everyone should focus on ME!

How do we battle this kind of daily focus on ourselves?  I am reminded of Romans 12:3 (NASB) - "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."

Do not think of yourself more highly of himself than he ought to think.  What a challenge.  What a reminder.  And he gives the positive statement of how to think - as to have sound judgment - a judgment based on the faith that God gives instead of something internal to us.  

May God help me (and by extension all of us) to think of myself rightly!

Summer Fun and the Glory of God

 I think that sometimes we often create false dichotomies in our mind and spirit.  For instance, we feel guilty if we take the time to relax and have some summer fun because we should have spent that time doing something for the kingdom of God.  If we stop and read a book it better be a Christian book.  If we listen to music it better be worship music.  If we do anything it ought to be for the Kingdom of God.  There have even been books written that encourage this kind of thinking.  We should give all we have up for God - including all of our time and energy.  

The more that I think on this the more I have come to the conclusion that it is NOT BIBLICAL.  Let me make a few points and encourage you to go out this summer and have some fun doing things that you enjoy for the glory of God!

1.  Creation was made for our good and benefit and enjoyment.  We could eat of and enjoy all of the fruit in the garden and rest was built into the equation!  

2.  Rest was built into the 10 commandments.  Rest was built into the law.  Rest was built into every part of Israel's corporate life.  And yes this rest is to be a rest focused on God, but God still allowed the Israelites to do things that they enjoyed.  The issue seems to be balance. 

3. Jesus rested and took time to get away from everyone.  

4. We are supposed to enjoy the life that God has given us - and there is no condemnation for having time to be able to recover and recuperate.  

And this is so very important - go out and get some rest and have some fun and enjoy the good creation that God has given.  

Independence Day

 From the time that we are very little we value our independence.  "I can do it myself" is a common refrain among those who are little and those who are older as well.  We never really grow out of the "I can do it myself" phase.  Even as adults we do not like to ask others for help or worse, to receive help that we have asked for.  We want to do it ourselves.  The trouble is that independence is not what we make it out to be.  And there is no better example than this the July 4 and what it symbolizes.

I wonder if the soldiers fighting the revolution thought that they could do it by themselves.  Of course they were fighting for the right to self-govern, but even that was created with system of checks and balances that allowed no one branch, or one person to have control.  Each citizen (although at that time poorly defined) was a part of a much larger process.  In this way independence was a civic responsibility - working together for the common good of all.  

Of course in our "modern" society of terribly uncritical individualism, we redefine independence to mean that we should each be in charge of our own lives.  Nothing could be further from the truth, especially for those of us who claim the name of Christ.  Because of Christ even our own identities are not really our own because we have been bought with the price of His blood.  Our independence is an independence from our sin nature and instead an enslavement of sort to the righteousness of Christ.  And we are independent together - for the Word of God calls us to serve each other as we have been served by Christ.  

So as we think about this July 4, perhaps we should reconsider the meaning of independence and how we can truly should Christ through the freedom that we have in Him!