(posted March 3, 2008) More on resourcing the mission this week on The Six. Pastor Dion shares some of the awesome events leading up to Holy Week, talks about his cute kids, and says things about our responsibility to one another that would make Senator McCarthy roll over in his grave. All this week on lucky episode #13!
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Thanks, Dion.
I was really worried I was going to miss the Missional Living Example this week. Good lookin' out. =0P
What have I laid claim to....hmmm, let's see.....
One thing that comes to mind is this. I didn't have all that great a life growing up. Things were hard, and I often struggled with why I had to go through all that. In many ways, I feel that whatever good qualities I have, I developed them myself in order to get away from that mess, and it's helped me to explain away why all of that was necessary. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I often credit those negatives with helping to create whatever good I see within me. It's given me a fascination with people and why they do what they do. It's made me more empathic and more understanding of others. And it's driven me to help others by talking about my experiences and those of others I've encountered.
If I were to give in and acknowledge those gifts as being from God, it almost feels as if those struggles I had to face were no longer worth it. Some people talk about Black Americans "owning" their heritage as ancestors of slaves in this country. Well I sort of took ownership of my problems as well. They were mine and no one else's, and so was everything that happened to me as a result of those experiences. So for me, acknowledging those gifts as belonging to God seems to discredit or maybe devalue my struggles and how I dealt with them. God didn't deal with my problems...I did. Therefore, those gifts are mine...I earned them.
Now, I still try to use those gifts for God's purposes. But when it comes down to who's gifts are they really...it's SO hard for me to admit that God placed them there, not me. Maybe I did earn them, who knows...but they still aren't mine.
I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but there it is.
Looking forward to the Summit!!!
makes a lot of sense. I've
makes a lot of sense. I've got a similar sounding past, there's a lot of junk I had to rise above.
The main thing that keeps me from going to that conclusion (I earned them) is whenever I see people who have been in similar situations to mine who haven't been able to rise above it. I'm no better than they are, and yet I've been spared, more than that enabled to rise above, and others have never been able to move beyond it.
I could try to take credit, but it doesn't seem right. I really feel like I was rescued in spite of it all. I feel like God converted my shame into His glory.
I don't know if this is making sense. But when I look back on why my own upbringing and the challenges my environment presented me, didn't break me, but instead made me stronger, i can only answer, "God" That's redemption... God purchased all those bad things, he claimed them to be used my/His good rather than my destruction.
Echoes
I have actually come to many of the same conclusions as you about things. But I'll move my thoughts over to your blog post on this because that seems like a more appropriate place for this discussion. ;)
Dion, we should talk again sometime. More one-on-one and less one-to-one than before.
Why Do We Need To Earn Anything?
I often wonder why we need to earn anything like those things we get in tough times? Why does it matter? Do we need self esteem? Are we validated buy God or are we looking to validate ourselves? I struggle with this. It's hard to accept that I am validated by something other than my efforts. Most of the time when I am trying to validate myself I don't even realize I'm doing it.
I'm reminded of a famous saying that I can't remember off hand. It starts by saying something like, "I prayed to God for courage and he game me an opportunity to be courageous...". God gives us what we need for a situation, he puts us in that situation, he gives us the opportunity. Was it me that earned it? Or, was it God that made it happen?
This has been a key verse
This has been a key verse for me.
Phil 3:4-10 (especially verse 7-8)
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
instead of coming to God on my own merits or trying to build an identity (worth) on what I am and can do... what if I put all my value in being "found in him"
That's powerful to me.