Your assignment

If you are like me, sometimes you go through this in life so difficult that all you can say is: OMG!!! For some of you, you have no words nor can you come up with reasons as to why you are going through what you are experiencing but all you know is that you are in pain.  The desert of pain and the road of loneliness are often accompanied with feeling as if you have no purpose and that your life is meaningless.  Have you have experienced days when you smiled but you were honestly crying inside?  Everyone's critique of your life would suggest that you are doing quite well and that from their vantage point life probably couldn't get any better for you.....and yet if people only knew what was in your head and what rested on your heart they would possibly start crying along with you.

Today I had another inspiring conversation with a close friend of mine, and came to this crazy conclusion:  As a child of God, what if your storm was actually your assignment???  I'm not suggesting that God loves when we are in pain, neither do I believe that we should go looking for storms.  However, I am reminded of a story John's gospel when there was a man who was born blind. He didn't ask to be blind, he didn't enjoy his blindness, and I'm quite sure that he would have loved to experience sight long before Jesus finally healed him.  However Jesus said that the ONLY reason that blindness was on him was so that God could get some glory.  What I am learning in my world is that sometimes God will use your 'blindness' as a platform for the glory of God.  I think many of us are missing our moments of God's glory and replacing them with moments for self preservation.  Hey, I hear you...I've been there, I don't always enjoy being God's platform and being His poster child.  But then again maybe I do...if God has given me a storm as an assignment then He must believe, know, and trust that I am capable to do Him justice!!!  I'll be the first to admit, that I have often missed by assignment by complaining, my attitude, and non-testimony because I wanted my way more than I cared about His way.

I'm not there yet, I haven't fully gotten to the place I need to be....But I now understanding that as a child of God...my pain isn't random...what I'm going through and what you are going through....even in your storm is your assignment and God believes that through even your OMG moments--He will get glory...peace!  Just some thoughts from my world...

The joy of the Lord

Many of us would probably not admit it, but in my world, I have learned that we can oftentimes get very impressed as well as depressed by people.  We get excited when people feed our ego, or we can be saddened when people disappoint us and let us down.  

God spoke to me this morning and said: "The reason why you often get overly impressed with people AND extremely low with other people is because you invest too much of yourself in them."  The bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength.  Its God's joy that should carry us, consume us, encourage us and uplift us.  Simply stated, we have expectations on people to do things for us that they were NEVER created to do, and that is to be our SOURCE of joy.

Whenever we find ourselves wrapped in the the affairs of others it may be a sign that we have allowed them to rent too much real estate space in our mind.  If the joy of the Lord truly is our strength, then our happiness is never left to what others do or don't do for or to us.  Oftentimes our emotions aren't stable and they are built on how well or poorly someone treats.  Everything we need for happiness, peace,  and joy-the bible teaches us is found in the Lord!  He is the SOURCE of what we need.  In my world I am learning to stop looking for what I need in other people.  If I continue to look for what I need in other people, the possibility exists that I will be disappointed every single time.  People move like the wind, their attitudes are as shifty as ours, and continuing to seek joy in people says to the Lord that we don't think he is competent to give us what we truly need.

I don't know about you, but in my world I NEED joy!   I need joy, and I can't leave the receipt of my joy to people who were NEVER designed to give it to me.  The joy of the Lord is my strength, your strength and whatever you need can always be found in the Lord!

The death of me...

In my world I am learning that comparing myself to other people will be the death of my Christian experience.  A few years ago I felt like life was passing me by, everyone was moving and advancing past me, and that everyone was experiencing things that I was supposed to be realizing as well.  I looked at people's seeming lifestyle, what I saw as their accomplishments, and what they had and concluded how well they must be doing and how blessed they must be.  I compared what I was feeling and what was going on in my life and said: Wow, why is what happening to them, NOT happening to me?"

I would have possibly spent years feeling this way if not for a revelation that God gave me which was: "You know Noah, you could be jealous of a figment of your imagination."  What do you mean Lord, I thought?!?!?!?  God began to explain to me that what you see in the life of other people is oftentimes not reality.  As all of us know, we often love to promote an image of ourselves that is not altogether accurate.  We enjoy having people think we have more money than we honestly do or having people believe that we live a life of ease and comfort.  Many times what we will even buy for ourselves (clothes, shoes, cars, electronics, etc.) we buy them because of how other people will perceive us.  WOW, they have that?  Man, look at what they are driving!  They stay looking stylish!  Yet when we get home out of the company of the human eye, we are miserable because while we are living are lives to please other people, we are often miserable.

I am learning in my world that comparing myself to people will be the death of my Christian experience because when I compare myself to other people, I can always lie to myself thinking that I am better or worse than someone.  However when I compare myself to Jesus, I ALWAYS come up short.  Coming up short to Jesus is a great feeling though, because Jesus promised that he would fill every shortcoming of my life through the power of His Spirit!!!!  

So listen, stop doing it!!  Stop comparing!!!  It hasn't been beneficial to you, and you would have to admit that it has been silently draining you!  Stop living for the expectations of others and live to please one...Jesus!  After all pleasing Jesus is much more worth it because you know that Jesus loves you with flaws and all!  We try and impress people who we don't know or don't even like us.  So in fact we could be going through a world of trouble trying to impress people that actually don't care or even take notice about what we are doing.

Thats my world....