He is calling you
Who is Christ calling...the other guy, you know the religious one, that guy who is always nice, who doesn't talk back, who when left to his own devices he fares just fine... oh no, wait, that is totally wrong, he came for the irreligious one, the one who is not good at following rules, who smarts off when spoken to, smarts at authority, who becomes a complete wreck when he guides his own life. That's me, an undisciplined one, but now always willing to have God discipline me. Not because its a good idea (but it is), but because He has adopted me and this is an adoption that my heart has longed for all my life. I was talking to a brother in the Lord last night after our youth gathering (hey Russ)and I was thinking about the fact that if you would have asked me 10 years ago whether I would ever find great joy in giving myself away, doing things against my own desires, and hanging with the empty, broken, and outsiders of the times, I would have thought it crazy. I would have thought to myself, "I am on the inside, I am happy because I seek what I desire, and that desire is based on comfort and feeling good." Drugs make me feel good, drinking, women, the drama of selling drugs.
Now I am completely upside down. Totally into giving stuff away, into loving only my wife and serving her, into welcoming as many kids as the Lord gives us, totally into having no drama only gospel moments, which can be dramatic, but not a drama with a sad ending, moments that are part of God's Dramatik. I have found what I desire because I have found Him who desired me.
Sound crazy? It is. It is completely foreign to this age, as it has been in every age. But I am strenghthened by my brothers and siters who walk with me. Walk with me to the gallows, to the colliseum, in front of the death squads, into laughter and dismissal by their peers, but most of all that walk into the narrow way that leads to life...put on the path by their failings, their tiredness, their absolute rejection of the idea that what the world gave to them was all life had to offer.
There is joy here that no eye has seen, no ear has heard. I used to hang out at the inn while Jesus, Mary and Joseph were in the stable. Now I am content to lean on the rocks in the hay and look on God made man in a manger, the gentleness of Mary, the one who bore God, Joseph the one who provided for God. Kids remind me of this, my own children overwhelm me with this. It is quiet in the stable, my heart is quiet.
Now I am completely upside down. Totally into giving stuff away, into loving only my wife and serving her, into welcoming as many kids as the Lord gives us, totally into having no drama only gospel moments, which can be dramatic, but not a drama with a sad ending, moments that are part of God's Dramatik. I have found what I desire because I have found Him who desired me.
Sound crazy? It is. It is completely foreign to this age, as it has been in every age. But I am strenghthened by my brothers and siters who walk with me. Walk with me to the gallows, to the colliseum, in front of the death squads, into laughter and dismissal by their peers, but most of all that walk into the narrow way that leads to life...put on the path by their failings, their tiredness, their absolute rejection of the idea that what the world gave to them was all life had to offer.
There is joy here that no eye has seen, no ear has heard. I used to hang out at the inn while Jesus, Mary and Joseph were in the stable. Now I am content to lean on the rocks in the hay and look on God made man in a manger, the gentleness of Mary, the one who bore God, Joseph the one who provided for God. Kids remind me of this, my own children overwhelm me with this. It is quiet in the stable, my heart is quiet.
posted by toJesusthruMary at 7:12 AM
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