"Love is something more stern and more splendid than mere kindness."
"I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port could do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity."Strike one - God is not a big cuddly teddy bear. This is something that I have come to learn the past few weeks. His aim is not to make you comfortable, or for you to experience "warm fuzzies" as my church leader likes to call it. I've spent a long time living in my comfort zone, and I think He might be dragging me, as unwilling as I am, out of it.
God's love is unfathomable and unconditional. Fact. He is forgiving beyond our wildest dreams. But that doesn't mean He is going to tread carefully when it comes to shaping me into what He wants me to be. I have found myself confronted with a few things that have made me squirm this month, and it hasn't been an all together pleasant experience.
Brokenness is one. Jesus came for the broken - the people who realise that they need a saviour. Strike two - I can't do it on my own. As someone who likes to think of herself as a reasonably independent person, who is a little bit of a control freak, this was quite a big revelation. But there is no way around it. Jesus brings me hope. Without that, I have nothing.
From this, God can shift some furniture in my life. He has room to move, and make me question my opinions on things. Strike three - those issues that you've been ignoring, the ones with the grey areas; they matter. My stance on things that aren't black and white is important, and I can't just shove things into the background and pretend they don't exist. It's time I faced up to these moral and political minefields and evaluated them from the perspective of someone who is supposed to be allowing God into all of my life.
Strike four - I can't sort myself out on my own. Accountability is definitely something which I am being pushed into. This is a case of baring all with a few close friends, to pick at the nitty-gritty of what's happening in my life. To see where God is taking me, and how he is changing me, even if that hurts sometimes. And, in true Jesus style, that means being truthful with each other. In imitating God's love, it's not enough to be kind. Sometimes you have to be stern to really show someone that you love them.
Aaand finally, and perhaps the most terrifying thing of all, is that this is ACTIVE.
"This is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world." (1 John 5:3-4)Loving God involves doing what he tells us to in the bible. Being active in our life choices - what you do is your choice, not the environment around you. Convert those "I can't help, I have no time" into "I don't want to help, because I'd rather spend my time sat home, or doing things that don't matter in the great scheme of things", and your perspective might just change a little. I went to a conference a couple of weekends ago. The overriding message was that church doesn't belong in a building - it belongs on the streets. You're not going to be very fruitful if you keep something cooped up inside; you need to let it out to grow and spread. This involves actually going out from my safe little box, and doing something. Sounds terrifying, huh? It scared the living daylights out of me. Strike 5.
Walking with God isn't a walk in the park. Sometimes he'll turn your world upside down.
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