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The Hills
No I am not going to talk about that spectacular reality show (did you catch the sarcasm?). Have any of you read Psalms 121:1-2? If not it goes like this:
I lift my eyes up to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
The first question I asked is why is he looking to the hills? What on earth does that mean? Then slowly I got it...it means he's in a valley. Now that you know where he's at it still doesn't make sense why he is looking to hills. As I read these verses over and over I think he's looking to the hills because he's hoping help is on its way. There's a scene in the second Lord of the Rings movie (The Two Towers) where the orcs are attacking this fortress these men and women are in. Eventually the orcs break down the fortress and everyone knows they are going to die. However, at daybreak a horn sounds and every man turns to the hill to see that help has come. They are saved! So, now it's our turn. When we are in a valley and being attacked by anything and everything (maybe even orcs) who is our help? Who will come to our rescue? Who can save us? Is it our family? Is it our friends? That's what I think the writer of this psalm was wrestling with. He was asking himself: WHO CAN HELP ME?!?! Then he realizes...only God can. Only the Maker of heaven and earth. Now God can use people to save us. He did this a bunch in the Bible (see David and Goliath, Abraham's nephew Lot, etc.), but we have to remember it is God using these people. So, when you are in your valley...when there is no way to escape and you feel surrounded...where does your help come from? Who will you trust to save you?
The Evangelism Linebacker
Because Sarah Jackson was looking for it :-).
Mirrors or Windows?
There is something peculiar about mirrors when you think about them. Their only purpose is to focus everything on you! You can be rushing around at a million miles an hour trying to serve everyone you can. However, the second you step in front of that mirror it becomes all about you. We drop whatever we were thinking and begin to think...: "Oh no, is that a hair out of place?" "What are those spots on my teeth?" "Why can't I look as good as Skylar?' "Holy cow! Is that a pimple or Mount St. Helens?" Windows on the other hand take the focus completely off of you and put it on whatever is outside or beyond the little room you're in. Sometimes people will stop in front of a window to watch a fight, or gawk at a beautiful sunset, or even to put their mouth on the window so it will leave a smudge (is that just me?) I
really think as we continue living our lives we feel we are being transformed into one of two thing: a mirror or a window. What I mean by that is this: some of us feel like we need to be a window, and we will pursue serving others with all of our time and energy. We will continually seek to find out what other people need and how to get that for them. On the other hand, if serving isn't our thing we will view our lives as a mirror: we use our lives as an opportunity to grow ourselves. We might spend most of our time trying to figure out what we need and what we want and just how to attain these things. Are one of these better than the other? Most of you church goers would probably say the life which represents the window, the life of service, and I think you are right. However, I don't think the answer is either/or. I think the answer is more of a both/and. If we were to just serve, and never pay any attention to what is going on inside of our own lives then eventually we will lose our heart. We will lose that fire, that passion we once had for doing God's work. The second GREATEST commandment was this: "Love your neighbor as YOURSELF (Matthew 22:39)." I am not saying to stop serving, and I am not saying it is good to be only concerned about yourself. What I am saying is we need to serve, but at the same time we need to be searching for what God is trying to tell us about us, and what He is trying to point out to us in our own lives. If we only focus on the lives' of others we will never experience true growth. Sometimes I think we serve so much because we're afraid of what God might say if we actually looked in the mirror and asked the scary question: "Who am I?" "Where do I fall short?" "What do I fear?" So, if you are a mirror, get over yourself! If you are a window, it's time to look in the mirror. If you are perfectly in the middle...please come
talk to me because I sure need some help with this.Labels: http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/6/6a/Mirror.jpeg
Kingdom
Hello all! I don't know if any of you watched the Republican National Convention last week but it was very interesting. First thing I noticed was these people in pink shirts who would dart down through the stadium every fifteen minutes or so. You could feel their commitment to their cause by just watching them. Anyways, so as I heard John McCain finally speak he was interrupted every five minutes or so with the chant, "U.S.A." You didn't need to hear anymore to know these people were dedicated to their country...to their kingdom. This got me started thinking about how the country/kingdom we feel we belong to really does define us. These people were decked out in red, white, and blue. Some looked like Uncle Sam, there was even a man dressed up as Abraham Lincoln. I don't know about you but a lot of these people didn't look sane to me. However, they wanted to show their dedication and their commitment to their country...to their kingdom. How many of us get so caught up in this kingdom...in this life...that we think that we actually belong here? Hopwever, Paul says in Philippians 3:20 that our citizenship in heaven and Jesus spent a lot of time in his talks speaking about this Kingdom of God. Who do you belong to? It's not hard to tell. Think back to what all you did today...think back to your decisions, how you spent your time, what you spent most of your day thinking about, what you desire. This will be the greatest indicator of where our citizenship is. Are we stuck in this broken world, or are we searching for this kingdom Jesus spoke of and are we trying to enact it now? Where do your loyalties lie?