Unbalanced

Becky lent me the book Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. I've not finished it yet but so far it's great! So many Christian books I've read or tried to read have had really good info in them but were written in a way that made me get bored and not want to read them. This is NOT one of them. I have trouble putting it down.

The part I was reading tonight was about being odd. I'm not talking about wearing funny clothes driving a weird vehicle. I'm talking about standing out from the world. It talked about being unbalanced and not being the same. Although being balanced is something many of us have striven for in our lives, the book takes a different approach. Yaconelli talks about how discipleship can cause all kinds of seemingly bad things and unbalance in our lives. When we are different from the world instead of trying to be like everyone else, we cause tension. The book states that "faith is the unbalancing force in our lives that is the fruit of God's disturbing presence."

In John 15:18-19 Jesus say to the disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

Jesus says that the world might very well hate us because we are different and that's ok with me. That means I'm doing what I'm supposed to. I'm spreading the gospel of Christ. I'm living out the Great Commission. I encourage all of you to be unbalanced, odd, different, hated by the world.

Poking, Prodding, and Pushing

God's been doing all three of those things to me a lot for the past couple of weeks even more than usual. He's calling me to do some things outside of my comfort zone. He's led me to make two apologies in the last few days that were long overdue. He's had me talk to people face to face that I don't know that well about helping with activities in the church. He's been pushing me to pray for those I have grudges against and to treat them with love and kindness.

All of these things are really hard for me, but I'm seeing the benefits already. God is blessing me for it already. I pray that God continues to push me even if I may complain from time to time. I pray that he offers me more opportunities to grow in Him. I pray that he helps me to have a faith that is not dead but that is alive and active. That my faith will be full of actions. That I will be set apart from the world and people will be able to look at me and say, "There's something different about her and I want to know what it is." I pray that I will be a shining light in this world of darkness for Christ. I ask these not just for myself but all those around me, all those in this world who are seeking after You so that we might show the world how amazing You are!

Crushcrushcrush

I was taking a shower last night and I had Crushcrushcrush by Paramore stuck in my head. As I sang it part of the lyrics stood out to me. It's not a Christian song or anything, but as I repeated it over and over it made me think of our relationship with the Father. I'm going to break the song apart stanza by stanza and possibly even more than that. If you want to listing to it, here's a link to the music video on youtube.

I got a lot to say to you
Yeah, I got a lot to say
I noticed your eyes are always glued to me
Keeping them here
And it makes no sense at all

We should have so much to say to God. We should want to tell Him everything, ask Him for things and His will. His eyes are always on us. He sees everything we do and knows everything we think. And it doesn't make sense. We are flawed, fallen creatures but He loves us anyway.

They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
You little spies
They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
You little spies

This part made me think of people ignoring or misusing the Bible. "Scribbled out the truth with their lies" Jesus is the Truth. Satan lies and deceives trying to scribble Christ out of everything.

Crush
Crush
Crush
Crush, crush
(Two, three, four!)

I didn't really know anything to say to this part...

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one-two of us, who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than this

It's great when we get to spend quiet time with God. Just the one-two of us talking and listening and just being with Him. Sadly, for many of us that rarely happens. We've had a long day at work/school/with kids/ets and we just want to relax do we sleep/watch tv/get on facebook/check the blogs/etc and don't make time to be with God. But that's so much more relaxing than any of those things. He takes away all the nuts of the day and gives us peace.

If you want to play it like a game
Well, come on, come on, let's play
Cause I'd rather waste my life pretending
Than have to forget you for one whole minute

How horrible would it be if we just completely forgot about God? If we shoved Him out of our life completely?

That's pretty much all I have and the rest is mostly repeating too.

They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
You little spies
They taped over your mouth
Scribbled out the truth with their lies
You little spies

Crush
Crush
Crush
Crush, crush
(Two, three, four!)

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one-two of us, who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than this now

Rock and roll, baby
Don't you know that we're all alone now?
I need something to sing about
Rock and roll, hey
Don't you know, baby, we're all alone now?
I need something to sing about
Rock and roll, hey
Don't you know, baby, we're all alone now?
Give me something to sing about

Sing about Him! Praise Him with song!

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one-two of us, who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than
No, oh

Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone
Just the one-two of us, who's counting on
That never happens
I guess I'm dreaming again
Let's be more than
More than this
Ohoh ohoh ohoh
Oooh...

Amazing Weekend

I want to tell you guys everything about this weekend, but I can't find words to describe it. A lot of you who read my blog were there and got to experience many of the same things I did, even though I'm sure god spoke to us in different ways. I feel so blessed right now. I've never felt closer to Him than I did this weekend. I'm so much more committed. I've realized that I really need to hand things over to him because He can do all things. I knew this before but I have a really hard time doing it. I finally handed a few things over to Him this weekend that I'd been holding in. I have confidence in the fact that He took the hurt and pain and guilt and the whole sin away from me. God has provided me with even more amazing friends and has brought me closer to some old amazing friends. I was so blessed serving Him this weekend.