Born Again... Lazy?!?

Tonight I realized that I have replaced God in my life with another idol. I'm not going to mention what that is, 'cause it's kinda personal, but either way, I realized that God is (has not been for a while) not number one in my life anymore.

I was visiting another church, casually minding my own business, when the phrase 'born again lazy' hit me hard enough to be bury into my head, from where I later took it out and pondered over it. I mean, I know for months now that I haven't been doing my QTs, and the signs that THIS IS affecting my walk with Christ are all too visible - the appearance of expletives in my vocabulary (even if it's only said in my head or muttered under my breath), the easy slippage into judgmental thoughts when others are different, the prioritizing of other things.. And all because I'm born again lazy - because I haven't really been fighting for God's place as number one in my life.

This isn't too say that God hasn't been trying to make me alert to this- tonight's sermon wasn't the first time He's tried to bring my attention back to Him.. I'm just really lazy, stubborn, and sinful. But tonight I realized that I don't want to be a three-word Christian - I don't want to be born again lazy. I just want to be born again :). So I'm dropping the lazy, and I'm getting back to reading my word, and really talking to God.

Yay.

BLERGH... being sick sucks :(

You might have noticed that this month's posts this far, have been more signposts to other people's words and sites, rather than my own blogposts.

This is because I have only recently returned from the dead. *cough cough*

[Excuse me, evidently melodrama, as well as the odd germ, evidently still courses through my blood.]

Either way, I bet you it wasn't pretty. I'm not quite sure myself, as I was out of it most of the time. I'm not even sure what hit me. Whatever it was, it hit swiftly, and it hit hard. Sunday morning I was feeling a bit yuck. Sunday evening, I went to bed with a slight fever.. and then proceeded to sleep for pretty much 33 hours (with maybe three hours on-off/asleep-awake dozing inbetween). And I've pretty much spent most of that time since in bed, recovering. Slowly. Sigh.

And the irony of it all was that May was/is CRAZY month. Lots of admin, lots of research, lots of marking, lots lots lots lots of things scheduled into my diary. And with one swift invasion of little invisible bacteria, all this was cleared out of my lifeplan and instead rest and sleep became priority. And I think there're two key lessons that can be drawn from this:

1) Perspective. Like I said, I'd thought this would be my crazy month, but as soon as it came to the point of living (by staying at home to rest) or dying (forcing myself to go to all those scheduled things), perspective came into place and all the things that had seemed so important, didn't really seem so important after all. And I suppose that's what the eternal perspective we need to be keeping - not in the sense that we should be lassez faire and unconcerned about everything.

2) Control. God really reminded me again that He is in sovereign control. I'm one of those people who organise and plan like crazy (mostly 'cause I have to - much to the frustration of my inner slob - what with all my interests and hobbies), but sometimes God gently reminds me (or in this case, rather abruptly) that I'm not in control - He is. I had no idea this was coming, and I had no idea how long this would last. Only God does!

So yay. I actually think I had a good week off work - though tomorrow I'm going to have my first full day in four days - and time to think through some stuff. Who thought being sick would be so productive!

A N Wilson - return to faith?

Here's an article written by an "ex-atheist", a friend of mine passed along. It makes for an interesting read "from the other side" and he presents some intriguing insights and points. Very well-written and humourous as well :). I don't think the reasons he presents would convince every atheist, but I'm including this here, cause it's another prime example of God working to melt our stubborn, hard hearts:

http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2009/04/conversion-experience-atheism

A response to the issue of homosexuality

From homosexuality to the Gospel
- Ian Carmichael
Have you noticed how often non-Christians raise the issue of homosexuality with us these days? "Why is the church so anti-gay?" "What do you think about gay marriage?" "How can you be against two people being in a long-tern, loving and supportive relationship? Why should it matter what gender they are?" Next time a non-Christian raises this topic, instead of fumbling around, try responding with "Why are you non-Christians so obsessed with sex ad sexuality?" Expect your non-Christians to respond like this: "What do you mean? It's Christians who have always been obsessed with sex!" Then you can say, "Hey no, that's not true. I don't want to talk about sexuality at all. I'd much rather talk about how God has shown his love for us in sending his Son, Jesus, to rescue us. That's a far more important topic to talk about. Can we talk about that together?"

- From BRIEFING 368

A thought I had recently...

God is God over my time too.

--
Grace

Pain, pain, pain........

At this point in time, having been awake for about two hours in the wee hours in the morn, I think the logical question on everyone's mind is: "Why don't you just pop a few pills and go back to sleep, you idiot??!?"

[Yes, Grace is going back to the subject of PMS, hormones, and period cramps. She might regret her frankness tomorrow when she's had more sleep, but as for this moment here, there is no shame. So if you're a male, get over your squeamishness - this is a reality for more than half the world. And if you're getting really squeamish, hold on to your hat, I'm only going to touch on it briefly.]

So why not pop some pain-killers that'll help me ignore the period cramps, you ask? Well, this is going to sound a bit weird in a society that tries to avoid pain at all costs, but I actually enjoy being able to feel pain. Not in the SM (sado-masochistic) sense that I take pleasure in pain and seek it consciously (some who know my chilli-eating habits might want to differ on this point), but rather because I view pain as arrows pointing us to important things:

Pain is the body/mind's way of saying 'Hey, HOLD ON! Something's wrong!'.

Think of the way your toe throbs black and blue and you want to jump up and down and shout a little when you hit your foot against the door.
Physical pain is particularly helpful for someone like me who goes full steam ahead even when symptoms of illness hit. As long as the pain persists, I am reminded to take better care of myself. If I were to take something for my symptoms, I'd promptly ignore the issues and carry on full steam again. Take for example the issue of my foot. Four months ago, I went on a spontaneous but epic beach-hike of more than 24k, with the last hour and a half spent scrambling over rocks... all this done barefoot. Unbeknownst to me, I strained the arch muscles severely of my left foot during this time, but I carried on regardless for the next two months until the pain became too much and I could hardly walk. At this point I finally went to the foot doctor, and discovered that this was one injury that would not disappear without human intervention - I now have to wear special insoles for the next year and a half. At least.

What about mental pain? Think of the way your heart feels absolutely gutted at the loss of a friend. Sure it sucks, but it always comforts me to know that they meant something. I think here that God also uses pain to tell us that SOMETHING'S wrong with the state of a world where death and betrayal and painful experiences are a regular occurence.. C.S.Lewis offers the following two thoughts in his book on pain The Problem of Pain:

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

"[Pain] removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul."

So is pain bad? Well, it definitely sucks and hurts a lot. But I think there's also a place for pain in a sinful world. Hmm. And, an added advantage for you guys today especially is that you get to hear some more of my rambling thoughts 'cause now I'm awake :)

I'm a brick, you're a brick, let's get together and be a wall!

[I found a draft I meant to post when I was still writing about our Bible studies in Ephesians. Click here http://whataboutgrace.blogspot.com/2009/03/excited-by-roadkill.html to see the last one I'd written]

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:19-22).

We were going through Ephesians last night, and I was struck by how cool an analogy it is that we're all built together as a building. Used to visualizing things, I immediately pictured myself as a brick, which led to some interesting observations.

To point out the obvious: A brick by itself is just a brick. A brick needs other bricks to become a wall. And when one is a wall, one cannot escape other bricks, as bricks are laid next to and on top of other bricks to form that wall.

And, a wall is just a wall. It is not a building. To be called a building, it needs other walls, and a roof. etc.etc.

So do you see what a great reminder it is of how as Christians we work together, seperate units becoming one. It's also a reminder how necessary we all are - we aren't independent, but rather interdependent. This illustration also highlights the importance of keeping unity and peace, cause bricks are kinda close to each other.. Imagine if all your neighbouring bricks were fighting with each other! What an awful wall you'd all make together!

So let's get together, lalalala, and base our wall on Jesus :)