Letting go of Control

 

  Today it feels like it has been forever since I have blogged. Caught up in the messy busyness of life, I have pushed certain things aside. Blogging has been one of them. So today I stopped being busy. After finishing dinner's dishes, I made a cup of cocoa and made myself write. That sounds like I don't want to write. I do, I just feel the overwhelming burden of the millions of things I have left undone.

  Next week I am going up to ALERT  to volunteer for a few weeks. I am excited to be going and at the same time feel completely unready. Before I leave on Saturday I still have to sew and pack and clean my room. I am losing every vestige of control I have ever owned.

  But that is a good thing. I need to lose control sometimes, need to remember my mortal side. I do not need to be in control, though I fight for every scrap of control I can get my hands on. When I give the control God has given me back to Him, I am happy and free. If God wants me to have every detail of my life worked out, He will help me get it that way. And if He does not, He will keep holding my hand and He will let me know I am going to be okay. 

"For me to live is Christ..."

Philippians 1:21
  "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

  What a simple verse. These is nothing confusing about it. It is easy for me to rattle this verse off when asked what my life verse is. And I do mean what I say, but do I always mean it? Do I always live it?

  "For me to live is Christ.."

  Wow.

  Everything I do, every word I say, every thought I think. (That's where it gets scary). Do I always live for Christ, or at least try to? No, I don't. I may not say do something sinful when I get cut off while trying to change lanes, but I may say something nasty. And I may not even say something, but I may think something, and that could worse. It is by God's grace alone that I can live like Christ. And it is my responsibility as a Christian to proclaim Christ to the world. "For me to live is Christ..." even when I drive.

Just Don't Sing

  God is a jealous God. I was reminded of this today. He wants all of me. He doesn't just want me on Sundays or when I'm doing my devotions in the morning. He wants me everyday all the time. In Revelation 3:15-16, God addresses the church of Laodicea saying, "I know you're deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am going to spit you out of my mouth."
  God wants me to be hot or cold, not the happy medium. That's hard. Not that I want to settle for mediocrity, sometimes its just easier to be a "normal" person.
  Everyday I have to sacrifice myself. Everyday I have to make a conscience decision to live for God whole-heartedly, and its only by His grace I can. I need to be singing 10,000 Reasons with all my heart or just not singing it at all.

Hope

  This life is far from being easy. There are many times when we are crawling through the muck we've made of life and the only reason we can get through is because of this thing we call hope. Because of hope we can believe one day we will get out of the mess and find the light at the end of the tunnel. But what do we hope in, really. When our hope is in our friends or tomorrow or coffee, we are building ourselves up to receive a blow of crushing disappointment.
  There is only one secure source of hope in this world, and He is our heavenly Father. When we finally stop looking to the world around us for hope and look to God instead, we will find hope.

The First Year I Went to Family Camp...

  Last year I volunteered at the International ALERT Academy and while I was up there nearly everyone asked me if I had been to Family Camp. After sheepishly replying no, I would immediately  receive the answer, "Well, you need to go this year." Well, I didn't go that year, but I did go this year and it was lots and lots of fun.

  Family camp is like church camp for the whole family. There were some great devotions both in the morning and in the evening. During the in between time (and a little after) we canoed and rappelled and ate camping food and played ultimate Frisbee and walked about five miles a day and then  showered at the end of the day because, yeah, we needed it. About three days into Family Camp our family made the decision that we need to go to next year. And hopefully we will.

Family Camp 2013

Here's why I haven't blogged for the past week:

 

  And yes, I do realize this picture is backwards, I didn't bother to make a mirror image of it ;) I'll blog more about family camp later. 

Free

Leviticus 26:13
  "I will put my dwelling among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high."

  In the days of the Old Testament, God chose the Israelites as His people. He loved them, He freed them from the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians. The Israelites, however, rejected God over and over. They disobeyed His laws and consequently rejected His blessings.
  Now, God has saved me. He has freed me from the yoke of sin and I now am free in the Spirit. I can love and obey God. Unlike those who are not Christians, I am free to struggle with sin. Free to hold my head high and not live in bondage.
  Not that I always do. Sometimes I try to put my yoke back on, I still sin. I still cling to my chains. I must put my past behind me. I must pray for God to make me free again and again. I am free to struggle, I'm not struggling to be free.