Coffee Date

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I don't actually like coffee so I'm going to get a chai tea latte if that's okay with you?

If we were having coffee, I would let you know that I'm tired, tired, tired but that's because my life is full of wonderful happy things like friends getting married and people wanting to pour into my life and friends wanting to catch up and people who I like to talk to on the phone til all hours of the night.

If we were having coffee, I'd want to know when the last time you just did nothing was. I've recently become convinced that doing nothing is good for your soul and should happen on a regular basis.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I don't know what's next in life, and as scary as that is, it's also really exciting to think of the possibilities.

If we were having coffee, I'd let you know that even though it's hard, that exploring, growing, "going there" with your emotions and feelings, and really digging into the Word is all worth it for your relationship with Jesus to flourish.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I picked up my guitar for the first time in months yesterday. It was all dusty and out-of-tune, but my fingers hurt today and that's always a good sign.

If we were having coffee, I would ask you how your intimacy with Christ is. Because I would want you to ask me the same and because life really is better in community with people who are willing to go there.

Idea from Aslan's Auspicious Albany Adventure

Thrive

Image here.

When we believe lies and live our lives in a way that we see them as truth, our souls whither. Our hearts become parched as they thirst for something real. Something beautiful. Something that fills us with hope rather than dread.

Truth is like a summer rain on dry barren land. It causes our hearts, our souls to flourish. When we are living in the truth we can begin to thrive.

Here is truth:

+ Nothing you do (or don't do) could EVER make God love you more or less than he does in this moment.
+ God's love for you is not dependent on any circumstances or anything you think, do, feel, or say.
+ God delights in you and loves to give you good gifts... but He doesn't have to (see next point).
+ Anything and everything from God is pure grace- something that we get for free without deserving it one bit. We are human sinners. He is God. Yet He chose to pay the highest price for us (Jesus), and chooses to continue in deep relationship with us. Grace.
+ God, like a loving Father wants your obedience to Him to flow out of your love for Him, not out of a pressure and fear-filled expectation or duty.
+ Jesus loves you, this I know. In my heart, my bones, my soul.


So please, dear friends, go out there and...

Demand Nothing

I've been reading a book by Dr. Larry Crabb entitled "Inside Out." Like most books I start, it has been a slow process as I read a chapter or two, get sidetracked by another book, come back for another chapter or two, and inevitably start the whole cycle over again. So needless to say this one's been by my bed for the last year. But it is SO GOOD. 

I just finished the chapter entitled "The Problem of Demandingness." Oof. This was heavy stuff, ya'll! I really wanted to blog about it because it was SO GOOD, and so I was going to process through it all and share my thoughts, but in reality I might never get all this processed. And Larry knows what he's talking about. So below I've shared some of the hard-hitting ideas from the chapter in an order that seems to mostly make sense if you read it all through like there aren't paragraphs and pages between each thought. :) 

So all that follows is written by Dr. Larry Crabb (for copyright reasons or whatever... I'd hate for him to stop by the blog and then try and sue me). Cute lil graphic by yours truly. Feel free to steal it. 

"Problems may fuel a demanding spirit but never justify it.

To insist on something, we must first persuade ourself that what we're after is deserved and legitimate, that we have a solid basis for our demands. And nothing persuades us more completely that our weary soul deserves a break than continued heartache.

We tend to measure someone's love by their degree of cooperation with our plans. God's refusal to help us pursue our goals [of happiness or relief] and His insistence that we yield our plans to His makes Him seem unconcerned about our happiness.

We are so deeply committed to our own well-being that anyone who blocks our path to the joy we desire becomes the object of our wrath while we suffer with noble grief.

Perhaps the first step in learning humility is to consider who it is we think must change. A demand that things be different represents an accusation against God, a charge that He's guilty of mismanagement and negligence in His duties.

Suffering can be intense, but no level of suffering justifies us in deciding how we should be treated. Nor can pain be so severe that sinful strategies for finding relief become acceptable.

The necessary foundation for any relationship with God is a recognition that God is God and we are not. We therefore have no business demanding anything of anyone, no matter how fervently our soul longs for relief from pain.

It's one thing to petition with urgency and passion, to weep in anguish, and to plead for relief. It's quite another to demand that the will of the Almighty be one with our own.

The beginning of maturity is an estimate of oneself that makes demandingness unthinkable. And that estimate develops when we confront the reality of who God is and who we are.

Desire much, pray for much, but demand nothing. To trust God means to demand nothing."