I Surrender to Give God's Will Control...or something like that.

From the outset here, this Blog is not intended to answer the questions I am exploring here. I’m just kind of doing a stream of consciousness on something that bugs me from time to time. Namely, the things that bug me are “church” clichés. Many times these clichés have been reformatted over time to resemble non-biblical ideas, but ideas that sound good and might give someone comfort in some situations. My biggest one is the cliché “God won’t give you more than you can’t handle”. That isn’t in the Bible, it never has been. He practically promises he will give you more than you can handle. This idea has been reformatted from this verse:

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

This verse is saying; “that sin you gave into? You aren’t the first to face that temptation, you won’t be the last.” He then says, he won’t let you be TEMPTED beyond what you can handle and will provide a way out of the temptation. In essence, you can really only blame yourself for your sin. This is not talking about suffering and sorrow and grief and the things we normally find attached to the phrase “God won’t give you more than you can’t handle”.

In this vein, I heard this song the other day on the radio sing “I’m giving you control” followed by “I give it all in surrender”. I felt myself cringe and I couldn’t figure out why. These are common phrases I have heard in the church since I was kid, so why do I suddenly hear these things and like a reflex, react as if someone just cussed on the radio? The answer I think isn’t quite as clear cut as my first example. I think it is more about the image it portrays. After thinking about these ideas, I came to the conclusion that in reality, I had no idea what it meant to surrender all to God and Give him control. Surrender to his will. What does this look like? If I give my wife control of the finances, she takes over specific physical tasks. If I give God control of my finances, and do nothing, I will have collections through the rough, no car and foreclosure on my house, not to mention a wife that likely will step in and prevent all of this. See, I don’t think God intends us to abandon life and “give up” sort of speak. I think He wants us to learn what his priorities are, and make them our priorities. I think many times people “surrender” to God as a last ditch effort. A moment of hitting rock bottom and deciding they finally can’t do things the way they have been. “Insanity is doing something the same way and expecting different results”

Giving control to God is more about a habitual lifestyle. It’s something that is created over time to the point here if you are truly living for God and giving him control, YOUR priorities become HIS priorities. Here is the kicker though, If you are truly living for God, you don’t even realize that your priorities have merged with his. You start to make financial decisions and time decisions that align with what God finds pleasing. James 1:27 simply states what God sees as true religion. Hint, it isn’t going to church on Sunday, or joining a small group. –Gasp- It’s to take care of widows and orphans in their time of need.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

I think the world has made me skeptical. Maybe I am polluted by the world, or maybe my attempts to avoid being polluted by the world has made me think twice about almost everything I read or hear, including messages that appear to come from a Godly source. This isn’t to say that the lyrics of this song I heard were wrong, or even unbiblical. I just feel like people use these phrases without understanding what they mean. It becomes cliché.

Cliché - a word or expression that has lost much of its force through overexposure

Clichés aren’t necessarily incorrect, but they lose their value when they get repeated over and over without understanding their meaning or true intention. I think this is why James stated plainly what God sees as true religion, so there was no confusion about what worldly religion was and what divine religion was.

So next time you are tempted to invoke “God’s will” or “Give God control” or “surrender all to him”. Think about what that might actually mean. It’s not a 30 second prayer, it’s a life commitment, one that many people, including those in the church aren’t willing to give.

The scariest passage in the Bible to me is this one:

Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Only those who do the will of God will enter the kingdom of heaven. Not even people who cast out demons and performed many miracles are exempt. They are called “evildoers”! I haven’t cast out many demons lately, and I’m not sure I have any miracle credits to my name, let alone numerous miracles. So am I going to heaven? Am I doing the will of God? I believe I am going to heaven, based on other verses and context of the Bible as a whole. Grace is a gift received simply through Faith, it isn’t about doing “good stuff”. (Ephesians 2:8-9) What should come from this faith, is an desire for the things God desires, his priorities become your priorities. You think differently and you start to feel like you aren’t meant for this place.

I’m trying to give God control and follow his will, his desires, but it is an effort that I have to focus on daily, it’s not a lyric I sing in the car and then forget about. I hope one day that the effort lessens and that I have so completely given my life to God that it becomes simply the way I live. I’m not convinced I will reach that point in this world, but that might just be the skeptic in me… again.

Jon

A boy and his dog...

So, when I was pregnant we had to put our 12 year old lab to sleep.  That was one of the hardest day we faced but we quickly figured out this house would not last without a  4 legged friend.  The unfortunate thing was, the one we wanted would not be ready to come home until...a month before we brought home a new baby.  Being the CRAZY kids we are we decided to go for it.  Why not right?  You are up with a baby why not take a puppy out too.  Well there is not a day that goes by that I regret that decision because this little boy LOVES his puppy.  He loves to play with her, feed her and just be with her.

First Trip to the Beach

Well I must admit for many months I have pondered the idea of taking Aaron to the beach (since it is only an hour away) but have been terrified of the thought that he would shove all the NASTY sand in his mouth.  So last weekend when Jon brought it up I ponder on what the chances were that we could make it without eating a fist full of sand.  Needless to say it was a success.  We decided to take both of the "kids" to the beach for the first time.  I tell you....that was just like taking two human children to the beach.  Each parent had to watch a kid and there was NO WAY that one could watch both.  We happen to have a human child that wants to be independent and do what he wants.  We also have a dog who LOVES people.  At one point Jon attempted to walk toward the car for something and everything went haywire, I quickly call him back for help.  Then at one point I decided while holding the leash I would take some pictures while Jon and Aaron were out in the water.  Well, Luna wanted to join them so out I run with expensive camera in hand and dog pulling full force.  I had to call Jon to come in and let me set the camera down so I could take her in the water.  Overall, it was a fun adventure and every one had fun.

Life is always a changin'

I have truly enjoyed the summer time I have had so far with my little man.  We have spent many hours, playing, running errands, swimming and just hanging out.  I feel like he is at the age that every day he changes so much, does that ever stop?!?  He has turned into a true walker and really doesn't crawl very often.  The only times I see him crawl are when he is afraid you are leaving him and he can't get there fast enough walking or when he is really tired.  This has been fun to watch him learn how to do.  I am afraid that before school starts we will also mast the running part too (my oh my).  In addition to walking, we have cut 4 teeth and are working on another 4 simultaneously (eekkk).  And, my baby has decided he is done with the bottle.  We are in the process of switching over to whole milk, but he only drinks out of a sippy cup now.  Mommy has been evaluating the "baby" gear and packing some of it away since he has outgrown it.

Not only have we had a busy summer watching our little one grow but we have had lots of company and other things going on.  We haven't done any traveling yet, that comes in a few weeks.  We will be traveling to Spokane for my cousins wedding and then headed to Breckenridge with Jon's family.  As we do every time, we are starting to prepare ourselves for Aaron's reaction to the plane and sleeping somewhere other than his own crib.  This will be the first time since he was 3 months old that we will all share a room and that is sure to be a great experience as well.  Lots of prayers that this is a relaxing time for our family and not a stressful time being away from home, we shall see.

So the hardest part about this update is my work status.  It has changed two times since we last talked ;).  At the beginning of the summer we had put this situation in God's hands and said we would wait to see what he had planned.  Originally the plan was never for me to stay home at this point but we knew I needed to be closer to home.  With that we decided I would go ahead and resign from my current position and see what doors God led us to.  At the end of the year we started scrambling a little bit because Cy-Fair had not contacted me and so we began to set our sights on something else.  We knew when I resigned that we had to prepare to no have any income but hope that it would come around.  Well as time went on and it appeared to be less likely that I would find a job we started talking about other things.  A friend of mine from college who is a director at a preschool had a job opening that she let me know about in early June.  I was so excited and loved the idea of this job.  I would be working in the preschool M-W-F from 9:00-2:00 and Aaron would go to the Mother's Day Out program at the same place.  This to me was IDEAL.  I could get him, and myself, some socialization a few days a week but I still had time to tend to "family affairs".  I accepted the position, signed him up to attend, and even took CPR for the job.  Then, life changed again :(.  The day of Aaron's party I got an email from a principal asking if I had found a job yet in Cy-Fair.  This principal was an assistant principal at my first school before she became principal.  I mentioned to Jon that I was going to let her know I had found another job but I wasn't going to worry about it until Monday because we were about to have the world over to celebrate our baby boy.  We had a great party and life went on.  Then next day the topic came up again because they wanted me to come in and interview if I was interested on Monday.  Wait what?!?!?!? so soon.  Jon convinced me to look at some numbers and money and he reminded me that the original plan was not for me to stay home now but maybe later on.  So after lots of praying and soul searching I am mending my heart from the disappointment of not working at the preschool.  From Saturday to Tuesday I had been  contacted, interviewed and offered the job.  So................................I will be teaching third grade next year at Warner Elementary in Cy-Fair.  Don't get me wrong I think this will be an amazing teaching opportunity and totally different than any I have had so far.  The school is great and I am hoping to have a wonderful team.  But, I am trying to overcome the disappointment that I have about not spending more time with my little man.  So, remember that LONG vacation I told you about... yeah I start work the day after we get back!