A delayed understanding...

I used to think that cliques were bad. I thought they were divisive and dividing and even hurtful at times. In my mind I knew that a class of 30 or 200 or 500 people couldn’t be full of bffs. That people had to have groups of friends. But then I still just didn’t like them.

I think it’s because something has gone wrong in the process of us finding our friends.

Some friend groups have been placed on pedestals and others on foot stools.
Our common, social perception says that not all cliques are created equally.

I disagree.

I do believe that indeed, because we are each unique personalities, there are groups of people that would naturally form – people who we just tend to get along with without trying. And that’s great. That’s actually kind of beautiful.

But the problem began the day someone conceived this idea of a ‘social ladder’
Because it’s within this context, within this worldview, that we cease to be comfortable being who we are, for we believe we ought to strive to be more.

NO.

We are individuals. Uniquely, beautifully and wonderfully created.

What I mean is that… it’s just so obvious that no one group of people is better than another. If we were able to take away all of society’s effects, I think the groups that form initially would remain. Though we are all human, we are different types – different sizes, shapes and characters. And there are people who we naturally get along with. If we could choose those people freely, I think we would find happiness in our relationships. But instead we reach. We try to climb a ladder than never should have been dreamed in to existence. And if we get stuck here – if we never realize that we were born to be who we are – then we’re stuck with a life of searching.

For it is in acknowledging the beauty that is unique to our individual souls that we find freedom.
And when we are free, then we are happy.

Fight or flight...

There’s something called the fight or flight response, which is also referred to as the response of your sympathetic nervous system. It’s a co-ordinated series of changes in your body that occur when you’re in a situation that requires you to either fight off an imminent danger or flee from the sight. As you can imagine, this series of changes leads to open your airways to allow more oxygen in to your body, it speeds up your heart rate and dilates you pupils so more light can get in, amongst many other things. Your body however cannot simply accommodate these changes without drawing from other parts of your body that aren’t crucial to this response. And so, while some organs in your body get more blood flow to increase their efficiency, other areas of your body – like your gut and your extremities, have their blood flow constricted.

Overall, I think it’s a pretty phenomenal example of how the body is meant to work cohesively as one.

Fantastic material I say!

If the body of Christ is suffering – I tend to believe we have a responsibility to attend to it. If I was walking in the forest and met a bear and my stomach was too selfish to give up some of its blood - I would become the bear’s dinner. It’s really that simple.

If our community, our body, is suffering. If it is not well. I think we are responsible. I don’t think we can sit around and do nothing. I don’t think we can simply look on them with sympathy and then go on with our lives. As Christmas approaches – I’ve begun to feel that our practice of suffocating our Christmas trees with lavish and extravagant gifts is foolishness. I think we need to become a people of sacrifice. A people of commitment. A people who recognize that, despite the decrees of our society, we are not our own. Our body and our lives are not ours to do with as we please. I mean, we can… and we often do. But I believe we have a responsibility to the rest of our body to offer what we have, to give according to our means and to pray without ceasing. Just as the body subconsciously adapts when a part of it is in need, so we need to consciously choose to recognize those who are in need, and seek out ways in which we might die – that they might live.

If you are reading this on your computer screen, you are a part of the we who have been given so much. And if we are not prepared to give sacrificially in this season of giving – then I daresay we never will be.

What's in a name...

He IS the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

But He is also our Father

And I have this thought that God may be more interested in being our Father than He is in being a King.

Though we are servants, I think our more intimate role is one as daughters.
And though we deserve nothing, I think He is happy to bless us with abundance.

If we were to compare the Kingship of our Lord to the Kingship of a man over a country, I think the meaning behind these words is born. Does a king prefer to hear his very children call him king? Does he await their first word, hoping it will start with a k? Or does he yearn for the day his child will utter dada – the day when his child will acknowledge that, in a unique way, he has contributed to a portion of this child’s existence. Does he recognize that while he can be a leader to many that has little significance in considering that he has been a proponent in the creation of just a few? I say without hesitation that the latter holds tremendously more meaning than the former. And I think this to be true of our Lord too. I believe He longs for us to recognize Him as our Father more than as our King.

CS Lewis suggests…

--

Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force. We do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited until the allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade all right. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe, melting away like a dream, and something else, something it never entered your head to conceive comes crashing in. Something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. For this time it will be God without disguise. Something so overwhelming, that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you could choose to lie down when it is become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing. It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen. Whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side.
God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.

--

I believe that day will come when every man will recognize God in all His glory for everything He is.
There will remain no doubt that He is, and ever has been, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Yes – our God will be victorious.

In a special way, I think those who have known Him as Father will be overwhelmed with irresistible love.
That as we acknowledge Him as our King – we will know too that, though servants, we are also His precious children.
And as we call on Him as the most powerful being, we will know that He has also shown us the most delicate of love.

And so with joy we will declare
That’s my King
and that’s my dad.

His thoughts are higher than mine

I recently read a friend’s musings on how we often don’t understand the ways of God. I agree.

And then I wondered why...

If I had things my way – there would be a step-by-step plan lying on my desk instructing me exactly how I was going to accomplish the Lord’s plans for my life. It would be coloured with detail about the job I would have, the man I would marry and the children I would raise and it would dictate exactly how this would be accomplished.

But that’s just not how it is.

You would be strapped to find someone who would declare with certainty that they know the will of God for the next decade. More often – those who follow Him do so on a daily basis – seeking to hear His voice and follow in His footsteps as He gently guides us along our unique and perfect paths.

Often it’s hard. We don’t know where our steps today will lead us to tomorrow.
But we follow in faith.

And I think there’s phenomenal wisdom in this day-by-day revelation.

See, I often wonder if Agnes Bojaxhiu, at the age of 13, had been told that she would leave behind family and friends and spend her life in the streets of Calcutta feeding those she described as the poor and destitute– would she have endured? Would she have continued to follow? Or would she have run in the opposite direction as quickly and as far as she could have?

If Karol Wojtyla had been told when he was 15 years of age that he would one day be the leader of the Catholic Church on this Earth, that he would be shot in St. Peter’s square and later forgive the man who put a bullet through his chest – would he have remained faithful? Or would he have sought another path for his life?

The Lord reveals His plans on His watch.

Knowing that before He does – He will prove Himself faithful and give us permission to trust Him.
Yes, as we take risks and put ourselves on the line – the Lord assures us that He is worthy.

And it is with this assurance, that we are able to trust more. To risk more.
To forsake all else, which has repeatedly disappointed, and pursue the One who never fails.

Our Father doesn’t ask for foolish abandon before assuring us that He is worthy of our lives.