this place
building up.
not tearing down.
a huge part of living love.
why are we always tearing one another down.
hurting.
damaging.
so often with our words, we tear down, we hurt, we damage.
and we do so easily, often without any thought.
now i have written briefly about this before, but i have learned some more on the subject recently in bible class that makes it that much more convicting to me.
when we put others down, we typically do so by lifting ourselves up.
or at the expense of making us look good, we make someone else look bad.
but it is more than that.
by my saying i am better than someone else, or by tearing them down, i am claiming the position of judge.
and not just judge, but God.
i am saying i have authority, i have power to put you down and lift me up.
which means we are saying i am God if not better than God.
most people would never just come out and say i am God or even dare say i am better than God. yet on a daily basis we do just that with our actions.
we have the audacity to degrade another human being.
a human being made in the image of God.
a human being whom after Christ created said it is good.
we dare take something God has called good and we cheapen it, we devalue it.
it is so easy to think we are doing just fine.
to think we are doing what God wants.
living the proper christian life.
yet i think that if we saw how truly horrendous even our seemingly trivial sins are we would have to greatly question how well our spiritual life really is.
when i take the time to see just what sin really is.
to see that sin is putting me above all else.
putting my desires first.
i see that i essentially am slapping my Savior in the face and saying i really don’t care that He died for me.
i really don’t care about His love.
i really don’t care about Him.
i hate that.
i hate that with a passion.
than i would treat my God and King like that.
and yet i do so everyday, and so often without even taking the time to realize it.
it makes me sick.
and yet i have come to this place before.
this place of sickness and hate of self and flesh.
this place of desiring i lived like my King asks.
this place of yearning for living like He really is my King.
this place of realization that i treat My Lord so poorly.
this place seems to be one i am either too familiar with or not familiar enough.
shouldn’t i always be in a place of wanting and desiring to live more righteously.
shouldn’t i be seeking to improve and grow and draw nearer and be more holy.
but shouldn’t i also not be finding myself in a place where i am more about me than God.
shouldn’t i be seeing less me and more Him.
or is it that God is just so holy, so perfect, that i never leave this place of imperfection.
that i never leave this place of finding myself short of His glory.
i know its a journey.
i know i will never arrive, at least this side of life.
but still i wonder at times.
i struggle to know how i can evaluate where i am.
how i am doing.
i know i have a long ways to go.
i know i am so far of where i need to be.
but yet i wonder.
so i long to not be stationary.
to not be always found in the same place.
rather i long to move.
to be moving.
to be drawing nearer to my King.
to be changing for the better.
to be growing more like my Savior.
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:45 am
That’s good Jim. It is sad how we can get so entrap by our own desire to become greater than God by making ourselves better than other people. I liked a lot of your analogies there, and I loved how you pay attention to so many areas of struggles. Its true bro, we will get caught in those areas and its hard when we become drawn from “this place” where we should be. But remember also the times that Christ has brought you to these places. Focus on what was different about those times and how you were drawn there. See in what areas you find yourself more/less in “this place.” It will help you to strengthen those areas that need strengthening and dwell in those times where God is first in your life. Great observation and thought Jim. Keep it up, its inspiring. And have an awesome thanksgiving. I am thankful for you bro and everything you do and your heart for God.