Posts Tagged "encouragement"

Monday Musings

Posted by Caroline on Nov 28, 2011 in Amazing Grace | 0 comments

I have a tough week ahead of me.

Finals, projects, work… LIFE.

…and I’m overwhelmed.  It seems like facing the mountain of tomorrow is daunting, inaction is threatening me, and looking to yesterday is yet another mountain.

If I’m not careful, I become stuck.   

This evening I was reading Isaiah and my spirit was lifted by the precious love of our Lord.  My focus shifted from the unbearable height and ruggedness of the mountains to the God who created the mountains and carries me over them.   Hopefully these verses will encourage you like they did me.

Listen to me, the LORD.  Since the day you were born, I have carried you along.  I will still be the same when you are old and gray, and I will take care of you.  I created you.  I will carry you and always keep you safe.

I love the picture of God as both my thoughtful creator and the One who never stepped away from creation.  He’ll carry me until I’m old, and therefore I know he can carry me through this week.

Regardless of the mountain, God has carried you and will carry you.

Prayer for this week: may the mountains turn our eyes to the One who will carry us– not to the cliffs, the height, and the obstacles.  May we trust the Lord who is waiting to carry.

Be encouraged, dear friends.

What are your mountains this week?

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Comparison Anti-Answer 1

Posted by Caroline on Jul 17, 2011 in Amazing Grace, Wrestling with Comparison | 0 comments

The other day a certain unnamed 13-year-old and I were watching Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never movie. We watched Bieber on his impressive climb to popularity and fame. At the end Connor (oops) seriously said, “man, he has it all. He’s famous, he’s a Christian, he has a great family… It’s not fair.”

To this I gave the worst piece of advice—“think of everything you have that he doesn’t.”

The past few days I’ve been wrestling with this trapping idea of comparison, and since I last posted about it, the response has been a resounding “me too!” It’s almost comforting to know it’s not something that only I think about regularly.

Down deep I know that Paul’s attitude in Philippians 3:8 is our answer to comparison—

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Paul exchanges all worldly comparisons for the one goal of knowing Christ.

The problem is I’m not there yet, and my wrestling has only left me with several “Anti-Answers” if you will. The first one is my own piece of advice of “think of everything you have they he doesn’t.”

Have you given this advice? Have you tried it? The message does help you count your blessings, but the method is still a comparison which leads us back to comparing earthly things! While it’s sometimes true that wealth does not equal happiness, beauty does not always equal security, and intelligence doesn’t always equal confidence, there are always going to be those people who simply seem to have everything. Smart, pretty, and rich? Psha- what do we do then?

We should constantly be counting our blessings and remembering that the good we do have is a gift from the Lord, but we should not do this in order to boost our self worth. We count our blessings to give back glory where glory is due. When we use blessings in a “comparison scale” we lead ourselves down an endless road of ranking what we have against someone else. We start to pride ourselves in our family over the neighbors broken family (whom we should be praying for not competing against) or we compare our good grades to to roommate’s community service to justify ourselves. Ranking these blessings still leaves us in the comparison trap.

Blessings are never a status booster; they are gifts.
Acknowledge them often; thank God more often.

Have you have compared blessings?

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New Church Plant

Posted by Caroline on Jun 28, 2011 in Orthopraxis | 0 comments

I joined a new church plant.

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We don’t have staff. Yet.

Or a website.

Or fancy email addresses.

Or coffee before the services.

Or a band.

Structure is being developed.

Volunteers are being found.

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Still,

The community is being reached.

New believers are being added.

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Seeing faith grow from nothing and seeing new light among darkness, reminds me that we’re just a bunch of humans trying to do church.  All our efforts are just a response to the invitation that  God offers for us to come be with him– and our efforts are only fruitful because of His grace.

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It’s so refreshing to my faith.

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there’s so much more coming about this little group of 30 people.

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Time is a Gift

Posted by Caroline on Jan 11, 2011 in Amazing Grace | 3 comments

Here’s what I’m learning:it’s not a theological lesson or super spiritual, but then again in theology class we talked about how any statement about how the world operates is, in fact, theological.  So maybe, this simple lesson tells me something about God.

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i’m learning the value of slowing down and seeing how i have allowed productivity and what i do with my time define whether or not a day is deemed good- not how I was spiritually.  If did lots- it was a good day instead of whether or not I loved much.  If I ran or worked out trumped whether or not I had a good attitude in my rankings of days.  If I napped that was an automatic negative in my subconscious day ranking, and if I watched TV, oh my goodness, might as well just start tomorrow because that is a sure waste of time (you see, I didn’t see the value or importance of relaxing).  i didn’t even realize how tough i was being on myself; i think I secretly liked the structure.  it’s safe if you grade with your own grading scale.  but…

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how limiting! how trapping! where’s grace? where’s the truth that says that apart from Christ- I am nothing.  All my earthly productivity is nothing. my to-do list and my spiritual walk are not synomonous.  why do i mindlessly let them merge into one big calculation at the end of the day?

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caroline, serve the LORD with diligence, yes, but slow down enough to listen and communicate with Him.

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slow down enough to love him by enjoying Him.

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Wilderness

Posted by Caroline on Jan 9, 2011 in Amazing Grace, Uncategorized | 1 comment

One semester left.

I’m finishing undergrad and starting seminary all at the same time.

It’s as if worlds have collided.

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I’ve officially laid my sorority letters to the side and picked more theology books than my brain can comprehend.  Yet, I’m still very much a college student– my love for Common Grounds or the Bear Trail has changed not.

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Thus, I’m stuck in this little transition year where one thing has not quite finished while the other has started.  It’s a collision of stages of life.  At the Truett Seminary orientation, one of the intro devotionals talked about seminary being a time of wilderness– defining wilderness as a time when one stage of life has finished before another has begun.  It’s like a big pause button.

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The professor looked to the Israelites and their time between being released from Egypt but not yet brought into the promised land.  During the wilderness time the Israelites were completely dependent upon the LORD.  They waited upon His gourmet manna– dry and boring and yet it was the perfect provision.  They had no direction or modern day GPS or really any goal but to wander behind a cloud and a fire.  Finally, years later, they entered the much awaited for land- the land dreamed about, worked for, longed for– the promised land.

Then this question caught me:

What was the best time for the Israelites?

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Surely the Israelites would say that entering into the promised land was the highlight of the wanderings.  God finally revealed His glory by blessing His people in a way that EVERYONE could see.

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But… what would God say was the best time?  Not that we speculate on the heavenly thoughts of the LORD, but surely He would have enjoyed the time with the Israelites in the desert. Not that he got joy from watching His people suffer– and grumble a lot– but because they were dependent upon Him for every need.  He was able to provide and his provision be patiently waited for.  God was near His people, and His people were continually looking to Him.

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My wilderness isn’t the traditional “life pause” in between stages of life, but perhaps the merging of the two stages is an inverted wilderness in itself and a wilderness nonetheless.

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Instead of looking at the wilderness as a season to endure until I come to the promised land, I want to see the wilderness as an opportunity to know my Father– see how He provides, how He loves, how He gives strength, and maybe see a glimpse more of who He is.

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Here’s to the wilderness.  It’s a good good thing.

p.s. Isn’t the wilderness beautiful? Pictures taken in Estes Park.

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