i read a lot of random blogs. some because i know the people and want to keep up with them, some because i've somehow gotten to know them through comments they've made on other's blogs so i've started reading their blogs, and some because i'm challenged by what i read on their blogs...
anyways, i've been reading this blog for a few weeks. he's a pastor of a church in TN and i love the thought provoking questions he always asks. i don't know him and have never heard him preach, but he seems very solid.
here are some words from his blog today...
“I hear Christians all the time saying they think one of the problems with the world is that we just simply want too much. We want this and we want that. I don’t agree. I think in reality we want too little. I think most of us have settled. I think we have settled for a mediocre version of life. I think we have settled for a mediocre version of life where we chase after such frivolous things like money, and success and power, and applause.”
C.S. Lewis: "Our Lord finds our desire, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
"It’s almost like we have forgotten that spiritual transformation is possible. It’s possible that Christ can be formed in us. It’s possible to love like Jesus loved and live like Jesus lived. It’s possible, but first we must want that. We must want that more than we want anything else in this world.”
what do you think?? i've been pondering this all day...as i swam, as i drove in the car...what does this mean for me? i don't want to settle. but maybe i am...
12 comments:
That's really interesting. I was just thinking today about the silly things we long for as I watch my friend's families vactioning right now and I pine away for that!
It seems like sometimes we go after the superficial things in life because they offer a quick fix-a good feeling, immediate gratification when the joy of allowing ourselves to become Christ like is a longer, more intensive process that requires patience and surrender.
Those mediocre things can easy to latch onto and they don't require much in return. But in the end, they leave us empty.
Just my opinion : )
Pretty thought provoking, I know of plenty of days where I settle and plenty of days where I'm the child in the mud because I'm so caught up in the "me" I forget to think about him. I forget that Jesus looked at things so differently and then when I do I am convicted, and I try not to let the conviction turn to guilt. I would rather remember that I am extrordinary (in the eyes of my maker) than the weak in my own eyes.
Interesting - I think it boils down to us being caught up in the day to day and settling for that - rather than being fixed on the eternal perspective of things - and going BIG for God!
I'm not sure I agree. And I'm not sure I agree with the last statement in the last paragraph at all. I don't think it is possible for us to love as purely as Jesus did. We are by nature sinners...we are and will always be imperfect. He is the only one that can love perfectly and He does love EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US PERFECTLY. I don't think we are actually capable of that. Does that make sense? I need to chew on the rest of it. Good stuff.
Great point Debbie. I totally understand where you are coming from. And I agree with you. We will never love perfectly as Jesus did.
However, we can love. We can love the unloveable, we can love the outcast, we can love the forgotten. Not because of us, but because Christ now lives in us. Because He has given us His Spirit which now lives and breathes within us. Because we are not who we used to be. Something has changed. He has not only given us freedom from the penalty of sin but also the power of sin.
Just a few thoughts. I love this blog and the incredible conversations that take place here.
Michelle - loved your comment!
thanks for responding, Pete! since they were your words...
Debbie - i get your point. but, i took Pete's challenge kind of like many of the words that Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount - (ex: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48) - things that we should strive for. no, we will never love as purely as Jesus loved and we will never live as perfectly as Jesus lived. but shouldn't we strive for that?? i'm not sure that's what Pete meant by his words - but that's how my heart was challenged by his words. and i know a lot of days i settle for earthly pleasures and joys, instead of seeking the joy of loving and living more like Him.
It's totally true! I settle b/c my self confidence is low and I don't think I have the ability to achieve great things. I settle out of laziness and discouragment at the thought of all the work it will take to DO something. You're right, very thought provoking and hopefully after chewing on it for a while, life changing.
BTW Courtney, thanks for pointing to a great blog to read! I've added without wax to my list.
I hear and nod in agreement with what all of you are saying but in making the statement that we are settling because we aren't living/loving as Jesus did is dangerous in my opinion. Yes I understand the point of what Pete is saying and that we need to be challenged in living outside ourselves. But the statement pits us against the perfection that is Christ and is defeatest from the outset. I know I am enabled throught the Holy Spirit. I get that. But who says I am settling because I am not out on the mission field or working in the innercity? Or I'm not among the masses preaching the gospel. I don't have those gifts. I am using the gifts that I have as a mother who left a lucrative career to stay home with my kids and raise them up in a Christ centered loving home providing them with the firm foundation to go forth. Is that considered settling? Who defines what settling is? It is unfair to look at what other's do or don't do. That is where the danger is and gets me tripped up in reading this excerpt. It is what sends people down the path of needless guilt no matter how steeped you are in your faith. And if you aren't steeped in your faith, you really feel doomed in thinking "I'll never be good enough." I don't think any of the women who commented on this page are settling. These are women of substance that love the Lord and are excelling right where they are with they gifts they have...loving their children and their families and bringing them up in Christ centered homes. They aren't settling.
Debbie, I couldn't agree more. Please remember this quote was taken from a 30 minute message and is simply part of the story, certainly not all of it.
The point of spiritual transformation is never external activity. When the focus become external transformation does not happen, only legalism.
My wife is a stay at home mom and is an incredible example to me of someone that is living in the center of God's will for her life and certainly not settling.
Your right, in saying that we must each figure out what that means to us. Trust me when I say I will be the last person to try to judge that in anyone else's life. I'm just struggling to figure it out in my own.
Hi Courtney! Just out blog browsing today and landed on yours. Very fun because I love the song that is your blog title, and have a video of my kids at the farm at our zoo posted on my blog with that song. And then I scrolled down to this cool conversation. I love that quote from CS Lewis too--first heard John Piper quote it. Interesting how it sounds when taken out of context as the comment thread suggests. I think it means just the opposite of striving for legalistic perfection--that could be added to the frivolous things that are the mudpies in the slum if you ask me!
arrogance in mediocrity...the pride of life...
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