Misconception of Faith

Questioning God’s plan and purpose for our lives never gets resolved by our own human minds. His ways are beyond what our human minds can fathom and when we begin to doubt, question, compare, and wonder, we allow our sinfulness to take away from His omnipotence.

Isaiah 58:8-9
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We are under the misconception that god reveals all things to us, that He explains in great detail the steps of our lives, and that a faith in Him means a life with no questions, no pain, and no suffering. Faith is defined as a trust in what you cannot see, what you don’t always know, It is a complete trust without question. Faith is a choice, a process, a deep devotion to accepting that there is something greater than that of our selves. Faith is removing our own human logic, our selfishness, our self-edification and giving purpose and power to God who created a universe, keeps that universe on its axis, and created me, just a spec, on the scale of something so much grander and bigger than my own selfish universe.

I feel pain, panic, confusion and often times I feel that it’s God’s duty and responsibility to lift that pain, calm the panic, and bring understanding to my confusion. My God can do all those things, but more often than not it’s my own sin, my own selfishness, my own lack of faith, I am the one that places that burden on my own shoulders. God does not bring the pain, God brings the healing, and He provides the shoulders to carry what we can’t. He asks us to give Him what we can’t understand, what we can’t carry. He says to leave our burdens at His feet. He says to trust Him, to leave them, to let go. We wait around for closure, for understanding—when God says my grace is sufficient for you. When you can’t fathom why, when you can’t find reason, when purpose brings pain—Is God sufficient for you?

When you can’t answer why, do you trust that God knows why and that faith is moving forward when questions and doubt threaten to pull us backwards? We so often pray for direction and so often God answers those prayers and moves us, but yet we drag our feet, we question, we doubt, and we take our faith and turn it into pain. Pain is a miss focus of opportunity—every opportunity is one to trust and to give our faith to God. Opportunity is our way of giving god power but fear and doubt take away from the grace God so freely gives. Pain is fear, fear is doubt, and doubt strips away faith. Faith is a choice; faith is giving to God all that we can’t understand. It is finding opportunity with each breath we take and giving God all praise even when we have nothing left to give of ourselves.

I don’t understand why, but I choose to put my hope in the one who I know works all things to His infinite purpose.

Taking Root in Shaky Ground

Jeremiah 17:7

"But blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

Growing up we aim to please our parents or those in authority over us. Our confidence comes in the acceptance and accolades of those who we desire respect and take pride from. We build our faith in ourselves and the world in how well we accomplish or succeed in what others find noble and honorable. I've always been one that has lived in fear of discouraging, disappointing, or failing in the eyes of others. I shaped my decisions, my desires, my interests around what others felt were acceptable or desirable because while I desired my own self-interest, I ultimately couldn't live with myself without the acceptance of others. Life then becomes a game of trying to live, make decisions, choose wisely your path in hopes of never having to walk alone, never having to feel invisible or abandoned because you didn't follow someone else's vision for your happiness.

We find our roots planted in someone else's garden and while we are growing, branching out, and maturing--we never feel a sense of ownership or self-identity because we leave ourselves vulnerable to be tended to by someone else. As humans--our confidence is always wavering, always dependent on something or someone else and we all fail, we all fall short and therefore when our confidence is rooted and grounded in those around us-- we are never safe, never firm, never stable because we are a people who stand on shaky ground, we are all lost, we are all desperate and dependent on another for our esteem, self-pride, and identity.

Not everyone thinks the same, acts the same, has the same interests, fears, or joys. We are created as individuals and yet spend our lives desperately trying to find companionship in the sense of self-awareness and acceptance. When someone doesn't agree with you, doesn't understand or accept your way of thinking--does this make your identity less worthy? less honorable? less right? No. Our trust and confidence are in the Lord--there is no fear or worry because God is faithful--He brings growth and harvest, an abundance within us in all seasons and all circumstances of our life. In a drought (loneliness), in heat (when decisions are hard or uncomfortable), God is faithful, He never changes, He is consistent in character and understands the uniqueness of His creation. We are never alone in Christ, He is never without a purpose or plan for our life and when everyone stands against us--it is our Lord who stands for us.

We are to live confidently in Christ--He alone is our confidence, our trust, our encouragement. In a world of instability and self centered disasters--it is God who places us on sold ground and comes to where we are. We please him not by conforming but by confronting those that oppose us and trusting in Gods plan and purpose for our own unique lives.

Darkness Before the Treasure

In a world of time-lines, we often forget that it is God that defines our legacy. Success is equated by measuring accomplisments in comparison to those around us. Highschool, College, Dating, Engagements, Weddings, Children, possessions. We are so used to measuring qualifications by status-quo. You do all the right things, you follow the expectations of those around you, you achieve success by the world's standards and yet deep inside it never feels enough--you constantly feel in waiting for something more.

We are all free spirits designed to fly in a big open world and yet we close ourselves in, wings touching, so scared to fly alone, to be distanced from what seems acceptable. Loneliness, independence, freedom, individuality, passion have all become words that though sound strong, are very rarely ever acceptable. In a world of networks, marketing methods, and an ever changing technology era, contentment is not money making, uniqueness is hard to target. We live for a feeling of pride, accomplishment, and acceptance that we sacrifice our own feelings, our own desires, and our own self-confidence. So much resentment, bitterness, and anger grow in our hearts because we resent this world that keeps our souls from flying free.

We are all exhausted, desperate for a break but have to keep going for fear of being passed up and passed by. "Make time for the quiet moments as God whispers and the world is loud."
There is peace and rest in this moment. It doesn't take an escape or an adventure, its quite simple--it takes the trust of being able to let go of all the world's expectations and to hold on to God when the world distances itself from this unknown concept.

There is often independence in loneliness, passion along the unbeaten path, and joy in that which doesn't always result in happiness. We weren't created to follow a status-quo, we weren't born to live lives defined by someone else's definition of success. We were created as individuals, with a unique purpose, a deep seeded passion for the things that define us through God and not by this world.

I will always live a failed life if I live for the approval of others or by another individual's standards. Their story is not my own. The closer I come to paralleling the status-quo, the further I go from being who I was uniquely created to be. Have we ever stopped to think that maybe those who suffer from depression or anxiety aren't the ones with problems in this world? Maybe they actually understand that there is more to this life than that which graces the cover of a magazine. They fight the battle within to search, long, and desire to be more, to fight the world's standards, and to find an inner peace that is unique to them. We try to cure this by a common pill but the only cure is to find self acceptance in dropping the expectations, fight, and constant need for the world's acceptance.

Slipping away into silence, falling into the shadows does not represent darkness and emptiness. Explorers first encounter darkness before they find their treasure. The dark signifies the unknown, the uncharted territory that others haven't dared to find. There can be fear but that is part of the adventure of life. Depression and anxiety sink in when we keep ourselves from discovering what is beyond the darkness, when we hold ourselves back with fear. God calls us to live boldly and with confidence. He is our light in this world of darkness.
There is freedom in Christ.
This world holds us back from our place by Christ's side--it is His journey we are to follow and not the path that history tells us to follow.
History is defined by those bold enough to create change. Be the change you hope to see tomorrow.