Friday, October 29, 2004

The Day After...

I walked into Rob's office not quite knowing what to expect...was it going to be like Monday? He had sent me an email on Tuesday night asking for what I had read to him on Monday and making sure I was OK. I emailed him back and said since Thursday was my b-day...I only wanted to talk about sports!

It was okay. I got there and he did let me talk about sports for a bit. We were both excited for the Red Sox! While I am not normally a Bo Sox fan...anyone who beats the Yankees are my "new best friends." The he asked me if I filled out the BCA like he asked and I said yes. I read it and we talked about what stuck out for me.

We talked about me tearing up walking into The Wooden Horse (cool toy store by where my mom works) and then again during one of the video montage's during the World Series.

We talked about my misinterpretation of that verse in Matthew and I told him I still struggle with how do I know what is too high a standard...especially if I don't impose my standards on anyone else? Now the question is what are God's standards? Ugh!

1 comment:

Cliff said...

First of all, happy belated birthday! I'd sing, but I sound off key in Times New Roman...

Second, you mentioned "God's standards" for us. I wanted to share something I have learned over the last couple of years.

I used to believe that God demanded me to achieve victory over so many things in my life. So I would fight and fight and inevitably lose badly. However, the problem was never my ability to fight, my problem was my understanding of God's standards for me.

Our purpose on Earth is, first and foremost, to give glory to God. Any glory that we take onto ourselves, even unintentionally, is glory taken from Him. Fighting under our own strength and winning (or losing) takes that glory from Him.

So I have begun to come to grips with the fact that God does not desire our strength. It will always fail. He desires our weakness and surrender, and our trust that His strength and His strength alone will prevail.

This means a release of the idea of living up to a standard, and a relinquishing of control over our lives. Strangely, it can be far harder than the fight that it replaces. Perhaps that is due to our rebellious roots.

Anyway, thought I would share that. Pray and see if God quickens it in your heart.

And hang in there!