Faith

repost: reflection

We are called to reflect God's glory. Have you ever seen a body of water that's so still and smooth, it looks like glass? I have; it's pristine, beautiful, peaceful. And it perfectly reflects the sky above it and landscape around it, like a mirror.

That's the image I've always had when I think about my life reflecting the glory of God. But the problem is that I rarely feel like a smooth, glassy lake. My life---my heart---is much more tumultuous than that.

And then I realized something: God can miraculously use even the stormy sea of my life to reflect His glory.

He's not waiting for all the conditions to be perfect, for me to be smooth and ripple-free, or for the rhythmic waves of my life to cease. Nope. In fact, He gets even more glory when I reflect Him amid the strong currents and Perfect-Storm waves.

That means being able to pray things like ---

"In the midst of this sorrow and grief, position me to reflect as much of Your glory as possible."

"If You can get glory from my sickness, then go ahead and do it."

"Be glorified in me right in the midst of this situation and not just in my deliverance from it."

I'm working hard to get my heart to a place where I can do that. Where I can pray it, believe it, mean it. This much I know is true: God can leverage anything for His glory if I will surrender it to Him.

[originally posted 6/29/08]

four-minute friday: whatchawaitingfor?

Go. In the past six months...

  • I haven't had a single sore throat. (I used to have one almost every day.)
  • I haven't had a cold. (Despite sitting in a germ-infested airplane for 17 hours, traveling from hot summer to freezing winter.)
  • I've been able to swallow pills much easier. (Although I still do my throw-my-head-back-and-swoosh maneuver, just to be safe.)

And that, my friends, is nothing short of a miracle as far as I'm concerned. So the question remains: Why did I wait so long to get my tonsils removed? Ugh.

What's something you know you should do something about? Why are you waiting?

Done.

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coffee talk: more than we can handle?

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Did you know the Bible doesn't tell us that God won't give us more than we can handle? It's not in there. I've looked.

It does tell us that He won't let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. There's the promise that in every moment we feel inclined to sin, there is a way out. We need to look for that door and walk through it.

But to me that's a very different promise than the one most people walk around (mis-)quoting.

What do you think? Do you think God won't give us more than we can handle?

(You can catch up on old Coffee Talks here...)

who do you say i am?

The question Jesus asked His followers is one we need to answer as well. "Who do you say I am?" My whole life is an answer to that question. While I know I fall very short, my aim is that the thread that runs through my entire life parallels Peter's response. "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

That's loaded. And life-changing.

But I need to flip the question around, too. I need to get eye-to-eye with Jesus and ask Him, "Who do You say I am?"

And my whole life should be a reflection of His answer.