What Happens When You Help?

Most people who want the concert experience spring for the expensive backstage passes, the meet & greet tickets, and the front row seats. Me? I have to admit, I didn’t show up at the Winter Jam show with any of that in mind. In fact, my only goal was to visit an out of state friend who was running one of the merch booths.

After a few minutes of loitering beside her table, she asked: “Wanna just be my volunteer?” “Sure, why not?” I replied, putting on one of the red crew shirts. Heck, she had gotten me into the show for free. Of course, I would help her out! As it turned out, I still got to take breaks and enjoy the best parts of the show. On top of that, however, the other staff members appreciated my willingness to help out so much that they let me tag along into places that the average showgoer or volunteer would never end up.

Looking back, it was one big line of positive chain reactions. I was willing to drive for two hours and pay to go to a show so I could visit my friend. She snagged me a free ticket to make it easier. I was excited to be there and was more than happy to help her and the crew out. The crew was excited to have my assistance, so they didn’t mind me tagging along for dinner and loading the tour bus.

None of us had high expectations of what the others could or would do for us. We were all simply willing to do things for each other. This is how good things happen.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,

   and one who waters will himself be watered.

-Proverbs 11:25

Doing What Feels Good

"You can't eat donut holes for breakfast, Sarah," my friend Matthew said, staring down at me. We have a running joke that he is my dad, and occasionally he lives up to the title. This was one of those times. "Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes, shoving another TimBit into my mouth, "And what would you suggest?" "Eggs! You should start your day with protein," he informed me. "Okay, sure," I grinned, and continued to devour the donut holes. He was right, though. Later that day I found myself hungry, low-energy, and somewhat irritable. 

Isn't that such a perfect picture of the human state? We are told what would be good for us, we know deep down what would be good for us. Yet we charge forward doing what feels good in the moment rather than slowing down and living by the knowledge we are given. It has been happening for all of history.

Romans 1:28 says, "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done." -- This is the result of letting our desires rule us. God will let us do what we want, but will it truly benefit us? Will it end well? Sometimes God sees our strong wills and decides it would be best to let us learn the hard way. 

What about you? Do you read of God's desires for us and do them, or do you charge onward to pursue your own way of life because it's what feels good to you right now? Be careful, my friend. 

Will you take what's yours?

“So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?“ - Joshua 18:3

I was surprised upon reading this passage. After all of the years the Israelites had spent getting to and then waiting for the promised land, knowing full well that it was their inheritance given to them by God, when they finally got to the edge of it, some of the tribes just sat. Over the prior few chapters of Joshua, these tribes had seen God give their relatives victory in battle as they took their shares of land, so they had no reason to fear opposition. They knew God had promised the land would be good, so there could be no doubt about how well the land would suit them. In fact, Joshua 18 gives no reason why these remaining tribes put off taking their land at all. It simply states that they didn’t move toward what was theirs until they were pretty much ordered to.

Why would you sit and stare at a good thing that has been promised to you, but not take it when the opportunity is right there?

As I contemplated this fact, I realized we do the exact same thing today. Not with land, of course, but with God Himself. In the new covenant, God is our portion. To all those who come, He has promised eternal life and reconciliation and communion with Himself. Yet, we sit. Even those of us who have come to the Lord often put off spending time learning about and communing with Him. Some things about humanity just don’t change, eh?

Are you going to come and enjoy that which God has promised to you? Or are you going to sit around until circumstances force you to pursue what you’ve been promised?

We Are Not the Pinnacle of Creation

This week I was faced with an idea that completely changed my perspective on the account of God's creation: mankind is not the pinnacle of it all.

I've continuously read and heard people say how God "saved the best for last" and created humans on day six. We were made in His image and are the crowning glory of His creation. That statement isn't entirely wrong- we are uniquely crafted in His image and were the last visible thing to be created. Day six, however, is not the end. 

I've often read through the creation account, thinking of the grandeur of it all. Everything about the universe, the earth, the continents, the animals, and then us. All of it spoke into being by God. Wow! Oh, and yeah, then on the seventh day God rested. That last part always felt like a bit of an anticlimax to me, a tidbit tacked on at the end of this amazing piece of history. If nothing else, it was good reminder that after a long week at work, I am entitled to a break, too. I always read it as if God's work ended on the evening of the sixth day. It didn't.

The seventh day dawned, and then God finished his work. It was not declared done on the sixth day because He had one last thing to do: He created the seventh day, which He set apart as holy. He was satisfied in His work and rested. The culmination of the entire creation account does not end with us. It ends with God being satisfied in what He has done and resting in nothing but Himself. The pinnacle of creation is not us coming into being, but His rest. 

It makes so much sense. Isn't that what we as Christians are always striving towards? The end when we can finally and fully rest in Him in heaven? It never boils down to us in the end. It always has been Him, and it always will be about Him.

"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." - Genesis 1:31-2:1-3

Productivity: It's Not What You Think.

I was introduced to a challenging thought on Sunday: "your success is not rooted in your productivity..."

Some of my friends might call me a workaholic. If I'm not laboring at one of my two jobs, I am writing and promoting blogs, researching various things, or creating some form of art for either myself or others. If I am not getting something useful done, I often kick myself. So much of my life is focused on productivity. It is what makes me feel successful. 

The above statement follows up with "...Success is rooted in faithfulness to Christ."

It all goes back to the simple truth that our existence is meant entirely for the glory of God. If we are honoring him, living to know him and bring him glory, then by the standards of the Creator of the universe, we are a success. This success, however, is not one that we can just make happen for ourselves. It requires a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which will naturally work its way out into our lives and actions.

Success by the world's standards is temporary and will only last until we die. Success in God's eyes is tied to what Christ is doing in us, and will last through eternity.

Where do you find success?

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. - Galatians 6:14

And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go. - Jeremiah 45:5 

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

There is a Veggie Tales silly-song that is well known among Christians who either had or were children in the early 2000's:

"We are the pirates who don't do anything

We just stay at home and lay around

And if you ask us to do anything...

We'll just tell you...

We don't do anything!"

Considering the fact that pirates are known to pillage and plunder and be an all-out horrible bunch, the idea of a band of pirates who sit around being lazy all day every day is a rather comical thought. It left me wondering something: could one really be a pirate without doing anything? Isn't piracy action-based? It is centered around robbing people, after all. It then occurred to me, "...A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven." (John 3:27). This includes our time. 

Now, granted, every minute we have here on earth is given to us by God. We can't exactly steal what is given as a gift. We can, however, waste it, which is nearly as bad. We are told that, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." (Colossians 3:23-24). If we are expected to use the time given to us to serve and glorify God, would it be fair to assume that it is near-piracy to steal away precious minutes from our true calling and waste them on useless endeavors?

Working Woes

Tip: consider lines in your photos. Do edges in your subject match up to the edges of the photograph? How do other lines make your image look?

We all say it at some point: "Ugh, I have to go to work again." It seems nearly expected in our society that when we go into the working world, we will probably hate what we do and only do it for the money. I've even heard it said that if we lived in a perfect world, we wouldn't have to work at all (to be honest, I've been guilty of thinking so in the past as well). But here is something to consider: mankind had work to do before sin entered into the world. 

Genesis 2:15 says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it." and later in verse 19, "Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name." 

These events and intentions for mankind came prior to the temptation and fall of Adam. What does this mean? It means that work itself is not a result of sin. It is the difficulty of work that is the result of sin, as shown in Genesis 3:17a-19: 

"cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

How then ought we to react to work? Know that work was instituted by God, and it is our duty as we live before Him to carry out the work we have, however difficult, with an attitude of worship towards our Creator.