Everyone says I should become a writer...This is the first step. I have started two books in the past three years, but they sit waiting to be completed...The first is too personal, a place in the past I don't think I have overcome, the second me living in the present, however research continues onward, stories, data, one day they will be both complete...In the meantime, it is in this place that I can share my thoughts in a short format, things that God is teaching me that maybe can be of some use to someone else...
Each year, God gives me a personal goal, something to explore, pray about, study, like pieces of a puzzle. Last year my word for the year was humility. It was a difficult year of exploration. It started with a book called humility. I thought it would be a simple topic, quick, concise easy to apply... Little did I know that with the word comes "servant boot camp". What is that you are asking, doing tasks that no one else wants to do, being unappreciated or unnoticed at times, serving others without complaint. I have to tell you, there were days I would rather have been sitting at a day spa somewhere, even in my home town, getting a facial, drinking a cool glass of water with a lime, in essence someone waiting on me not the other way around...
Servant, helping others while gaining nothing in return, swallowing your pride, admitting you were wrong, putting aside your own rights or personal agenda for the good of someone else. That is what Jesus did. As a follower of Christ we are to be JUST LIKE HIM, washing the feet of others who at some point will turn around and bite us on the backside, like Judas or Peter, denying that he even knew Jesus...To be honest, there are many days when it is quite easy to be a Christ follower, just out of sheer gratitude that HE loves me regardless of what I say or do. I don't have to do anything to earn it. His first greatest commandment is easy, "Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind. The second greatest commandment is the tough one, "Love your neighbor as yourself." When your neighbor loves you back it is simple, but when they do something to offend me or hurt someone I love and I have to "serve" them in some way, it becomes boot camp...
My verse for the year is John 14:14: I have come that you may have life and have it to the full...
I don't really comprehend all that verse is saying. I just survived a year of exploring what a servant is. I have to say I didn't quite enter 2011 with a heart full of joy, waiting to conquer the world. I am searching for what true joy looks like...There are many who will give you hundreds of verses and Christian cliches of how all things work together for good...
I remember my dad saying so many times that the longer you walk with Christ, the more difficult life becomes. In order to become like HIM, the more trials will come my way. It is an oxymoron to what so many churches teach. If you come to know Christ your life with be filled with happiness, riches and overflowing blessings...I don't really find that in Scriptures, actually quite the opposite if you read all the stories of the Greats; beatings, stonings, floggings, being beheaded. So for 2011, what is the abundant life? I will be sharing in the coming year, the puzzle pieces that HE gives to me as they come! Until next time...
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