Doing what is necessary.

Doing what is necessary...oh the sigh that comes with saying that.  And it's difficult at that.
I won't bore you with a long list of my "necessaries," as I am sure you have your own battle scars, too.

I could count a lot of things I have been through in life as necessary. I'm not talking about this stuff:

What is convenient...

What is popular or like-able...

What is easiest...

What I want...

Rarely are the things you need convenient, popular, easy or what you want to do. A lot of times doing what is necessary is painful or requires effort.

• A mother who disciplines her child doesn't want to cause distress, but she knows that the greater good will come from doing what is necessary, and best for her child. 
• An Olympian may not want to train that extra hour, make that move across country to work with a coach, or run that last mile...but they do because it is necessary for success.

The same is true for God. He wants us to have the very best, so he chooses sometimes to make us do the difficult things - the things that a selfish us would choose not to do if God was not calling us to grow. (Job 5:17). 

I have still been searching for a job here in Springfield, but I know God will provide. That's not the subject of this post. With all of my free time here, I have met some people, walked the Missouri State campus, applied for a lot of jobs and made a lot of connections. But, I have also spent a lot of time on Facebook. And Twitter. And FourSquare. And especially Pinterest. 

I am a people person. I thrive on social settings and relationships with people - that's what they call an extrovert. I re-energize myself by being surrounded with people. In my case, college students are the usuals, and the college ministry is the setting in which I excel...

Social media is convenient. It is popular. It is easy (especially with Smartphones). Connections with others. I would say it is something almost all of us desire. God can use it to make great things happen, but when Jesus walked the Earth, he met people...in person. And His life was devoted to making disciples and teaching. 

If you are looking down at your phone or your laptop, chances are you are MISSING OUT on an opportunity to fellowship with the body, meet someone new, or to grow spiritually...what would God's Kingdom look like if we all spent even HALF the time we do on Facebook actually meeting people? My guess is, very different. 

I have given up social media (save for this blog), for awhile. I need to spend more time with God, more time with His word, more time learning, growing and maturing. More time being made into the likeness of His son, Jesus Christ. 

I cannot effectively disciple if I do not first discipline myself.

I really do believe that. If I am not spending every spare moment I get reading Scripture or meeting new people, or growing relationships within the body of believers, or making myself more knowledgeable about the Kingdom so I can tell others, or serving...then I am not doing EVERYTHING I can to grow. 

What in this world is taking you away from getting to know the Christ?

Video games?

Social media?

Clubs, parties?

A personal sin...that crutch that always seems so convenient?

Apathy...?

I challenge you to do something about it. If you don't like something in your life, replace it with something better. My suggestion? Replace it with Jesus.

If you stop growing spiritually or you are spiraling downwards, you are decaying and dying. Fight. It's difficult. It's not convenient. It's not popular. It's not easy. But it is NECESSARY AND POSSIBLE. Grow upwards and keep going, never quit. Keep changing, keep replacing the bad habits with the good. Keep faith that God will help you through it. 

Do what is necessary. Don't just say you will do it...because you won't.

Put it into action.

Become a better you. 

Become a better reflection of Jesus Christ.

Fear Factor.

Let me be somewhat transparent for a moment. These four weeks have been tough...I have been getting real with everything I never realized about myself before. I've dug deep and wide inside my heart and my soul to try and understand exactly how I got to where I am today, in this moment. The search by the way - it's far, far from over. Is it terrifying? Yes. Is it eye opening, yes. Is it difficult? YES.

I've learned something so far, though; we let fear define us, instead of being defined by faith. Think back, how many times in the past month have you done, or not done something because of fear? It doesn't matter if you feared success, or you feared failure, or if you feared being wrong or you feared being right.  Any way you spin it, you are afraid.  That fear factor has a way of making us uncomfortable. We fear, fear. So instead of facing  fear and doing something that might make us get outside of our cozy little corner and fight for our lives, we back down and pull the covers over our eyes, expecting the result when we emerge to be something drastically different. It won't be. There is no intentional desire in any of this.

When I realized this about my life, I hit my knees in prayer. I'll admit, I don't pray on my knees as often as I should, but let me tell you - it might be one of the most vulnerable positions I have ever been in.  However, it is quite possibly the only way we will be capable of standing strong.  So many times before, I would pray a sincere but lackluster prayer and ask God to move in my life. The result of that would be: God moving and me standing still as if He was supposed to do something for me. This time - when I prayed, I prayed. I asked God to move me for what moves Him. When I got an answer to that prayer - or several probable answers...I was rendered speechless.

The answer to my prayers became increasingly clear, but the question became - do I trust his directions? Do I believe in changing my life for the better, no matter what He says the cost is? Instead of expecting God to move me, God is expecting me to move! What a concept, right? I won't specify the details just yet [After all, want you to come back and read another post, right? (; ], but what He is asking me to do is to get out from underneath my cozy familiar covers, out from my comfortable little corner and actually change and grow.

Choosing to do what is uncomfortable is not the popular route. It is scary, it is difficult, it is uncertain and ultimately, it will lead to change, which, we refuse to do because we let fear become bigger than our faith. Don't let fear overcome your life - choose to overcome fear.  Don't just pray - be intentional about your prayer and actively seek out the open doors that might present themselves because of it. Embrace change - it just might change your life. It is in my life, for sure.

I encourage you to really ask God to show you what is holding you back from the fullness of life you are meant to live (John 10:10). Don't let fear be a factor for you.

Be Honest with Yourself.

I found a blog post I'd written a few months ago; on it, my last statement was "What's holding you back...?" I realized, when I write these posts, I'm writing them to you...but, it's so easy for me to ignore asking myself the very same question. 

Thankfully, someone asked for me this weekend. We had an amazing retreat in Cocoa Beach, FL. Crazy, actually. Crazy love from a crazy family, learning crazy trust through crazy faith.  We had the honor of four keynotes from Dave Skidmore, the campus minister at Park Plaza coC in Tulsa, OK. But, I have come to realize now, the keynotes were from God - and Dave was just trying to be Dave...not "the keynote speaker" or "the campus minister" although he does have those roles.

 

Well, here's the honest truth. I'm not good at being honest, well at least not with myself. Honesty, and I mean true, deep down to the heart and the soul honesty...it hurts. It is everything you don't want to heal from, deal with or change. But, we cannot change or heal what we are unwilling to acknowledge...so...that leaves me personally with denial, stagnancy & complacency. How depressing does that sound?! 

1. What's holding you back?
2. What's it costing you?

3. What are you afraid of?

Three questions. So much impact. We talk so much about counting the cost of baptism. Don't get me wrong here, I know that is something that all new Christians need to understand and accept. But, what about Christians who are walking the faith now? Aren't we to count the cost of what holds us back from being emptied before God to be filled with the good stuff? I know I haven't. Fear has paralyzed me from being able to deal with what's inside of me...but, if I don't love me - I can't give love to others. I can only give what I have, right? So, it was time for me to ante up and deal with it. 

Things change when they are verbalized. When I said out loud all of the things that I was unable to express for so long...I felt something. Something more than just human robot status...I remembered that it's okay to feel. And it's okay for that feeling to be validated and accepted by God. I know that it won't happen overnight; the process is continual - but at least I've gotten started.

So...this is my moment, and I own it. 

I'm done being "grad school Lauren" and "FB Lauren" and "Student Intern Lauren" and "Leader Lauren" and whatever hat someone has put on my head, whatever role they carved out for me. Instead, I desire restoration...to just...be me again. To be a follower of Christ. When me is enough, God is going to do amazing things in, through and around me...and it's not because I think highly of myself. It's because I think highly of my God.

How would it feel to be free of the burdens of our tasks and roles - and own who we are created to be in God's image, knit together before we even knew us, by the God who created the universe?  He creates something, and he fills it. I want to be filled with Him.

Own your life...not the life that others want for you. Own your title...we are sons and daughters of the Most High.

What could you do if you knew God would always show up for you? I know I can be a world changer.

Change yourself, and change the world.