It AINT That Easy!!!
"Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
- Luke 9:23
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him."
-Philippians 1:29
I love quilting. I love looking at them, pinning them on Pinterest, planning them, thinking about making them, and making them. I haven't done a lot of them, but my retirement plan is to change that. I can go in a fabric store and stay for hours, just feasting my eyes on all there is to see. My friend Belinda asked me a while back if I wanted to participate in a quilting class at her home. I jumped on the chance. Although I love quilting, I have much to learn. That beautiful creation that looks so effortlessly put together takes a lot of skill and knowledge to complete. I am basically self-taught, so any time I can learn from an expert, I'm in! And in that one, relatively short class I did learn a lot. But it will probably never be easy for me.
As a somewhat reluctant blogger, I basically approached writing in the same way. Being a work in progress, I wanted to share my experiences with God in the hopes that someone else might relate, and maybe glean a thing or two. But I believe I have done something I never wanted to do in my writings. As a matter of fact, I SWORE I would not do this.......guess that's what I get for swearing. It finally became clear to me after my last post, "Pricklies". Shortly after writing that post, I was continuing to deal with a prickly in my life, handling the situation in a somewhat different way than my post suggested (Imagine that!). All of a sudden it hit me..... I had made it look easy.
Philippians 1:29 says:
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Chris not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."
Looking up the definition of suffer, it ways to "experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant." Synonyms for that word are hurt, ache, be in pain, feel pain, be in distress, be upset, be miserable. You see, we are called to suffer a bit in this Christian life.....some of us more than others. And I think we can qualify dealing with pricklies, illness, conflict, and many other things we go through as suffering. It's just not fun. Our worldly nature wants us to fight back.....to rage against the injustice.....to change it, make it better. But that's not really the point.
The point is, when we react to situations and events in our lives the way we are called as Christians to do, it does not often help the suffering we are going through. Unfortunately, the belief that being a Christian makes life easy couldn't be less true. Sometimes I think it makes it a bit harder. But there are two important things we have to remember:
1. Christ gives us the strength we need to accomplish what He has called us to do. Philippians 4:13 (my favorite verse) says:
"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."
To me, that says that whatever He asks me to do, however He asks me to respond, I can do it. That doesn't mean it will be easy, but it means it is doable. So I can deal with that rejection, job loss, hurtful behavior of another person....all of it, in the way He asks me to because He gives me the strength to do it.
Would it be easier to react to all those types of events differently? Absolutely. Sometimes what I really want to do when responding to hurt is yell, say the ugliest thing I can think of, pout, leave, go drink it away- the list goes on and on. Something to get back at what has hurt me....to hurt in return. But that simply isn't what we are called to do. And as hard as it is, I DO have the strength to do it right. He provides it.
2. It is SO worth it. It may be a while before I fully understand that, but obedience and walking with Him is an investment in joy, both now and eternally. There are quite a few verses that tell us this. One I can relate to since I am a mother and grandmother is John 16:21-22:
"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."
Only those who do their best to walk with Him daily knows what kind of joy there can be in 'suffering'. He gives that peace, that confidence that He is enough, a serenity not found anywhere else. And it only gets better later.
So don't believe me, or anyone else, when the impression is given that this life is a 'piece of cake'. It isn't. But the dessert is there.....and it is sweeter than any old cake.
- Luke 9:23
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him."
-Philippians 1:29
I love quilting. I love looking at them, pinning them on Pinterest, planning them, thinking about making them, and making them. I haven't done a lot of them, but my retirement plan is to change that. I can go in a fabric store and stay for hours, just feasting my eyes on all there is to see. My friend Belinda asked me a while back if I wanted to participate in a quilting class at her home. I jumped on the chance. Although I love quilting, I have much to learn. That beautiful creation that looks so effortlessly put together takes a lot of skill and knowledge to complete. I am basically self-taught, so any time I can learn from an expert, I'm in! And in that one, relatively short class I did learn a lot. But it will probably never be easy for me.
As a somewhat reluctant blogger, I basically approached writing in the same way. Being a work in progress, I wanted to share my experiences with God in the hopes that someone else might relate, and maybe glean a thing or two. But I believe I have done something I never wanted to do in my writings. As a matter of fact, I SWORE I would not do this.......guess that's what I get for swearing. It finally became clear to me after my last post, "Pricklies". Shortly after writing that post, I was continuing to deal with a prickly in my life, handling the situation in a somewhat different way than my post suggested (Imagine that!). All of a sudden it hit me..... I had made it look easy.
Philippians 1:29 says:
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Chris not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."
Looking up the definition of suffer, it ways to "experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant." Synonyms for that word are hurt, ache, be in pain, feel pain, be in distress, be upset, be miserable. You see, we are called to suffer a bit in this Christian life.....some of us more than others. And I think we can qualify dealing with pricklies, illness, conflict, and many other things we go through as suffering. It's just not fun. Our worldly nature wants us to fight back.....to rage against the injustice.....to change it, make it better. But that's not really the point.
The point is, when we react to situations and events in our lives the way we are called as Christians to do, it does not often help the suffering we are going through. Unfortunately, the belief that being a Christian makes life easy couldn't be less true. Sometimes I think it makes it a bit harder. But there are two important things we have to remember:
1. Christ gives us the strength we need to accomplish what He has called us to do. Philippians 4:13 (my favorite verse) says:
"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."
To me, that says that whatever He asks me to do, however He asks me to respond, I can do it. That doesn't mean it will be easy, but it means it is doable. So I can deal with that rejection, job loss, hurtful behavior of another person....all of it, in the way He asks me to because He gives me the strength to do it.
Would it be easier to react to all those types of events differently? Absolutely. Sometimes what I really want to do when responding to hurt is yell, say the ugliest thing I can think of, pout, leave, go drink it away- the list goes on and on. Something to get back at what has hurt me....to hurt in return. But that simply isn't what we are called to do. And as hard as it is, I DO have the strength to do it right. He provides it.
2. It is SO worth it. It may be a while before I fully understand that, but obedience and walking with Him is an investment in joy, both now and eternally. There are quite a few verses that tell us this. One I can relate to since I am a mother and grandmother is John 16:21-22:
"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."
Only those who do their best to walk with Him daily knows what kind of joy there can be in 'suffering'. He gives that peace, that confidence that He is enough, a serenity not found anywhere else. And it only gets better later.
So don't believe me, or anyone else, when the impression is given that this life is a 'piece of cake'. It isn't. But the dessert is there.....and it is sweeter than any old cake.
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