Phamagination: "Be still and know that I am God"

Day 4 - Welcome to where I work

I live right by a lake here at Interlochen. It has been a wonderfully refreshing location to be. I have also been doing a lot of thinking.

Allow me to demonstrate here what happens with the combination of the two.

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Today, I visited Interlochen's on-campus Evangelical Christian service . Psalm 46:10 was the focus, and it will be my motto for practicing especially (and everything hopefully) this week. It is amazing how difficult it is to be still to listen to what God is saying.

I am reminded: it is not a matter of asking what is God's will for your life but what is God's will.

What's the point?

Take a walk with me and let's think aloud:

(Welcome to one lakeside of Interlochen)

Naturally, it is a part of human nature to want to focus on the self, on things that make us unique as individuals. That's more fun, right? I like me.

When I think about me, I think about the neat things I am doing and the way I might be valued by society. I think about how easy it is to reshape the "me" to be better regarded by society, to find ways to make me like me more.

God is the same. Always. His will is unchanging. Is that supposed to be comforting?

I, an imperfect human being, am constantly changing my mind, my attitude, my interests, my desires.

Is it better to trust in the things that change? To trust in doubt? In other words, myself? How credible of a source am I if I am relying on my reasoning? What is the basis of my reasoning? Is it prompted by something that is changing...?

Wait, what? That sounds kind of crazy. Who or what do I trust?

His Word is unchanging. How can I trust in His Word and remain still when clearly I, and everyone else, am constantly breaking his laws.

Where is God amidst the law-breaking? How can God be real in midst of so much rebellion, contempt, irreverence, and unbelief...

and silence...

Who will speak for God? Where are the faithful? Do they exist? How can there be any amidst all the things that opposition towards Him--amidst all the sin

How could God love us? Why would He want to have anything to do with us sinners who blaspheme Him and mock His ways? His Word says that His love is eternal. What is that supposed to mean?

Why does it mean that He loved us so much that he sent His only Son to die for us? (John 3:16) That sounds sad. Why did someone have to die? Did I do something wrong?

I'd feel bad if someone sacrificed his or her life to save me, even though I didn't do anything to deserve it.

If?

Let's think about this for a second. If God is all-knowing, then He knows pretty well that in my life I will not own up to being a "believer,"will choose not to talk about or introduce Him to others, and will distract myself with many other things that will allow me to think about it what it means to have a relationship with Him. God probably knows and knew I'm a pretty crumby person with whom He should pursue a relationship. Why on earth would he try to pursue me?

Why on earth would He try to pursue me, sending His only Son to earth to die for me? And not just me, but all of humankind. Wait, if it is all of humankind, how am I supposed to have a personal relationship? Isn't it kind of like experiencing the effects of a leader who you never get to know?

How am I supposed to get to know Him? What am I supposed to do make it personal?

He said to Peter and Andrew, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men," so they immediately left their nets and followed Him. Matthew 4:18-19

How do I follow someone who died a couple thousand years ago?

"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me"

Matthew 16:24.

Take up my cross? As in suffer and die to myself?

Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:24-25

So, either I lose my life, or I lose my soul. Do I value things in my life that much? To lose my soul?

Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, the light. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The Father? That must mean God. I think many people who believe in God are often in search of Him. Who says they want to follow Jesus? If the Word of God is God, and I want to find and be reunited with God, then I should listen to God to know how to be brought to Him. That means I need to listen to Jesus. That means I need to follow him. That means I have to take up my cross. That means I need to suffer and die to self.

What is glamorous about this? What is personal? What about the fact that I still am breaking God's commandments, His laws? Christ doesn't look so good if I, a breaker of laws, call myself a follower of Christ.

"But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." Galatians 2:17-21

What is personal? It seems like something is. Maybe it has something to do with his omniscience, which means that He knows everything about us. Maybe it also has something to do with the idea that God made Himself man so that He knows and has experienced the pains and struggles we encounter today. By taking up our cross and thereby following in Jesus' footsteps, we are acknowledging that He is the only way to live. We are placing our trust in Him. We choose to believe that He really does know us, and we are getting to know Him by choosing him not sometimes or partially but fully.

Jesus died and was resurrected. He was lifted up to be reunited with God.

Daily, I guess I must trust God to let my selfish desires and doubts die and trust that he will raise me up for His Will.

It is, in fact, His Will, and not mine. While I can keep going with my thoughts which may constantly keep coming (and changing), it is enough to say that God knows where you and I are personally in our journey with Him, and His Word is true, everlasting, and unchanging. Be still, and know that He is God.