April 17, 2010
Greetings My Friend,
“In sickness and in health, in good times and bad, till death do us part.” Have you ever thought upon these words, these often used wedding vows? To me it is a huge statement, a declaration of committed love. I know that Junior and I often will spout them off to each other when we are being tried by the other one. Still, break it down and wow… what a commitment they can be.
I often refer to them in my faith journey with the Lord. Many times walking with Jesus, we tend to want the “good” stuff, not the hard work part of our faith journey. We want Jesus to “give” to us and we’d rather not have to do uncomfortable work, unpopular stuff, tell others how He has worked in our lives.
Jesus commands on his way back to heaven, “to go forth and make disciples of every nation and tribe.” For me, for the longest time, I did not want to offend, to be over ambitious in my “telling.” In the past many years, I’ve grown to love Jesus in a much different way. He has been at my side as I struggled greatly. I felt him there. He’d tell me I was precious as I felt beat up, an unwanted woman. He was there when I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to live financially after my divorce. As people close to me chose to reject me, Jesus taught me that he loves me, even if I have warts in my personality.
I then think about products. For instance, I love this rose face stuff from Avon. I love my “crocs” (knock off’s still I love them). I love our Explorer. I love many other brand name kinds of things. When we find something that we totally love….we talk about how it works for us. My niece loves her “coach” purse AND she is excited when she can pick one up on sale, even better at a thrift store.
Many of us even pick the “neighborhood” we live in because it is the “happening” place. It may have great schools. They remove snow wonderfully quick, stuff like that. We will tell people all about our choices and WHY we love what we buy, where we live etc. When it comes to why we “believe” well, you know….it isn’t polite.
How many of us love to wear tee-shirts with famous people, advertisements a political point of view? At work, we may even be allowed to wear some of that stuff, but we can’t wear our Christian beliefs. It may offend. To be honest…..I see plenty of offensive tee-shirts, like x-rated, a political view I don’t agree with. There are even the “put down” types, like bashing men, women etc.
Jesus….my life is different now. I have peace….wonderful peace…even when life seems to fall apart around me. Jesus seems to tell me, “Janet, I am here and I am not going ANYWHERE.” I want to tell of His wonderful love. I want to share the “hope,” I have. I have “hope” now, before, I did not have hope. I did not feel like my life really mattered. I felt that I was expendable. As people left my life…..I felt like a cast away. If I died, I felt no one really cared and all I did was take up space, valuable space.
That lady at the gym awhile back, the one that told me “I should have been aborted.” Wow, because I had some struggles meant that I should not “be.” Ouch! So Jesus, comes alongside of me, tells me, “Janet, I have something I need you to do.” Then I say, “Me, do you realize, I am annoying, not liked very much?” He says, “Yup, you, I need you to…..” Again I say, “Me? Do you realize that I am not popular, that I am annoying because I repeat myself?” Then Jesus says, “Yup, you are the one.” He has me write a blog, He has me take a friend to Celebrate Recovery. He has me go visit my Landlord because getting out of the house is hard for her. As I learn to “hear and then obey.” My life begins to seem to have a purpose, a reason.
So…..I am not supposed to “tell” because it might “offend.” The struggle I have is…..I have a NEED to tell. It’s like those cool shoes….I want to tell where I got them, how much I paid for them. I can’t “not” tell. It is bubbling up inside of me and for some reason….it can’t stay there.
Do I try to “over” talk my faith? NO! I try to be “me” and tell what I have learned, what I have found. I try hard to do it in my day in, day out way of life, matter of fact. I have also found as I have come to grips with being “strange” that some people will be offended no matter what you do, what you say. So…….I give Jesus my heart and let Him guide me and if in the process someone is offended…..there is not a lot I can do about it. It’s like the people who wear x-rated crud, they have the right, the need to……
May God Bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you.
Love
Janet