Super Sized Gifts

Some of this began during Life Group last night...

Going to try an use only "I" in this post. Which if you read previous posts you'll see a lot of "we". If Evan sees this, he'll be proud.

Because of Christ I have been given gifts from God. And if I think about a phrase from a few years ago, the gifts I have been given have been "Super Sized".

God gives me LOVE. But not just everyday, normal kinda love. He gives me His love which is unconditional. So because I have God's love I can love like God...
unconditionally. Now I can't do it alone. I have to rely on the source. I can barely begin to even love apart from God much less love unconditionally.  

God gives me JOY. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is conditional, circumstantial. This super-sized joy is over abundant. It doesn't make me constantly gitty or goofy. It's a background feeling but not based on feelings. It's a smile instead of a frown. It's a sparkled in a tearful eye. 

God gives me PEACE. It's a peace that passes understanding. Which means it makes me and others scratch their heads. Because this peace shouldn't hold up under duress. Unspeakable life events are met with this peace. Since it passes understanding it can't really be explained. 

God gives me HOPE. This hope is not like a star struck person. It's also not simply wishful thinking. It's a confidence that God has everything under control and that regardless of how this looks, everything's gonna be OK. Better than OK, eventually everything will be right...correct...in it's right place...perfect.

Now I don't always live like I have these gifts. Too often they are shelved. I don't use them as they were intended. Sometimes I treat them like a tie I got for Father's Day. 

Abba Father, thank you for these and so many other gifts that You've given. Forgive me for taking them for granted and help me to live them out so that others will want them and then give me the willingness to share.  

It's a Meaningless Life...

Smoke, nothing but smoke...There’s nothing to anything - it’s all smoke. What's there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes - it’s business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again - the same old round. The wind blows south, the wind blows north. Around and around and around it blows, blowing this way, then that - the whirling, erractic wind. All the rivers flow into the sea but the sea never fills up. The rivers keep flowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again. Everything’s boring, utterly boring - no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear. What was will be again, what happened will happen again There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”? Don’t get excited - it’s the same old story. Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody’ll remember them either. Don’t count on being remembered.

Kinda depressing, huh? These are the opening verses of Ecclesiastes from The Message. But have you honestly ever felt like this? Obviously King Solomon had. With all his wisdom, knowledge, riches, women, etc., he found life to be empty and fleeting. I'm pretty sure no one has this passage as their life verses or at least I hope they don't.

There is some truth to this lament though. Even in our rapidly changing world, nothing really changes. People are born, people die. There are wars and rumors of wars. There is feast and famine. There are glimmers of hope and canyons of despair. Is it easy to become so fatalistic in our outlook? It can be. We look at our life. Our frustrations and failures can outweigh our victories and accomplishments. The scales of our life are never balanced. We can identify more with Eeyore than Tigger. 

BUT...you must have "buts" in your life. But, remember what Jesus said...I have come that they may have life and have it to the full or and have it more abundantly. When Jesus gives life it changes everything without necessarily changing everything. I know that's confusing. Our life with Christ is not void of difficulties. It's not a life of only rainbows and puppies. Reality is still found in Ecclesiastes. Days come and go. Seasons ebb and flow. Even with abundance of rain the oceans never fill and flood over the land. Christ isn't required to pluck us out of the muck and mire and place on a mountaintop. But, there's that word again, He does give us abundant, over-flowing, better than we deserve life. AND, another great word to have in our vocabulary, He has promised to make all things NEW, NOT used, NOT even simply new to us. Jesus is making all things NEW, immaculate, spectacular, pristine, better than new car smell new. All the junk, all the turmoil, all the stress, all the poppycock, all the garbage will be gone. G-O-N-E...gone. I know it's hard to imagine. But Jesus promised and His promises are trustworthy and true. So, we hold on. There are better days coming. Infinitely better days that will last for infinity.  The king was right BUT the King of kings is more right!