Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
I (can't) do it myself!
I suppose I don't find it coincidental that my last post was about learning obedience and trusting in God's authority, and now He's challenging Allison and I do to exactly that. We are looking at a couple of big decisions (nobody be scared... it's all good!) but so far we are only at the point where God is giving us a general direction and telling us to get going. We don't know the ending point, and we certainly don't know how we're going to get there. Those are the details of understanding that are important and inconsequential at the same time. They are important because they need to happen, but they do not rely on our understanding. We have to trust that He is already taking care of them.
I appreciated our friend's comment on the last post as well. She said that after asking "Why?" children begin to proclaim "I do it myself!" Those words have already rung true for us. What we're looking at is much bigger than what we can do for ourselves, but I already find myself scheming and conspiring at all hours of the day (and night) about how I plan to make it happen. If this is truly from God, we need to follow as he leads, and continue in obedience to his directions. That's not to say we won't be involved in the process too, and we still need all of the wisdom we can get so we make sound decisions. However, if we strike out to accomplish this on our own, we will ultimately strike out altogether. We can't do it ourselves, and if we did, I'd be worried about where we ended up without God going before us.
I appreciated our friend's comment on the last post as well. She said that after asking "Why?" children begin to proclaim "I do it myself!" Those words have already rung true for us. What we're looking at is much bigger than what we can do for ourselves, but I already find myself scheming and conspiring at all hours of the day (and night) about how I plan to make it happen. If this is truly from God, we need to follow as he leads, and continue in obedience to his directions. That's not to say we won't be involved in the process too, and we still need all of the wisdom we can get so we make sound decisions. However, if we strike out to accomplish this on our own, we will ultimately strike out altogether. We can't do it ourselves, and if we did, I'd be worried about where we ended up without God going before us.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Why?
This evening as I tried unconvincingly to persuade the three-year-old to put on his coat, he repeatedly asked me his new favorite question:
"Why?"
I answered him a few times, but when the line of questioning began to circle back on itself, I ended it by saying, "I'm not going to answer that. You just need to put on your coat."
As I pondered the situation and thought about how I will answer our own child, it occurred to me that it's all about need-to-know. Understanding was not required. Obedience was.
Sometimes that is all that God requires of us. He has His plans and reasons, but like the three-year-old our understanding is limited and unrequired. Ours is to obey and trust that His purpose is good.
"Why?"
I answered him a few times, but when the line of questioning began to circle back on itself, I ended it by saying, "I'm not going to answer that. You just need to put on your coat."
As I pondered the situation and thought about how I will answer our own child, it occurred to me that it's all about need-to-know. Understanding was not required. Obedience was.
Sometimes that is all that God requires of us. He has His plans and reasons, but like the three-year-old our understanding is limited and unrequired. Ours is to obey and trust that His purpose is good.
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