Embrace the Within no. 17

"You have one teacher, and you are all brothers to each other...Whoever ministers with the divine word does not put himself forward to be called teacher, for he knows that when he performs well it is Christ who is within him. He should only call himself servant according to the command of Christ, saying, Whoever is greater among you, let him be the servant of all."

• Origen of Alexandria

Embrace the Within.

The last fourteen days have been a lot of struggle with an ultimate reward of finding a new and meaningful walk with God. None of it has ever been easy yet I find that folks tend to think that Christians have it easier than everyone else. Folks like to marginalize our walk with God as something that is infinitely easier than whatever they are going through while leaning on their own judgments and reason. And it isn’t that walking with God makes things easier BUT it gives us reassurance that no matter what may occur that God is still in our corner.

It is great to not be alone. And that brings me to another thing that I have been hearing around that God is some invisible man that lives in the clouds. I don’t know when the anthropomorphic idea of God became a way of viewing God for grown ups BUT it is out there that Christians believe in some dude that lives in the clouds. That is not my belief and that is a very basic understanding and a very limiting way to view God. God is everywhere. Marginalizing God to a single place and a single body seems like a way of equating God to classical ideas of gods and goddesses. And seeing spirits as floating orbs of light that just leave our bodies is also a limiting way of looking at the soul. And I think that limiting God and limiting the spiritual is a way for folks to feel disconnected from each other and disconnected from God.

To act like I totally understand God would be a disservice to how truly unfathomable it is to understand God. And understanding the ways of God is beyond my paygrade. To try and understand why things happen the way they do, to try and map out a plot diagram for my life, to sit and look for the rhyme and reason for living, are all truly pointless pursuits that I have spent many hours, days, weeks, months, and years of the past trying to wrap my brain around in futility. That is not what I was made to do.

I think we spend a lot of time trying to figure out God when we should really be trying to figure out how to just do what God asks. Doing that is far more complicated and far more achievable than trying to figure out God. And, yes, things get easier to understand and figure out when you trust in God first BUT nothing about life gets easier just by accepting Christ. Life is still messy and problematic. I am still a broken person in spite of and despite my trust in God. The great thing about it all is not that life gets simpler BUT that I am not alone in that journey. My life is not easy. Your life is not easy. My relationship with God makes my purpose in life much more easy to understand and allows me to focus on what I was created to do.

Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of God is now. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin

Embrace the Within no. 16

“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”

• Dieterich Bonhoeffer

Embrace the Within.

Yesterday was a bit much and today will be a bit little. And that is the way things go at times. Some days much is expected and other days we have very little expectations on us.

Today I am going to absorb a lot of information and then reflect on what I have gathered. I will take the information and choose what I do with that information going forward. Gathering information is important and at times I can get bogged down in thinking that I don’t know enough yet. I need to do more research. I need to read another article. I need another documentary to view. I need to see this practice in action one more time. And then, when I have all the information I need, then I can act.

The fact I need to accept is that I will never have all the information I want. I do have all the information I need to begin. I get this idea in my head that I need to know everything about a topic before I can put that information into action. And that is not the case. That is actually detrimental to my ability to be effective at getting that information out to the folks that need it. And often we sit on information because we don’t feel like we know everything BUT we do know enough.

So, I pray that today I find information that will help guide my path forward. I need to remember and remind myself that there is a difference between knowing enough to be competent and wanting to know everything and remain inactive. I want to actively teach the information in an engaging way so others can learn as well.

Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of God is now. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin