A Life of Worship

The word "worship" has been one that has surrounded me my entire life. When I was in Sunday School I was told not to worship idols, when I got to middle school I started playing in worship bands, when I got to High School I was challenged with what the term actually meant. However, it was only until recently that I've really started to wrestle with this idea. A few questions have just kinda popped up inside my head. What does it mean to worship God in everything that I do? What does it mean to give thanks in difficult circumstances? What would it look like if I actually practiced this?

Okay, so I don't actually know the answers to these questions, but I'm starting to wrestle and pray over them. I'm confident that God will lead me towards Himself as He's the one that put them on my heart in the first place.

The second question, "What does it mean to give thanks (worship) in difficult circumstances?" is one that has been weighing on my heart all week long. I found out that my Aunt Anne, who has been in remission for the past 9 years, found a lump earlier this week. This woman has been through just about everything. The fear that consumed me when I heard this news was immeasurable; I can't even imagine how she felt. How could this happen when it seemed like we were finally out of the woods? Just when it seemed to no longer be a threat, the cancer returned. Doubts, fears, anxiety, sadness, and darkness flooded my heart. I couldn't even think about it for too long. I did everything I could to distract myself. However, that road always comes to a dead end. So there I was, lying in my bed after a long day full of desperate attempts to keep my mind busy. God confronted me. Revealed himself...Challenged me. 

Suddenly, I remembered James 1.

"Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds" (James 1:2, NIV)

I remembered Matthew 11.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NIV)

I remembered Phillippians 4

"And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Phillippians 4:7, NIV)

Thankfully, we got word that the cancer has not spread and a surgery in the near future will hopefully remove the rest of the tumor.

There I was, with the God of the universe by my side, offering me help, blessings, rest, comfort, peace, joy, (the list goes on and on), and I was terrified of a disease. I'm not, by any means, making light of the situation. Instead, I am proposing an idea. The idea that there truly is nothing that we should fear on this earth. The idea that instead of distracting ourselves, bottling things up, doubting goodness, we can lay it all down at the foot of the cross. 

The cross. The only reason I have to boast. The place of forgiveness. The most perfect display of love ever shown. The foundation of life. This list goes on and on, too. What more, though? The grave is empty. HE IS RISEN!

What does this have to do with living a worshipful life? God calls us to give thanks in every situation that we're put into. No matter how difficult. Why does he do this? Does God expect us to "find the silver lining" as Bradley Cooper incessantly searched for in "Silver Linings Playbook"? Does God want us to just find that one tiny little bit of good in every situation and hold onto it as if we know nothing else? Not at all. God calls us to give thanks because Jesus has died, resurrected, and already achieved victory over everything in our lives. I'm not sure if I successfully explained this...In an attempt to sum it up, I am called to worship God, because of the work that Jesus has done on the cross, in spite of any possible situation thrown at me. There is not a single moment in my life that I do not have a reason to worship. This is not something that I've done well in my life. Now that I'm praying over it, I know that God will grant me a worshipful spirit in all that I do, and through all that I face. 

As I'm on the home-stretch of my second semester, freshman year of college, I'm exhausted. In every sense of the word. I want nothing more than to be in Myrtle Beach with my family. To be working with The Philadelphia Project. To get away from the shadow of stress that school work casts over every second of my life. But that's not what I'm called to do. I'm called to worship. To worship the Lord of everything with everything.

Lord, allow me to say hallelujah in everything that comes my way. Change my heart to be geared towards you and your greatness. Amen.

Pray for me.

The Gospel: Soaked in Love, Absolute in Truth, and in Direct Opposition to Our Culture

Last night I was reading through 2nd Timothy and there was one theme that stuck out to me in almost every single verse. Now, 2nd Timothy is the second letter written by the apostle Paul to a young man, Timothy, who was in a town in which many people were starting to turn away from faith in Christ. Paul, at the time, was imprisoned in Rome. So picture this: an older, wiser man in prison as a direct result of his preaching the Gospel, is now (while in prison) writing a letter to Timothy who resides in a town that is rapidly turning away from the Gospel. Which, given the nature of the law in those days, means that ultimately, this town will likely imprison people for preaching the Gospel. Get that? It's nuts.

Okay so that's enough history. The theme that just screamed in my head over and over is how incredibly countercultural the Gospel is. As Christians, we say this all the time. Jesus broke social boundaries, the Gospel calls us to live differently, etc. But last night as I read through Paul's charges to Timothy, I began to see even more how radical this theme is in the Gospel. Listen to this, Paul says: 

"He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" 

2 Timothy 1:9

This stands out in our culture for a few obvious reasons. Number one, where in our culture, friend circles, jobs, schools, are we called to live a holy life? We (or at least I), have grown up thinking and believing that our reputation is incredibly important to our identity and our abilities. This belief, from what I've gathered, is innate. Again, we aren't told by any of our elders or influences to uphold our reputation to the best of our abilities. Sure, maybe once we get older we're encouraged to build a "full" resume which could be argued to be a "paper reputation", but we're not directly told, "make sure others think highly of you". Yet, we spend so much time and effort ensuring that this be the case. So, although this aspect of our culture isn't thoroughly verbalized, it is incredibly prominent. However, the Gospel (specifically Paul here), is preaching that we must live holy lives. This lifestyle is not even the least bit dependent on the judgement of others on you. However, it wholly resides on something else that Paul shares in the next part of the verse.

"Not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace". Huh? You're trying to tell me my efforts to live a holy life are motivated by something other than my own strength and desires? Where do you see this in our culture? I'll use an example that is especially potent to me because of where I am in my life. In college, your performance determines what rewards or consequences you will receive. Tangibly, my grades. If I study hard for a test, it is more than likely that I'll get a good grade on it (barring factors like lack of sleep, an overly challenging test, etc.). It makes sense! But the Gospel says it has nothing to do with what you do. You are given grace freely. God hands out A+'s to all those who come and ask! Granted, this isn't the only aspect of the Gospel that you need to grasp in order to follow Jesus, but it is the truth none-the-less.

There's one very large aspect of the Gospel that is so countercultural that many Christians (including myself) have a hard time talking about it to those who don't believe in it. That is that the Gospel claims to be (and is) an absolute Truth. Jesus, all throughout the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, shouts this. He says in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" and in Matthew 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." 

In our "open-minded" society, tolerance, equality, and acceptance is emphasized more than anything else. "You can believe what you want, and therefore for you, it's the truth". Do I have a problem with tolerance, equality, and acceptance? Not even in the slightest. In fact I do my best to practice these virtues. But it's when the word truth gets put into these situations that I do have a problem with. It's when tolerance turns into a belief that whatever it is that you're tolerating is a reality. It's when equality for everyone interferes with what us, as Christians, know to be the truth. It's when we accept other people's beliefs to "work for them" even though we claim to believe in a God that claims to be the only one. 

This aspect of the Gospel is harsh and can be taken as offensive. But it doesn't stand alone. A pharisee (teacher of the law) expecting to trip Jesus up might I add, asked Jesus what the greatest commandment is. He replied simply: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37-39. Think about what this means. If this is the greatest commandment, the only conclusion you can make about Christianity is that it is a religion based around love. How can something be so drenched in love, yet in such great opposition to our culture? Well, that's a topic for another post. 

For now, I want to make a charge very similar to that of Paul's to Timothy. "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:3). This, again, is countercultural. He asks Timothy to suffer. He knows that suffering will come onto Timothy because of the nature of the Gospel. So, by charging him to suffer he is simultaneously asking him to live holy. Living holy, by the absolute truth of the Gospel, loving the Lord God with all your heart, and loving others will bring about suffering, but it brings about hope. A hope that triumphs over all of the hurt and suffering that comes along with it. 

These are the things that God has put on my heart and revealed to me through His Word. As I continue to pray that God will show me more and more of His face, I urge you as well to seek after him. He will answer. 

Pray for me.