"I've noticed that most mornings I don't wake up super-happy, and I'm not sure why. I've also been noticing that for some time now that when I first wake up, I find myself racing through the coming day in my mind, bracing myself for what's required of me, but even more searching so searching to see if there is anything to look forward to." John Eldredge (Walking with God p.92).
Unfortunately the same is often true of me. You might think that biblical education and knowledge, experience with God and His vast ability to do the extraordinary in the face of failure would be enough to look forward to each and every day but honestly it is not. John Eldredge goes on and says, "Our day-to-day grind isn't anything close to Eden (the garden), and our hurting and desperate hearts look for something to which we can attach all those yearnings. we'll settle for a donut [or cold fried chicken] if that's all there is to look forward to."
Boy do I often settle. I settle for less than a donut. That's not what I want!
The topic before this passage was love. I settle for less than real love.
It seems to me to be an epidemic to settle for less than REAL love. REAL love is the kind that hangs around when we act like a butt crossed arms hand over mouth but leaves with us; The kind that picks us up out of the crap of our lives and wipes us off getting dirty too; The kind that loves just because and not because we can or will do something. I often settle for less than that and give less than that.
Then it hit me, I have settled for less than God's definition of what is success and what is successful. Long and issue with me, success is a tug-of-war. For a while I'll be one way and then the rope is pulled the other. I never seem to settle on God's definition. I always hang on to another definition. Honestly, I thought I had put this behind me but evidently not.
Well, yesterday I told our people one of the seven steps (courtesy of Rick Warren I wish I was that smart) to cooperate with God in our transformation was to "focus on what I want and not on what I don't want." With that said, I want God's definition of success to be my own as well. That is my prayer.
What about you? Do you struggle with a definition of success? What have you agreed to that is settling and not up to the standards of the Kingdom of God? Let's agree on what we want and be transformed by the "renewing of our minds."
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