Friday, March 5, 2010

The Ultimate Paradox

We're emotional people. We want what we want and we base that on what we think we need.
You've probably heard it said that God is more interested in making us what He wants us to be than giving us what we think we ought to have.
The only problem is that I hate hearing that. It's true...I just hate hearing it. Do you? I mean, sometimes when I'm feeling really good then I can listen to that truth. Unfortunately, I feel like a good deal of my time is spent flat-lining. Okay, I'm not saying I'm really dead, but sometimes I just feel like the life has been sucked out of me...or I just don't want to deal with the "ups" in life when I'm feeling "down". The good news is that God knows that about me. The bad news is that sometimes I feel like He allows those unpleasant circumstances in my life so that I will understand that this life isn't all it's cut out to be. Maybe this sounds really weird to you, but could it be that God wants us to die to ourselves and the only way some of us will do that is when we want to die - or rather - when we recognize that life isn't always as cushy as we might want it to be?

There is so much that God wants for us. He created us as unique individuals for a reason. Yes. But in order for Him to be reflected in our lives as He desires to be, we have to die to ourselves...and yet not. The Christian life is full of paradoxes, is it not? To die, yet to be fully alive!

The ultimate paradox!

1 comment:

redshift said...

Wow, Shay, this was kind of a "down" blog, and I'm still not sure how to respond to it.
It brings to mind some old 'Rolling Stone' lyrics: "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you'll find, you get what you need."
Maybe replace 'try' with pray. I think God want's us conformed to His image, but I don't think He wants us miserable...at least not all the time.