Least is the Best?

so i just got back from the SHIFTstudents Senior Get Away Retreat in Big Bear. it was amazing. we just wanted to get some of the seniors who are graduating up and away for the weekend before they graduate high school and move on with the next stage in their lives. it was a great trip. it snowed! in May! CRAZY

that's my car..... nuts! we made it down safely so that's good. but one of the things we did up there was have these 2 hour quiet times where we would just read and be with God. it was amazing because how many times do we really do that, especially when we are surrounded by God's beauty up in the mountains?

I was reading Shane Claiborne's book called "Jesus for President", i just began it but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. while i was reading i noticed something that is amazing to hear and is an encouragement.

in the book, it goes through all of the different leaders of the Jewish leaders up until the times of Jesus. and something stood out to me. when we see the story of Moses in Exodus and the story of David in 1 Samuel, God did not use the biggest and the best people to do His will for the people. we look at Moses, who didn't think he was the greatest speaker or even capable of leading the people out of Egypt. and when Moses did go in front of Pharaoh, God told him not to act pompous and powerful but to tell him his lowly stature as a shepherd when confronting the powers. "When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, 'What is your occupation?' you should answer, 'Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.' Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable tot he Egyptians" (Gen. 46:33-34).

and we look at David. When Samuel came to Jesse, David's father, to look for the new king of the Israelites, Jesse did not even bring out David to show him off because he was the smallest and he was tending to the sheep, a lowly job. Samuel told Jesse to bring him out and Samuel choose him to be the king. later, David defeated Goliath, using only a sling shot and a stone.

we look at this and realize that God uses the least likely people to do amazing things through him. what we think is weak and will not be able to accomplish, God tends to use those things and those people to do His mighty work. we look at our lives and when we are hurting, when we are feeling weak, when we are feeling like there is no way a certain situation can ever get better, we just need to look at all God has done through the weak and the least likely, and have faith that God will be able to do anything through you.

there is no reason why we should be discouraged when we are at our lowest, because God tends to use us the most when we are at that point. when we are at our lowest of the low, God more often than not, uses us in those situations to touch more people for Him than any other time of our lives. that is incredible. i believe He does this because then there is no way we can take away any credit from Him, instead of us thinking that we were able to pull it off on our own. this is just something to keep in mind when we are going through hard and weak times in our lives. God uses the weak to lead the strong, and the small to bring down the big.

"the great paradox and humor of God's audacious power:

a stuttering prophet will be the voice of God,

a barren old lady will become the mother of a nation,

a shepherd boy will become their king,

and a homeless baby will lead them home."

i love that.

random fact: As a punishment for misbehavior, Thai cops have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands.

Fight the Urge

since i have been done with school, which has only been a week by the way, i have found myself thinking a lot more. which i am loving. i am only having to focus on ministry things. which is amazing. but going through this book right now by these two teen aged kids, has brought me to some cool conclusions.

when we decide to follow God's way of life that He has planned for us, we are to grow. at that point we are declaring war on our sin and this idea fights against us doing the harder things because our natural, sinful nature is to go for the easy way out. Jonathan Edwards, a great American theologian, once wrote: “The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh.” not going the easy way out is the harder thing to do, its natural for us to do so. that's why its a fight to go against that.

in Romans 7:21-25, Paul notices this idea about his nature and the war that wages inside him to obey God:

• ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

The Bible alone gives us the real explanation about our tendency to take the path of least resistance, even though doing hard things is in our best interest.

let's look at it this way. if we lived in a land where the law rewarded you for doing the harder thing. where you were rewarded for your hard work and anyone can advance in life or their carer if they took to caring to applying themselves. you would think that the one who made this a law would be a wise ruler. if the people of this land choose not to do this, and not work hard, you wouldn't say that ruler was not a good leader would you? no way. truthfully, we are so eager to avoid doing the tough things, even though we all know that doing those things and putting effort into those hard situations is the way we can grow closer to God, means that there is a great Creator and then the fallen people...us.

God’s design is good, but it has been corrupted by our sin. We were made to grow through effort. The corruption of our nature is laziness. What better way to undermine God’s plan for us than to make us avoid His means for growth?

Writes C.S. Lewis: “It is hard; but the sort of compromise we’re hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible… We are like eggs at present. And we cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

we can’t just go on being ordinary, decent Christians, giving God part of our lives while holding back the rest. Either we are hatched and learn to fly or we are a dud that will soon start to stink. The ironic thing here is that although the hardest thing — the almost impossible thing — is to hand over our whole selves to Christ, it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead.

We can’t really avoid doing hard things. We can only decide when to do them and how prepared we will be to handle the hard things life brings our way. You either do the hard thing of getting prepared, or you deal with the harder thing of being unprepared. We either “do it” now, or we end up having to “deal with it” later.

crazy how that works out huh?

Random Fact: There are more TV sets in an average U.S. household than there are people.

Graduation

today.....

i graduate from Azusa Pacific University. i cant tell you how excited i am. the fact is, i have been in school for the last 17 years. crazy. so what am i going to do now? i am not going to lie, i cannot wait to NOT go back to school in September. i really enjoyed my time at APU, i have learned a lot. i have enjoyed the people that i have met, the friends that i have made. i cannot wait to walk with them this afternoon.

one thing that came to my mind though....... i am a learner. one thing that fills my tank is learning. i love to read. books, blogs, articles. the one thing i loved about APU is that i read so much. not everything i wanted to read, but i read and learned and loved it. now that i am done, one thing i am afraid of is that i am going to fall out of the habit of learning. thats something that school provided me. it gave me the discipline of learning.

i pray that i keep on trying to learn and to keep reading. i hope that my relationship with God does not wither down because i don't HAVE to learn about Him for a grade. i pray that i have the passion and desire to keep learning about Him.

today is going to be a great day. time to celebrate.

Random Fact: When you snap a whip, that sound you hear is the whip BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER.

Do Hard Things

i am reading this book right now called "Do Hard Things". it is written by two teen-aged brothers Alex and Brett Harris (check out the book here) the whole book is based on rebelling against the low expectations of teenagers. i like that. most people assume that because teenagers are younger than them, they are not capable of accomplishing things. i say B.S.

but i think about the title. "Do Hard Things". i think about the culture we live in and realize that we just plain and simple do NOT like to do hard things. there is always the easy way. there is always the way that is more comfortable so that we do not feel awkward or embarrassed. we say we are Christian, yet we take the easy road. but Jesus makes it clear to is that the road of Christianity is hard, the road is narrow into heaven, so what gives us the right to take the easy way?

why do we need to do the hard things?

HARD THINGS ARE IN THE BIBLE

• all of God's commands in the Bible are hard. but we always tend to say that God's commands are not "easy" don't we? both of these statements are completely true. but why cant we ever just come out and say that God's commands are hard? when Jesus commands us to love our enemies, why cant we just call it like it is?
• Repenting is hard. forgiving is hard. turning the other cheek is hard. overcoming sin in our lives is hard. honoring our parents is hard. sharing the Gospel is hard. reading our Bibles is hard.
• its always easy to use the cliche "on fire for God". but if we are truly on fire for God shouldn't it be easy to read our Bibles everyday? to say no to sin? to share the Gospel with others?
• when we think like this we are missing out on something huge that God wants to teach us about personal growth

DOING HARD THINGS IS THE WAY WE GROW

• in James 1:2 we are told to consider it "pure joy" when we are faced with challenges, trials, and obstacles because they will test our faith and make us stronger. really think about that.
• the God who created you and loves you cares about your growth in Him - the way he designed you to grow is through the challenges he places i front of you
• when you do hard things you grow in character and competence. much like if you were to go to the gym and to work out. you will grow stronger.
• IN ORDER TO DO THESE HARD THINGS WE NEED TO GET OVER THE IDEA THAT GOD'S LOVE MEANS HE WANTS US TO GO THROUGH LIFE WITH AS LITTLE EFFORT OR DISCOMFORT AS POSSIBLE.

A RADICAL ARGUMENT

• this is hard. hence the title of this section. but its not just saying that hard things happen and that can benefit from them. it is not even saying you have the ability to do the hard things. its telling you that you SHOULD do hard things because it is one of the best ways to experience growth.
• can you think of period of growth in your life (as a Christian, student, athlete, musician, whatever) that didn't involve effort and challenges to overcome and to work through discomfort? the truth is all growth involves discomfort in some way.

these are not new ideas. but i do want this generation to rediscover what has always been true...in order to grow we must do hard things. we must challenge and stretch ourselves, we must step out-side our boxes and comfort zones and do something difficult.

Jesus calls us to do it. its the only way we can grow and will be able to grow for the rest of our lives.

Random Fact: 2% of Earth's people have red hair.