The Evil E's

Expectation and Entitlement

Thanks to DP's posting it prompted me to think about my own life and another entry.  It's been awhile I know since I last updated... I just haven't found any inspiration to say anything but maybe that's too much expectation on myself... wanting every entry to be just as deep and as meaningful as the previous entry.  Sometimes without expectation... you actually succeed in expectations and in writing an entry!  I will try to make this my new way of thinking and hopefully be able to write more consistently... must not give up!! haha.

As you can see I also changed the look... I picked the font because it resembles handwriting... think it makes it more personal but may be harder to read... let me know if it is... I chose pink because even though blue is my go to color... something really soft and approachable about the color of pink.  I love the hint of it... :)

I digress...

The Evil E's: Expectation and Entitlement...

These two have given me so much trouble in my life... caused all types of relationships more heartache than necessary and yet at least for me... these were so hard to shake.  How do you NOT feel like you deserve something if you really feel like you deserve it and are told that you deserve it?  How do you NOT expect things when I mean certain things should just be known right??  Or even worse, the person tells you their capabilities and then doesn't deliver?

But it doesn't stop there... it's not only towards other people but to my own self as well...  expecting to be a certain place by a certain time or a certain age... or feeling entitled to certain things because of time lapsed or a numerical age I've reached.

It's all garbage really... it causes so much damage and yet it's so dangerous because these two can be so subtle.  They come so naturally...

So how to get out of the vicious cycle?  For me.. it took a lot of humbling from the Lord and lots of revelation that my way of thinking was completely faulty to loosen the grip of the E's in my life.  I realized as DP had that oftentimes it was a ME issue more than THEM issue... that switch once it went off was very effective in opening my eyes to the plank in my eye over the speck in the others...

But man... even though it was rough being disciplined... I am SO thankful... I feel FREE... there are still times that the E's will try to make a comeback but it definitely doesn't have the same hold or authority over me as before...  Praise God!!!

Humility goes a long way for a lot of different things and Pride goes before destruction... how wise the words of the Lord.

What's it to you?

I started sponsoring a child back in 2009 through World Vision and receive emails from them periodically.  The other day I received one about giving and curiosity struck this cat so I decided to do some digging around.

I found this page World Vision Online Donations and started going down the list of how much each item costs in US dollars.

Here are a few examples: (excerpts taken from the Donation website listed above)

• To give a goat: $75
• Goats nourish hungry children and families with healthy milk, cheese, and yogurt. Goats also give a much-needed income boost by providing offspring and extra dairy products for sale at the market.
  A healthy dairy goat can give up to 16 cups of milk a day. Goat milk is easier to digest than cow’s milk and is an excellent source of calcium, protein, and other essential nutrients that growing children need. Goats are practical animals — flourishing in harsh climates while producing valuable manure to fertilize crops and vegetable gardens. 
• Education for one child: $32
• Your gift can help pay school fees or provide essentials like school uniforms, textbooks, backpacks, and school supplies — helping ensure that one child in poverty can receive what he or she needs to get an education. 
• Hope for Sexually Exploited Women: $35
• Give hope for sexually exploited girls. Your gift will offer girls assistance like medical care, nutritious food, non formal education, vocational training, compassionate counseling, and, where possible, reintegration into a loving family environment.
• 2 Soccer Balls: $16
• Your gift of a soccer ball can replace a makeshift banana leaf ball or rounded wad of trash for an energetic boy or girl. And with a generous match from Baden™ Sports, your gift gives two new soccer balls instead of just one!

And the list goes on and on... As I started going through the list of things and examining the monetary value associated with each one I started thinking... what are similar priced items that we buy without so much of a hesitation or a thought?

I'm pretty sure I don't really need to list specific things with a price tag along side to get the point across.  They can range from a new iPad to a new phone... a nice steak dinner or going to watch a play... it can be going to a concert or playing at D&B...

My point is not to make people feel guilty for going to these things or buying items... but my hope is to start a thought process of how sometimes we hesitate or have to carefully think through a financial decision of giving to the Kingdom opposed to thoughtlessly dropping the same amount on something we've been eyeing for a few months or something we've always wanted to go to...

Funny right?  How investing into the Kingdom is something that should be thought so carefully and we need to be "financially responsible" because we can't just give everything away... whereas movies, gifts, presents to ourselves, entertainment takes not nearly as much wise consideration as the former...

Why is that?

Maybe because innately we are just that selfish.  The price of being entertained or doing anything for ourselves greatly outweighs the price of investing into something that doesn't directly relate to us or at least doesn't bring immediate reward...

But is that really the truth of the matter?  I don't think it is...

Matthew 6:19-20 says
¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.


Let's remember that the monetary value of the items in the first list come with a price tag that goes much higher than we can comprehend and the monetary value of the items in the list that comes after is a high price to pay just for ourselves...

Hearing God in some unlikely places...

I was at a friends place yesterday catching up about life, etc....

Her husband came home and put on Karate Kid in the background while we were scrolling through some stuff on the laptop.  Eventually we gave in and started watching the movie.  Its the remake with Jackie Chan and Will Smith's son... I hadn't particularly wanted to watch the movie at all but it was on so why not?

You might be wondering what Karate Kid has to do with God... at first glance... not very much... I wasn't particularly looking to hear from God in that hour or so and definitely wasn't looking for him in a movie...

But as I was watching it came to the part where Dre (Will Smith's son's character name) asks Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) to teach him Kung Fu.... wait a minute... isn't this called Karate Kid not Kung Fu Kid?  Anyways I digress...

Dre is thrilled and excited to start learning but to his surprise Mr. Han doesn't teach him fancy moves... instead he makes him take off his coat, put it back on, hang it on the post, drop it to the ground and repeat... over and over and over.. through rain and shine...

Dre starts getting irritated... okay Mr. Han, I get it.. I need to pick up my jacket and not throw it on the ground... Dre feels as if he's learned his lesson, has had enough of this practice and starts walking away...

And then Mr. Han calls him back... reluctantly Dre comes back... Mr. Han tells him to put on his coat but this time Mr. Han prohibits him from putting it on... again Mr. Han tells him to drop the coat and pick it back up... and again Mr. Han blocks him... and from there the real exercise and practice begins...

As I was watching I was joking with my friend how God does that to us sometimes... makes us do things that we see no point in doing... but as I watched more... the truth started sinking in more deeply.  There are many, countless times that God asks us to do things that seem so foolish, so pointless to our understanding... grudgingly we do them but complaining the whole time... and even like Dre we think we already know the point of the lesson... to be more clean, to be more respectful of our mom, etc... whatever it is.. fill in the blank.... but little do we know the true purpose... the deeper reasoning of God... that in the little things He can prepare us for the bigger things...

It may sound cheesy... but how many times have we questioned God's motives or told him.. ok God enough already I've already learned what I needed to... without realizing that the Almighty has something much bigger in store if we only stick it out awhile longer... to do things not on our own understanding but His...

Proverbs 3:5-6 says
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and
lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight."

Whether in this lifetime or when we stand before our Maker... God is true in bringing about what he started in us into completion.  Lessons no matter how small or trivial can be used to be the foundation in which God lays something so much more awesome than we could ever hope to ask for or imagine into fruition.

Beauty in Brokenness

Brokenness... Suffering...

Nobody chooses to go through it yet it is part of Life and necessary for a follower in Christ.

I went through my own season of brokenness recently and sometimes I was in so deep that I never thought I'd get out.  It was not pleasant or spectacular... Everything just hurt.

Yet in the Word we learn that God loves the broken things... it was a thought that struck me in my own season and looking back I can indeed see the beauty in such misery.

From the earthly perspective it doesn't make much sense.  The broken things are the unwanted things... things you give away or become hand me downs... and if it's really bad you just end up trashing them... who wants something broken when we can easily buy something to replace it?  Actually in our society today it doesn't even have to be broken to be replaced... whatever newest edition comes out becomes the next thing to have...  The latest and greatest....

In some cases we use this to reference people... used goods... or damaged... you get the point.

Yet what strikes such a chord in me is the thought that the Most High, Almighty God, Alpha and Omega doesn't see things in the same way... He who is the richest and is able to afford anything and everything paid the most expensive price tag not for the shiniest or the newest but He went out and bought every broken thing with the blood of His Son Jesus.... that's you and me in case it wasn't clear enough.

God delights in taking the things unwanted, deemed beyond repair and restoring and redeeming us.  Doesn't make much sense when He is really the only one that could do away with us and "start over".  It blows me away to try to comprehend the reasoning behind this...

I think this ties in with the Gospel... to spread..share the Good News!!!  That for all those that have been told that they are damaged, beyond repair that there is Hope in a Savior who's Father thought you were worthy of the cost!!  Does that not liberate all us to spread this to the rest of the broken things who have not heard??

Blast from the Past

Here's one that I had been meaning to post up but hadn't had the chance to...

This is from October 16, 2010.

I went to our church wide retreat and as the Pastor was sharing a passage (I think it's this verse):

"He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers" ~Psalm 1:3 (NIV)

And as we went into praise time I suddenly had the urge to write this down:

Jesus you have made me into a tree...
And no matter how lush my leaves may be in one season
Or how barren my branches are in winter
One thing remains that I am rooted in Your Love.
And nothing, NO THING can separate me from that
And I thank you Lord
Make my roots deeper still
Deeper still my Lord
Amen, Amen.


Hope this blesses you as much as it did me.  I remember a pastor once saying we can either be like flowers or trees... the better thing is to be a tree.  Flowers sprout up quicker and are beautiful but fade faster... trees take longer to grow but are longer lasting.  I want to be a tree... :)

Hitting the Refresh Button...

I think it's time to refresh this...  don't you?

I kept this blog under wraps because I wasn't really sure of my writing talents and wasn't sure I wanted to be so exposed but perhaps it'll keep me better accountable to share the things God continues to lay on my heart...

:)

Here we go!