Lavishly our lives are wasted

Humbleness is left untasted.

-Audio Adrenaline

We are entering my favorite time of the year. The Thanksgiving to Christmas journey always instills an attitude of great thankfulness…for a God that sent His only Son. It assists me in a ‘grateful walk’ of all the blessings He has provided. His miracles. His comfort. His faithfulness. If we stop and press the pause button we are acutely aware that He stepped into our existence with His flesh in the form of a tiny baby. He came to make everything bearable and nothing permanent, but His lavish love. He gives us families. He gives us children. He gives us friends. All of these things challenge and refine our faith in Christ. In all these relationships we have to ‘work out our faith’ and choose how to advance His love. Life is all about Him and not so much about us. How does He illuminate through the cracks of our deepest heartache and our greatest joy? Do we stop and light the buried wick of those burning in the hot wax of never ending pain? These people are all around us and we do not even see their struggling tea lights. We are consumed with our own destiny. Our own family. Our own agendas. We are center stage and we like the spotlight. We need to push pause. We need to remember the star that brightened the sky. We need to see the light that beckoned the shepherds, the wise men, and us. Sit down. Escape your performance…and remember…His flesh in the form of a tiny baby. Look through my lens and see what He has done. Lavishly He loves. Lavishly He comforts. Lavishly He nuzzles. He sent all He had to rescue you. Turn and see His face. Feel His love. And go love on others….don’t lavishly waste His love on just you. This love frees prisoners, heals the murderer’s heart, and washes the pornographers’ heart as white as snow. Shine it into the lives of the poor in spirit for it gives light to the soul. Shine it into the widow’s loss for it gives comfort to the soul. Shine it into the mother’s heart that lost her child for it gives Holy manna for the day. Go walk this Thanksgiving to Christmas journey with His love…be willing and just listen. Be willing to share His message. And listen to the unlikely messengers bearing His love. He loves you so much…peek in the manger and see the miracle of His provision.

“God doesn’t call people who are qualified, He calls people who are willing, and then He   qualifies them.”
Richard Parker

This week I sat across from a woman whose marriage is coming unglued. The marriage began showing signs of stress a couple of years ago. As things seemed noticeably fractured she discovered she was expecting a baby. Things seemed to improve for a while…then there were two small children, a job loss, and she was diagnosed with muscular sclerosis. Everything accelerated. The heat fired up and her circumstances were crippling. He moved into an apartment. Her mother assists with the children. Among his things she discovered DVD’s with…nudity and provocative material. There are multiple charges on her credit card related to unsavory websites and addiction. His attitude has turned aggressive and hurtful. Fifteen years of marriage. You think you know someone…and they fail you. You are left to pick up the pieces. You are left to carry deep sorrow and longing. Divorce, I have heard, is worse than death because emotionally the person keeps returning and rips apart the healing process. So what about me? I am no counselor. I am no expert. What I can I do to make this situation better? Do I avoid the situation? Do I see this woman and go the other way? Do I smile and keep walking? I think God just looks for those who are willing. I think He uses my willingness to lavishly love on this hurting woman. All He needs is my willingness to SEE her pain and respond. If I live my life listening and looking for opportunities to shine his light…He will do the rest. So I sat and I listened. We passed comfort and compassion in the name of Jesus. That sweet baby came to bring hope in the life of this woman. So I wasted my time on His lamb. I wasted an hour wiping away tears, reassuring her in her loss, offering hope in His name. I lavishly wasted my morning in His service. As we closed in prayer I knew that I was lifting this woman into the supernatural hands of the one who summoned Lazarus. All He needed was my willingness. He will qualify my words and my work.

… “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”… (1 Samuel 3:9)

Oh what an unlikely messenger was Samuel! God used the heart of a child to tell Saul that he had been picked as the next King. Can you imagine the look on Saul’s face? Saul was extremely puzzled and humbled. He could not believe someone from ‘the other’ tribe was even addressing him. Yet Samuel persisted and Saul feeling extremely inadequate relented. Samuel was used (by God) to go and locate Saul with the message he would be the next King. So what does this tell us? God always uses unexpected people to relay His message. So incline your ear to His voice. We all sit in pews each week listening to the pastor deliver a message. What if that is your message? What if you are the worker He needs to place in the vineyard? Would you even be able to hear and recognize His voice? I think we need to get on our face (deep into the carpet fibers) and beg to hear His voice. Our whole existence depends on our hearing! If we do not hear or recognize His voice…are we fully His? When Mike had his brain cyst removed at Emory the days grew long. His response to people, his alertness, his paralysis, became alarming to me. When they came to do another comprehensive MRI I wilted. I wilted all the way off the church pew onto the carpet of the chapel floor. With my nose deep into the carpet I begged and pleaded with God for Mike’s well-being. Mike could not pray for himself so I had to intercede for his very breathing. God proved more than faithful…and He taught me to be a lavish listener. I don’t waste my time talking as much. I have experienced the power of His whisper. Don’t waste His lavish love with all ‘your talk.’ The Rev. C.H. Spurgeon begged us to listen in his sermon, The Child Samuel’s Prayer. He cries out “Speak, Lord! Thy voice said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. Speak, Lord! And make light in my be-darkened mind! Thy voice called Lazarus from the grave, though he had been dead four days. Speak, Lord! And make me live. Oh, let it be to-night a real work of grace in my soul. Let divine power come and operate upon me.” My dear friend, cannot you follow me in such petitions as these? You know my soul is going up for you, and I am crying to God, “Speak, Lord,” and there are others here that you know of, and who are dear to you, who are even now in earnest wrestling with the angel of mercy, and they are saying, “Speak, Lord!” Oh! What would your father give if he should hear that God had spoken to your soul? How would your mother leap for joy if she did but know that God had come to deal with you in a way of saving grace! “Speak, Lord!” let that be your prayer. Then put it next, Speak, Lord, to me?  I may be lying by Bethesda’s pool, but another man may step in before me, and I may miss thy mercy. Speak, Lord, to me, even to me. Say unto my soul, “I am thy salvation.” May there be an unmistakable message to my heart. Thou hast taken away one that I knew. It is a marvel that then thou hast not taken me away. It is a wonder that I am spared- such a rebel as I have been. O how great is thy patience, that thou hast not dashed me in pieces, and cast me into hell. Lord, thou hast dealt graciously with me in sparing my life. Speak to me, Lord. If there be other souls in a like case with me, do thou deal graciously with them, but oh! Do chiefly so with me, for if there be one heart that wants thee more than another, I am that one. If there be one less likely than another to be saved-one who would give thee more praise than another if saved, I am that one. Lord, Speak to me!” Beg and cry out for Him to speak to you. Who might be speaking to you? Is God trying to reach you? He has so much to be accomplished in and through you. Don’t lavishly waste another second.  Quiet yourselves before your Father and just listen.

“The responsible person seeks to make his or her whole life a response to the question and call of God.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The journey from Thanksgiving to Christmas is my favorite time of year. It reminds me of God’s lavish existences in my life. It makes me want to look deep into the eyes of my precious family and freeze the moments. It makes me want to be kinder and gentler because My Father has such patience with me. It makes me want to go spend the night with a homeless friend on the street; so I will not grow callous to their struggle. It makes me want to empty my bank account on His behalf. This season is a brief reminder of His luxurious, never ending, and relentless, ruthless, desperate love. It flows in the veins of all who are willing to lay down their life, and listen for His majestic whispers of intimate love.  Don’t waste your life.

Get Down By: Audio Adrenaline

Lavishly our lives are wasted

Humbleness is left untasted

You can’t live your life to please yourself, yeah

That’s a tip from my mistakes

Exactly what it doesn’t take

To win you’ve got to come in last place

To live your life you’ve got to lose it

And all the losers get a crown

CHORUS:

I get down and He lifts me up

I get down and He lifts me up

I get down and He lifts me up

I get down

All I need’s another day

Where I can’t seem to get away

From the many things that drag me down, yeah

I’m sure you’ve had a day like me

Where nothing seems to set you free

From the burdens you can’t carry all alone

In your weakness He is stronger

In Your darkness He shines through

When you’re crying He’s your comfort

When you’re all alone, He’s carrying you

CHORUS

This valley is so deep

I can barely see the sun

I cry out for mercy, Lord

You lift me up, again