Why did Abraham talk like that? Why
don't I?
Through my life I have always been a
prideful person... really, what have I ever been truly humble about? I
have acted humble, or like a servant, with the knowledge that people will
see... What do I do at home? What do I really act for/live for/look for/want?
Praise? Acceptance? Success? Pleasure?
Today, I am not writing this to
teach, but rather to confess and commit myself to humility, and I would be
humbled to have you join me. I don't have a real good intro... so I am just
going to dive in:
What are we to God? How does he look
at us? How ought we to relate to him?
God is infinite right? He created
the earth right? Well He also created dust... Genesis 2:7 says: "Then
the Lord God formed man of dust
from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being."
I am dust... dirt... ashes... (Essentially
a worthless thing that we vacuum up), and God is... what? I can't grasp it. HE
IS the "I AM". God knew we could not grasp Him, He Is
God.
But how does this dust creation treat
the I AM, God?
I remember I was watching Mr. and
Mrs. Ludy speak at our home school conference this passed
year. Mr. Eric Ludy talked about dethroning yourself, and
letting God take the throne. (He said it much better than that :-) But at
the time I was so blinded by my own pride that I didn't see how securely I was
chained to that seat of power. I was living in a world blind to all that was
around me. I thought I had given God the throne... I thought that I was one of
those "Real Christians" who had given in to His will. But really? I
used God; I needed to let God use me.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
said: "God is not a cosmic
bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done."
That is how I have treated God my
whole life... like a servant... like some magic wish-granter who is at my
disposal.
Isaiah 29:16 Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that
what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; or what is formed
say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
I
have been that dirt, that clay, that pot, meant to work for him, and yet I have
made him work for me. I, the dust, have thought of myself as so amazing in a sense, that I have thrown
off his kingship in my life, and made that throne very dusty, and my life the
whole time has had the label of “Furthering His Kingdom.” That is called hypocritical! How can you further his
kingdom while dethroning Him?
What has God’s response been to my
actions? God is eternal right? He had foresight to see what humans would do to
him, and yet He still created us. We mocked Him, spit on Him, dethroned Him and
yet, Jesus indwelled a created body so that he could serve us to the death.
We willfully turn from the path of God’s way and yet, The Holy Spirit is
willing to indwell us to become our helper. All for what? Why is God
this way? Why is God willing to serve me? Why did he die for me? Why did he
surround me with friends like all of you who are reading this? Why did is He
still willing to guide my every step?
… He. LOVES... He. Loves. me…dust…
What is love? How can I
comprehend what God has done for me? Why has he done it? Why has God done this
for dust? What is this love, and why has He shown it to me?
I will never be able to grasp the enormity
of this thing called "love" but how can I act with what I do know?
Girls, from child hood we dream of
our nights coming in shining armor. We dream of being swept off our feet onto
the shinning white steed. We dream of being rescued from all unhappiness
by our prince. From the time we very small,
we imagined being princess, and getting married to this
prince and living happily after. When we get older that dream evolves, but
I think that often as we get much older it disappears as a childish fantasy.
But is it just a fantasy, and why do we think that way? Why do we want a
rescuer? Why do we want to be married and live happily after? Why did God make
this a little girl’s desire?
Could it be that God put that dream
within us, because it will really happen someday? Couldn't God have made His
created beings with a specific longing for what only he could give? Love,
dependability, safety... We as girls want all of these, and yet we think that
they are childhood fantasies? What if God has been preparing us, since we were
playing dress-up, for the most amazing, spectacular, satisfying, romantic, and
beautiful love story of all time!
You were created... we sinned, were
condemned to death and trials and sadness. We were locked in a cell with an
evil captor, scared, sad, lonely, abandon, and condemned. We were alone
forgotten, worthy of death, in a just position, when... Along came the perfect
dashing night! His eyes shine with love for you. He gently lifts you out of
your cell, and took up your chains instead. He loved us so much that he took on
our captor in a one on one battle. He fought the evil enemy, and He
emerged from the dungeon victorious! He swept us up on His steed and carried us
off to his castle, and...
That is where we step into the
now. Right now, as teenagers and young women, we are in His castle
preparing for the greatest day yet... The marriage supper of the Lamb! The day we
will be united with our Savior, our Lover, our Knight. Your dream is not a
childish dream, it's not even figurative... it's real! Your knight may
have come over two thousand years ago, and you may not get married for another
few decades, but it still is REAL. This story really is happening!!!
We are in His castle, His presence, His creation, preparing ourselves. Daily
we are faced with a choice. We can
choose to go back to our captor, the Devil, in the dungeon, or we can accept
what our Prince did, and prepare for Him.
As girls we like to make ourselves
look good... right? We instinctively want to be a shining beauty. We want to
find some earthly prince and make ourselves look good in front of him. Often we
forget about our real prince in the castle, about that real wedding feast,
about the real joy ahead. We need to change our focus. There is a Prince out
there who is watching, who loves, who cares, and we need to try and look good
in front of Him. Our duty now is to make ourselves ready for isle. Really! Your duty is to get ready for
eternity. To turn Jesus' head, by mimicking the Love that He has
for us.
We can’t put earthly man in front of
Christ. Someday, when we are ready God will bring into our lives some man that
will prepare us for Christ. Our eyes must be one Christ, and someday He may
deem right that another man come into our lives who will point us ever towards
the real Prince.
NCFCA is probably one of the most
important parts of my life. It’s my social pool, my non-home part of school J. I have friends there like I have no where else. I have
learned so much from people there, I have been encouraged, but it is also a
challenge for me. There are times I find myself doing things for the wrong
motives, Rejecting, even subconsciously God’s leadership, dethroning Him,
forgetting my eternal Prince, forgetting that I am but dust.
NCFCA is my challenge. It is the
place I need to try the hardest to be dust, and remember dust’s lover. I
encourage you, as many of you get ready for this KC tournament, with speeches,
and debate cases, to also prepare another way. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE DUST. Remember
your lover.
So why does Christ want to marry the
church? Here is the answer: Love transforms us from dust.
Christ Loved us, and gave us the
ability to Love Him and others. Love transforms us from dust to a church. Only God by His unthinkable love can
transform us into His Princess! Only God’s love can give us the ability to
speak at a tournament J.
Only His love lets us live!!! His Love gives us the choice to follow Him. But
He is willing… to love this lump of dust. Love, turn God's head, and not the
world's. Let God work through you, don't try to work through God. GET OFF THE
THRONE! Really! He is the Prince after all. Accept His love in humility. Love
like Christ loved us. Empty yourself for Him, as He emptied all to save you.
Philippians 2:5-8 Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was
in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of
a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of
Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.
Mimic that Love. We are dust, dirt and
ashes, yet He considers us useful to serve his purpose. The only way to bring
ourselves out of dust is to love: to be empty. I have been compelled to consciously
change the whole way that I relate to God. I want to be God’s slave after what I have realized about God’s love
for me. After all, it’s either being a slave to my flesh, sin and the world, or
to the amazing, loving, beautiful God.
So what does it mean for us to Love God
and others?
1
Corinthians13:1-8, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do
not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If
I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And
if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be
burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is
patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not
arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its
own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does
not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love
never fails;"
Love is what makes us
useful to Him. Love created us, Love saved us, Love still helps us, and love is
now being offered to us. Take it; use it; share it. Love is part of God, God is
Love. Love is what brings us up from dust. Love is what we can use to prepare
for eternity. If we could Love we would be perfect... So Love! It will remind us that we are dust, it will delight our Prince.
Genesis 18:27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have
undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes…”
~ Kathryn
9 comments:
Mmh.... I think this is my favorite post we've ever had on the blog, thanks SO much, Kate! ♥
Something that stood out to me specifically was how, since we are dust, our own efforts are completely worthless. Something that God's been teaching me more directly this week is that I can't love on my own. I tried so hard.... I just made myself think the right thoughts, feel the right things, and say the right words. But, really, none of Christianity can be accomplished through anything in me. It's CHRIST in me... the hope of glory. It's not me loving.... it's Him loving in and through me. But it's so hard to grasp that idea of complete surrender! That I am absolutely NOTHING on my own.
PS - I'm glad to see our Dirt debate had some productive results. ;)
Thanks Hannah,
God so clearly sent the message that we are nothing, by making us out of dirt, and many of us, including myself, miss that entirely.
It seems so easy and yet I see how God only gave us that one thing, to Love, as our life's purpose! Will I ever master it???
PS - I found this post kind of ironic too ;-)
Thank you for this encouraging post Kate!
It is so wonderful that even though we are like specks of dust, Christ loved us so much that He died for us that we can become heirs with Him!
I will be praying for all of you competing this week as you use your words to show God's love to your audiences and judges with gentleness, respect, and humility.
Thank you, Veronica! We would appreciate your prayers. I will miss you!!!
BTW, what is your email address?
Kate, since this is a public blog and I can email you Veronica's address privately, just for extra security, so she doesn't start getting spam by mistake, if you want. :)
I think, though, that we should be careful about thinking of ourselves as nothing and dust. It's not necessarily bad, but if pushed too far it could be. As G.K. Chesterton said, orthodoxy is a perilous balance.
We don't want to fall into heresy like the Gnostics of the early Church who took this idea a little too far and started contending that the flesh is evil. We are created in the image of God and He has given us dominion and made us little less than Himself. (Ps 8) We are NOT worthless. God created us with an inherent worth and dignity that is part of human nature. Even original sin did not wipe that away.
We also don't want to fall into heresy like the Pelagians of the early Church who went too far in the other direction and started contending that man doesn't need God's grace in order to go to heaven. After all, our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor).
I'm not saying you're wrong...I'm just saying it's only one side of the story. And the Gospel is a brilliant paradox: justice and mercy, predestination and free will, God being one and three, Christ being man and God...we cannot reach the fullness of truth by only looking at one side of the story.
Hmm..... Ellen, I'm not sure I completely agree. On our own, we ARE worthless. "From dust I was made, and to dust I will return." We only have worth because of Him. And it's not something we deserve. It's not something we were entitled to, and it's not a right.
I think the idea of human dignity is a sticky one. I'm personally trying to embrace the idea that I don't have rights. God owns me, and I don't have an entitlement to anything. At the same time, though, others do. And I want to fight for that. I want to see myself as dirt, but others as jewels. And I can only serve them and love them to the fullest if I see myself in comparison with my God. I am nothing, but He is everything. And He loves the least. And you can only come to that moment, when you see you as absolutely nothing, Him as everything, that I can start looking at the world through His eyes, and actually get His view on how I need to approach "rights" and "dignity".
Anways, that's a little bit of a bunny trail, but it's been on my heart. :)
I think, Ellen, that you are partly right... and Hannah as well. We are nothing but dust, but since God created it, it isn't worthless. God is so big, that in comparison to Him we are dust... I think it's more of a ratio thing :-) We are nothing compared to God, and yet compared to each other we are equal and above creation. We are dust in relation to God's infinite holiness, and we are still greater than creation which we were created to rule over.
God - Humans - creation = Infinite holiness - living dust - plain old dead dust
:-)
And yet God can lift us higher than the angels if we grow through mimicking His character: Love = humility
well, we're debaters...maybe we should define our terms so we're not talking at cross purposes. ;)
to say that humans are worthless without God could (to me) mean one of two things.
1. Those who are "without God" in the sense that they are not Christians and do not follow Him or submit to Him are worthless. I think we can all agree that this is not the case. Those who are not Christians, from unborn babies to those to whom the Gospel has not reached, are not worthless any more than I am. I mean, that's why missions work is so important...because they are NOT worthless. (Also, I don't think you can think of yourself as worthless but others not, because you share a common humanity, so it's either one or the other.)
2. That if God did not exist, or He did not love us (in which case we would be "without God") we would be worthless. But I'm not sure we can even discuss this point. God DOES exist, and He DOES love us. If He didn't, we wouldn't be around to talk about it. ;) So whether we would be worthless or not in that hypothetical situation is kind of a moot point. We can't be "without God" in this sense, so what would happen if we were is irrelevant.
Yes, God is infinitely higher than man. (I liked what you said about this, Kate.) But, at the same time, this does NOT make us worthless.
Every single human being is created in the image and likeness of God, which gives them an inherent worth. Maybe He didn't need to create us to have intrinsic dignity, but He did. If that were taken away, we would not be fully human any more, because it is an essential component of human nature.
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