Dropping the Mask (of Organization, Perfectionism, Minimalism, etc.)
If you know me well, you know that I tend to be hyper-organized, somewhat of a perfectionist, and newly borderline minimalist. While these are not necessarily bad traits to have, they most definitely have a tendency to become like overgrown weeds in a garden and take the life and beauty out of their entire surroundings. (Cue: The Lion King where Mufasa tells Simba, "Everything the light touches is yours." Yup, that's the far-reaching extent of these positive-traits-potentially-gone-wrong.)
Add on top of those factors the fact that I'm an optimist through-and-through, and you easily have a recipe for disaster that is never fully recognized or remedied. What really stopped me in my tracks and made me start thinking about the issue of these so-called "positive traits" in my life actually holding me back spiritually was a simple phrase my pastor said a few weeks ago. (At first, it may not sound at all related, but bare with me for a moment.) He said, "Jesus gives us eternal life AND abundant life right now."
(I know, I know, it doesn't sound related at all...)
Let's back up a moment to gain some context on all this:
Now, I don't know about you, but with my upbringing, I definitely understood at a young age that Jesus died to give me eternal life. Thankfully, I was raised in a loving Christian home, a Christian school, and a Southern Baptist church that all readily taught and reinforced in me that concept from a young age. However, though the part about Jesus giving us eternal life was "old hat" to me, the part that really stuck with me from my pastor's quote a few weeks ago was the "Jesus gives us abundant life right now" part. Somehow, along the weekly shuffle from Bible class at school to Sunday school all throughout my childhood, I severely missed the parts of Jesus longing for a daily, personal relationship with me. Or maybe I heard it, but I didn't understand exactly what that meant. Or didn't know exactly how to apply it. In all honesty, at school, I oftentimes was verbally given check-listed things that a "good Christian little girl" would and should do; discussions about the Holy Spirit's existence (let-alone-His-workings-in-my-life) were skimpy, sketchy, or exempted altogether; and man-made attempts at perfectionism and humanistic moralism soon filled in the gaps to take His rightful place. {Later in my young adult life and college years, I experienced a very difficult time that God used as an opportunity to introduce me to John 10:10b... "I am come that you might have life and that you may have it more abundantly."}
But, if you fast forward to today and the same problem still remains.
In fact, in my many years working of with children in various settings (church, school, etc.) since my own childhood, I've listened carefully and often experienced the same speech (and it oftentimes goes something like this...) "Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose the third day, so you could go to Heaven and spend eternity with Him. He loves you so much that He doesn't want to spend eternity without you."
Though this sounds good and right and fair at first listen, it's not all-the-way-accurate. And in my opinion, if you're not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth (so help you, God), then you're not being upfront and honest. With anyone. At all.
In other words, I would like to enter my commentary-of-thoughts (when I hear someone presenting the Gospel to kids in this way):
"Woah. Woah. Woah. Nope. Please stop right there. You're missing the actual point of salvation altogether. Back up, and let's try that again."
Yes, Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins.
Yes, Jesus rose again on the third day.
Yes, Jesus does love us very much.
And yes, Jesus doesn't want to spend eternity separate from us.
So, what's the problem with that (you may be asking)?
Jesus didn't die on the cross for our sins so we could go to Heaven and spend eternity with Him. That's a by-product of His grace. A light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. A reward that follows a life of righteousness hidden in and built upon the life of Christ and transformed by yielding to the divine work of the Holy Spirit.
-BUT-
He died so we could be transformed by daily walking and talking with Him. Completely die to our old life. And live a new life with full dependence upon His Holy Spirit. In other words, John 10:10b says it best as Jesus speaks in His own words, "I am come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly."
If that's true (and it is!), then I oftentimes wonder and ask myself these very difficult-yet-very-honest questions:
Why is my prayer life stale sometimes?
Why does my Bible reading become so check-listed and routine?
Why do I sometimes read my Bible to merely escape the guilt that accompanies not reading it, as opposed to reading it for the sake of adoring and loving the Author of it?
Why does my Bible memorization gravitate towards well-familiar verses and passes I learned in grade school?
Why is it so difficult to tell my neighbors about Jesus, the biggest change agent in my life?
What-in-the-world is soooo "important" that it keeps me continually busy-and-preoccupied-away from growing daily in my relationship with Jesus?
And those are just a few thoughts and questions to get the honesty-snowball rolling. (I'm sure each of you could add some of your own soul-searching-questions-of-honesty in there as well.)
Perhaps, it's because I have allowed all of these humanly perceived "positive traits" in my life to take precedence over the truly important traits, the traits that breed spiritual abundance.
With all said, as I continue to "grow up," I'm growing in my spiritual life, learning how to apply these things practically, and teach them accurately as I prepare to have children of my own one day (in approx. 78 days, actually).
To recap and attempt to bring everything full circle: My attempts at organization, perfectionism, and minimalism are not bad traits, but they have a tendency to become highly-and-addictively sinful when my aim and focus becomes fixated upon using those traits and means to achieve/overachieve on man-made standards or impress people by following man-made rules. In essence, those traits (or any others for that matter) are exactly what have the tendency to crowd out the Holy Spirits' work in our lives and morph it into a task far-more-difficult and a work completely of our own making, instead of the beautiful love relationship chalk full of abundant life that it was originally intended to be.
Quite frankly: check-listed Christianity is a tightrope to walk, and I'm weary of living in light of the fear of the fall. The mask of hiding behind all my best-laid plans and human-made attempts has been dropped (and hopefully, shattered). So, with freed hands, a peaceful mind, and a freed heart, I can now honestly live out the old church song that goes, "I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in His arms. I will arise and go to Jesus.... in His arms are 10,000 charms."
Don't miss out on 10,000 charms, simply because your hands are full of masks of your own making. No matter how "positive" some things in your life may seem, appear, or be labeled as innocent, take some time to do a soul-searching inventory. Spend some alone time with Jesus, and allow His Holy Spirit to give you abundant life right now, starting today.
Yes, it's true that Jesus loves you so much that He doesn't want to spend eternity without you. But guess what? Your "eternity" includes right now.
Drop the mask (of whatever it is) you're currently holding onto. Embrace the abundant life He died to give you.
Add on top of those factors the fact that I'm an optimist through-and-through, and you easily have a recipe for disaster that is never fully recognized or remedied. What really stopped me in my tracks and made me start thinking about the issue of these so-called "positive traits" in my life actually holding me back spiritually was a simple phrase my pastor said a few weeks ago. (At first, it may not sound at all related, but bare with me for a moment.) He said, "Jesus gives us eternal life AND abundant life right now."
(I know, I know, it doesn't sound related at all...)
Let's back up a moment to gain some context on all this:
Now, I don't know about you, but with my upbringing, I definitely understood at a young age that Jesus died to give me eternal life. Thankfully, I was raised in a loving Christian home, a Christian school, and a Southern Baptist church that all readily taught and reinforced in me that concept from a young age. However, though the part about Jesus giving us eternal life was "old hat" to me, the part that really stuck with me from my pastor's quote a few weeks ago was the "Jesus gives us abundant life right now" part. Somehow, along the weekly shuffle from Bible class at school to Sunday school all throughout my childhood, I severely missed the parts of Jesus longing for a daily, personal relationship with me. Or maybe I heard it, but I didn't understand exactly what that meant. Or didn't know exactly how to apply it. In all honesty, at school, I oftentimes was verbally given check-listed things that a "good Christian little girl" would and should do; discussions about the Holy Spirit's existence (let-alone-His-workings-in-my-life) were skimpy, sketchy, or exempted altogether; and man-made attempts at perfectionism and humanistic moralism soon filled in the gaps to take His rightful place. {Later in my young adult life and college years, I experienced a very difficult time that God used as an opportunity to introduce me to John 10:10b... "I am come that you might have life and that you may have it more abundantly."}
But, if you fast forward to today and the same problem still remains.
In fact, in my many years working of with children in various settings (church, school, etc.) since my own childhood, I've listened carefully and often experienced the same speech (and it oftentimes goes something like this...) "Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose the third day, so you could go to Heaven and spend eternity with Him. He loves you so much that He doesn't want to spend eternity without you."
Though this sounds good and right and fair at first listen, it's not all-the-way-accurate. And in my opinion, if you're not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth (so help you, God), then you're not being upfront and honest. With anyone. At all.
In other words, I would like to enter my commentary-of-thoughts (when I hear someone presenting the Gospel to kids in this way):
"Woah. Woah. Woah. Nope. Please stop right there. You're missing the actual point of salvation altogether. Back up, and let's try that again."
Yes, Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins.
Yes, Jesus rose again on the third day.
Yes, Jesus does love us very much.
And yes, Jesus doesn't want to spend eternity separate from us.
So, what's the problem with that (you may be asking)?
Jesus didn't die on the cross for our sins so we could go to Heaven and spend eternity with Him. That's a by-product of His grace. A light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. A reward that follows a life of righteousness hidden in and built upon the life of Christ and transformed by yielding to the divine work of the Holy Spirit.
-BUT-
He died so we could be transformed by daily walking and talking with Him. Completely die to our old life. And live a new life with full dependence upon His Holy Spirit. In other words, John 10:10b says it best as Jesus speaks in His own words, "I am come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly."
If that's true (and it is!), then I oftentimes wonder and ask myself these very difficult-yet-very-honest questions:
Why is my prayer life stale sometimes?
Why does my Bible reading become so check-listed and routine?
Why do I sometimes read my Bible to merely escape the guilt that accompanies not reading it, as opposed to reading it for the sake of adoring and loving the Author of it?
Why does my Bible memorization gravitate towards well-familiar verses and passes I learned in grade school?
Why is it so difficult to tell my neighbors about Jesus, the biggest change agent in my life?
What-in-the-world is soooo "important" that it keeps me continually busy-and-preoccupied-away from growing daily in my relationship with Jesus?
And those are just a few thoughts and questions to get the honesty-snowball rolling. (I'm sure each of you could add some of your own soul-searching-questions-of-honesty in there as well.)
Perhaps, it's because I have allowed all of these humanly perceived "positive traits" in my life to take precedence over the truly important traits, the traits that breed spiritual abundance.
With all said, as I continue to "grow up," I'm growing in my spiritual life, learning how to apply these things practically, and teach them accurately as I prepare to have children of my own one day (in approx. 78 days, actually).
To recap and attempt to bring everything full circle: My attempts at organization, perfectionism, and minimalism are not bad traits, but they have a tendency to become highly-and-addictively sinful when my aim and focus becomes fixated upon using those traits and means to achieve/overachieve on man-made standards or impress people by following man-made rules. In essence, those traits (or any others for that matter) are exactly what have the tendency to crowd out the Holy Spirits' work in our lives and morph it into a task far-more-difficult and a work completely of our own making, instead of the beautiful love relationship chalk full of abundant life that it was originally intended to be.
Quite frankly: check-listed Christianity is a tightrope to walk, and I'm weary of living in light of the fear of the fall. The mask of hiding behind all my best-laid plans and human-made attempts has been dropped (and hopefully, shattered). So, with freed hands, a peaceful mind, and a freed heart, I can now honestly live out the old church song that goes, "I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in His arms. I will arise and go to Jesus.... in His arms are 10,000 charms."
Don't miss out on 10,000 charms, simply because your hands are full of masks of your own making. No matter how "positive" some things in your life may seem, appear, or be labeled as innocent, take some time to do a soul-searching inventory. Spend some alone time with Jesus, and allow His Holy Spirit to give you abundant life right now, starting today.
Yes, it's true that Jesus loves you so much that He doesn't want to spend eternity without you. But guess what? Your "eternity" includes right now.
Drop the mask (of whatever it is) you're currently holding onto. Embrace the abundant life He died to give you.
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