Vander's Thoughts

Vander's Thoughts

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Wrecked

We have all been in traffic caused by an accident. I’m not sure what compels us to slow down and look, but there is something within us that is drawn to the affects of a wreck. We slow down to see the damage done to both car and person and maybe even try to make sense of how it occurred in the first place. Wrecks cause pain, wrecks ruin lives, and wrecks make traffic happen. Even though there is nothing good about a wreck, sometimes seeing a wreck is actually a good thing if it causes us to drive more cautious and attentive.

This past week I was in a wreck. It wasn’t a car wreck that caused any physical damage, but it was a heart wreck that caused me to slow down and look at myself and it actually was a good thing.

I’ll spare you the details, but something happened that got me incredibly angry at a guy who offended my son Chad. I had every right to be angry, but the problem was my anger turned into disgust for this guy, so much that I found myself fantasizing about putting him in his place, embarrassing him in front of his friends and making him apologize to Chad while serving me lemonade. Okay not really about the lemonade part, but its funny how our minds work when we start imagining things. In the midst of dreaming of how I would wreck this guy’s life, God was preparing to wreck my heart.

About two days later, Amber asked when I was going to forget about it and move on. As I was answering her that I was justified in my anger, God reminded me that He was angry too, not at this guy, but that I wasn’t showing this guy real love, a love based on compassion and mercy. And that’s when my heart got into a head on collision with God’s heart. I was headed in a completely different direction and I got spiritually wrecked. It was painful, but a good kind of pain that got my attention and reminded me of what compassion and mercy really look like.

The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. - 1 John 4:8-10 (The Message)

I’m so glad that God rescued me from my wrecked life by sending His Son to die for me and I’m glad that He continually wrecks my heart to show me how He intends to use me to show others His love.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Wrestling

I’ve never been a big fan of wrestling, maybe because I just don’t get it. Two people engaged in a struggle to overpower the other and get them to a point of immobility or submission. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good fight and seeing two guys engaged in conflict is quite entertaining, but wrestling is different. In fighting there is a clear outcome and you see the evidence of the fight, but in wrestling it’s not so obvious. After a wrestling match, if you didn’t see the match, you may not be able to determine the victor over the defeated.

Honestly there are times in my life when I feel the same way. I often wrestle over issues or causes or convictions that I’m not sure what winning or loosing looks like. I often see some type of injustice in the world or in my life and when I don’t I have a sense of exactly what to do, I feel like I’m wrestling myself. There are times when I think know what I should do, but I fail to do something about it and it feels like I’m loosing. Then there are times when I don’t know what to do and it causes me to react and I get a sense that I’m winning. What I am beginning to realize is that it’s time to stop wrestling and start fighting.

Is it time to pick a fight in your life with something besides yourself? When was the last time you stood up for injustice by refusing to buy something? Or spook up for someone who couldn’t by writing a letter? Or run in a cause just because you could? Or supported an organization that’s helping people put there lives back together? I don’t care what you fight for just stop wrestling over what to do and just pick a cause and fight for it.

God fought for us so that we could fight for His causes. He calls us into conflict with the world, not ourselves.

Jude 1:3 - I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.