Someone told me they had stumbled on a great new discipline strategy for their children. When this person caught their child doing something wrong, the child was stopped. The parent would tell them, “That’s not who you are!”
In one sense, that’s true.
Is there such a thing as a monthly sin? Because I think I have one of those. Okay, maybe more often than just once a month.
One summer, my family wrangled our carry-ons from Uganda onto a plane bound for six months stateside.
I felt conflicted over this long break, as I tend to find my identity deeply in usefulness and purpose and work.
You’ve probably been there, like I have. You settle in for some time with God, but your brain feels more like a pinball machine.
I was brushing my teeth one night in my pyjamas, mulling over the day, when I had one of those moments–you know, where God tugs my chin upward and lets me peek in a bit to what He’s doing in these mundane days that slip by.
At Christmas, my heart can be going in about 167,856 directions at once. Packing! Advent with the kids! Decorating! Cookies!
I’m just not all there with God.
So, I’m pulling ideas together to help me (and hopefully you too) hone in on being “all there” this Christmas—starting with our audience of One.
So often I tend to think, “If I’m trusting God, leaning not on my own understanding, praying for wisdom, and all that excellent jazz—somehow, I will be shielded from failure.” And of course, there’s some truth in there.
But in that situation, I had to admit that like the Israelites rushing into battle with the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4), I was using God as a protective layer, a guarantee.
Most of us know how intimidating Christians can be, even for us Christians. As easily as “authentic” and “real” roll off the tongue, it’s another thing to actually engage on that level.
Yet honest relationships are in the spirit of what God extends to us.
I remember that summer vividly. I was headed into high school, and had just wrapped my hormone-charged little brain around Jesus’s servanthood, His death to self.
Now I see it all over the place.