Wednesday, January 14, 2009

You Show Me Yours...I'll Show You Mine

When I was six I actually played this game with a little boy in the neighborhood. It was his idea. I agreed and told him to go first, which he did, and then when it was my turn, I turned and ran all the way home. Moral of the story...never go first when a very smart six-year-old girl is involved.

I do have a point.

I think few of us realize how very little in our lives is ours to show. Obviously (see example above) our bodies are ours but even those we don't get to keep forever and frankly, the older I get the more thankful I am for that reality. I digress. We all have what we consider to be ours; jobs, hopes and dreams, relationships, ministries. And when something or someone interferes with these things, we become possessed by huge demons and we manifest all over the place. Okay, not really. But we are all territorial to some degree and when our expectations are disappointed, we find it impossible to believe it might possibly just be the hand of God at work. Every single thing we accomplish or hope to accomplish is His. What right do we really have to force God's hand? Disappointments are often His leadership in our lives and , when embraced, can become the pathway to the "exceedingly, abundantly above all you can think or ask." (Eph 3:20) But the death of that "thing" that you worked so hard for or that you still believe can happen often results in the death of other things as well. Like your flesh. And the pride you have in that "thing". That "thing" is really not yours to show. It has always been His. Letting go is the right thing to do. And it is the hardest thing to do.

2 comments:

Unknown January 14, 2009 at 10:36 PM  

Ummm, are you talking to me?

Beth Brawley Taylor January 15, 2009 at 9:30 AM  

Actually, I am talking to me. You just get to overhear it. :)