Sunday, December 6, 2009

AHHHH!!!

As you may have discerned from the title of this post I've been pretty stressed out lately. I won't go into the details about my work except to say that I'm being expected to work a LOT more hours than I have in the past. This is in addition to some obligations I've taken on with my church and the normal problems of the Christmas Season. I think we all know what it feels like to get up in the morning and know that there isn't enough time in the day and then have that knowledge confirmed when you go to bed at night.

But I had an insight at church today that I want to share. I'll quickly sum up Jake Hendrix's sermon a bit later, but the insight that I believe God had for me was this:
There's still time to worship God.
I keep forgetting that the most important thing is not how much I get done - It's Who I'm doing it for. By worship, by the way, I don't mean just singing. I mean an attitude towards the world and its creator that allows God's Character to indwell my life. Even in the midst of 60 hour work weeks it's still possible to have this attitude. When I'm working late at work I can listen to sermons on my MP3 player. When I'm frustrated and can't get it all done I can offer up a quick prayer. It's possible to have the proper attitude of a creature before the Creator wherever I am.

The reason this is possible is because of Christ, which gets me to the message I heard today. And just in case this sounds like just another sermon please know that I was brought to tears today thinking about this. The message was on the incarnation - the doctrinal belief that God became Man in the form of Jesus. God becoming one of us so that we can become one with him. God became vulnerable to us, came as a little baby, so that he could be with us. Emmanuel, which means The God who is with us has come into the world (Matthew 1:23) And he'll be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

One quick picture from the message and I'll be done. Think about the deepest, darkest, time in your life. How comforting is it to hear platitudes of "It'll all be all right"? Contrast that with the comfort of someone just Being with you throughout it. I don't know that it will "all be all right" with my job and other responsibilities. But I do know that I'm already all right with God - that he is with me throughout.

Merry Christmas

2 comments:

Heather said...

I think Colossians 3.23 is in the same vein.. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.
I hope you find peace in surprising ways this season.
See you soon!

Joel A. Shaver said...

Yeah!

I have been thinking recently about the complete humanity of Jesus, too, and how he was at the same time perfect and strong. God, as a human, strong, and totally on our team! I like the verse from 'A Mighty Fortress':

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.