Seek Week, Friday

Today's Good Friday service was amazing (as always) & very powerful. Every year they give out slips of paper & pens so you can write down things you want to be free from, then you nail them to a cross. For those of you who have never done this, or have never even heard of this, it symbolizes your sin & your old self dying on the cross with Christ. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." -- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (emphasis added). We are now new people because of this most loving act & are no longer slaves to sin. Sometimes, though, we still live as though we are in bondage.

On my little piece of paper I wrote a note to the LORD about, of course, my anger. I wept as I wrote & couldn't control the rush of emotion that came over me. I pretty much wrote on the piece of paper what I wrote in my blog last night. I kept trying to not cry, but the harder I fought, the more I cried. I hate myself because of my anger & I am ashamed of how I treat people -- especially my own family. First John 4:7-12 says:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

That's a painful passage for me to read. "Whoever does not love does not know God." My heart is broken tonight.

READ
Mark 15:1-41

REFLECT
When the story of our lives is shaped by an egocentricity that seeks to establish & prove itself to the world, our decisions are made based on what is going to make us look best to those who happen to be around. In this story we have no real center, so we continuously have to protect the circumference of our lives.... leaving us exhausted, unfulfilled, & restless.

In Jesus, we find the greatest expression of what life looks like when it allows itself to be shaped by the story as opposed to our own selfish desires. When Jesus was mocked, ridiculed, falsely accused & beaten, Pilate was shocked that He did not defend Himself. Jesus knew what was happening was unjust, but from a vantage point that was able to see the panoramic view of God's story unfolding, He was able to absorb the moment of injustice & death because He saw & trusted in the life & resurrection that were to come.

PRAY
Ask God how you have made your life the point of the story. Ask God for a new perspective, one that views each moment of your life as part of God's larger redemptive story. Ask Him that this perspective would transform the way you live.

I'm a pretty self-centered person, so how have I NOT made my life the point of the Story? I need to be taken down a couple notches. Humbled. I really should get involved in serving again. I need to be reminded regularly that it's not all about me. I need to give myself away.