Procrastination

I have been doing everything in my power in order to procrastinate for my THREE exams that are coming up this week. I have baked, I have watched football, I have watched movies, I have played the piano, I have spent time with friends. I have done so many things to avoid studying and I am now doing another one. Yes I should probably be reading about Karl Marx or Max Weber or Russian alcoholism, but true to nature, I will put it all off until the last minute. In doing this I just spent some much needed, quality time on the piano in our living room. I sit here now with happiness even with an epic disaster of a week looming over me. There are a few reasons why-and you know I'm about to tell you so just get ready.

Tonight I went to a worship night that the BCM Impact Band led (and they did a fabulous job by the way). It was an amazing night spent just worshipping and drawing near to the Lord and in return having Him draw near to me. And as I spent time worshipping, the Lord placed on my mind several thoughts. The first was how blessed we are to have a God that draws near to us, that IS with us, that dwells among us. Sometimes I think we unconsciously take for granted the thought that we have a LIVING God. One that is active in our lives-even in the smallest things. I heard a message last Sunday that was centered around 1 Samuel 9 and how God is a God of details. In this chapter, Saul has left to go find his father's lost donkeys. Now this may seem pointless, weird, ordinary whatever but just think about. At the end of this journey, Saul runs into Samuel who knows that THIS is the man that the Lord has appointed to become the leader of Israel. Just one big coincidence right. Yeah no. The question that the man giving this message asked that really resonated with me was this-"Who let the donkeys out anyway?". And think about it. The donkeys had to run at the PERFECT speed to avoid Saul catching them, they had to run a particular route so that Saul would end up in the right city, and I don't know about you, but I don't think that donkeys would be smart enough to orchestrate all of that. Even we as humans, who think critically and sometimes logically, would not be able to plan out everything so perfectly to end with the exact results that we want-something would go wrong even if it was just that one of the donkeys left a trail making it easier for Saul to find them. So after hearing this message and then the Lord's whispers in worship tonight, I was left with the thought, who are we that the God of creation would be so involved in our lives to distinctly plan out each detail that all together point us to a greater purpose. Sheesh-(mind blown). It's amazing to know, truly know, that we serve a God who responds, who cares, who loves us, but above all who is sovereign and just. Not just an idol. Not something that can't reciprocate all of the love that we have, but we serve a God who GIVES us this love. 1 John tells us that we love because God is love and if we don't know the Lord then we don't know love and vice versa. We love God because He loves us. We serve God because Christ served us. We don't serve a man who was a great teacher, we don't serve someone that was well known and loved because he never offended anyone. We serve a God who is just and right and through everything wants His name to be glorified and has chosen US to help do that. (Mind blown again). 

My second thought came as a friend of mine was speaking. He was talking about heaven and how it will be a completely different place. That there will be no notion of sickness, no pain, no heartaches, or sufferings. I had a talk with another friend about this later and my mind was stuck on the thought of no sickness or pain but there will be no sin or temptation either. There will just be unhindered joy. Our lives will finally be made complete in seeing and truly knowing the Father. The thought that keeps running circles around my pea sized brain is that there will be no pain, temptation or sin because our minds won't be there. In this time the flesh will be defeated and we will be living eternity out with our Father who has been faithful and gracious to us, healing our hearts and redeeming us from lives of brokenness that we could not redeem ourselves from. The things of this world that we put so much stock into, and I am honestly the worst one, will not matter in comparison to spending eternity with the God who CREATED US and not just us, but universes. 

I mentioned playing the piano earlier and I mentioned it because I want to put some lyrics to some old hymns in here. I love hymns. Sometimes though, the words are so worn that we don't stop and think about them. So I just want to write them here in hopes that they come across in a new way to you. 

1. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
   A wondrous beauty I see,
   For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
   To pardon and sanctify me.
2. To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
   Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
   Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
   Where His glory forever I’ll share.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! 
 My sin, not in part but the whole, 
 is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, 
 praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! 

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, 
 the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; 
 the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, 
 even so, it is well with my soul. 

When Christ shall come,
With shouts of acclamation,
And take me home,
What joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
"My God, how great Thou art!" 


Now I want to share a passage of scripture that is so exciting and meaningful to me. It comes from Ephesians and I think that this scripture really sums up God's grace towards us. 


"In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God's anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people. BUT God's mercy is great, and He loved us very much. Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, He gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace. And He raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with Him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of His grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus. I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves: it was a gift from God. It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it. God has made us what we are in Christ Jesus. God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." 
Ephesians 2:1-10