It's taken me a little longer to finally post this so I apologize.. Here it FINALLY is...The last so many months lots has happened! Good bad and ugly. (Little movie reference there). Last year when I started writing this blog I was making some big changes in my life, trying to make the move from a mediocre life to a life with true purpose and fulfillment. How you may ask could one make such changes? Well that's a really big and crazy question that I don't think I can answer while writing this blog, just trying to be honest. But I will attempt to throw it at you in a somewhat honest way.
Here goes something....
I kind of want to be willing to die for something....... hmmm. That just kinda came out.. I read it back and it's kind of scary too.. Do I mean it? Maybe? Whether I would actually do it or not is a different story but I think, or feel, that to live with true purpose a person must have that... A purpose to live, something to fight for... A true challenge on your life itself...
How does being willing to die for something have anything to do with that?
I want to be so devoted to something that it means more than life itself.. Ever seen the movie Braveheart? It's an awesome movie, it also touches on this subject, Mel Gibson playing William Wallace is quoted saying, "Every man dies, not every man really lives." So to die is inevitable right? We all die.. It's not really that scary, what is scary is dieing with out ever really living.. Your life is your one chance to impact the world. So don't be afraid of dying, be afraid of not living.
If you have seen Braveheart (spoiler here) you know that William Wallace dies at the end but he dies knowing that he has fought for the freedom of his people. He was willing to die to obtain that goal because it was so important! I'm not saying I want to be a martyr either or that we should want that. I want to live, but I know there are some things that may be more important than life itself... A bigger picture that I affect but that has nothing to do with me.
I started a house church, okay so that's something I want to write a blog about and start sharing more, right now though I just wanted to say that we were talking about faith today and Corrie Ten Boom came up. She wrote a book called the hiding place and was a holocaust survivor. The book is amazing and in it she talks about her sister Betsie. Her sister is such an amazing example of faith. Faith in God. I want to post a video of Corrie Ten Boom for people to listen to because it is sooo inspiring..
The amazing thing about Betsie is that she fully trusted God. She had faith. She was suffering in a concentration camp and eventually would die there, but her purpose did not end with her death. We were talking today about how she must have had no idea that a guy named Joel Thompson in Fredericton NB would have had his life changed by her story. Not to mention the millions of others who could say the same. So that's what I'm talking about when I say a bigger picture. I really recommend you read the hiding place. The stories of Betsie's faith will shake you up!
a little quote from Corrie Ten Boom on faith..
"Faith is like radar that sees through the fog-the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see."
Okay so back to life with purpose through faith...
Ever seen a donkey following a carrot? In order to get the donkey to go forward it is tempted with something it wants right in front of it. Unfortunately no matter how much the donkey walks it won't end up getting the carrot.. It just walks and walks and walks. It could be walking by a bunch of carrots but the one right in front of it has it so focused it misses so many things. It blinds it to what may be all around it. What it may really need.
hmmmmm..
I think in some ways many of us end up living lives just like this donkey. With out true purpose, we are so caught up chasing things, trying to obtain the things that are easy, right in front of us but things that may never be fulfilling (Money, power, social status, job status, carrots. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, STOP CHASING THE CARROT!! Challenge yourself to pursue something that means everything to you. Something more risky than chasing a carrot. Then have faith because you're gonna need it!
It can be scary to stop chasing the carrot because then we start seeing everything in front of us, to the sides of us. It can be overwhelming. We don't see the carrot so we don't see there is immediate gratification. That's where faith comes in..
Hebrews 11:1 says;
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Do not see? But confidence, hope and assurance.. We may not always see right in front of us exactly what we think we need and want but with faith we can be assured that God is providing those things. We can trust and be at peace, have confidence that if we need a carrot God will give it to us.. Not just dangle it in front of us at a safe distance to keep us moving. We choose to move on our own and have faith God will provide..
Okay so I think some of this has made a little sense.. I'm going to call my blogs free thought blogs lol.. I don't pre plan any of this just write whats on my mind..
So with someone like Betsie Ten Boom if she just focused on what was right in front of her she might have thought, oh no I could die here, my life could end. If she had done that she would have been so down about her situation she wouldn't have said all of the amazing things that inspired Corrie which then ended up in the book which then changed so many lives.. But she had something bigger than life to focus on, a trust in a God who had a plan. A purpose that has continued on long after her death. Imagine if we all had her faith.. Faith to not just take the safe path, to stay joyful when our lives may not be going as planned, to truly live despite our circumstance. I guess that's what I want and I know it's a journey that takes a relationship with God. A God bigger than death. To have faith in a purpose that is his so it too, will live on after I'm gone.
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