Today marks the end of a week long fast for many students at Judson College. Congrats to everyone who participated in this. During a fast we take something ungodly out of our day, week, or month that we lust or yearn for. I challenge everyone to stop and take a deeper look at this from a life perspective. Regardless of whether or not you participated in the week long fast, stop for a moment right now and think about everything that is driving and influencing your life apart from God.
What things are you holding on to? What is idolling your life away? What past or present experiences are you unwilling to let go of in your life. What truths do you know, but not want to admit? Who are you mad at or unwilling to forgive? What sin, what guilt is still heavy on your heart? What pain are you unwilling to cease dwelling upon?
Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, spoke at the iMAGO film festival and I really liked what he had to say. I was really moved by what he had to say about his life in particular because it rings so true with my ideals: when you let go “your dreams will become God’s dreams”
Letting go is what it is all about. Unfortunately (though fortunately in the long run), for most of us, truly letting go first requires really loosing something big. We lead these mundane, but seemingly happy lives, all the while not noticing how distant we truly our from God.
Even a man like Phil Vischer – a man who brought Christianity into many homes through the Veggie Tales characters of Larry, Bob, and others – ended up slipping away despite his seeming success.
Happiness is when you can give up everything that you are holding on to and just praise God. Through the Holy Spirit we are filled with joy, a joy that comes through praising God and putting ourselves to work for others.
Loosing everything is ultimately what restored Phil Vischer’s life. Suddenly, a man at the forefront of a booming, popular media craze – who became wrapped up in his desires and dreams instead of the Lord’s – found himself wrongly convicted in a court trial and the head of a now bankrupt company.
You know when it seems like everything bad that could happen to you does… and all at once? Well, pay attention, because the term coincidence is often little more than an atheistic word used to brush away the works of God. How ironic that those challenging things, those things that can never be adequately explained away, when they appear… suddenly the word coincidence becomes a justified, scientific term – a rational non-explanation in a modernistic society with a hard driven purpose to explain and prove without doubt every little unimportant question in life.
For Phil Vischer, like people everywhere, going through this time of trial was a wake up call that brought him much more in line with God’s purpose and filled him with a happiness and love much greater than that which he had previously known.
Let go of your life. Allow God to take control. Desire to live for God and share his love with others. Listen to what he tells you and look for his comforting hand when you are struggling – through nature, friends, dreams however he shows it to you.
As you allow yourself to focus more and more on God and allow yourself to stop managing and randomly using up time in your life, you will find an amazingly strong, lasting love and happiness that comes only through Christ.
I walked slowly down the concrete sidewalk. Oh the night air - it is so cold. I cross my arms in front of me trying to keep in the warmth. Hunched over slightly as I walk, my cold back grows ever more stiff. Cars whiz by me to my left, nothing between the sidewalk and the road and brick buildings to my other side pressing me ever closer to the road. Yet still, I feel an eerie silence. I look down. The street light above casts a cool bluish light. It draws a harsh shadow on the concrete in front of me. Barred windows trim off the buildings. Passersby walk along with firm faces looking so gazingly forward down at the path in front of them that they almost loose a sense of life. But I lift my head. I look at their faces; what I can see of them…
I take in the air and let out a deep, slow breath that seems to ride upon it, fading but never ending. So damp here. So cold. Potholed streets. Littered alleys. Glowing, yet lifeless signs hanging above struggling businesses with locked doors. Then I breathe in again – drawing in the souls of those walking by me with heads down. Oh how I see them. How wonderful. How drawn in your image, Lord. But so many, how so lost. Let me breathe out again, but this time let your love ride on the warmth of the air. Let your life light the streets. Let your image clean the litter. Let your spirit lift laden heads. Use me for your purpose. Use me to bring your word of life - to them.
I am a shameful man. A sinner beyond reproach. And you have saved me. You have filled me with a love soooooo amazingly strong. Rays of love break through my soul and body like pins, exploding beams of light, dancing out from within me. My head leans back, my arms down yet in my mind outstretched as wide in praise. I close my eyes. A love so strong I grow ever more weary, literally my body aches from joy. I return it all to you. Give it to others too. Let me share it with others. Let me scour the world for them. I have something to share. I have found a path in my life. It comes through Jesus Christ. I have found purpose and joy beyond earthly justification. It is in the Holy Spirit. Lord use me! Give Me Words! Fill My Spirit! Let me do your will! Let me pour out your love! Lord, I come to you now. Turn my ways and guide me. Give me direction. Let me turn my life to you. Oh Lord, I LOVE you with all my heart. I LOVE you. Use me now! Use me for your will!
There's a certain passion that comes with living as a Christian; it is a burning praise. It doesn't require words, it doesn't require actions, it doesn't require going to church every Sunday, it doesn't require amounts of bible time, it doesn't require "x" acts of charity. It bends the norms of expected behavior, it twists the rules of expected grammar, it shatters the rules of expected priorities. All it takes is the giving of love to God through Christ and the Holy Spirit, whether things are rough or things are wonderful. Everything should be built around how much time we spend loving God and those around us (Matthew 22:37-40). When we make this our priority, our passion will overtake our laziness, our fears, our doubts, our bitterness, and our anger. Some people lecture about the need for discipline, but having discipline is not the issue; the issue is where we focus our discipline. The first place we need to be disciplined is with our love. A man or woman disciplined in loving the Lord and those around them will have far more than a man or woman who goes to church every Sunday, reads the Bible every day, and gives away all their money, but does nothing out of love. These are all good things, but without love, they are severely lacking - rather even "nothing" in the words of Paul. Yes those elements will be present in a Godly individual's life and in fact be a vital part of sustaining it, but as we grow our love and devotion to God, our requirements become our passions.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 1-3).
So I implore you with this; where is your focus? In what areas in your own life, your ministry, your church, or beyond has your focus been on the fruits and not on the vine? Are you growing fruit or are you growing branches? A small tree overburdened with fruit with eventually will lose its limbs in a storm, but a large tree with strong branches will bear a great weight and still remain.
