Why is obedience and submission so important to God, anyway? Ever wonder how the same God who talks about freedom can place such heavy emphasis on obedience also? It can feel contrary. Which one is it?
It’s because without obedience to a perfect God, there is never true freedom. See, there’s always someone in charge. It’s either us, our desires, or the people around us and theirs. All of us, fallen and imperfect, even when we’re trying to be otherwise.
Look around. Most of the mess exist in the world or even in our own lives because of some man’s decisions, some person’s expression of free will and choice, which created some type of consequence. Intended or otherwise, they set in motion a chain of events.
Why does man make a horrible leader? Because they often tell you or lead you ultimately to what works best for them. Maybe you too, but often them as well. It’s hard for man to leave himself out of the equation, even just a little. It’s not even necessarily BAD. It’s just a part of human nature to be self-seeking and self-caring. It’s a nature of survival, probably.
Is that really true servant leadership? Does that even exist? It might be hard to find, but it’s supposed to be the goal. “Those who wish to be greatest among you must be servant of all.” It’s very counter intuitive. Counter culture at its core. Even if you find that it’s attempted, there are failures. There probably always will be.
What’s so different about God? He works things out for his good pleasure to. But His pleasure is exactly that: good. It’s good to the core, as good as He is, which is perfect. We can’t imagine, we can’t seem to wrap our hearts around it. But as Bob Sorge says, “if I believe any of it is true I must believe all of it is.”
It’s not that there won’t be good counsel or wise advice. Hopefully there will be plenty of it. But at the core it is not perfect, completely impartial nor accurate. Which is exactly why God values obedience to Himself first and foremost. Because He is Good. He can’t be manipulated or controlled, nor does He seek to control us.
No matter what lies you may have been told or shown by those who try to follow Him, He is not a set of rules and regulations and requirements. He is Good and He is Love. He has given us free will, and so much room to roam, and to run.
Last fall I was standing at the edge of a great lake, praying. I was praying for our nation, for our world, for people. Praying for God’s mercy and Love to win, for God to protect us and lead us, for God’s purposes to come about. I felt His presence, and felt so much Love. Then I noticed a sign there by the edge of the overlook. It was a warning, yellow stick figure sign, and the poor soul was falling down the cliff. It struck me to my core. Behind me was so much room. Acres and acres and rolling hills and grass, fields and trails to roam and explore. Picnic tables, benches, places for people to enjoy, playgrounds to climb. Just don’t go over the edge.
That is like the request of obedience that God gives us. Just don’t go over the edge. Don’t go the place or do the things that will lead to your own destruction. See the signs. Follow wisdom, and enjoy all of the freedoms that are available. Stay away from that which leads to destruction.
That edge might be different for everyone. Because your wide open space probably looks different than your neighbors, too. As in, whatever good places and spaces God has for you. It’s not that anyone’s is worse or better, just different. But it doesn’t really matter. What matters is if you listen, He will tell you what He has for you. And God won’t let you walk off a cliff that easily.
God has good things planned, good places for you to rest your head, to dance your heart out, the run, unencumbered. Maybe stop hanging out on the edge, dancing around the perimeter, wondering why you feel something is telling you to be careful. Maybe step onto the wide places of what God has for you, instead. Listen for His voice, let Him tell you what He has for you. It is good and it is lovely. It is freedom, and you get there by obedience. To Him.
There is nothing bad in Him. Come out from the shadows and be free.
I’m pretty sure when you read that, a certain movie comes to mind. Perhaps even a certain scene. You know the one. Dance floor, hot summer night, Catskills. Yup. Dirty Dancing.
(Though, fun fact:: Did you know that wasn’t actually filmed in the Catskills? It was filmed somewhere outside of Blacksburg, Virginia. I literally only know this because I was there one time and recognized it. My husband’s bike race ended on the top of some mountain and when I met him there, I looked around, at the old resort there and said “this looks so familiar… This is going to sound funny, but it kind of reminds me of the movie Dirty Dancing.” He said, “I do know and, it makes perfect sense. It was actually filmed here.” I laughed that I couldn’t believe he hadn’t mentioned that before! That seemed pretty important. But honestly, it was more fun just to discover than to anticipate. That sounds like a fun topic for a different day.) (If you want to check the facts, look here.)
Back to the story though. Baby (yes, her name was Baby in the film. I had to double check 😂) nods, is carried off the stage quite dramatically by some other dancers, and goes running toward Johnny who is standing there waiting. She jumps, no, leaps into Johnny’s hands, trusting him completely.
What does he do? Some thought he wasn’t trustworthy. In fact, that room was full of people who had said he shouldn’t be there. When he came on stage, he shocked a lot of people. “I always get the last dance,” he said. (Oooohhhh that’s a good one!)
Does he drop her? Nope. Not even close. She soars high into the air, flying higher than she ever did before him nor ever could herself.
I thought of this scene this morning while I was praying. I was thinking and meditating about humility. True humility. Humility is not actually what people tend to think it is- Putting yourself last, in the back, making yourself less important True humility is a surrender to someone or someone else. Let me ask you, What better person is there to trust than Jesus? Johnny is pretty great. I’ll be honest, when I went back to watch the scene this morning, I was impressed But mostly because I saw some beautiful parallels to the Lord. (He is truly leading man material!)
But also, how He feels about YOU.
NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER
There’s a scripture that reads “Humble yourself therefore under God’s mighty hand, and in due time, He will lift you up.”
Another definition of humility is “submission to another.” Submit yourself therefore, to God. Does that sound scary?
It isn’t though. Submitted to the God of the universe is the safest place you can be. It doesn’t mean stay in a corner, shrink back, shrink down.
Submitting means bowing a knee to One who is greater, and trusting yourself into His hands. And guess what. He won’t crush you or beat you down. He will lift you up with His own hands.
THE lift
In God’s eyes, you don’t belong in any corner. He doesn’t want you to stay in a corner of anyone’s making, even your own. You shouldn’t be cowering in fear or darkness of any kind. You were born to fly. Yes, you were born to fly. Like Baby running across the dance floor, you can trust Him. Even as you run, He’s not just standing there. He’s running to you too.
Go ahead.
Let Him love you, out of your corner. Watch and see how it feels as He lifts you high into the air. (You can watch the Last dance here)
Break out of that corner, He’s got you (if you in let Him❤️)
Some years I make bucket lists. Filled blank pages with beautiful wishes for summer. Each new day, pick your own adventure, capture the moments, make the memories. That’s so good, and we should be doing those things. Life should be savored and enjoyed. But I don’t want to make a list and I don’t want to follow it. I really don’t. I just want to ride the wave of summer and see where it takes me. I want to trust a more invisible hand that’s already writing my story.
Most of the best things in my life have come unplanned, and I would like to not merely keep it that way, I’d like to increase that. Because God has been faithful, more faithful than I’ve asked or deserved. He’s orchestrated days and times and seasons, friendships I could t have planned, and adventures I could never dream. Why should this summer should be any different?
What about some the planning and decisions? I’ll know what to do when we get there. We as a collective family will figure it out. I have to trust that we will know when to sleep late and run later, when to snuggle and read, or when we need to hop in the car and adventure, time for fun and maybe a little chaos.
I’ll know we’ll know. I trust that. We have have never been alone, anyway. We’ve always had the kindest and most gentle guide.
A few times I doubt. I thought about what someone would say about things, one way or another. I stand at a crossroad, I contemplated, hesitated, vacillated.You know what happened? Everything worked out eventually, one way or another. But I wasted a lot of time and effort trying to figure things out. And I forgot to simply ask for direction from God..
I’m tired of planning or overthinking and second guessing. Sometimes it comes so natural, my feet are bobbing on the surface and I’m riding a river of trust. Other times I’m at a fork in the waterway, and as I start to flow towards one, I second guess, I wonder, I worry. I grab for the nearest tree branch and hang on for dear life. I fret over the options for too long, and time like a current passes me by. Then a choice is taken by default, and I’ll never know what would have been otherwise
But I still can overthink it. I can wonder, especially when things go wrong, why it had to go this way. Why I had to go this way. I replay the reasons I had weighed, the end results I had calculated, the faces that had come to mind, the presumed responses I had measured. And sometimes they feel most irrelevant and unimportant now.
When I overthink I’m usually thinking about a hundred other things or people. I’m tuning out my own intuition and failing to trust that I have an inner helper and an inner guide. It’s not that want to live without care or consideration for others. But I should remember and understand that the Lord is living in me, and He is my hope that I won’t drown, not my grasp on the river’s winding paths. When I feel the need to figure it out with my intellect and reasoning alone, when I’m dragging my feet in distrust and fear. I’m weighing this whole thing down.
The thing is, I don’t have to figure it all out. My understanding is not a condition for success. My mental gymnastics are not a requirement. In fact they’re usually a hindrance. Even if things work out, all that exercising and worrying and wondering does this at the very least: it makes it more difficult for me to be at peace. If I’m trying to figure out all of my options or feel out what is the best for so long, sometimes it’s because I’m thinking of everyone else but forgetting the Lord.
(Like this piece for instance. When I sat down to write, I didn’t intend to write this. It makes me pause for a second, I’m tempted to overthink it, worry how it might be taken, wonder what others might say. But then I remember that I’m asking to be guided and I can trust that it’s happening. Especially since I know Who I’m asking. I trust that it’s for someone or some purpose. I can’t hold on so tightly even to the words that I write or the things that I may ever build. Because I’m building it for someone else. Not for myself, and He’s someone that I can trust. So I kick up my heels, let go of the other “things”, hang on to Him, and release it.)
Right now, I want nothing more than to do what he wants. I want to kick up my feet and ride the waves this summer. I don’t want to be carried away by my own desires or in any selfish way. But I want to be carried along by His Spirit. I want to stay connected and grounded in Him, but I don’t want to stay where I am or the way that I am. I wanna kick up my heels, let go of the resistance and trust Him. I want to trust that greater is He that is in me, He’s working all things together for my good. I don’t need to stress over the details I just need to keep looking to him and ask him. Remember that I don’t need to over complicate the listening part, I just need to keep going. Hear the Voice behind me saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” I can trust Him. More than I trust myself to get it right
So I’m trusting the empty space more, the blank pages, the empty notebooks of summer. I’m going to keep checking in with the Father and trust Him. Trust that He’s in everything, the unplanned, the uncaptioned, uncaptured, unforced. I will not be rushed or forced, by some (my own) invisible hand of obligation.
I will be led by the spirit that is freedom. Guided by a hand of love, that sometimes feels invisible, but becomes more visible as I keep walking. In His right hand, it is filled with treasures. He has made known to me the paths of Life.
I will open the moments unexpected, the unplanned things I will embrace the pauses, see the unexpected blessings. I will watch smiles erupt and bags fill with fruits of opportunity, the ripe, hanging fruit, that’s ready by the handfuls.
I will seek peace more that I settle for clarity. I will pursue that which feels right more than that which sounds right. I will be guided, not by force but with ease, with love. More unconcerned than troubled. More happy and calm than worried.
Buckets will be filled. But not by my planning alone. Buckets will be filled right where we are, and wherever we go. By a loving and gracious God. Who loves to fill our life with goodness, who fills us up with good things. Keeping my eyes on Him, we’ll be filled to overflowing. Trusting that even when we might think we got it wrong, or things seem to go wrong, that HE who sits in heaven still laughs. It was Him that I heard whispering in my ear, “this is the way, walk in it.” And even IF I got it wrong, He’s unconcerned. About all of these things that would trouble me. He’s got it, and He’s got me.
He is with me, and He is faithful. He works it out, anyway. My scheming and trying don’t ever accomplish near as much as I think that anyway. It’s Him. His faithfulness. Everything will work out because that’s what He does. He works all things together for good. And it is God who works in you birth to will and to act for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)
So settle in. Surrender to the Holy Spirit. It’s Him working. So you can kick up your feet and trust Him. He’s got you AND He’s working it out. No matter what happens, He won’t let you go.
I’m throwing out my bucket, throwing up my hands, and I’m going to enjoy this ride. Because that’s what happens when you trust someone like God. You get to be surprised, and that includes sometimes by your own response. It’s time to enjoy this ride of life a little more. Tell me, what’s not to love about a summer of surprises, all of them moving in and motivated by the flow of His Love and grace.
The word influence is a relatively neutral term, and it probably means different things to different people, and generations. Many years into the past, you might parents talking in serious tones to their teenagers, voicing concern over one friend or another. “I’m not sure they are a good influence on you.” For many currently, when we hear the word ‘influence’, it sounds like a job title, reserved for the elite. It’s a beautiful blogger on Instagram, a public personality, someone with a platform, a voice, and a “following”.
Influence is a powerful thing, though it is not a term reserved for those who have ad revenue, sit on a board or a corner office somewhere, have a microphone, or even seem to be the most popular among us. Truly, we are all influencers, and being influenced, all the time.
We are influenced by what we see and hear every day.
We take in stimuli all day, we process it, we emulate it or dismiss it, and we do this all day long.
Think of all of the things that you notice. In your own life it’s, the dog needs a haircut, your kid needs a hug, your eyebrows need waxing. You love the way the sun comes in the window, you hear a song in the background. You take in and process information all day. You categorize things as important or less than important. That’s a library of information right there.
Then there’s information outside of your home. Whether it’s the way someone mows their lawn, how they return the grocery cart or say hello to the checkout girl, what you saw in the store window, how someone dressed for school drop off, the type of candles that were lit when your friend stopped over, how your friend spends their free time, what she said online, or what they do with their Sunday. It’s all coming at you all day.
Most of these thoughts are passing, and usually, we are not obsessed with one another. (Or hopefully we aren’t, and in the healthiest circumstance, we aren’t. Hopefully we’re not judging,, or trying to make ourselves better than anyone else. That would deserve an entire different discussion!) Let’s assume for now that you’re just trying to build a happy and healthy life- emotionally, spiritually and physically.
You still pick up information and ideas all day long, physical ones as well as mental and emotional. We see what people post about, care about, think about. We hear a song, read a magazine (I think those are still a thing!), talk to a neighbor. Then we respond, and it’s usually according to what we already value or desire. But even those things- our values and desires- can be influenced and shifted by what we see and hear!
Think of all of the things we have picked up over the years, all of the stimuli. We are influence a lot, both consciously and unconsciously. We take it all in, process it, and categorize the information according to what we think, and according to what has already influenced us. It’s like every piece of information is a string weaves itself into our belief system, and then influences us further as they create a framework for our lives. It can be very hard to unravel that thread.
With the advent of social media and carry around computers (📱 ) this has been greatly enhanced. We are being influenced by other people all day, every day. We can be influenced in any number of directions based on what it is that we take in. Which is why I am becoming increasingly aware of what it is I’m watching or looking at. It is. So. Much. Stimuli.
Make sure what influencing you is worth your attention. Fill your life with the best of the good stuff.
Whether we realize it or not we are influencing probably more than we know.
We have incredible power to influence things, to create change , to inspire. Even when it looks like no one is watching, somehow, sometime, it will be noticed by someone, even if you don’t notice that it’s noticed. You’re leaving a mark on this world with your actions. The way you mow your lawn or the shirt that you wear or the thing you say. You are creating a piece of information, adding value to what you choose, good or bad. You are communicating something to the world.
What are you communicating? What do you place the greatest value on? What matters most? To what do you give (or chuck) the most important things like your time, money, and attention?
Even before those “ influencers” were named as such, they were probably influencing. People liked to see what they were doing, they would get new or good ideas from them, they were probably a go-to for whatever their area of expertise is. Fashion, home, life, parenting, the list goes on. But Those influencers? They’re being influenced too. People allow themselves to be influenced and that influence created feedback which influences the ‘influence’ . By likes and shared and by the products they showcase and the marketing team that’s behind them. What a tangled web it is that we weave!
Those authors you read, they’re being influenced. Those singers and songwriters? Influenced. All influencers are also influenced by something. Somewhere, someone is motivated by somebody’s bottom line.
The question then, is whose bottom line will be the one that is going to motivate you?
What and who is influencing us?
There was a day this past fall, I was mulling over an online conversation. I was especially at the time, tending to tread lightly. I want to influence with heart and not a hammer. One conversation was sticking with me, I was feeling troubled. I had been bolder and maybe more direct than I had been. I could feel the rebuttals, I mulled over the opposite perspectives. I don’t remember the conversation now, but I still remember the faces I was thinking of.
I remember exactly where I was sitting in my car, when I had this conversation with the Lord. “I’m thinking too much about them, and about the results of what I say, aren’t I.” (As a former people pleaser, I continue to is work to not be influenced by anyone else’s reaction to my obedience or to what I know is right. My aim is not to please them, but to lovingly do what Jesus is asking me .)
I heard so firmly in my ear, “You’re not thinking long enough. I think Eternal .” I broke down and sobbed. Eternal. Tell me, what’s more important than that.
If I am only saying and doing what will get someone’s immediate attention or affirmation, what am I even doing? I am being influenced by them, instead of being influenced by what is most important. Even if it is happening in a ‘good’ bubble of influence., if I am motivated to or by a certain response, it’s still people pleasing. But you and I both know what a tempest this life can be, especially when we’re tossed about by everything that other people are feeling or saying.
Jesus said, “I only do what I see the Father doing.”
Listen, I know that sounds like a very tall order. This is where I might lose some of you. That’s fine. We all get to choose. We all have to choose what we’re most influenced by.
Personally, I want to make sure I’m being influenced, not only by the good stuff, but the best stuff. By God Himself. Him who IS perfect, who already loves me, and who can show me how to love my neighbor. Because He already does.
I want to start being influenced from a deeper place, by a constant God.
Then secondly, by people that are truly being influenced by Him as well.
As a blogger, you’re often told to write with the reader in mind. And I do. I think of you often. But I can’t be true to my calling if I’m only writing based on what you may feel or think after you’re done writing this. I have to write with a more eternal protective in mind. I have to write what is true, not just what feel good on any given day. That I believe is the most loving. Because it’s not about me or how much you like my writing or anything I have to say. It’s about how much purpose and healing can come from the words. How much eternal good can come from my life and my sphere of influence.
Yours too.
The times I feel tossed about, I know it’s not coming from Him. It’s coming from me or my desire to be pleasing to any man, anyone but Him. He is easier to please than we think. Because He is constant. He already know you by name, He already loves you.
I want to be influenced most by that place of radical love, real understanding, and acceptance, and I only want to influence from there. I want to others to find it, too.
Be influenced, today friend. Find that place in God.
Moms sometimes keep the strangest things. Locks of hair, pacifiers, baby teeth. It makes for funny discoveries and family jokes. But if you pause to think about it, is it any wonder?
Is it any wonder?
I recently pulled open the freezer and saw the last 2 batches of breastmilk sitting there. A few years later, I’m surprised every time I see them. Surprised that I did that, and surprised I still have them. I held on to the small frozen batch of miraculous milk. And I of course put it back in the freezer, to remember for another time. A token to the season of sleepless nights and fuzzy heads and growing way too fast babies, and being able to provide for them.
Like anything we might collect, it’s a reminder. A reminder that through a grand series of miracles, we were able to participate in some of the most amazing things- creation, new life, birth, growth.
Most of what moms do can’t be kept or measured, just given away.
This is a journey without miles markers. Without trophies. In a society that values accolades and beauty, there’s little of that to show for motherhood. If you’re doing it well, especially.
You can work all day and could hardly even tell you were there. (Unless you weren’t. ) Late night feedings and warm hugs. Dust that settles as fast as it’s wiped, laundry that doesn’t stay clean. Escorts to the bathroom and late night talks, disasters avoided. presents unwrapped, sandwich crusts discarded. Prayers she muttered that only heaven hears. While loving most of it, a mom can still look around and wonder, by the look of things, what it is she has done.
She gave. Everything that can’t be measured. She gave of herself.
Mommas are endless givers, from the moment they become one. Even the ones you might not think are. From the moment you begin your arrival, whichever way you come, moms start letting go. Letting go of pride. Letting go of plans. Letting go of how things used to be.
The way things rearranged forever, the stretch and crack of opening ribs, hearts. midsections, entire lives. The skin that won’t ever stretch tight again, not without a surgeons knife. The scars on a mom’s once-beautiful midsections. She let go of what was more beautiful to everyone else in order to hold on to something more beautiful, to her at least. And heaven.
It changed almost everything. But it was worth the price of admission. We now have a front row seat to these lives growing. We barely blink. Of her breath and bones, midsection and heart alike, life has bloomed. This is everything right here. Where dreams are born, where dreams are blooming. Where character is formed. Where character is sharpened. Where babies grow and patience does too. Where they crack open sometimes and we almost crack sometimes, too.
It left her bloodied and scarred. But not really broken. Only sometimes it seemed that way. (Maybe just a little cracked. But how else would the wine come pouring out so fully?)
But then, like a Phoenix. A flower. A zenith. She rises again.
And as you grow, she’s letting go even more. Letting go of pieces of you. Of pieces of her. But don’t worry. She’s becoming, too. Becoming more beautiful, more sacred, even while more scarred. Sacrificially somehow, being made more whole. The most beautiful scars, the ones worth holding onto, are the scars left by the sacrifice of love.
Some people call it the toughest job. The worst job. The dumbest job. It has to be one of the holiest. Holy, as defined in this way: ‘‘Living or undertaken with highly moral or spiritual purpose; saintly.’ The work of all parents, fathers too, are so important it can be a most holy work. But there’s something about what moms do that is so personal, it feels almost sacred.
WE are not holy (every mom knows. The hours are too long, some days too exhausting.) But the work is holy. And it is most holy when we remember as such. A 24/7/365 responsibility, inviting another human into your most personal spaces, to raise and care for.
We are not saviors, only called to love like One. To introduce them to Him. To be hands and feet and arms open wide in the middle of the night, an open hearts to listen to your worries and dreams, for length days.
It’s is a refinery. A wine press for the ages. It’s the pouring out of wine that only makes the next batch even better. She’s been poured out like wine, drunk from like a river, held a sacred life in the breadth of her arms. Not for personal gain, but a loving sacrifice.
The opposite of the old adage, she lost the whole world and gained her soul. We thought we’d be helping shape to them. The constant growing and rearranging is ours, too.
All of this letting go, she’s been collecting sacred beauty that no man can see, deep in her heart. God sees. God knows. She just wants to remember sometimes, too.
So, it’s no wonder she’ll hold on to the breatsmilk or the pacifier. Sometimes when the kids aren’t around, she might want something to hold on to. To remember. To remember how far you’ve both come.
Do you ever feel like no one sees or notices the good that you’re trying to do? The positive change you’re trying to accomplish? Me too. All of us do at some time or another. CEO to struggling artist, pastor, mother, parent, and friend. Humanitarian, policemen, poets and kings. We all have this in common: we struggle to feel like we’re really seen, appreciated, and hope against hope, maybe even understood for what it is we’re trying to do.
Not too long ago this was me, and human nature being what it is, probably will be again. Sinking into the end of the bed, barely able to think, I started reading the bedtime story to my kids. My shoulders were heavy with disappointment and my mind was heavy with self-doubt. I showed up there, but so imperfectly. I already felt like I was over-“performing” and under delivering
As I read the story aloud- a mouse with little stature and little significance- my own tired ears started to perk up. This mouse seemed so familiar. While doing everything he could, using every resources he had, working fervently to do something important and meaningful, he was coming up seemingly empty. He was trying to play some music on a ratty ol’ makeshift instrument. No one around him seemed to see or care, or even kind of understand. Some even scoffed. That very evening, that blessed(ish) moment, I felt exactly like that mouse. Haven’t you?
Feeling the weight of my heavy shoulders and the ones I saw mirrored on the paper, I turned a heavy page.
That little unimportant mouse was somber and sullen. Undeterred, but unsettled. Until that is, the king came rolling into town. The one everyone was waiting for. But everybody else missed it. They were too busy. Preparing. Primping. Criticizing.
The king rolled right by unnoticed. The only one that happened to find him was the mouse. Before he knew it, he found himself alone and before the baby king. Ready and not ready, all at once. But he did have a song to play. (Yes, it was a newer take on the drummer boy. And something about it being such a tiny insignificant creature made it hit home even more.)
The crowds were gone and all that mattered was this: the mouse in front of the king, with a song to play. The mere thought of the crowds and scoffers was almost laughable now.
But, wasn’t it always? By now I was sobbing. Of course. Of course of course. It doesn’t matter what the others had to say or not say. It didn’t matter anything about the crowd at all, really. At the end of the day, he played, I play, you play, we all play for an audience of One.
You played your heart out. Music or not. And nobody seemed to notice or care. But truth is, the One who really matters already sees.
“Audience of One” Courting the Extraordinary
This king doesn’t care what your size is or what kind of instrument you use. He looks past the details, he sees the effort, and HE knows your heart. That, my friend, is all that really matters.
We’re trying so much to communicate our hearts by our actions. But truth is, the One who really matters already sees.
We should do whatever it is that we do, not for the masses, nor to please any crowd. But because it beats in our heart, because it’s what we were made to do. And whether you or I understand it yet or not, we don’t do it for them, or for even for us.
You’re not meant to play to the crowd.
Even if you’re trying to help, the crowd is not supposed to be your aim. Which if you think about it, is quite freeing. The crowd is fickle, and harsh. They will love you as long as it serves them. They can become a slave master even before you realize it. They will never be as pleased as we would hope, at least not for long, and certainly not forever. One day you’ll be standing before a king and they’ll be long forgotten.
As we tucked my daughter into bed recently, we said a not uncommon phrase (and it would have been said to our son too, but he was already asleep.) “We’re proud of you.” Her one word question was new. “Why?” I knew the answer right away, and knew it must be clear. (As a “recovering” people pleaser, I feel acutely the importance of differentiating. God helps us not be or raise people whose worth is attached to performance.)
“Those nice things- helping out, being kind to your sibling, sharing from your piggy bank. Those are good things. But just doing them doesn’t matter quite so much. It matters most when it shows and reflects the goodness that’s in your heart,” we told her. We were trying to explain why we were proud of her, which extends BEYOND juts what she does, into the core of WHO she is, which can be reflected in actions. Like our son, too, who delights to pick us wildflowers ;and weeds) for no other reason, than because he loves. He sees their beauty, and wants to share.
I think that God looks at us and the things we do kind of like that, too. What matters more is not just what we do, but why and how we do it. Even if it’s imperfect or we make mistakes, Hr can see right past that to what matters more- our hearts. We can take a hundred good deeds and tie them up in a pretty bow, but it’s the heart that really counts. He doesn’t want us just to go through the motions and check the boxes, to “do the right thing.”
He wants us to “be” the right thing. To be filled with love. To be expressions of who He is, in us. The most beautiful acts might be simple, but when they come from that place of love, where God dwells with us, they are music to His ears.
It’s moving from a place of love instead of towards it. Accepting His love instead of thinking that I need to create it.
So, even if nobody seems to notice or nobody seems to care, it will not go unnoticed, your heart will not be unseen. No seed sown in love is ever wasted. No act of love is ever wasted, no matter how small or seemingly unnoticed. It never is wasted.
What you’re doing is for an audience of One. And trust me when I say, His love can make a garden and He is much more forgiving than the crowd. He understands what the others don’t. He sees your worth, he values the effort that you give.
So don’t do play to the crowd. Play for Him. Sow seeds of love, and live for Him.
Hey, I'm Courtney, a pretty ordinary girl who thinks we've all been called to an extraordinary life and love story with God. I'm passionate about family, faith, motherhood, and the adventure of every day. I write lots of words, mostly because I can’t help it- and I think it's one of the things I was born to do. I hope that something I write encourages you, to walk in your own unique purpose and calling, set free to love and give it away, starting wherever you are today. That's what Courting the Extraordinary is all about. Finding the good all around you, and giving it away. Finding, too, the God of all goodness who wants to walk with you.
I love quiet mornings, coffee, prayer and “work” before sunrise. Quality time with my family is my jam. I can be found grinning ear to ear when we're out on an adventure. Whether that's in our own backyard or exploring someplace new all-together, I’ll for sure note something beautiful about nature aloud-and maybe repeatedly, ha!. Life is a beautiful, precious gift, and an adventurous path to travel! We might as well learn how to love.
Hey, I'm Courtney, a pretty ordinary girl who thinks we've all been called to an extraordinary life and love story with God. I'm passionate about family, faith, motherhood, and the adventure of every day. I write lots of words, mostly because I can’t help it- and I think it's one of the things I was born to do. I hope that something I write encourages you, to walk in your own unique purpose and calling, set free to love and give it away, starting wherever you are today. That's what Courting the Extraordinary is all about. Finding the good all around you, and giving it away. Finding, too, the God of all goodness who wants to walk with you.
I love quiet mornings, coffee, prayer and “work” before sunrise. Quality time with my family is my jam. I can be found grinning ear to ear when we're out on an adventure. Whether that's in our own backyard or exploring someplace new all-together, I’ll for sure note something beautiful about nature aloud-and maybe repeatedly, ha!. Life is a beautiful, precious gift, and an adventurous path to travel! We might as well learn how to love. 