A Soul To Wait Upon

Beauty and the Beast lyrics unpacked some more:

Life is so unnerving

For a servant who's not serving

He's not whole without a soul to wait upon

We were made to serve. Just as a cheetah was made to run, and a shark to swim, there is something in our wiring as human beings that causes us to give our lives to something.

A 'non-religious' person may say, "That's not true, I serve no God, my life is my own..", but I challenge that. Maybe it's not a God that you're serving, but think about this: As you invest your time and effort into climbing the corporate ladder, are you not serving your career? As you love and teach and discipline your kids, are you not serving them? As you put money aside each month into your pension, are you not serving your future self? With each moment we live, Rand we spend, calorie we burn, we are serving something, someone, some dream of ours.

So now my question is, what do you choose to serve? Is it yourself, your wants and dreams and ego? Or, with your time and resources and talents, are you serving others?

The problem with serving ourselves and even with serving others, is the inevitable disappointment that comes with it. You will let yourself down. It will be thankless. The rewards will too often be fleeting and unfulfilling.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  - Matt 6:19-21

Serving Jesus, the only One who is guaranteed to never disappoint: that is where we find wholeness. And yes, serving Jesus will definitely involve serving others, developing our kids, building our careers, spending our money etc. But the motivation, the why we do what we do is rooted in something so much bigger, something eternal and unfading.

Jesus said that when we do something as simple as giving a cup of water in His name, we will certainly not lose our reward. Giving a cup of water is just meeting a basic human need of another person, but when it's driven from a place of the love and compassion of Jesus, it gives that simple action a whole new meaning and purpose.

So why do you serve? And what is your soul waiting upon?

You're Alone & You're Scared

Beauty and the Beast lyrics part III:

You're alone and you're scared

But the banquet's all prepared

No one's gloomy or complaining

While the flatware's entertaining

Am I a safe place for the lonely and the scared? Can people trust my confidentiality? Rely on my unconditional love and lack of judgement? Depend on my consistency and approachability?

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." - Psalm 34:18

If this is the attitude of my God, it's how I want to live as well.

I want my life to be a place where broken people (from which I do not exclude myself) can find healing and hope through the life of Jesus in me. I want to be a light in the midst of doom and gloom, light that brings clarity and joy through the wisdom and Spirit of God in me. I want to be a safe haven from the terrors and depression of the world through the peace of Jesus. I want to speak the truth with wisdom and love and grace and zero judgement.

I want to have His heart.

Never Second Best

Some more Beauty and the Beast lyrics that can be applied back to our lives:

A dinner here is never second best

Would it be so scandalous to say that I believe that Christians should be at the top of every field and discipline and role in life? And I believe that competence matters for Christians because the Christian life is a life of action, and our actions are intended to result in God being glorified.

Am I saying that every Christian should always be the best at everything? Nej, not at all. I'm saying that each of us should be doing our best at whatever it is we are gifted and called to do. And that when we all rise up to be our best, to live in the fullness of our God-given potential, we will see people across every different space of life succeeding and exceeding for the glory of God.

I'm also not saying that this success only equates to becoming CEO or an Olympic swimmer. Why do we limit ourselves to so little? Let us aim to succeed in friendship, in serving, in giving, in discipling, in teaching, in helping, in forgiving, in loving. Be your best in your role as a nurse, daughter, secretary, guard, coach, parent, driver, friend.

Martin Luther King Jr said:

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” 

Being the best also comes down to the little mundane things in our lives: homework, cooking dinner, driving to work, etc. Your life will require you to invest a lot of time and energy in things that aren't big and don't seem to make much of an impact. Habits like working hard, maintaining a positive attitude, living with self-discipline and intergrity bring benefits to our lives now and pay enormous dividends in the future.

Making an effort to be kind to a brother or sister now both shapes your relationship with your sibling and trains you to relate to your future colleagues. Applying your brain to that awful maths now affects your academic future and develops your brain to deal with complex situations later in life.

"Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people." - Col 3:23

If we can rewire our brains to see our every action and word as a chance to glorify Jesus, I believe we will rise up to be our best.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God." - 1 Cor 10:31

We all want to do big and important things, but we tend to discount doing our best in the equally important small things that get us there, even the eating and the drinking. The desire to do your best - even when no one around you requires it - takes a special kind of character. Being faithful in the smallest things is the way to gain and maintain the strength needed to be the best.

Please note that we aren't called to be successful all the time. We're called to be faithful, to take those first difficult steps and leave the results up to God. Failure is a way to grow stronger, not to give up. All effort, even failed effort, builds muscle and stamina.

Let's do our best and trust God for the rest.

Ask The Dishes

There's a line in Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast that makes me think about how I live:

Try the grey stuff, it's delicious

Don't believe me, ask the dishes

What do the dishes, the hard circumstances, the people with me in the trenches say about my life? Am I more than just talk? I tell people about how wonderful Jesus is, but is He really such a reality in my life that, through friendship and random interactions with me, those people can actually "Taste and see that the Lord is good"?

I want to live my life in a way that my words and my actions represent something of the goodness, grace and truth of Jesus. I want to be salty. Not in the new way of being bitter and biting, but salty in the Matthew 5:13 way that enhances flavour, that brings a taste of Jesus to whatever place I find myself in this world.

On Purpose

One of my fears is to be useless. The thought of one day waking up in the morning with no purpose, no meaning, no drive; that scares me. As Bieber once said, to be given purpose is to be blessed with the best gift we could know.

No matter what the world says, I cannot look at my life and believe that the blessings of gifting and talent, position and family, country and freedom, have all been given blindly and without purpose?

I believe that my life has a reason and meaning and a purpose. This is the path I have chosen, to follow Jesus, to shine as a light wherever I find myself. Should a candle in a dark room just assume that darkness is its fate? Should the candle just make peace with the darkness? No. I choose to believe that I am where I am because I’ve been placed right here, not by chance, but by sovereign purposeful design. And this little light of mine wants to shine to all its potential!

That being said, the life of purpose ain’t a walk in the park. Like I have discovered from running in Sweden in the middle of winter, it’s more like running uphill through the snow. It takes courage and determination and perseverance and ignoring the voice that constantly tells me I’m going to fall. It daily involves fleeing from temptation, looking to Christ, fighting the good fight, running the race, and wrestling with myself.

The life of complacency is much more like a gentle stroll on the promenade. It offers a road free from care. I give myself to the very things I should flee from and fight with. So much easier to choose, so much simpler, and just what us humans tend to want. But I cannot deny that there is more for me, so I choose to not want this.

How on earth do I propose to do this? Not in my strength, for it has and always will fail. Not in my previous success for it is insignificant. Not in my own willpower for it is weak and corrupt. Not in any part of my natural being because I have fallen short. I have broken promises I vowed to keep. I have given up more times than I have tried again. There is a powerful magnet in me that always pulls toward easy. I know I have no lasting hope in myself.

So again you ask, how on earth do I propose to do this? I make this resolve solely in the strength of God, in the grace and power of Jesus Christ. In the salvation I know I have through Him. From the righteousness I have received from Him, from the security that I feel in His embrace, from everything that is not me and is Him—in this I stand and in this I put my hope.

Although the life of purpose is harder, I don’t have to (which is great news because I straight up cannot) do it in my own strength and with my own willpower. To change the world God has changed my heart. To fight the fight God has won the war. To run the race Christ has set me free. And in that freedom and purpose I choose to live.

Philippians 2:13

"It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.” 

Exodus 9:16

“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

X's & No's

Have you ever found yourself with an expectation that you feel like God just isn't meeting? A shattered dream that you so believed God had placed in your heart. A never ending cycle of disappointments. A plan that you had so perfectly crafted going completely awry.

Right now across the world there are a million different versions of “Don’t you see me God?” happening. And so we doubt and get angry and lonely and we shake our fist at the sky asking why.

In Genesis 48, something like this happens to Joseph, of the technicolour dreamcoat fame. He has brought his two sons to his father Israel for his blessing. Culturally this was a critical, massive, pre-planned thing that was about to take place. The oldest son was about to receive Israel’s blessing. At least, that's what Joseph had expected and planned. He placed all his ducks (i.e. his sons) in a row, strategically positioning them to ensure things all went according to his, and what he was so convinced was also God's, plan.

But then his father crossed his arms. 

An X was formed that resulted in the wrong son getting the blessing. An X was formed that led to Joseph's plans and expectations being rudely ignored. 

This change of plans did not sit well with Joseph. How dare Israel not follow the tradition and the plan?! Joseph even tried to literally force his father's hand to change it to be how he thought it should be. Joseph says, “No, my father, you're wrong, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” expecting the reply of: "Oh whoops, my bad, let me quickly fix that for you."

But Israel's reply is something entirely different. He says, "I know, my son, I know."

What a thing to say to someone watching their dreams and plans crumble. "I know. "

And in the midst of our broken hearts, missed dreams, failed plans, unmet expectations, I believe our Father with his arms crossed in an X says this:

"I know, my son, my daughter, I know. That thing you long for is not going to happen. Not the way you’ve always dreamed. I know this hurts and stings and confuses all you know. I know you feel like I am distant and unaware of where you are and who you are and how you think life was supposed to turn out. I know right now you doubt that I have your best interests at heart. But know for certain that I am not done. I have barely even started to reveal my goodness to you. I am the God who satisfies your desires with good things. It's who I inherently am! And when it comes to your hopes and your longings and your dreams, I know. I perfectly know."

In the midst of the X's and the no's, He knows.

Dark Days

Genesis 15:12-13

"As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him

Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain…'"

The darkness was dreadful, but in the midst of that dreadfulness came the voice of the Lord. In the darkest of dark days, God spoke to Abram and reassured him of His presence, His plan and His peace.

It's said that if one sense is not able to function properly, the other senses become more acute and effective. I believe that often God allows the dark days so that we stop looking for a way out, and start listening for God’s way out, for His voice and His plan.

The darker the night, the brighter is His light. He is right there, waiting to speak.

Even in the dark days, find the Lord.