Yes. Yes. Yes.
Growing means I'm not perfect. And in fact, I never will be. The goal was never to be perfect. The goal is Christ. And from knowing Christ more I will be transformed into His image and holiness will be the result. #Convention12 has been rocking my world this year and I have been challenged on so many things. Let me talk about three of them.
1. Unity, not conformity.
Far too often I don't appreciate others' differences because I have in my mind a certain way things should be and if someone veers from how I think things should get done I can get frustrated. However, Mike Cavanaugh shared yesterday morning that actually when those within the body of Christ, each completely different with their own unique gifts and characteristics, work together we portray Christ in a beautiful way to the world. It challenged me to appreciate the way other people think and view things and to take other people into consideration far more than I do know and to actually appreciate the differences as gifts from God. Beauty = different people coming together in unity for one purpose--to glorify God.
2. Refusing to allow for failure means I am placing myself on a higher standard than God.
One of the speaker's shared this and gave the Parable of the Sower as example. In that parable, the Sower (which represents God) sows his seed and some of it lands on the wayside, some on rocky ground, some with thorns, and some landed on good ground. But even though the sower knew it would not all yield an incredible crop he wasn't afraid or unwilling to sow. Fear of failure can keep us from sowing--even though some of that seed will fall on good ground and yield a crop 30, 60, or a 100 fold return. Don't be afraid to start sowing whatever is in your hand today.
3. Joy is a choice.
Viktor Frankl, a former prisoner in a Nazi German concentration camp, said they can take everything from me except my liberty to choose how to respond. The power of choice is incredible. Far too often I give others authority over me to tell me how I'm going to feel about certain situations and in different circumstances. It's time to take back my joy. It's time to make the decision that no matter what I'm going to choose to be joyful. Life's a lot more fun when you make that choice and you're a lot more fun to be around. I'm challenged to let go of pride and choose that no matter if things go my way or not, or if someone's driving slow on the road and I'm in a super big hurry, or if someone says something that I could take offense to, I'm going to choose to have a good attitude and be joyful.
Boom. Unity. Overcome failure. Joy.
