Valuable...

Today I was listening to an interesting story about someone who had been given a guitar. It was a very nice guitar, top of the line. It was, however, extra special because it had been signed by Eric Clapton. Because of this, this guitar was extremely valuable. The new owner took great care of this guitar, making sure he cleaned it after each use, storing it in a special place - not exposing it to elements that might cause it harm. You get the picture...and I'm pretty sure you see where today's post is heading. 

Photo by Redd Angelo on Unsplash

All this got me to thinking about all the other things that we see as valuable because some great person signed it or used it. In the past, people would claim importance to some place that looked like just a shack to most people...its one claim to fame was that "George Washington slept here." The name of the famous person was used to garner recognition, prominence,  even money. It is not the HOUSE that gave the place value, but who had stayed there.

Tying these two stories together, they both got me to thinking...what makes a person valuable? Is it our gifts? What we look like? The other "houses" around us? No, what really makes a person valuable is who lives within the house...whose "signature" is on it.

Because Christ lives in me, I have value. So do you. I'm not going to "trash" the house, or bring in things that might destroy it or ugly it up. I'm not going to cover my "valuable guitar" with cheap stickers from a gumball machine. I'm not going to allow political ads, product billboards, or just plain weeds to diminish the importance of the dwelling. It's too important. No trash of un-forgiveness can be allowed, no language that paints the house in cheap neon green paint, no habits that block the view like a tacky billboard with lights. The focus isn't even on the house at all. The focus should be on Who lives there.

No, George Washington didn't live here, but the One who DOES is far greater than any man who has ever lived. That makes this house valuable. That makes me valuable...and it's what makes you valuable, too.

Romans 8:9-11 (MSG)

^9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

Get happy where you are...

The past couple of days a "random thought" has been on my mind. (Re-print from 2014)

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to go from place to place, job to job, city to city, relationship to relationship, even hobby to hobby looking for that elusive thing called happiness? You've heard it before in probably a million blogs and devotions, warning that if you put your hope into a thing or a position or even a person that eventually it will let you down. The problem is, we are all looking for happiness and it is usually best found right where you are. 

I've had more than a few chances to put this whole idea into practice. The funny thing is, when I finally choose to be happy where I am, God seems to move me on.

This came to mind last week when I talked to a friend about the gentle nudge she was feeling about moving to a job in a different area. She stood there explaining to me, "It's not like I don't love where I am...in fact, I've never been happier." I could only nod. Seems like every job I've ever moved to didn't make sense. In one job, I'd tried repeatedly to leave! I couldn't even score an interview! Then, just when I decided to be happy where God had me planted, He moved me....to the very place I had been unable to get an interview for five years! Then God moved me again, but not during a season of discontent, but in a time when I finally had discovered contentment. 

Seems that just when I let go of the idea that I have any right to decide what my life should look like, it starts to look like something so much more than I could have ever dreamed....and sometimes I even get that which I had hoped for.

I won't pretend this is always an easy process. I have an idea of what will really make me happy and I'm certain that if I just try hard enough, I can make it happen. The problem with that is that my life doesn't belong to me. I am His. I'm not really the one in charge here. Now as strange as that sounds, that concept is pretty liberating. It's not up to me. The only part of my "future" that is up to me, is turning it completely over to God. I simply have to start where I am and choose joy. I choose to trust that God knows what will bring me fulfillment far better than I do.

I think the first time I really saw this was while hoping for a child. We had hoped for years for a child, lost one through an adoption that went wrong, faced each passing year without the sound of a child's laughter in our home. Slowly, I released that dream and truly gave it to God. I came to the point where I could truly say, "God, I want a child more than anything, but if You choose for us to serve you without children, I will trust You." My attitude changed. I changed. The one true barrier to my joy was removed and peace returned....and two children followed.

I'm not saying that there is some magic formula or equation. "Do this and then all your dreams will come true..." In fact, in a way, it's about giving up your dreams - to God. It's about choosing to find the joy and fulfillment right where you are. It's about looking at what the enemy meant for your harm and recognizing that God can/has used it for your good and His glory.

It's about a choice...a choice to change your attitude and find the joy.

I am reminded of a story Lysa TerKeurst once shared. Her daughter had found some cocoons and was hoping to hatch butterflies and instead from those cocoons, she got moths. Mom expected disappointment, but..."As I watched Brooke’s sheer delight with the rich evidence of life before her, she couldn’t have cared less if it was a moth or butterfly. A creature that once only knew the dirt of the earth had just been given the gift of flight. Reaching- soaring-up- up- and away."

I guess it really is all about how you look at things. In the words of my pastor, you may not get to choose your circumstances, but you do get to choose your attitude in the midst of them.

It's time to get happy, right where you are...and then you can move forward.

Acts 20:24 (NIV)

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Genesis 50:20 (NIV) 

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Philippians 4:11-13 (MSG)

I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

Can you hear me now?

I have been accused of many things in my lifetime, but being too quiet to be heard has NEVER been one of them...and I have always hated that about myself. 

What? You thought I was loud on purpose? Heavens no! I'm not trying to be loud - it just...HAPPENS!

I can't count the times I've heard, "I didn't know you were here and then I heard your voice." Or, "I couldn't find you, so I stopped and listened to hear your voice." I've even had students that I haven't seen in YEARS come up to me saying, "I was standing over there and I heard that voice and thought - that's Mrs. Sumrall!" Yes, my voice carries.

In the past few years, however, I've learned to embrace my "loud." It is a gift! For example, this past summer, we were in a crowded Cane's restaurant and the young lady behind the counter was trying to call out orders, but her voice was so sweet and soft that no one could hear her. I was waiting for my food, so I stepped up to help, calling out each name after she told me who the order was for. Based on the reaction of the patrons, my voice was welcomed! They even sounded sad when my order came and I decided to sit down and give up my new found "job." Being loud came in handy that day. 

It's also been very handy anytime I've needed to get a crowd (like my students) to hear me. I can be heard in the back of the auditorium without the aide of a microphone. I've used that skill quite often. I joke that I was destined to either be a teacher or an opera singer and since I can't really carry a tune, my fate was decided.

Why tell you all this? Because I think all too often the very gift God has given us to reach the world is one that we feel is a flaw - an embarrassment. The Bible story that immediately comes to mind is Zacchaeus, the wee little man. Somehow I'm not sure we'd have heard about him of his amazing story if he'd been six feet tall.

What is your "gift"? The one that you think is a flaw - a mistake? The one that you so wish you could change? What might happen if instead of trying to cover up our flaw, we took it to the top of a sycamore tree where it really stood out? What if we let that trait the world looks at as a problem and used it to spread the love of Jesus? What if we actually agreed with God that He makes no mistakes and we are created just as He would have us to be? 

What if?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on your "damaged gifts" that God is using. Let us encourage one another the way that only broken, damaged people who are loved by God can do.

Psalm 139:14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Genesis 1:26a
Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...

Psalm 40:5
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.