Humble Pie is Filling

I'm a cancer patient, a mental patient, a heart patient, and a surgical patient all wrapped up in one.

I'm a cancer patient because it's only the blood of Jesus that's allotted me the Holy Spirit within, who gives me the strength to shun the very appearance of cancerous evil. I'm a mental and heart patient because it's only the Lord God who's done things for me which have penetrated my heart in such a way that I cannot deny who He is and what He does. This provides much needed guidance for my mind, which is a better follower than leader. It needs to closely follow after a heart that's been changed and is faithfully held by an almighty God such as mine. I'm, in essence, a surgical patient because I have a life-long stay in my Father's Holistic Health Surgical Center. I'm always in need of His touch, and I pray that I'll never again walk under the falsehood that I'm in control.

I Need Help ... I Need God

I've hit the cusp of understanding that needing help is not a shameful place. It's human ... honest ... and is, quite frankly, the place where the devil cringes ... watching people discover their need for God. Matthew 5:3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." This means that we are in a blessed place to know and admit to the evident God-sized void in our lives. We're fortunate when we understand that being at the end of our rope is "where it's at" because here begins our outreach for a ridiculously capable God who knows exactly what we need, exactly how to fix, exactly what to say, exactly how to hold, exactly how to chasten, and exactly where to lead.

His grace finds us and causes our understanding of just what a present and active God He is to explode into an awesome bewilderment that makes us pant for more interaction with Him. We become increasingly aware that He's waiting for us to take required steps of obedience right into His volcanic love that ransacks our self-created customs which we foolishly thought would work for every season.

A Lesson in Crunches and Clothes

Yesterday, I was at the gym doing crunches, and as I counted from 1-25, I began to think on each year of my life -- from birth to 25 years old. I began to, with each count, evaluate whether I've gotten better or worse with each year ... whether I've, overall, grown spiritually weaker or stronger as I've aged. I thank GOD that my realization was that [after 25 plus 13 more years], I've gotten better and not worse! I've gotten collectively stronger and not weaker!!! Wiser and not more foolish!!! THANK YOU, JESUS! And come to think of it, this mentality helped me do my crunches to fidelity, as I had the drive to, with each crunch, be stronger and go harder on the next. This life journey has delivered some great lessons to me, one of which is the critical nature of my required vulnerability with God. I don't know what the foolish attraction to try and save face before Him's about, but it's just that ... foolish and a waste of time.

At some point after I got home from the gym, I was bringing some of our cubs' clothes downstairs to put in the wash, and Kwesi asked me, "Are those regular dirty or urinated upon dirty?" I literally laughed out loud at this candid question from a father of two boys, one 7, the other 3 [because I knew exactly where he was coming from]! But as I continued on to the basement, where the washer and dryer are, I thought about how people unfairly categorize the dirt in others' lives, putting some dirt in the excusable box and other dirt in the inexcusable box. We call some stuff "regular dirty" and other stuff "urinated upon dirty".

Even doing this with our own dirt, we view some things we do or think as just a little sprinkle of dirt that we don't need to feel that badly about. However, there are some other things we've done, said, or thought that we don't want many to know about. But here's the thing ... sin is sin to God. Dirt is dirt to Him. If somethin' ain't right, according to His holy standard, He doesn't require our repentance for the part we thought was crossing the line; He requires our repentance for it all. And He's not surprised or caught off guard by our faults. Shoot! There are even some challenges, some seasons, He allows because He wants to see if we're going to be humble enough to ask Him or someone for help. Through this He shows us that He's the only one suited to carry a God complex. He wants us to see that His responsibilities are too heavy for our shoulders, but our weight, He can most certainly bear, and that quite effortlessly. He's God ALONE for countless reasons. Let Him be that.

#Humble #Pie #Filling #GodisinControl