Called me higher

2 posts in a week-either I have a lot to say this week, or I’m just procrastinating. I’ll let you be the judge. 🙂

So, the song Called Me Higher by All Sons & Daughters plus Love Does by Bob Goff have kinda wrecked my life this weekend. How about yours?

All Sons & Daughters has become one of my favorite bands, and this song just rocked me to the core. For those who’ve never heard the song:

I could just sit
I could just sit and wait for all your goodness
Hope to feel your presence
And I could just stay
I could just stay right where I am and hope to feel you
Hope to feel something again

    And I could hold on

 I could hold on to who I am and never let You change me from the inside

   And I could be safe

 I could be safe here in Your arms and never leave home

 Never let these walls down

      But you have called me higher
  You have called me deeper

 And I will go where you will lead me Lord
 You have called me higher
  You have called me deeper

 And I will go where you lead me Lord
 Where you lead me

 Where you lead me Lord
      And I will be Yours
  I will be Yours for all my life
  So let Your mercy light the path before me

These words keep ringing in my ears. I could sit and go through my day and just live. But God doesn’t want that, does He? Tis the question I’ve been drilling around in my head. I want to stay safe, in His arms, never to be hurt or worried or scared. I could just wait around, go through the motions and never let His presence change me.   But is that really what living life for God is all about? 

All the while, I’ve been reading Love Does by Bob Goff. Guys, I’ve been reading this book since July. And it’s not even that long! But with the mix of school reading plus me just really not wanting to have to question my faith and how I live life like this book calls me to do, I’ve been reading it little by little, putting it off I guess. Well, this weekend made for the perfect reading time. Not a lot of homework+sunny 70 degree weather made for some perfect conditions for me and my highlighter to do a little soul searching. 

So I read. and read. and read.  for 3 hours. I didn’t finish the book, but I got pretty darn close. I didn’t want to put it down. It’s the kinda book that makes you question not just about how you’re living your life as a follower of Christ, but how you’re just living life in general. Half the stories in this book you won’t believe actually happened to anyone, let alone one guy. I think that’s why I love him so much. He’s not afraid to risk looking totally crazy or being safe for his faith. He just goes and does great things.

 It’s such a simple task, yet so so crazy for all of us. He just does love, as the book title describes. He lives a life for Christ while still living a life of extraordinary adventure-because to Bob, that’s what living life for Christ is. I’ve always had the impression that once you decide to follow Christ, you’re supposed to live this boring life, where all you do is read your Bible and become some sort of Biblical hermit, doing nothing out of the “Christian” bubble we’ve created. Not so, friends. Not so at all. 

   He’s a person that not only knows he’s called higher, but he trusts God enough to let Him lead him to do some crazy radical things, for his family and the world. It amazes me, it really does. To own your faith like that, to just live and let the little things fall into place without worry. The worrier about every detail (aka me) cannot fathom a faith like this. 

    The chapter that grabbed my attention was entitled “10 Year Old Adventures”. The story behind this is that when his 3 children each turned 10, they got to go on a father-child adventure. It could be whatever their heart’s desired, and they’d just pick up and go-no plans, no reservations, no limit. Just to go. The planner in me obviously was petrified at the thought. I couldn’t imagine just up and leaving…in my dreams, maybe, but in real life? With no plan? I don’t think I’d make it. His kids of course loved it and took advantage of it to accomplish some dreams: from high tea in London, to hiking the Half Dome in a snow storm, to motorcycling across the desert (not IN the desert-across!), these kids had some crazy ambitions and goals. Kinda like their Dad. And Bob took them each on their respective adventure, learning a bit about God on the way. 

   He taught me a few things too. They aren’t necessarily things I can apply to my life at once, but it’s something that he put on my heart to work on. 

    Most know I struggle with plans and my future. I struggle so much with what I wanna do with my life, where I want to be, what path I want to take… it’s all so overwhelming. Bob and his kids trust God enough with the big picture that they let Him take them wherever their hearts desire. And yet I worry so much about the little details, that I can’t see the big picture. 

 
 One of my favorite quotes from the book is this: “God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, “Let’s go do that together.”

      He doesn’t say, “let’s sit here and figure out detail by detail what your whole life is gonna look like.” Oh how I wish. But God doesn’t work like that, much to my chagrin. 

God probably does know all those little things and details (I’m gonna just tell my heart that so maybe I won’t freak out), but He expects us to trust Him enough to let Him fill those little things out for us. He wants us to accept the invite first before we try to see what it’s gonna look like. 

It’s not about a rigid itinerary, it’s not about not getting hurt (that’s bound to happen), nor is it about the way we get there. It’s about accepting the adventure, and trusting God along the ride. Bob says, “somehow in all of this, the terrain we navigate doesn’t seem as scary either, because when we’re on an adventure with God we’re too excited to be afraid and too engaged to be thinking of anything else.” 

 Not gonna lie: that’s just plain scary. At least for me. But I’m a work in progress. 😛

 Bob just stops what he’s doing in life to take an adventure. To make life an adventure. And more importantly, to make life an adventure with and for God. His great faith enables him to see life as something more than a 9-5 job and church on the weekends. His faith empowers him to trust God and accept his invitation to the greatest adventure we could enjoy. 

I want to do that. I don’t know exactly how just yet (when I do, I’ll let you know). 

But from these words, both the book and the song that’s been on repeat for hours, I will take this (and hope you do too): God has called us to something much much more, and that something more is more of an adventure and incredible journey than we can ever imagine. I hope to find some adventure in this week ahead, and hope you do too. : ) 

give me rest, and give me Jesus

I don’t think I’ve ever loved sleep more in my life than I have this semester. It may be my workload, the stress of classes, or some other factor, but I have been yawning almost continuously and take advantage of nearly every free minute to nap.

I seriously think one thing we forget that God blessed us with is rest.  I feel like sometimes one of the best things I can do in my walk with God is just take a breather and rest.
    We get so caught up in being busy, busy, busy, that we think sleep and rest is something left to be desired. We focus so much on things we have to do, things we need to do, things we want to do, that we don’t think rest or taking a break is as important when there’s stuff to be done.

My devo this weekend was talking about resting in the love of God. That’s a concept that when I read about it,  it sounds so simple. But yet, I just don’t understand it. How could a God that does so much want something so little in return? At least, it seems ‘little’ to me.

and yet, if this is something that is so little to me, why can’t I seem to give it any time of day? Why am I not content to rest in all that God’s given me? Why does everything else deserve more attention than the peace and rest only the Father can give?

I can chatter at Him all day-I’m quite good at that part. 😉 But this whole concept of just resting in His presence is hard. I really don’t know why it is. I guess I feel like I’m not getting anything done when I try to do this discipline. At least that’s part of the problem-if I don’t feel like I’m getting anything accomplished, to me it’s time wasted.

When in reality, resting in both the general and spiritual sense does a lot more than I realize it does. It gives my heart and mind time to just be. For a little while, when the world gets crazy busy and begins to spin out of control… it’s the peace that I need to remember that God’s got it under control.

My devotional said this: “But what I’m learning is that God doesn’t need or desire my help. What God longs for is my presence. What God desires from me is surrender — resting in God’s unconditional love.”

God doesn’t need our presence-it is us that truly needs time alone with our creator. Yet He longs for it. He wants us to communicate, to be as much of a part of our lives as if He was sitting right before our eyes. He wants us to fully surrender to the fact that this world isn’t going to fulfill us, only time with Him can do such a thing.

The writer compares it to a child being content resting in a mother’s arms-carefree, at peace, just content to sit and be.

I wish I could be like that all the time. I know that isn’t possible, but if I could just spare a moment to rest-to remind myself that God loves me and has my whole life in the palm of His hand- maybe I would be able to get through my days a little easier.

If I would just be for a minute, maybe I’d be able to see Jesus as someone who seeks me out and gives me the rest I crave.

  I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,
    my soul is a baby content.
Psalm 131:2 (The Message)

Give me rest, Jesus, only the rest that being with You can give me. Goodnight all:)