Tonight (or this morning, or this afternoon...whatever), I'm going to "Kill Two Birds with One Stone"-or cover two topics in one blog. Here we go:
1) Okay, so maybe you've read my post titled "Redefining Normal", maybe you haven't. (you should, because it's really good.) Anyways, God has been reminding me of this lately. Redefining Normal. I've noticed something. I've been praying for God to give me his heart, and when I did, I started noticing things I never noticed. Like how it is really "normal" for a Christian teenager to NOT live their life like it. It's "normal" for Christian teenagers to live their lives at double standards. And this has been driving me crazy. Ask my mom. Me and my mom have a good relationship, and one night, I was talking to her about this-teenagers I know who have to potential to be great leaders for God, but live double lives. I talked about one who cusses when we go out for lunch, and then fasts once a week to pray. I talked about another one who has such high faith, but listens to "dirty" music-music that uses "the f-word" MULTIPLE times-and when I asked this person about it, their reply was that it was fine. I talked about one who can pray in the spirit for hours on end, but dresses "not so modest" when we go to the mall or movies-and when I told this person that, thinking she would be thankful I cared about it, she said "Eh-nah. It's fine". I brought up so many examples of teenagers I know who CAN be great leaders, but don't go the whole way because they're too busy leading double lives. And for some reason, I got incredibly angry. I didn't understand why, but then I realizes-I had been praying for God's heart, and He'd given me a piece of it. I wasn't angry at the people I was mentioning, but the fact that they openly lead double lives. I don't understand how we can think this is okay? I don't get it how we can have leaders and people stand up for what's right and wrong-when they live these double lives! It makes no sense to me. Why don't we want to change the way we live and live realistically and "practice what we preach"? I wonder-what has it come to when it is "normal" to hear cuss words come out of our own mouth, or to put then into our spirit with the music we listen to, or to dress unmodest-how did we get to the state where this is normal for Christians? Where no one will stand up and say "This is not right!" I'm not saying I'm perfect, or that I have it all together-no, this blog is as much for me as it is for you. I sin. And I feel convicted, and ask for forgiveness. But when you regularly lead a double life, it's hard to feel conviction or feel God speak to you. This normalicy of a double life blows my mind. But it made me realize something-that we have a MAJOR need to "redefine normal"-if this is what normal is, I want to change it. (one bird down.)
2) Lately, in my little Christian school, I've been a bit irritable about something. Complaining against leadership. I've been praying for this too. And something was brought to my attention:
I've been reading Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers (headed towards Deuteronomy-) in my daily Bible reading. And you know what I noticed? The Isrealites complaints and murmurings kept them out of the promised land for years and years. And it was like they didn't get it. They just kept complaining-specifically against Moses and Aarron. So here's the thing that hit me-their complaining cost them something huge. And I've noticed this also-it's really easy to complain about leadership. But as the Isrealites showed-it's never a good idea. It doesn't work. One time, God brough a plague on them. Once he made snakes come and bite them. And it goes on and on, their punishment for complaining. (And that's not even mentioning the fact that they were stuck in the wilderness forEVER.) So all this to say-your words have power. One time, the Isrealites where whining, saying "Oh we'll never make it. Blah blah blah." And God said "Okay-I'll give you what you've been speaking over yourselves-you WON'T make it into the promised land. Sorry. You said, not me." So pretty much, be careful what you say, because it could hold you back from the great things God has promised you. (two birds with one blog. Done.)
