| First, a story from www.xanga.com/christopher_warrior A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints
about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned
with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups
-porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive,
some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If
you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind
the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best
for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured
that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more
expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really
wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups.
And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Life = coffee; the jobs, money and position in society = the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. ...All I really have besides that is a few verses that God has really caused to stand out to me lately, but man they are potent! "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." -This spoke to me very much where I am at. Basically for a few reasons. I've been thinking a lot about marriage: can I serve God better by being married, or would a wife distract me and hinder me from serving God fully? Most of what I have seen and heard tells me the second, and this has been stressing me out, as there is a girl I am very interested in. Yes, I just said that. Those of you who know me well know this is at least slightly surprising. It sure is for me. I know of one person in particular who broke up with his girlfriend, to a large degree, becasue he felt he could serve God more uninhibitedly by doing so, not because he didn't love her or want to "be with her" (although I certainly don't know all of the reasons, I know this was a big one). And now, he is living for God, truly making a difference, leading the lost to Christ, leading the half-hearted to being whole-hearted, and being bold for Christ. And yet, maybe that isn't my calling, my route. What God basically told me through the verse above is this: "if you try to figure things out yourself, you aren't going to get anywhere. What you need to do is trust me, and find out MY wisdom." My highest moments of wisdom, of my own mind, are WAY less than God's foolishness. Wow. "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." -I'm still working through this one, but I know it is something that God spoke to me about, it jumped out at me. You know what I'm talking about, probably. I have to put "childish" ways behind me. Foolish ways. Unrealistic ways. Selfish, care-free ways. If you look at the context of this verse, it seems to say that "childish ways" are to "manly" ways as the "sight" we have now of God (dim and imperfect) is to the "sight" we will have when we will stand face to face with God. I must, in God's strength and understanding, move beyond earthly, small, finite ways of talking, thinking, reasoning, and being. This is key, I truly feel. Many probably do this without thinking about it, so I'm not saying I have some secret others don't. I am saying that God spoke to me through His Word, which is no small thing, obviously.
I've been super busy with work (which I love but is very draining), friends, interests, reading, etc. Sorry to all of you I have not kept up with, it's not from insensitivity most likely, it's from a need for sleep and time to recharge, and from business. God bless you all, pursue Him, be real with the Bible, and don't care what others think if you are following and obeying God's Word: the Bible!
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