powerless

Turn Around

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

2laneroad

I confess. I am a guy and I have a very bad sense of direction. Or as I like to say, I am directionally-impaired.

I don’t know if every guy is supposed to have a map and a compass in his head, but I most assuredly do not. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve turned the wrong way or just simply gotten lost.

One of the most frustrating things for me is to be going the wrong direction but not be able to find a place to turn around.

I’ve actually gotten mad because there were no places to turn around. In my head, I’m like, “C’mon! Seriously? Not even a driveway?”

I think sometimes people get trapped in relationships or addictions or bad lifestyle choices and can’t find a way to turn around. They want to be going a completely different direction but they feel like they are powerless to do anything but keep going the same direction they’ve been going.

That’s what repentance means. It means a change of mind that leads to a change in your life. It means to stop going one way, do a 180, and go the complete opposite direction. if you get on I-40 West, you’re going to Memphis.

I had a pastor use this illustration (it makes more sense if you know that this pastor is in Nashville): If you get on I-40 West, you’re going to Memphis. Every time. You can say all day long how you want to go to Chattanooga or Knoxville, but if you stay on I-40 West, you’ll end up in Memphis.

I think sometimes you just have to want to change badly enough to make that U-turn. Also, it’s essential to have people in your life who will encourage you and motivate you in your desire for change. Plus, I think without God’s help, no one can truly change. All we do apart from Christ is trade addictions or move from one bad scenario to another.

So what do you want to change in your life? What do you want Jesus to change about you?

Maybe it’s time to turn around.

Some things I have learned what it means to care

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

out-of-solitude

First of all, everyone should read the little book, Out of Solitude by Henri Nouwen, which is the basis for this blog. It’s only 63 pages and you can read it in an hour or two and be radically changed.

Care at its core means “to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with.” It means weeping with those who weep. It means sharing joy and laughter. It means that I come out of my protective shell, become vulnerable and step into your world. It means that I realize that there is no one anywhere that I can not identify with if I am honest with myself. I have it in me to be kind or cruel, honest or a liar, warm-hearted or cold-blooded, etc. It means that I don’t have to give the right answers or even give answers at all. I can sit with someone who is hurting and cry with them and let that be enough.

One old saying that I like goes like “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Jesus is the best at this.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Henri Nouwen writes, “By the honest recognition and confession of our human sameness we can participate in the care of God who came, not to the powerful but to the powerless, not to be different but to be the same, not to take our pain away but to share it. Through this participation, we can open our hearts to each other and form a new community.” A “fellowship of the broken,” as he calls it.

I am broken and empty of anything God can use. I am full of myself and until I learn to empty myself of all that I think is so good about me and let God fill me with Himself, I can never truly care and serve. Until I give up the desire to do good make a name for myself and simply be available to people in need, I miss the blessing of seeing God really work through me. That’s what I want. That’s what I need. That is community.

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.