Friday, May 6, 2011

Impractical & Embarrassing Vulnerability

Each day I go through this devo I am reminded of the interconnectedness (real word?? ...maybe, maybe not, but who cares) of each topic that we are going through. Each one is connected to and dependent on all the others. Christ's passion for us creates, in us, a passion for him. He is the source of our passion. And because of our passion for him and his kingdom, we are loyal and committed, we humble ourselves and sacrifice, we love others and we love God. Christ's love and passion for us is what draws us to himself, and from that stems everything else in our lives. He is the vine.

I loved Thursday's meditation. "Her love poured out (worship) is totally impractical and embarrassingly vulnerable. Instead of being conservative and pragmatic she is reckless and unconstrained. She doesn't seek control but surrenders control to the one whose love will be soon poured out for her in a few days on the cross."

I hope that my/our "love poured out" this summer (and really in my/our lives) is totally impractical. I hope that the only explanation for our actions is love; love for God and love for others. We talked about this at training before, it's impractical that a bunch of college students would spend their summer volunteering on boats, cooking, cleaning up after 15 people, sleeping on the roof (or not sleeping at all)...why? Because of love. But let's not let the impracticality end there for this summer, let's make everything we do seem impractical...when really, it's the only thing we know to do, because it's what we're called do to, because it's what Christ did. Let's strive to make people question our actions so we can tell them why we do what we do. So we can share with them about who Christ is and why we're serving him.

Embarrassingly vulnerable - initially those words scare me. But I also know that those words are essential to effectively loving others and worshipping God. Are we going to be embarrassingly vulnerable this summer? With God? With ourselves? With our team? With our campers? I'm challenging myself, and I challenge you, with that. Let's make a commitment to be embarrassingly vulnerable with campers, with each other, with ourselves and with God.

Let your passion take you to the cross daily and let Christ take control.

3 comments:

  1. Great post and what a great challenge.

    "Embarrassingly vulnerable" - definitely something scary sounding but so amazing if we live by it

    ReplyDelete
  2. At this moment the two most challenging statements I can make are:

    1. Jesus, make me more like you.

    and (perhaps more challenging)

    2. Freely you have received, freely give.

    If I freely give for everything is freely received I have nothing. What haunts me about this truth is each thing that I don't give is something that I guess I'm holding onto. If I'm holding onto it then I don't think I've received it freely and thus I think I've earned it. The degree that I don't give manifests the degree that I reject grace and don't believe.

    "Lord I believe! Help me with my unbelief!!"

    To love for love's sake is to have nothing because you've given everything with reckless extravagance.

    "With man this is impossible. With God all things are possible."

    I believe this summer God will break our hearts and remake them to His glory such that we will be more free than ever before to give for giving's sake and to love for love's sake.

    ReplyDelete
  3. At this moment the two most challenging statements I can make are:

    1. Jesus, make me more like you.

    and (perhaps more challenging)

    2. Freely you have received, freely give.

    If I freely give for everything is freely received I have nothing. What haunts me about this truth is each thing that I don't give is something that I guess I'm holding onto. If I'm holding onto it then I don't think I've received it freely and thus I think I've earned it.

    The degree that I don't give manifests the degree that I reject grace and don't believe.

    "Lord I believe! Help me with my unbelief!!"

    To love for love's sake is to have nothing because you've given everything with reckless extravagance.

    "With man this is impossible. With God all things are possible."

    I believe this summer God will break our hearts and remake them to His glory such that we will be more free than ever before to give for
    giving's sake and to love for love's sake.

    ReplyDelete