Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Have you missed the point of Christianity?


If I thought family was there to make me strong,
if I thought friends could be there when family was shattered,

if I could give you a thousand verses for the reasons
God wants to make those elements part of our faith,

I would be right.

But 

since those gifts are not the Giver, 
they will cripple me if I use them to actually walk.

Until I am aware that my soul can be well and whole in my Jesus
without those earthly blessings,

until I learn that I am not broken without them,
that God will actually come through for me
and hear my prayers when I am utterly alone,

then I've missed the point of Christianity.

God's words to His children pierce through the pages of Deuteronomy.
He says He didn't love them
because they were "more in number than any of the peoples,"
because they were "fewest of all peoples."

He says He fed them in the wilderness,
because otherwise they might proclaim in their hearts,
"My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth."

He says "it is not because of your righteousness
that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess,
for you are a stubborn people."

And it all comes home to me.

I have been guilty of assuming that life goes well for me
when I have God's gifts around me.

With those gifts for support, I become arrogant,
because I've never known isolation.

I assume that so many of the blessings of walking with God 
have something to do with my power to surround myself with His creations.

I forget.

He can take those things away at any moment.

The question is, will I fall then?
Or will He answer my prayers when I am in truth,
as thoroughly alone as Israel
eating manna that came out of nowhere in the wilderness?


--Kellie
a reformatted excerpt from her blog post, read her complete post: here

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