Work~Want~Waste

I have the right to read, to learn, to grow, to write, to pray—and yet...I waste it. 

I have been given much...so much is expected in return. (Luke 12:48)

Instead, I want more—I want ease, I want everything to go my way, I want a life with less difficulty. 

That’s just not reality.  That is not life.  Life is full of hardship, struggle, pain and disappointment...but it’s what I do to prepare beforehand, how I lean in during and how I respond afterwards that reflects Christ in my life—or not!  This work builds character, righteousness and holiness.

Which is also what I want.

Ease is not for my benefit.  I was created with an unquenchable thirst for God, a longing only to be fulfilled by my Creator.  Ease of circumstance does not motivate me to seek Him.  Ease makes me lazy; lazy in heart, lazy in temperament, lazy in love, lazy in refinement.

Why would one choose the pain of refinement?  I either choose to embrace the refining process or kick and scream through it, but I don’t eagerly choose the difficult path purposefully just so I can be burned a little more for dross reduction! J

God wants me to be holy, like He is holy.  I will not—I cannot—become holy without hardship.  It just cannot happen. 

I was reading about a woman in Laos who has literally nothing but her faith in God and the Bible fellow villagers attempted to burn until God sent rain to put the fire out.  She is the only Christian in her village.  After her mother died she went to live with her sister where she was given a corner to sleep in.  She serves this family Monday through Saturday.  Her sister threatens to take away her Sunday—the day she walks 1 km (1.6 miles) to a neighbor village to attend a home church.  She asks for the prayers of others to soften her sister’s heart and to protect her and the other worshippers from harm. 

She has so little.  She has much work.  She wants more God.  She has much faith!

I want to embrace the work—embrace the refining fire.  I want to return the embrace of the Potter’s fingers as they work to mold and shape me.

I do have so much!  He wants to give me so much more!  Not more meaningless stuff...more of Him.  He wants to give me more of Himself.  But it isn’t free and it isn’t free from pain or effort. 

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Phil. 2:12b, 13

I can hear Him calling... “Desire that your life count for something great—Want this!  Don’t waste your life!  Don’t waste your time.  Come—meet with Me!  Let me work on that heart of yours!”

~Picture is a quote of John Piper made into wall art for the kids bathroom wall~