The scariest thing for a man is to offer his strength in situations where he doesn’t know if it will make any difference. Or worse, that he will fail. Remember, a man’s deepest Question is, Do I have what it takes? Failure says, No. And that is why most men avoid any situation where they might fail. They fear exposure. They fear it will be discovered that they are not a man.

Given the fact that we live after the Fall, far from Eden, and that a man’s life is plagued by “thorns and thistles,” most situations feel like a test of his strength. There is simply no guarantee of success. That’s why some men won’t play sports. They fear exposure, fear being seen as weak. That’s why other men would rather work late than come home and talk to their wives and children. They know what to do at work; they don’t know what to do in their most important relationships. A man’s basic sin is his choice to offer strength only in those situations where he knows things will go well. And so repentance for a man is entering into the very situations that he fears and offering his strength anyway.

If he fears intimacy, then offering strength means offering intimacy. If he fears failing in his career, offering his strength means taking a promotion or accepting a new and risky project. If he fears standing up for his children against an angry school principal, then standing up for them is what he must do. If he fears committing to a woman he’s been dating for five years, then offering strength is buying her a ring.

In the same way, the scariest thing for women is to offer our beauty into situations where we don’t know if it will make any difference. Or worse, that we will be rejected. For our Questions is, Am I lovely? And to be rejected is to hear a resounding NO. A woman doesn’t want to offer her beauty unless she is guaranteed that it will be well received. But life offers no such guarantees. We, too, must take risks.

A few verses after Peter talks about a quiet heart, he gives us what might be the secret to releasing a woman’s heart and her beauty:

“Do not give way to fear. (1 Peter 3:6)”

Isn’t that why we hide, why we strive, why we control, why we do anything but offer our beauty? We are afraid. We have given way to fear. Just think about your life – why do you do the things you do. Have you asked yourself how much you are motivated by fear?

That is why God says to us, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). In repentance and rest. He loves it when we, gripped with our doubt and fear that he will not be enough, turn the gaze of our souls to him in hope. He loves to prove himself faithful and more than enough to satisfy our hungry souls. When we do turn to him, our souls rest and we are saved. Again. And again.

We can’t wait until we feel safe to love and invite. In fact, if you feel a little scared, then you’re probably in the right path. Of course it’s scary. It’s vulnerable. It’s naked. God calls us to stop hiding, to stop dominating, to trust him, and to offer our true selves. He wants us to bring to bear the weight of our lives and all that he has given to us, worked into us, and offer it to our world. To entice, allure, and invite others to Jesus by reflecting his glory in our lives. He will give no guarantee that others will enjoy us and respond well.

In fact, we can be sure that there will be times when they do not. Jesus offered like no other, and many rejected him. In those moments or seasons when that happens to us, God’s invitation is to bring our sorrow to him. Not to shut down with, I’ll never try again. But to keep our hearts open and alive, and find refuge and healing in his love.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

We sometimes, if not most of the time, fall into the trap of performance.

Religion says: “DO.”

Do this, you’ll get that.

Do this, and you’ll save yourself from death.

We are told time and time again that we, wretched as we are, are saved by grace through faith.

Through FAITH.

And that is NOT from ourselves.

JESUS says: “DONE.”

It is done.

Everything has already been paid for.

And yet we do this every now and then: We FORGET.

We forget that it is He who works in US to will and to act according to His good purpose.

He saved us.

He called us.

He enables us.

He moves us.

He carries us.

His love compels us.

And so, if  we could do anything, He reminds us to do nothing else but this: LOVE.

We speak in tongues and do it out of love.

We prophesy and do it out of love.

We serve in church and do it out of love.

We choose to overlook wrongs and do it out of love.

We keep the faith and do it out of love.

We give to the poor and do it out of love.

What the world calls a sacrifice we call service and we do it out of love.

And we love not because we NEED to but because we WANT to, because we HAVE to.

When we feel the NEED to love, we fall into the trap yet again.

But when we love because we WANT to share what overflows in us; because we HAVE to or our hearts will explode; because we have tasted and seen that He is good and because He gives freely and we can so easily get what we give, it is then that we genuinely, truly, wholeheartedly love.

And then we’ll stop counting how many songs we were able to sing,

…how many times we had to wake up early to serve in church,

…how many people we had to talk to and spend time with,

…how many hours we spent praying for people or reading the Bible,

…how long we were able to keep giving our tithes and, when our budget (and our hearts permit us) our offering.

And we’ll stop striving to earn LOVE because we are THRIVING in his LOVE.

We do the things we do because we LOVE.

And we LOVE because we know we are LOVED by the One who is LOVE Himself.

I took the liberty
Penned my thoughts
‘Coz if it’s gonna be my story
I gotta write it alone

Pre-chorus:

Oh…
But it never made sense
Oh…
It never made sense

Chorus:

‘Coz You know better,
you know what is best
Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your weakness stronger than my strength

Would a clay reason
with its Maker
if it doesn’t look like the rest?
Would a tale argue with it’s Author?
Would it even care how it would end?

Bridge:

You’re the better writer
You’re the best, I am the worst
So write on
Keep the pen and keep writing on

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://emmanuellegomez.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/write-on/feed/ 0 Em http://emmanuellegomez.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/things-i-can-do-today/ http://emmanuellegomez.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/things-i-can-do-today/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:29:17 +0000 Em http://emmanuellegomez.wordpress.com/?p=764 Continue reading →]]> Here’s another quoted part from Francis Kong’s book. I just love how optimistic this man can get!

There are things you can do today and everyday for the rest of your life.

Here’s the perspective of a winner.

I woke up today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

• Today I can complain because the weather is rainy, or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.
• Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money, or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to pan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.
• Today I can grumble about my health, or I can rejoice that I’m alive.
• Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up, or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.
• Today I can cry because roses have thorns, or I can celebrate that thorns have roses.
• Today I can mourn my lack of friends, or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.
• Today I can whine because I have to go to work, or I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.
• Today I can complain because I have to go to school, or eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.
• Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework, or I can feel honored because I’ve been provided shelter for my mind and body.
• Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me.

I get to choose what kind of day I will have!

Have a GREAT DAY…unless you have other plans.

The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

In all things we need to be thankful.

One lady with a brilliant perspective has this to say about thankfulness.

• I am thankful… For the husband who complains when his dinner is not on time because he is home with me, not with someone else.
• For the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes because that means she is at home and not on the streets.
• For the taxes that I pay, because it means that I am employed.
• For the mess to clean after a party, because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.
• For the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat.
• For my shadow that watches me work, because it means I am out in the sunshine.
• For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means I have a home.
• For all the complaining I hear about the government, because it means that we have freedom of speech.
• For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.
• For my huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.
• For the lady behind me in church that sings off key, because it means that I can hear.
• For the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means I have clothes to wear.
• For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard.
• For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means that I am alive.
• And finally, for too much e-mail, because it means I have friends who are thinking of me.

We have to be thankful. There are just so many good things going for us.

Climate change.

Change.

(Okay, the first sentence is clearly just a jumping board.)

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…”

Ecclesiastes says it best.

About a month ago I asked HIM a question. How come changes happen almost every single time?

This is the answer I got.

So we’d be compelled to grow.

So we’d learn how to adjust.

So we’d be mature.

And be complete.

Not lacking anything.

And so we’d appreciate the fact that there exists One who is unchanging. Him whose love endures forever, whose faithfulness reaches to the heavens, whose mercies are new every morning.

And because of His great love we are not consumed.

Change happens.

Seasons happen.

Life happens.

It goes on.

And we should keep up with it.

Hoping and trusting in the One who holds our lives in the palm of His hands.

Sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”
-Psalm 125:1