This is a story I had written back in October of 2006. Like many of my stories they never seem to be complete. I have pulled this one out of the file in hopes of completing it today.
Micah 6
8 But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women.It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.
Hope you all had a great weekend. Lisa and I had the most wonderful time ever. So many stories to tell. I started to write one last night but it got to be too long. So I went for the shorter one. Lisa read this verse as we were riding down to Lake Waccamaw for a Boys and Girls Home reunion. We never made the reunion but sat at the end of the lake and watched a purple sunset. I sat their and was reminded of how many sunsets I have been blessed to witness the past two years, this was a purple sunset, not sure if you guys have ever seen one of these, the horizon is a dark gray and then just fades into a purple color all the way across the sky.
I was reminded of many other things also, some sad and some happy. More happy than sad I must say. So what am I trying to say? Sometimes we need to sit back and take what really matters seriously. This is one of the long list of kingdom principles that I have been revealed to me this year. This one may be one of the most simple but most difficult to do. The question for us is, what are we taking too serious? What we think are the serious things make life confusing and complex, the simple things should be kept simple.
That was the end of the part one, now several months later I realize that this story needs a bit more content and explaining. What are our passions in life? What do we really love? What do we take seriously? There is so much to love in our world today. When does it become wrong to love something? That to me is a great question.
I am sitting here thinking about all of the things I love, do I love them more than God? My immediate response is “Oh no! Ask yourself that question and be very honest, it’s just you and God.
If you are like me in anyway there are truly some things in life “at times” you loved more. I can hear your voices now “not me, I love God more than anything in the world, nothing gets in the way of my relationship with Him. I’m not saying that you don’t love God. I am saying that we tend to put things before God and pretend that we don’t. When we do this we have loved “that” more than Him. We take things we love and are so passionate about and make them so complex and so serious they end up in front of God. This can be anything.
My challenge in ending this story is, how can we stay passionate about God? I think communication would be the starting point. For any relationship to grow there needs to be communication. We talk a great deal about communication but the sad reality is we all lack in this area. I have friends that I have not talked with in ten years and yet I still call them my close friends, mostly because there was a time that we communicated on a level that help us both get through some difficult problems. I go months without talking to some of my closest friends. Is this good communication? Of course not. So relate that to God? Have you communicated with God, have you sat down and not wondered off into never land while talking to Him. I know just this morning I was asking God one thing and then next thing I know I was on another topic. He was quick to ask “what happen to what we were just talking about? I just smiled and laughed and said “I guess I’m jumping around this morning.
There is so much going on in our lives, if we don’t get serious about loving God, I mean really serious then where will we all be next year, next week, tomorrow? This week, each day, sit with God for a few minutes by yourself and ask Him “how is my relationship with you? What am I putting before you? Theses questions ask to the world will uncover one answer “nothing. Ask to God, will uncover a loving and merciful God who wants to have a relationship with you.
George Beasley
Friday, April 20, 2007
