Undeserved Love

Imagine someone turning their back on you after you had given them everything you had. Imagine someone going their own way after you have provided the best way possible. Now, we can't give someone everything we have, nor provide the best way possible, because we are just human.

Someone has given everything they have. Someone does provide the best way possible.

God.

And what do we, as ignorant humans, when He has done this?

Most of the time we turn our backs. Most of the time we go our own way, thinking that we know better and that we can provide our own way. Most of the time our reaction might as well be to slap God in the face and say, "I like my way better. Shut up!"

It's crazy how we are willing to turn our back on Him so easily.

But one thing continues to amaze me every minute of every day. HIS UNFAILING LOVE.

I mean, we can just turn our backs on God and His plans; we can nail Jesus to the cross, and yet, there He is. Open arms. Wanting you to run back to Him so that He can rejoice in your presence. He rejoices in our presence as well. He wants us to choose Him.

I still do not know if I fully grasp this concept of unfailing love, but how can we as humans? We hold grudges against our neighbors, even for something as small as someone wearing our shirt without asking. Our immediate reaction is to get upset. We do not have this concept of unfailing love in our minds and hearts.

So, I guess I will just remain amazed at how God can continue to love us after nailing His son to the cross; how He still loves us after we turn our backs on Him, and He still loves us after we choose our ways over His.

"You have something in your teeth."

So this weekend, I went to one of the coolest conferences I have ever been to. Now close your eyes and picture this -- two thousand college students, all on fire for the Lord, meeting together at the Hilton in Pittsburgh, giving worship and praise to Our Glorious Creator. Pretty awesome, huh?

But to the beginning. The weekend started just great! I got a letter in my mailbox telling me that I wasn't going to be a CA next year. Good, just what I wanted to hear (I realize that it is really hard to pick up on sarcasm in writing, especially online; however, I am trying to make this as blatant as possible). Well, I vented, for about a day I might add, and was going along fine with the way I was right then.

Angry.

Desiring to be somewhere else.

I couldn't stand being around people who were just happy and all giddy.

Distracted.

Have you ever been talking to someone who has something stuck in their teeth? They keep talking to you, but all you can think and concentrate on is, "What did they eat? What is that stuck in their teeth?" All you really want to say to the person is, "You have something in your teeth. Can you get it out before you keep going on." All the while, you miss what the person was saying to you. Your focus was completely on the grain of pepper that you missed the fact that they told you that their mother was ill and was going to be placed in the hospital. Or the fact that they desperately needed your help in finding someone to take care of their dog while they went on a trip. Or that all along, they were calling you for a better purpose (I wonder who would be doing that?)

To my situation though:

Words of wisdom would soon fall on my ears and soften my heart. A wise man pointed out to me the dangers of my attitude and actions this weekend. This was Saturday at about 4 in the afternoon. We were eating dinner, and I had approached him with some questions, none of which pertained to what was going on that weekend and were pretty irrelevant to anything in the near future.

Have you ever had somebody point something out like this to you? It is one of the most trying situations that you can have. He cut to my heart and said (not literally, I should add), "You have been focusing on what is in the teeth, not on what is being said. You're not going to get as much out of this weekend as you should or could."

This being said, I was a little upset for the evening session. I didn't want to be told these things which cut to the core of myself. Music, blah! Saleem speaking, blah! Those around me singing, blah! Not a good attitude to have.

Prayer for openness and to free me of my burdens. That was all I needed. It felt as if the whole world came off of my shoulders. I began to listen, to hear what He was saying to me. I quit focusing on what was in His teeth. That might be a bad analogy, but it will do for now.

The speaker that night was truly blessed by God, and He spoke to me. I was only able to get past the distractions when I came to Him humbly, knowing that I had been in the wrong, knowing that He would take them for me. So, what distractions do you have?

Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

"When you breathe, I want to be the air for you"

So for the last week and a half, I have been listening to this one song and just ridiuculing it for how outrageous the lyrics are. Or so I thought.

The song is by Bon Jovi, "I'll be there for you." My friends and I have been getting a good laugh about the lyrics, probably because of the way that I would recite them in their ears, or how during the Super Bowl it was how I addressed one of them. During the party, I actually made a vow to answer any question using the lyrics from that song. Crazy, right?

Well, yesterday, in one of my great (and few, I might add) moments making Lizz laugh, I decided to play this song. It was pretty funny, and Ryan was cracking up when I decided to play it. I thought that it was fitting "push-up music."

So, here I am, making fun of this song, and saying how ridiculous some of the lyrics are. Then, Lizz, being the wise woman she is, told me to look at the song in a new light (she just posted a blog on this same topic, so I am kind of living off her blog too). She told me to envision Christ singing the song to us.

Man, did that make me think.

The lyrics fit in so well with what Christ does for us. It puts into words the love that he has for us. It embodies what the apostles got to see first hand, two thousand years later.

So as Lizz said in her blog (or maybe she didn't and I am inferring this), interpret the music you listen to, even if it isn't "Christian." Even some of the cheesiest love songs, or the weirdest country songs can have more meaning behind them. Just look at the Bon Jovi song:

I'll be there for you
These five words I swear to you
I'll be there for you
When you breathe, I want to be the air for you
I'll live and I'll die for you
I'll steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you

Commercials

So the other day, I was watching the Super Bowl with some of my friends and some of my youth group students. It was a new and interesteing experience for me to watch what I consider one of the most important sporting events of the year with people who don't necessarily view it the same way (it's kind of like if I were to watch the Acadamy Awards with Steven Spielberg; he sees them in a much different light than I). It was a new and interesting experience for me.

Many people that I was watching the game with were concerned about the commercials. They were "watching" the game to see what new and attractive methods of advertising would be employed by companies this year.

So, I am watching these commercials, probing every aspect of them to see what was really going on. I am sure that you have had similar experiences -- watching a commercial and when it is over, asking yourself, "What in the world was that commercial advertising?"

I absolutely love the godaddy.com commercials for this. They have absolutely nothing to do with what the company does (in case you were wondering, they help people to set up websites for companies, personal use, etc.) I would have never know this from watching one of their commercials, which usually involve some form of a half-dressed woman with a group of men gathering around her in awe. Pretty awesome advertising for a company which makes websites, huh? If you design a website, you will have half-dressed women around you.

We know that this is a lie. But where do we have "commercials" in our lives? Where do we put on a show that has nothing to do with what we are actually doing? It comes down to, "Where is the HEART behind your actions.

Are you just going through the motions?

Do you actually mean what you do?

One of the biggest areas that I see this is with worship. I myself am guilty of this at times. Singing a song, I find myself getting caught up in, "How do I sound? Should I be kneeling? Should I raise my hands?" For some odd and ridiculous reason, I cannot just let myself worship freely. I am trying to look right, and, by doing so, I forget where my heart lies. I am not giving God all of my heart. I mean, it is His, right?