Thursday, July 10, 2008

So what's great about our faith?

~ Aileen

howdy! it'd been ages since i posted - oops :P
well, no better time to start than now :)

and so we've been talking abt new steps in cell recently...and i was wondering, as usu, what's really so amazing about our faith? of coz we are all familar with how great Someone was martyred for our sins and love us unconditionally...but attitudinally, what's our story? so i pondered for a while and concluded (for myself, at least) that it must be the angle of perspective He has changed! you know how some advice start off with "take a step back and re-examine the situation". when i take it upon myself to solve a problem, it's almost money-back-guarantee that i find stress knocking at my door too. but when i humble myself and ask God "help help!", it somehow makes the tough easier going. i guess the difference between both instances is really how i choose to view. when i narrow the world to just me and the problem, it's simply claustrophobic. when i kick the boundary further, there's me, the problem and God --> and seemingly more air to breathe. in short, it helps me heaps when i remember to view everything everyday in God's eyes.

today, i got this e-devotional which kinda echo these thoughts of mine and i wanna share with you too :)

07/9/08 Hem of Grandeur by Jill Carattini

Actor Jimmy Stewart is loved for his extraordinary depth in both career and character. The film Harvey is a Stewart classic and my favorite among his lifework. As Elwood P. Dowd, he roams the town with Harvey, a six-foot tall invisible rabbit. When a psychiatric doctor inquires about the rabbit-friend, Elwood explains that mostly he and Harvey sit in bars and listen to stories. In that classic Stewart voice he says:


[People] tell us about the big terrible things they've done. And the big wonderful things they’ll do. And their hopes, their regrets, their loves, and their hates--all very large--because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey. And he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed.

The prophet Isaiah tells of an experience where he encountered the Lord as one far greater than anything he knew before, and when he left, he was not merely impressed, he was overcome with awe. Isaiah writes, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple" (Isaiah 6:1).

Isaiah's encounter with the grandeur of God is particularly interesting in light of the circumstances under which it took place. God appeared to Isaiah during a time of international crisis. The death of good King Uzziah took a king of 52 years off the very throne that brought a divided kingdom back to the life and prosperity it knew under David and Solomon. Isaiah was understandably defeated. It was all in the year of Uzziah's death that Isaiah saw the death of a good and able king, the rise of a wicked and selfish king, and the decline of the kingdom he loved. Isaiah entered the temple with distress and loss, despair and confusion--all very large. And then, Isaiah says, he saw the Lord, and the very hem of his robe filled the temple. The prophet had come to worship grieving a king and in the midst of his pain had an encounter with a throne of far greater caliber. God's kingship was far bigger and grander than anything he had imagined.

Whatever our circumstances, let us not hide from the one who offers to stand beside us and asks that we cast our cares upon him. "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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" (Matthew 11:28-29). In the awe-inspiring presence of God our worries are put into perspective. As a friend is fond of saying, worship is an encounter with one who is "always bigger than what's the matter." Yet perhaps it is not that our anxieties are in fact smaller than we perceive them, but that the King of Kings is far greater than we have perceived Him. In the words of Isaiah himself, "From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you" (64:4). And we have yet to see even a hem of the grandeur of his kingship.


Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ail, for the encouraging post! It's true that very often we just have an individual 'battle' with our problem...and when the problem becomes too big for us, we get weighed down by it and stressed and all....
But when we bring this problem into battle together with the Lord, somehow,it's like 2 against 1, more than 2 against 1, since God is far far greater than what we can imagine.
But it's always interesting to see how we as humans seem so accustomed to fixing our own problems, and only much later, turn to God in desparation.
When things are easy to solve, there always seems no need for faith. Yet, when things seem difficult, we get upset with God for not helping us. How then, can we ever build up our faith? :)
~lola

Anonymous said...

Hi Aileen,

thanks for sharing.
many times, we forget God is there. Esp when we're bogged down by what I share with my friend, "earthly matters". for example, stress by what other comments about us and what we do, whther there's enough money, relationship not working, bullying by superior etc etc etc...

when we choose to focus on the problem, we only see the problem. but when we choose to seek God, then all other problems become smaller in comparison.

luv,
candid mammee