Thursday, November 26, 2009

Time for a new yoke, and a new burden.


I remember when I was little, my mother and I would often drive through, or near, downtown San Diego. She would always take my friends and I to places like Sea World, or the beach, etc. Often times, while making these journeys we passed by what I then thought to be the ultra-magnificent, QUALCOMM STADIUM. Home of the San Diego Chargers and the San Diego Padres. As you can imagine, just about every time I passed by the stadium I became thoroughly enamored with the enormous apparatus. Each time I got the chance I made the giant stadium the absolute cneter of my attention. I was so fascinated with the stadium that I hardly ever noticed the small navy blue flags that sailed from the street lights surrounding the colossal ampitheatre. Each of the flags carried the same message; each of the flags read "keep the faith," as went the motto of the San Diego Padres. In the midst of what really was only a vast heap of concrete, I was left distracted and unable to ingest a much more imnportant sentiment of optimism and encouragement.

Recently I have experienced a similar phenomenon in life. I certainly would not contend that I am less susceptible to the drastic stresses and time constraints brought on by the beast of college, however I would contend that I am just as susceptible to miss-handling them as my peers. I have recently endureds one of the most time-consuming, exhausting, and burdening segments of my existence, and along the way I made some mistakes. These mistakes I speak of were not what I would consider grave mistakes but rather were mistakes that proved to be foul-ups that many might perform; yet they still prove to be costly. Somewhere along the way I made the giant concentration of concrete, rubble, and burden my focus; and this led me to the horrific"nip-it-in-the-bud" complex that I was diseased with up until a short time ago. I lost sight of many things, and found myself instead looking on my responsibilities as if they were the only thing I had ever known in life. Don't get me wrong, responsibility is a characteristic of the utmost importance for any human being, but what is vastly more important is a level head, and what is even more important than that is a level, and guarded heart which will remind you of another of our most important tasks in life . What I'm trying to say is, somewhere along the way I became so consumed with my responsibilities and burdens I forgot how to say no to myself and to others, and yes to God. But that is not all! Somewhere along the way, believe it or not, Daniel Deckard actually became so consumed with his newly acquired "nip-it-in-the-bud" / PERFECTIONIST philosphy that he made little time for God and even less time for the basic concept of thinking, and for "happy-mediums." Because I made no time for God, I was completely incapable of tackling even half of the things that I truly desired to accomplish on a daily basis, let alone all of the things I needed to settle! I fell into a vicous cycle of neglect, the neglect of the daily spiritual renewal I needed. I needed this daily spiritual renewal with God not just so that I could appease God, or fullfill my Christian duty comprised of scripture study and adoration, but rather because, when a Christian places God at the forefront of their lives, God places that Christian in a place of prosperity; a place where time overflows, a place where a Christian may endure a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light (Matthew 11:30). Finally, I realized, and began once again entering into a daily quiet time with God AT THE FOREFRONT OF MY DAY, IMMEDIATLEY AFTER I AROSE, WHEN I WAS HUNGRY AND WEARY, WHEN I HAD TO SACRIFICE MY OWN FLESHLY DESIRES TO SLEEP AND EAT IN ORDER TO CONCENTRATE ON GOD INSPIRED SCRIPTURE,AND TO FOCUS MY MIND IN PRAYER. Interestingly enough, after I entered into this non-vicous cycle, this cycle of peace, and poise, thanksgiving break rolled up on me like a limousine and ever since I've been luxuriously thinking on Jesus, family, friends, and football! All jokes aside though, whether you're a freshman, or a senior, a businessmen, or a pizza guy, I challenge you to deeply consider whats at the center (or forefront) of your attention, and of your day to day life. Do you have faith in your own self to overcome the responsibiliities and burdens of life, or do you cast that all aside for 15 minutes when you get out of your bed hungry and exhausted so that you can renew your relationship with God? If you're leaning on your own understanding of how things will unfold, lean again! Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." I can honestly say that I wasn't trusting the Lord with my time, but instead I was coveting the 15 minutes (or more) each day that I should have devoted to God, and because of it, I had a costly price of frustration and time-constraints to pay. What's worse is that on at least one occasion I took out my frustration on another person. Think about it! Could your lack of daily renewal be effecting others, or your relationship with others?! Yea sure the prayers of a righteuous man avail much blah blah... but your prayers can't avail much at all if you don't pray em'! And I still wish to contend that they may avail much more if you pray them on God's time rather than your own! God hears you when you sit down at your desk and ask hor his help and mercy when you're about to take a test, but God also hears your prayer and notices your sacrifice when you murmur your prayers in the morning when you really want to be sleeping!

Please be on the lookout for new posts that I will mention in my facebook status!

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