Monday, August 6, 2012

When a Mended Spirit and a Broken Heart Collides.

Remember when I said periodically I would blog about something outside of the realm of fitness. Here’s to something outside of that world. Here’s to something outside of the world in general. Here’s to the someone that holds the world.
I have the same testimony as almost everyone I know. I was saved at a very young age, I mean, we live in the Bible Belt, it’s a sin not to be washed by the water before you hit double digits, right?
Here’s what being ‘saved’ has become. “When I was seven years old, I went to Vacation Bible School for a week and at the end of the week I said this prayer with the preacher and he told me I was saved and I would go to Heaven one day. Now I catch up with him on Easter and around Christmas time.” Now am I saying that if you got saved at VBS when you were a kid that means nothing, absolutely not! I went to VBS as a child and that played a HUGE role in my salvation. But I didn’t understand much about salvation or my faith until years later.
 Most teenagers are classified as young and dumb. Fortunately, I kind of bypassed that stage (to an extent; I sin just like the next guy and I’ve been my fair share of stupid). I didn’t exactly realize what the whole “following Jesus” thing was really about until I was a teenager. I’ve learned more since I was a sophomore until now than I did from the time I was saved until then.
“How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” –Galations 3:3
When I understood what exactly a Christian was and what their God given responsibilities are, that’s when my spirit was mended. I wasn’t aware of how incomplete I was before that time. I didn’t realize how much weight was on my shoulders, until it was no longer there.
At one time we were too foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.” –Titus 3:3-5
Like I mentioned earlier, I am being raised in the Bible Belt; which to me is a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes in the fact that we don’t have to drive an hour to the closest church and everyone goes to church. The curse is this- many people have not truly experienced the love of God and the legitimate change that comes after experiencing such a love as His. For the people that haven’t experienced it, yet claim Christianity, it sends a message. The message being, I can go out and drink like a fish as long as I go to church on Sunday, I’ll be fine. Living in the Bible Belt has made things very gray for most people. It has labeled some sins being worse than others. Being raised here is a dangerous thing because of the social norm. Children learn from example. How will the generations younger than us know that what we are doing, how we are living, is wrong?
Unless, by God’s grace, there is a change,  a revelation, a grand realization that what we are doing and what we are claiming cannot coexist, they will continue the pattern we started.
By now I assume I have lost some readers. That’s okay with me. Here comes the broken hearted part of the story.
I’ve already written that I wasn’t aware what I was getting into when I accepted Jesus as a child. And I’ve also mentioned about learning as I have gotten older. I’ve learned by example of my peers and the generations ahead of me. I’ve learned how my life shouldn’t be lived. I’ve never wanted to be the kid that goes out on the weekend and do only God knows what with only God knows who. I’ve never wanted to be the good kid except I do such-and-such. But I’ve been taught that living that way is okay. I’m tired of that being okay. I’m tired of that kind of lifestyle being pursued by our youth out of boredom, peer pressure, or any other explanation someone wants to throw out there.
Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone sins. Everyone has the same opportunity to be forgiven, pick up our cross, and live out the life we have been created for. I believe the generations before us have failed us. And unless a miracle happens, the pattern will continue and we will fail the world instead of change it.
Lately my heart has been so heavy. I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that something is not right. Slowly, I’ve begun to put the pieces together. Recently, I was given the statistic that 4% of the world’s population under the age of 18 fully accept and cling to the love and grace God has shown them and live their life in a way that shows that have been touched by the Holy Spirit. I am in complete agreement with the statement. Think about your friends, coworkers, family, and peers. Think about what they say versus their actions. You may agree with the statistic now, too. Anyways. I’ve prayed “God break my heart for what breaks yours” many times. And it is happening. When I go to school, or church, or even the gas station, my heart breaks. When I get on Facebook or Twitter my heart breaks.
So what happens when a mended spirit and a broken heart collide?
Change.

Being completely aware about what was actually done for us two thousand years ago on a tree and accepting that we are nothing and we were put on this planet for a purpose (not a self-fulfilling purpose) is where many of us are failing. Everyone knows Jesus died on a cross for our sins and rose three days later. But hearing something all the time from the time we were born loses its meaning- remember the Bible Belt curse I talked about, yeah, it applies here too. We have head knowledge of that. When we gain heart knowledge of that, our spirit mends by the entering of the Holy Spirit into our lives. Digging in our Bible ourselves for what God ordains right and wrong, that’s where the broken heart comes from.
“Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right.”- 1 Peter 2:24
Do you think God is happy with our name it and claim, me me me, all rewards and no sacrifice society we have been born into and have contributed to? No. Do you think He is ready to shake us and yell “wake up, time is running out!” right in our faces? You bet. Do you think He is content with us putting Him in a box and only getting Him out on Sundays and when we go visit Maw Maw? Absolutely not. Does he long for us to stop dead in our tracks, turn around, admit He’s right, and jump into His arms? More than anything. Are His arms open and waiting for us to take that step toward Him? They have been our whole lives.
I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.” –Jeremiah 31:34
What are we waiting on? Why aren’t we what we were called to be? Why are we taking part in the games of a dying world when we could be the generation that is the pebble that will one day be a wave?
My answer? Claims of a mended spirit without the blessing of a broken heart.


This is the Mission Jamaica team from my church. They all have mended spirits and broken heart. They did the Lord's work in Jamaica and are a blessing to our church. They are an awesome group of folks!



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