Being not Doing... and Event vs.. Process...
Light For Life April 2005
Recently in my life, I have felt like I am more in the will of God, or the right place than ever before. I have had a true peace on the inside which really does pass all understanding, and I know this because I have made some changes to my life that I never thought I would, or that I would be able to make. Usually when you get to this peaceful place someone will come along and say something to the contrary which leaves the ball in your court, are you hearing God or are they? And, if you feel you are hearing right will you let these words unsettle you? I was beginning to get secure with my changes when that happened to me – something said which seemed to be very different from what I thought, so naturally it confused me a little and I had to ask God, “Am I really hearing you or am I just doing my own thing, off from where You want me?”
I was thinking about this again and talking a friend who has walked along side me all through the journey of 2004, I came to the conclusion and realization that I really do believe that I am in the will of God. How do I know? When I look at my life and family there is peace, and there is good fruit in the shape of answers to prayer and miracles happening around me. For me to feel so peaceful about the changes in my life HAS to be a miracle, this is SO unlike me, I am the one who clings on, and holds onto things, I have great difficulty letting go! I am sure I am not alone.
My friend put it really well when she said that it might seem to people that the changes I have made have been an overnight decision but it was a long process, not made rashly. It wasn’t an ‘event’ it was the end of a long process. These choices were not overnight decisions, I fought them out all last year, it was hard and painful to even choose. It took a lot to help from God and friends and some tough lessons to make me let go; I had to be brought to my knees to actually let go, and a lot of that happens where people don’t see it, and so others may not understand at first.
Its possible that people may see our decisions and think – ‘What is he/she doing? Are they off the track or deceived?’ But, in actuality for me God had already spoken it ahead of time, through my Pastor friend and mentor Jenny last year. She spoke to me of God calling me down a different road, a road that others were not going down, a ‘road less traveled by’ which was what confused me because it was not the ‘norm’, but it was the right road for me. It was a road to authenticity. It was a road of being not doing! Thinking on it right now, I remember that after she prayed for me that day, it was the first time I was even just willing to say ‘Ok, if you want me to make the changes then give me the grace and I will be able, I will be willing to be willing’.
I was watching a program on the Australian Christian Channel and a man from the UK was preaching about ‘Event vs... Process’. He said most often God uses process in our lives, we want quick overnight but He takes time to do his work, involving obedience and trust which isn’t easy, he said decisions made by process are better than made by events. One of the scriptures he used was Mathew 7:24, exactly the passage I have been studying!! He spoke on building the right foundations, digging down to the rock (Jesus), and the process that goes along with that, which involves completing a lot of hard work and takes time. The foolish builder, instead gets things done quickly – by building on the sand, which is bad foundations – he makes a quick show that doesn’t end up lasting when the storms, wind and rain. It is not an event it is a process.
People may not understand where you are at if it is very out of character for you, I have always been one found doing stuff but now I feel free in just being. (Read this slowly) I am becoming content with ‘being’ and I don’t NEED to know what I need to be doing anymore. Before, I lived to know what I was meant to be doing, and then to be doing it. Right now, I don’t need to know what I am meant to be doing, but I do know that I am doing what I am meant to be doing! Right now I am giving my all to my family – loving them and being there, to have those deep and meaningful talks with my kids, meeting their needs, not running off somewhere or preparing for something or doing something for others, everything in moderation. Do you see what I am saying? I am doing what I am meant to be doing! This is the priority assignment of my life and for the moment the only assignment!
For too long I have unconsciously drawn my contentment, my security, my identity, my being, from what I have been doing, busy, busy – whether that has been helping someone, or being involved in any number of tasks. I felt God say to me ‘Open your hands wide and I will fill them’. I want God to set the foundations of my life, putting things back into my life; (which are the foundations to my house that I am building on The Rock - God) the things that are the bricks He wants to use. I will stay right here with my hands wide open and wait. I don’t need to know now! I am not in rush to know! As far as I am concerned I am doing what God wants me to do right now and it is all the more amazing because it is not what I thought I would doing! It is being, and as the shampoo ad goes “It won’t happen overnight but it will happen!”
Love
Cam
Word For Life
Being – At peace, happy with who you are, content in yourself (my definition).
Doing – Activities done, always busy, can’t sit still, occupied (my definition).
Event - An important and unusual happening
Process – Any continued set of natural actions connected with the continuation, development and change of life or matter over which man has little control or a continued set of actions performed intentionally in order to reach some result.
The Word
Luke 10:38-42
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village ; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, Lord do You not care that My sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me" And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha you are worried and troubled about many tings. "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."
