this weekend i read a book. i love to read fiction books and get lost in someone else's world for awhile. i had gone to the library and randomly picked a book off the new christian fiction shelf. it was called the perfect life and well, since that is what i have, i decided it sounded good!
okay....well...the title intrigued me. what i found was a book that was just okay in it's actual writing, but the truth in the story really spoke to me. basically it was about a woman who had the perfect husband, perfect daughters, and overall perfect home life. until in one moment it all falls apart. now the really interesting thing here is that it didn't need to fall apart - it just became flawed. and that flaw sent her in a downward spiral. she could no longer hold to her perfect image.
so this got me thinking.....do i create the perfect world? am i so focused on what everybody thinks about me that i don't allow myself to be real? it goes back to the whole conversation we love to have with everyone:
person 1: hey! how are you?
person 2: great! and you?
person 1: wonderful!
person 2: good! have a great day..
person 1: yeah...you too!!
how many of those conversations do you have with people? i would guess you have about 3-4, if not more, a day. think about it. the person checking you out at the grocery store. your child's preschool teacher, the person at the bank, the postman. i've got you don't i?? would you ever dare to be truly honest with those people? you might be willling to, but you also really don't want them to be honest, do you?
now let me ask you this...how many of those conversations do you have with God? isn't that how we treat Him too? while at times we throw our temper tantrums with God, how often do we get real with him? how often do we really bare our soul? and how often do we stop and ask God how He is? What?? what i mean by that is how often do we bare our soul and then stop to listen to what God thinks about that. God has feelings and emotions too. we tend to box Him in. but He does feel. He hurts, He rejoices, He grieves, He loves, etc...
i think most of the time we are scared to ask Him what He feels. what if He tells me His heart is breaking over my neighbor who is lonely. or if he tells me He is really sad that I didn't stop and talk to the lady at the store today because i was in a hurry to get my stuff and out of there? what if tells me He loves me so much it hurts???? what would i do with that?
i really understood this fictional characters desire to have the perfect life. don't we all want to seem perfect? what she soon found was that her desire to have the perfect picture had left a lot of the important things empty. if we are unwilling to be raw and real and honest with people and God we will miss out on knowing God. on really, deeply knowing God.
okay....well...the title intrigued me. what i found was a book that was just okay in it's actual writing, but the truth in the story really spoke to me. basically it was about a woman who had the perfect husband, perfect daughters, and overall perfect home life. until in one moment it all falls apart. now the really interesting thing here is that it didn't need to fall apart - it just became flawed. and that flaw sent her in a downward spiral. she could no longer hold to her perfect image.
so this got me thinking.....do i create the perfect world? am i so focused on what everybody thinks about me that i don't allow myself to be real? it goes back to the whole conversation we love to have with everyone:
person 1: hey! how are you?
person 2: great! and you?
person 1: wonderful!
person 2: good! have a great day..
person 1: yeah...you too!!
how many of those conversations do you have with people? i would guess you have about 3-4, if not more, a day. think about it. the person checking you out at the grocery store. your child's preschool teacher, the person at the bank, the postman. i've got you don't i?? would you ever dare to be truly honest with those people? you might be willling to, but you also really don't want them to be honest, do you?
now let me ask you this...how many of those conversations do you have with God? isn't that how we treat Him too? while at times we throw our temper tantrums with God, how often do we get real with him? how often do we really bare our soul? and how often do we stop and ask God how He is? What?? what i mean by that is how often do we bare our soul and then stop to listen to what God thinks about that. God has feelings and emotions too. we tend to box Him in. but He does feel. He hurts, He rejoices, He grieves, He loves, etc...
i think most of the time we are scared to ask Him what He feels. what if He tells me His heart is breaking over my neighbor who is lonely. or if he tells me He is really sad that I didn't stop and talk to the lady at the store today because i was in a hurry to get my stuff and out of there? what if tells me He loves me so much it hurts???? what would i do with that?
i really understood this fictional characters desire to have the perfect life. don't we all want to seem perfect? what she soon found was that her desire to have the perfect picture had left a lot of the important things empty. if we are unwilling to be raw and real and honest with people and God we will miss out on knowing God. on really, deeply knowing God.
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