Extreme sports. Adrenaline junkies. The latest technology and newest innovations. The most recent Hollywood blockbuster. Traveling to exotic places. Super star athletes. Cars...cars...and more cars...!
What is it with our amazement and addiction to these things? Simple - our inherent desire for fascination! We all long to be amazed, to be inspired, intrigued, captivated, left in awe! We all want to be blown away by something or someone. We want bigger, faster, stronger, more amazing, more captivating, more, more, more.
But the amazing thing about all of this is that despite all of the avenues that are readily available to help “satisfy” this desire, i.e. sports, $, things, adventures, drugs, porn, etc., to be honest with you, I am still bored!
All of these avenues actually disappoint more often than not! I could always keep trying to go for the newest and most exhilerating thing, but I really feel like I would just end up at the same place I am right now. Eventually I would run out of options and feel just as bored! And that is exactly where our society is today. With all of the stuff and opportunities we have, we are still an incredibly bored people! Why do movie stars practically thrive on "drama", or why do athletes have to pursue dangerous and illegal activity on the side? Why? Because, even with all that they have, they still hunger for a deeper fascination.
No amount of finite things could ever fill an infinite hole and longing. No amount of possessions, no new experiences, no second, or third or fourth marriages, nothing.
We have to look to the infinite to satsify this desire.
What does that look like or mean to you? What things have you been looking to/searching for/clawing after to bring you fascination? How long did it last? Are you still bored?
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Looking For Love in All The Wrong Places-
Here are some other things to think about as we continue to discuss our desire for unconditional love.
1. Love and worth spring forth naturally from desirability
You see we typically feel that our value is derived from our contributions or our performance, but that simply is not true. There is something much greater and much deeper going on there. A typical home in Albuquerque costs around $200,000. The same exact house, same square footage, same size lot, etc. out here in Malibu would cost over 1 million dollars! What’s the difference? The quality of the home? The usability of the home? No. The difference is desirability. A greater number of people desire the house out here, for a number of reasons. But because of the demand, it has higher value. Now think about this, your value comes not from what you do, or the contributions you make, or even from the mistakes you make, but from the simple fact that the God of the Universe desires you. You are in high demand, therefore, you have great value.
2. Many of us have a misunderstanding that God loves us less when we sin or go against his will
What we fail to realize and grasp is that there is a huge difference between immaturity and rebellion. God knows that we are but dust and ashes, that we are weak and fragile, and that we are all very young in our Christian walk. So when we mess up, God doesn’t blast us or rebuke us or stop loving us. Just as a mother wouldn’t have blasted or rebuked or stopped loving her children because they weren’t walking or talking or using utensils right out of the womb. It takes time to develop and grow and God knows that. God knows it takes time to mature and become what He intended you to become and he loves you all the more as you struggle through that maturity process.
Any thoughts?
1. Love and worth spring forth naturally from desirability
You see we typically feel that our value is derived from our contributions or our performance, but that simply is not true. There is something much greater and much deeper going on there. A typical home in Albuquerque costs around $200,000. The same exact house, same square footage, same size lot, etc. out here in Malibu would cost over 1 million dollars! What’s the difference? The quality of the home? The usability of the home? No. The difference is desirability. A greater number of people desire the house out here, for a number of reasons. But because of the demand, it has higher value. Now think about this, your value comes not from what you do, or the contributions you make, or even from the mistakes you make, but from the simple fact that the God of the Universe desires you. You are in high demand, therefore, you have great value.
2. Many of us have a misunderstanding that God loves us less when we sin or go against his will
What we fail to realize and grasp is that there is a huge difference between immaturity and rebellion. God knows that we are but dust and ashes, that we are weak and fragile, and that we are all very young in our Christian walk. So when we mess up, God doesn’t blast us or rebuke us or stop loving us. Just as a mother wouldn’t have blasted or rebuked or stopped loving her children because they weren’t walking or talking or using utensils right out of the womb. It takes time to develop and grow and God knows that. God knows it takes time to mature and become what He intended you to become and he loves you all the more as you struggle through that maturity process.
Any thoughts?
Friday, September 7, 2007
Stinky Faces
It's the most fundamental and critical of all the desires of the human heart. The desire to be enjoyed, the desire to be liked, the desire to be accepted, or as we are going to refer to it, the desire to be loved unconditionally.
We want to be fully known, to be real, to be genuine and to just be ourselves.
We want to know that if we lay all our cards out on the table, we won’t have to worry about everybody else cashing in and walking away, either out of fear or disgust.
We want to feel loved, needed and important just because of who we are, and not what we do.
We want to know that if we have a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad year, we will still be loved.
Basically, we want to know that if we were a stinky face, someone would still love us!
But, we primarilly act on this desire by becoming obsessed with gaining the approval and love of others. And the only problem with that is it causes us to live fake, tentative, and hidden lives; afraid that at any moment the "real us" will be found out and the love will stop.
How foolish it is, though, to live this way and to look to someone else to fulfill this desire because everybody else is struggling with and searching for the same exact thing! So how in the world could they possibly give me something they don’t even have!?
But where should we go then? Should we just conclude that the fickle, merit based love we have experienced thus far in life is as good as it gets? Should we just throw our hands up and stop searching for unconditional love because we are tired of being dissappointed? Or should we allow our desire to be loved to push us past earthly relationships and draw us to something and someone so much greater?
In Malichi 1:1-2, God stands up among all of the fake, cheap imitations of love and proclaims "I love you!" But, we respond with doubt and disbelief. "How have you loved us God?!"
How would you answer this question and how do passages like Isaiah 49:15-16 , Isaiah 62:4 , Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 18:1-19, and Ezekiel 16:4-14 help us to answer this question?
We want to be fully known, to be real, to be genuine and to just be ourselves.
We want to know that if we lay all our cards out on the table, we won’t have to worry about everybody else cashing in and walking away, either out of fear or disgust.
We want to feel loved, needed and important just because of who we are, and not what we do.
We want to know that if we have a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad year, we will still be loved.
Basically, we want to know that if we were a stinky face, someone would still love us!
But, we primarilly act on this desire by becoming obsessed with gaining the approval and love of others. And the only problem with that is it causes us to live fake, tentative, and hidden lives; afraid that at any moment the "real us" will be found out and the love will stop.
How foolish it is, though, to live this way and to look to someone else to fulfill this desire because everybody else is struggling with and searching for the same exact thing! So how in the world could they possibly give me something they don’t even have!?
But where should we go then? Should we just conclude that the fickle, merit based love we have experienced thus far in life is as good as it gets? Should we just throw our hands up and stop searching for unconditional love because we are tired of being dissappointed? Or should we allow our desire to be loved to push us past earthly relationships and draw us to something and someone so much greater?
In Malichi 1:1-2, God stands up among all of the fake, cheap imitations of love and proclaims "I love you!" But, we respond with doubt and disbelief. "How have you loved us God?!"
How would you answer this question and how do passages like Isaiah 49:15-16 , Isaiah 62:4 , Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 18:1-19, and Ezekiel 16:4-14 help us to answer this question?
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