| Squish, Squash, Ouch!... Ahhh. Perfection. I feel like the Lord at times allows us to go through things. Sometimes we push aside weakness, smooth over guilt and fears, and we totally avoid issues rather than dealing with them. Rick Joyner wrote Purpose Driven Life and John Ortberg is another good writer. Both writers like to write about how we can overcome being driven by peer approval and acceptance of others. They also speak on accepting how someone is and deciding not to take it on ourselves to change them. Now of course, we all want to be accepted, liked, and believed in. This of course can be a bondage for our lives. It is often a bondage for many people. Human beings could really be classified as porcupines. Boy can we stick each other. Like the porcupine, we're all about attack and run. Getting all defensive and then going into hiding in one shape or form. Aren't you glad about grace though? God is gracious enough to send other people our way to expose what we have tried to hide and smooth over. God allows these things that haven;t been dealt with to surface so that we can move on deeper in Him. God is preparing His body. He's preparing His ministers. Can you visualize the potter's wheel? Exposing things. Working things out. Crushing. Remolding. Squeezing. Adding more water. I know for sure that I'm not a finished product. I've yet to see someone who has arrived. It hurts. I hate it when my insecurities are exposed. I and everybody loves to hide every weakness. But you see, God wants to work out our junk. Insecurities. Looks, people gotta think we're cool, people should want to be around us, we should be trusted, what about your bad memory, what about your past, what about how we aren't like other folks. Can you relate? I struggle with the same things. The Lord has been exposing old things in me. He wants it all dealt with. How else can the message be taken to the nation(s)? There's nothing wrong with being introspective. God is gracious. This is a thought or message of/on grace. Do you have any kinks? Jeremy Brown 2005 BACK |