10.03.2009

It's All About Relationship

Here is one page out of a book that grabbed the attention of my heart.
More and more I am beginning to see not the value of
  • Reading the Bible More
  • Praying to Pray
  • Trying Harder
  • Doing More "Good"
  • Staying away from "Bad"

But the reason I am alive. Why I was created and given all the faculties I have. To enjoy an ever increasing, glorious relationship with the Living God, and by this bring Him glory.

Of course Bible reading, prayer, etc are obviously essential, but are hollow if they are my end. Everything is only as valuable as its assistance in bringing me into the relationship for which I was created. All of these "Christian" things are only valid as a means to an end: Relationship. Everything I am and do is to flow from this amazing connection!

Enough said by me, the excerpt from the book Adoration I am posting highlights Mary of Bethany, Jesus' friend who sat at His feet and anointed Him. She was known by her criticised lifestyle of "waste" and "laziness" in the eyes of others but was constantly defended by Jesus Himself. I long to live in the same recklessness of affection and passion for Jesus.

"A valid work awaits for us
A work of God's design
A labor calling for courage
A sweating toil that is our greatest adventure
Jesus answered the valid question of responsible men
"Tell us how to work the works of God."
"Work," He said, is this:
"To believe on the One God has sent..." John 6:29
And that is most practical
Believe that the Son of God is your very performance
Your duties, your strength to live
Another lives your life entirely
Does your work for you...instead of you
Another energy moves you
Another being completes your tasks
The work to attain this is the investment in a relationship
Mary's unacclaimed labor: to build a relationship with the Son of God
And from that deep kinship--to believe in Him, live by Him.
To build a union with the knowable Son is work.
Requiring all the energy and focus of any other toil.
It takes an exertion of the blank will to meet God face to face
Activity can shield you from it, spare you and protect you
From that awful gaze on your ugly nothingness
Activity can mask an empty soul
And give you a fake costume of nobility
But to face God when He calls your name takes more grit than mere toil
More sweat than projects
And to care for nothing except Him--no one but Him--is a reduction that
Means labor until the very death
Mary did it.
She worked to subdue her mind to His mind
Her life to His wishes, her time to His pleasure
Her heart to His love.
Mary's secret work by being hid
Gained no accolades from her peers
To listen to One outside of yourself, to hear a voice without an echo--
Because not audible--is the hardest work of mankind
So hard that few will do it.
It means waiting, it means risking
It takes the surrender of every device,
The loss of every independence
The normal work of humanity is increase
But the labor of Spiritual listening is only decrease."
(Martha Kilpatrick, Adoration, Copyright © 1999, http://www.shulamite.com/)

Selah. (Pause, and calmly think on that)

1 comment:

  1. That was awesome Brooke! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and hers...beautiful! (hugs)

    ReplyDelete

Please keep in mind Luke 6:45 (A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.), Proverbs 21:23 (Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.) and Psalm 19:14 (May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.)before posting a comment.