under my skin and out at sea
Trying to walk closely with the Lord and trying to remain teachable and open to correction is a dangerous place to be, although it's the best place to be. Never in my life up til the past 2 months have i been so continuously challenged, week in and week out, to change my views on life, to change my attitudes towards people, to work, to life. To sum it all up, i've begun to say to myself,"shut up, elliot, you are not the centre of the universe, and God doesn't wanna hear about your self-centred gripes about your nails not being manicured right!" haha... well i haven't said that to myself enough actually, so i should start saying it more. I said it once to myself this morning while at church - not surprisingly i had a gripe about the music - but it blew over, and thinking to myself that i wasn't the centre of the universe really helped me get over it! (I bet Andy's smiling now)
I've been learning about engaging with my studies at uni. I haven't quite put it into practise yet ( i typed out an essay, 1st draft, no time to check, in an hour and 15 mins - 1500 words, and finished it like 3s before it was due, only to find my internet was down so i couldn't hand it in til it was 10mins late)... haha but i intend to. It's another part of my life which God's been revealing to me that hasn't quite been given up to Him yet, and i haven't exactly been letting Him in to it seeing i only give myself one night to finish the last few essays! I'm starting to learn that all truth i learn at uni comes from God, and Jesus being the True Light that enlightens everyone enables me to recognise all truth as being from Him. And the stuff that i learn that isn't truth, deserves to be challenged, so people will know the Truth! And how can i challenge those lies or half-truths without knowing what it's actually claiming (ie. i need to study those lies and bloomin expose them!) and what God has to say about those things? Til now, i haven't said much during lessons simply cos i'm too afraid to offend anyone or because i can't be bothered to read up or study or think, i'd rather remain indifferent and 'cool'. :) Nigel Pollock, TSCF director told a story on Fri which really inspired me - about a christian dude who challenged something his lecturer said; the lecturer then brought in the head of department, who later brought in the faculty head, who finally conceded that the syllabus wasn't quite up to scratch and agreed to amend it. This led to his coursemate becoming a Christian. Why? Because his coursemate thought to himself,"Dang, if this dude has thought so much about glacierisation and knows it so well, surely he's thought even more critically about Jesus Christ, surely that's worth finding out more about!" What an encouragement - that this dude's witness in his geology class by his research and knowledge - brought someone to Christ. And as Nigel said, it's a shame we haven't more of these stories to tell. Let there be more! All this started with my sharing with Andy that i wasn't quite getting into my uni work, and as usual he got stuck under my skin, challenging me to rearrange my thoughts about my service to God and my attitude toward serving Him. I praise God for Andy, never failing to speak the truth in love - always bringing me to question my thoughts and motives and realigning them with a heavenly perspective. He always says things that may offend me, and if i thought i was the centre of the universe, i'd probably be offended, but God has really been telling me that He wants all of my life, and not just my 'ministry department'. I pray that i will learn not just to encourage people but to challenge them with God's Word and cause them to think critically about their lives and how the Gospel is precisely relevant to it.
Last Thurs i did another of my 'quick dip into the Gospel' presentations. For our performance paper, everyone had free reign to do any sort of performance for about 5 minutes and be assessed on it. So i did one about the meaning of life. That was the gist of it, but its title was 'Batteries Not Included' and it was intended to question everyone's reason for living and doing things, and whether the things they do have eternal consequences, or whether it'll all just die out and mean nothing in a few years, let alone for eternity. The title came from a John Mayer song called Something's Missing, and in it he talks about his longing for something that's missing in his life.
I'm not alone, I wish I was
'Cause then I'd know I was down because
I couldn't find a friend around
To love me like they do right now
I'm dizzy from the shopping mall
I searched for joy but I bought it all
It doesn't help the hunger pains
And a thirst I'd have to drown first to ever satiate
Something's missing
And I don't know how to fix it
Something's missing
And I don't know what it is
At the end of the song, he sings,"How come everything i think i need always comes with batteries?" by which i think he means - how come everything he thinks he needs never lasts very long? Which i think is hugely significant. Someone who seems to have it all, good looks, talent, signature ranges with Martin and Fender guitars... he's someone with 'The World at His Feet',no less. But his song says it all. Something's missing. If only someone could tell him what it is. That was why i named my presentation that - and i picked up an exerpt from Rachel Scott's diary - the girl who was killed in the Columbine High School shootings for saying she believed in God - and used that as an example of someone who had life sussed out, simply because she was willing to lose her life for something she believed had greater importance. In her diary she talks about willing to give up everything, friends and all, for her best friend, Jesus. In the end, she did give everything up. So that was pretty much my presentation, giving them a glimpse of something beyond their pre-supposed assumptions about life and the Christian faith. I pray that God will give me opportunity to discuss it with them. They seemed pretty receptive and encouraging. :)
Okay. I'm exhausted and it's 0230. Just wanna end by telling you my fave part of last week - yesterday i did bible study with Kate in her room for about 45mins. We did John1, one of my fave passages in the Bible, and we learnt about Jesus being God's self-disclosure, and Kate learnt that God could have remained silent, and not said anything, and left us to rot in cool, damp, darkness. But he chose to reveal Himself to us through Jesus Christ, who was all God's fullness, full of grace and truth. I realised, suddenly, that the best thing that I could give to Kate, my sister and best friend, was helping her to learn more and better understand the sublime truth of Jesus Christ, and not chocolates or music lessons or jam sessions or boyfriend vetoing. And that's what happened yesterday, 1630hrs, by the grace of God :) A brother's bliss.
I've been learning about engaging with my studies at uni. I haven't quite put it into practise yet ( i typed out an essay, 1st draft, no time to check, in an hour and 15 mins - 1500 words, and finished it like 3s before it was due, only to find my internet was down so i couldn't hand it in til it was 10mins late)... haha but i intend to. It's another part of my life which God's been revealing to me that hasn't quite been given up to Him yet, and i haven't exactly been letting Him in to it seeing i only give myself one night to finish the last few essays! I'm starting to learn that all truth i learn at uni comes from God, and Jesus being the True Light that enlightens everyone enables me to recognise all truth as being from Him. And the stuff that i learn that isn't truth, deserves to be challenged, so people will know the Truth! And how can i challenge those lies or half-truths without knowing what it's actually claiming (ie. i need to study those lies and bloomin expose them!) and what God has to say about those things? Til now, i haven't said much during lessons simply cos i'm too afraid to offend anyone or because i can't be bothered to read up or study or think, i'd rather remain indifferent and 'cool'. :) Nigel Pollock, TSCF director told a story on Fri which really inspired me - about a christian dude who challenged something his lecturer said; the lecturer then brought in the head of department, who later brought in the faculty head, who finally conceded that the syllabus wasn't quite up to scratch and agreed to amend it. This led to his coursemate becoming a Christian. Why? Because his coursemate thought to himself,"Dang, if this dude has thought so much about glacierisation and knows it so well, surely he's thought even more critically about Jesus Christ, surely that's worth finding out more about!" What an encouragement - that this dude's witness in his geology class by his research and knowledge - brought someone to Christ. And as Nigel said, it's a shame we haven't more of these stories to tell. Let there be more! All this started with my sharing with Andy that i wasn't quite getting into my uni work, and as usual he got stuck under my skin, challenging me to rearrange my thoughts about my service to God and my attitude toward serving Him. I praise God for Andy, never failing to speak the truth in love - always bringing me to question my thoughts and motives and realigning them with a heavenly perspective. He always says things that may offend me, and if i thought i was the centre of the universe, i'd probably be offended, but God has really been telling me that He wants all of my life, and not just my 'ministry department'. I pray that i will learn not just to encourage people but to challenge them with God's Word and cause them to think critically about their lives and how the Gospel is precisely relevant to it.
Last Thurs i did another of my 'quick dip into the Gospel' presentations. For our performance paper, everyone had free reign to do any sort of performance for about 5 minutes and be assessed on it. So i did one about the meaning of life. That was the gist of it, but its title was 'Batteries Not Included' and it was intended to question everyone's reason for living and doing things, and whether the things they do have eternal consequences, or whether it'll all just die out and mean nothing in a few years, let alone for eternity. The title came from a John Mayer song called Something's Missing, and in it he talks about his longing for something that's missing in his life.
I'm not alone, I wish I was
'Cause then I'd know I was down because
I couldn't find a friend around
To love me like they do right now
I'm dizzy from the shopping mall
I searched for joy but I bought it all
It doesn't help the hunger pains
And a thirst I'd have to drown first to ever satiate
Something's missing
And I don't know how to fix it
Something's missing
And I don't know what it is
At the end of the song, he sings,"How come everything i think i need always comes with batteries?" by which i think he means - how come everything he thinks he needs never lasts very long? Which i think is hugely significant. Someone who seems to have it all, good looks, talent, signature ranges with Martin and Fender guitars... he's someone with 'The World at His Feet',no less. But his song says it all. Something's missing. If only someone could tell him what it is. That was why i named my presentation that - and i picked up an exerpt from Rachel Scott's diary - the girl who was killed in the Columbine High School shootings for saying she believed in God - and used that as an example of someone who had life sussed out, simply because she was willing to lose her life for something she believed had greater importance. In her diary she talks about willing to give up everything, friends and all, for her best friend, Jesus. In the end, she did give everything up. So that was pretty much my presentation, giving them a glimpse of something beyond their pre-supposed assumptions about life and the Christian faith. I pray that God will give me opportunity to discuss it with them. They seemed pretty receptive and encouraging. :)
Okay. I'm exhausted and it's 0230. Just wanna end by telling you my fave part of last week - yesterday i did bible study with Kate in her room for about 45mins. We did John1, one of my fave passages in the Bible, and we learnt about Jesus being God's self-disclosure, and Kate learnt that God could have remained silent, and not said anything, and left us to rot in cool, damp, darkness. But he chose to reveal Himself to us through Jesus Christ, who was all God's fullness, full of grace and truth. I realised, suddenly, that the best thing that I could give to Kate, my sister and best friend, was helping her to learn more and better understand the sublime truth of Jesus Christ, and not chocolates or music lessons or jam sessions or boyfriend vetoing. And that's what happened yesterday, 1630hrs, by the grace of God :) A brother's bliss.
posted by elliot at 12:45 AM
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