Other than of course becoming a Christian and realising that I used to belong to a cultish church, here are 5 big ideas that changed my life and my way of thinking/living:
1. Finding out that conversion is an ongoing process not a once for all event…this takes off the pressure to be SURE about everything immediately and gives me time to understand and ponder things in a deeper way.
God plants an eternal seed in our life when we first turn to Jesus and away from all the stuff. It takes a while for the seed to root, to take in water, then you see some growth above ground, then the plant grows, flowers and eventually bears fruit. Life in God is a process. We want fruit NOW! But stable change takes time.
2. To ask myself, “Who is in control?” when I become angry and frustrated about things. And even in relation to forgiveness, etc.
When someone does something that annoys me it is difficult to let it go sometimes. To allow anger to spill out into ranting or complaining...or *fill in the blank*. Who is in control at that point? Well not me because I have lost control of my emotions. Not God because my fear has got the better of me.
When I feel the urge to shout at an inconsiderate driver (or such like) I say to myself, "Who is in control?"
3. That the word translated in the Bible ‘perfect’ – teleios – means:
‘mature (consummated) from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey).’ (from HelpsBible)
So I don’t need to be PERFECT immediately, it’s a process! Which goes back to my understanding that conversion is ongoing. Yay! Pressure release!
I think we can all relate to this in our faith, we see God changing us in some way through life events or teaching, and such discipline can sometimes feel hard. But at the end you look back and see how far you've come. And then something else comes up...but there's no pressure. It's all about being transformed, by God not ourselves or anyone else, so there's no rush either.
4. That (in a sense) I don’t need to clean-up and make room for Jesus in my life, I open the door to Jesus and he cleans up and makes the room. I just need to be open to the change and willing to go along with it. Just a little bit of light makes a lot of darkness go.
Invite Jesus in. You might be a total mess with no room for anything in your life, but faith is like a mustard seed. Tiny, but it doesn't half grow into big trees! :)
5. That really no-one cares if my house isn’t perfect. In fact, people are more comfortable when my house is imperfect because it takes the pressure off them to have perfect houses when I visit, plus they aren’t in terror of dropping a crumb, wrinkling a cushion, or spilling a drink. Hospitality is about people not houses or fine dining.
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| This is what happens when I try to replicate pins too (CraftFail) :) |
Pinterest and such-like, give us a mixed-up view of what home/life should be. It isn't all soft focus and perfect housekeeping. It's people, and life, and joy, and grief, and mess, and gunk, and children, and friends, and messy-church stuff, and well...I could go on.
Yes, it's OK to fail!
