The Journey Of Less Is More...

God is good.
 More of Him and less of me, is better.

In every situation, no matter the pain or anguish.
He walks the road along side us, carrying us most days. He longs to share our burden.
We don't share most days.

 Years ago I learned my goal as a daughter of Christ had gone wrong somewhere.
 All those years I thought I was supposed to bring souls to Jesus...
 I was not very good at that.
It may have had to do with the way I lived my life... selfishly.

I was to bring Him glory.
Through my life... less of me, more of Him.

 People will see Jesus if I live for Him.
If I stop saying things like, "You need Jesus and then your life will be so much better."  

Jesus doesn't want to be stuffed down anyone's throat.
He is a chosen, choice morsel, when the palate is ready.
He is rich, consumed in small amounts sometimes, especially in the beginning.
 Later, He can be gobbled up when you find a hunger so deep, that you know only He can fill you.
He is a gentleman.
He is patient, unlike us.
He will wait for our hunger.

  I remember learning this through a Godly women.
My pastors wife, after my first husband died. Pastors wives can be a glorious thing. She shared gentle words that made me hunger for her wisdom.

 I learned that I could glorify God through loving others, my family, doing simple acts.
 Tasks I may have complained about, I could turn into blessings and bring glory to God.

 If I grumble about my life, what do I show you? A selfish woman without joy.
I knew the differance between joy and happiness.
I knew becoming a follower of Jesus didn't mean life would always be sweet and lovely.
 It might suck...
People would still leave you, by death or because they didn't love you anymore.
By choice or tragedy.
You would not have a say.
But you could claim joy, that lived deep in your soul.
God put it there, for times like these.
When life got hard, unfair.
When you were attacked.
Joy would be the reminder to you... of who you are.
Of whose you are.

Chosen.
Less of you, more of Him.
More Joy.
Joy will last you a lifetime.
Happiness, but a moment.

 I stopped practicing my Lone Ranger Christianity.
 I started asking God what He wanted me to do today.
Who did He want me to connect with.
  God was working around me. He wanted me to join Him.

  He opened doors when I began listening.
I felt a new hunger for His word.
The books I chose, authors who grew me in Christ, instead of working against my marriage by examples of unrealistic expectations.
He was teaching me wisdom. 
He was replacing fear with trust, in Him, for all things.

 I read the Cost Of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Brother Lawrence, Brennan Manning and  The Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster.
I am still reading these books.
I am a slow learner.

 As American author Annie Dillard said,

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” 

The things we spend time in fill us up.

What will the overflow be in our lives?

Then I learned that life wasn't about me.

I had learned my goal was to bring God glory. I was feeling joy, and seeking Him first but somehow I had not learned the “about me” part.

 I'm still learning this part.
I should have understood this when I learned the glorify part, but I am slow and selfish.

I swallowed these words whole, choking them down.
But I kept them down.
 If it's not about me, then it must be about Him. I found freedom.
 Freedom from trying to get it all right in this world, making the right connections, the right friends. The list is long.

Less of me, more of Him.

This cleared out the clutter and confusion.
Relationships are what matter. The relationship God grows in me, through His Son and then the relationships we build with others.
Relationships that go deep, challenging each other, holding each other accountable, with grace.

 The bucket lists we write do not matter.
Heaven is going be a gigantic, eternal bucket list that we get to refill every day. We will never run out of options and ideas.

This time, this life, this vapor that is rapidly dissipating... this is what counts.

Everyday I have the choice to sit and be idle or serve my Jesus.

Someone once said, "Choosing Jesus costs you nothing, living for Him will cost you everything." 

I believe that. I want to be all in.
How about you?