Paris or bust. When life changes directions.

I boarded a plane about a year ago with my long awaited ticket in hand to Paris.  I had wanted to go my entire life.  It had been something I had dreamt about, thought about, did projects about, wrote papers about for as long as I could remember.

After a long flight there our plane landed and in a delightful voice the airline attendant said 'hello and welcome to Australia'. 

What? Wait! I didn't buy a ticket to Australia.  My ticket said Paris, France.  There had been a serious mix up and I was upset...beyond upset...I was furious!  I planned a trip to Paris not Australia.  The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower were the first on my list of things to do. Australia had nothing to do with paintings or architecture!

Ever feel like that in life? Have you ever set out in life planning to get to one destination but instead got taken "off course" in another direction?  

As I got off the plane in anticipation of art I've only read about, cute cafes with real beignets and amazing architecture instead I saw the Outback filled with a lot of brown landscape....not exactly the colors Monet, Van Gogh or Rembrandt used...nope just lots of brown.

There I sat a bit puzzled and disillusioned by my "wrong turn" and crazy mix up. As I sat there figuring how to go back, I looked out the window as tears streamed down my cheeks at my change in plans and I saw something on the horizon.  I looked beyond the brown landscape and saw the most gorgeous sunrise I had ever seen in my life. Colors beyond anything I had ever seen on any canvas.  

Had I not taken my "wrong turn" I would have missed the most amazing piece of art I had ever laid eyes on.  I walked outside and began to see things I had never seen before or even knew I wanted to see...as I began to see them I realized this place was way more amazing than I had ever thought it could be.  I began to see things and meet people I would have never met had I went to my originally planned destination of Paris.

All of us in life have our own plans of the places we want to get to, the goals we want to accomplish, the people we want to meet or rub shoulders with but sometimes you think you bought a ticket to one location when God actually has a different landscape in mind for you and your life.

Are you at a point where you find yourself in a different destination than you were planning.  Are you fighting it? Are you upset about it? Are you trying to get back on the plane and go backwards to where you came from? Are you yelling at the airline attendant that there has been a huge mistake and your life wasn't suppose to look like this place you are in right now?

Acceptance is not giving in...it's letting go and letting God have his way with where your life is heading.  Sometimes that involves a change of scenery at a job, a school, a church, a neighborhood.  Stop fighting it and take in the scenery in this new place....God says He orders our steps so chances are you are not in the "wrong place" you are actually right where He wants you to be to use you.  It just might not look like the plan you had but it's the plan He has had this whole time....embrace it and keep following Him....who knows you might see your own beautiful sunrise full of colors you never thought existed until you ended up where you thought you didn't want to go but exactly where you needed to be.

¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:11-13

 I never really went to Paris (yet) but used it as a story as to how we can plan our lives to go one way when God takes our lives and leads us in an entirely different direction and when you take a moment to look back you realize this was His plan all along.  God's pretty cool like that :)

Come As You Are?

Come as you are.  Such a trendy phrase in the church right now isn't it?  But the question I want to ask you is this, should we stay as we are once we get there?  This has been an honest question I have asked for some time now.

As I sit here and write this blog I think back throughout my life.  I've been a Christian since I was about 9 or 10, so about 30 plus years now (are you calculating the age? I'm 41 :) So quite a while and I've seen the 'trends', if you will, in the church.  I've been in services where we sang 'As the Deer Panteth Forth the Water' and 'Abiding In the Vine' and thought we were on the cutting edge of music. Or when I was traveling the country with a music ministry Ron Kenoly's Lift Him Up was the best worship cd ever (which the name alone always made me want dessert).  As a kid I've sat through all the televangelists, the trials tribulations and mistakes and confessions...I've heard those all.  I lived through the legalistic stages and the name it and claim it stages, the Toronto and Brownsville blessing stages.  I've been in services where people sat for hours in the presence of God in worship or at the altar.  I've seen all the extremes and have learned something from each of them.

So here is my question.  Are you new to the world of Christianity or are you as old as Keith Green's music? (I am and 'Asleep in the Light' is a pretty fitting title for this blog).  This come as you are 'trend' right now (and I'm calling it that for lack of anything better to call it) is the latest phase the church is in.  I mean, I get that anyone and everyone should come and I love all sorts of people (my family is made up of all types) so I see the amazing benefit and calling we have of loving people where they are at in order to show them the love of Christ but I am left wondering if, in this trend, are we forgetting something?

Shouldn't we, when people come through the doors of our churches, be offering them a hope that Jesus will change their life?  I mean, really, isn't that why people are coming to church to begin with...aren't they there searching for a better answer then the one they currently have?  Are we being called to make them more comfortable? In effort to make our churches more culturally relevant and comfortable to all "sinners' (which we all are) have we lost a bit in our translation of being all things to all people? Shouldn't there be a bit more on the act of repentance and not just acceptance...isn't acceptance the thing that has gotten us into trouble to begin with? (Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 2 Corinthians 7:10).  

I had a very good friend of mine in my early 20's challenge me to quote entire chapters of Scripture back and forth to him to keep each other accountable and the chapter he and I would quote the most would be Romans 6 and my favorite part would be verses 1 & 2  

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
 
So this blog really doesn't have as many statements in it as much as it has a few questions that I have been asking lately of the American church.

Where are those days when we sat in God's presence for a few hours because we longed for Him to change our lives after we walked through the church doors.  We knew that coming as we were wasn't how we were going to walk out after spending time with Him and asking Him to change us from the inside out.  We didn't need to be impressed with all the programs, lights, eloquent speeches and skits....we didn't need to connect through facebook, twitter or Instagram....we knew we just needed to connect with God and He was going to work it out.  Simple. 

Don't get me wrong, I love all the bells and whistles the church has now (although the irony of the insurmountable amount of Christian/worship music being produced in comparison to the amount of time given to actually worship God in our church services is just that....ironic).  I just want to know if we can incorporate both the fancy things while also hearing a message about repenting and asking God to change us and our hearts.  Can we just realize that we can't 'go on sinning that grace may abound' and that God wants to change us and deliver us and renew us to use our lives for Him...isn't that what being a Christian is all about anyways? The transforming power of Jesus Christ?  To come in my own effort is just that....MY own effort not His.  That isn't going to get me where He wants to lead me.

God I love that you love us and accept us when we come to You as we are but I take greater joy in knowing You have a plan far greater than leaving me in my comfort zone of my own desires. I love how pushing me out of my comforts and desires for Your glory shows me Your ideas are much better than mine...Your ideas have been tried and true so I choose to trust You when You say it's time to change...