Q-Types
Recently, I began a task that I have thought about time and again but have never done. Yes, my friends, that's right. I finally decided to watch all the Star Trek television shows. I started last year with the original series (and my favorite above all). I moved on to watch The Next Generation, and I am currently on season six. Most of the time, it's just fun to watch, but every once in a while, I learn a valuable lesson. Believe me, last night's was a doozie! The episode was entitled 'Tapestry'. Our revered Captain Picard is injured and at death's door (for about the third time during the span of the show so far), and he finds himself in the afterlife that is overseen by his aggravating aggressor, Q. I won't bore my wonderful non-Star Trek loving fans with the details, but basically Q gives Picard a chance to go back and change some of his choices he made when he was young. As per usual when this tale is told (It's a Wonderful Life), George, um...I mean Picard makes the changes he wished to make and finds that his life turned out very differently because of the choices he made. When Picard protests and asks for his previous life (even though it would mean his certain death), Q makes him understand that it was his ability to leap - to take risks that gave him the life that lead him to captain the Enterprise.
I have to say that particular episode spoke volumes to me. I have felt like I have been in a rut for the past couple of years. I have not made any life-altering decisions or taken any risks. And when I really thought about it, have I EVER taken risks? Am I in this rut because I have played my life safe? Taken the safe path instead of making a difficult decision to do something that could ultimately fulfill the dreams I have for my life? Last night I believed so, and that thought nagged at me through the day today.
So, when I drove through the parking lot at Wal-Mart today at lunch (trying to get to Taco Bell), I began thinking about how I have really been driven by fear in the recent months (the Lord has been working with me on this since the beginning of the year). I began to wonder how I got so fearful. When did this happen? And there was ONE PHRASE that popped into my head (thank You, Holy Spirit): "Despise not the Word". Next came the ultimate "Holy Spirit Moment of Clarity". You know the one. It's where He explains every little detail in just a few seconds, and your understanding is so enlightened that you wonder how you never saw it before! (I'd compare it to a light bulb going off above my head, but really - IS there a comparison for those Moments? I don't think so.)
Despise not the Word. We generally define the word 'despise' as 'hate', but that isn't always true. As He explained it to me, there are three different ways to despise.
1. Hate - self explanatory.
2. Indifference - forgetting after being told.
3. Dishonor - understanding but choosing not to act.
Ouch. The last one hit me... hard!
Look, the Word is Jesus, and Jesus is the Word (read John chapter 1). If we choose or refuse to act on the Word of God, we are literally rejecting what Jesus has done for us. How does that work, you ask? I have always been taught to speak out what the Word of God says about me, a practice that I have sadly neglected recently. If the Word says that I am loved by God, but I don't intentionally speak that out, then I intentionally bypass the opportunity to grow further in the Lord. I will even eventually not believe that fact. When you speak what the Word says about you, the flesh gets humbled. That uncomfortable feeling you have when you say, "I am healed'? That's your flesh complaining. It's uncomfortable to say, "I am healed" when your body is aching with the flu. That discomfort is the flesh trying to back-talk to insist that you are sick. But the more you say it, the more your flesh has to shut up. The more you say it, the more your spirit grows and takes control. The more you say it, the more opportunities to grow will come your way.
Let me add one more thought, and maybe this will bring it home for you. If you are as prideful as I am, you enjoy figuring things out for yourself. You don't really rely that much on outside sources. You even like a good mystery. The Word is here to help solve the mysteries, and when you choose not to act on the Word (or speak it out), you are choosing that your ways are higher than His ways. Let me assure you that they are not better than God's ways. Romans 3:4 "...let God be true and every man a liar..." (NKJV). If God's Word is true, then every time you speak against His Word or you refuse to speak His Word, then basically you are lying (let's not get into the story of Ananias and Sapphira, although when you speak against God's Word, technically you are lying to the Holy Spirit....hmmm...maybe a blog about lying and dying would be a good follow up for this).
Providentially (seriously, this is God-given), we can change our lives with our words while we are still living here on this earth. We don't need a Q-type experience to set us straight. We get the opportunity to correct these little ruts we fall into with the ultimate power - The Word of God. That's what I'm going to do! Join me.
Micale
I have to say that particular episode spoke volumes to me. I have felt like I have been in a rut for the past couple of years. I have not made any life-altering decisions or taken any risks. And when I really thought about it, have I EVER taken risks? Am I in this rut because I have played my life safe? Taken the safe path instead of making a difficult decision to do something that could ultimately fulfill the dreams I have for my life? Last night I believed so, and that thought nagged at me through the day today.
So, when I drove through the parking lot at Wal-Mart today at lunch (trying to get to Taco Bell), I began thinking about how I have really been driven by fear in the recent months (the Lord has been working with me on this since the beginning of the year). I began to wonder how I got so fearful. When did this happen? And there was ONE PHRASE that popped into my head (thank You, Holy Spirit): "Despise not the Word". Next came the ultimate "Holy Spirit Moment of Clarity". You know the one. It's where He explains every little detail in just a few seconds, and your understanding is so enlightened that you wonder how you never saw it before! (I'd compare it to a light bulb going off above my head, but really - IS there a comparison for those Moments? I don't think so.)
Despise not the Word. We generally define the word 'despise' as 'hate', but that isn't always true. As He explained it to me, there are three different ways to despise.
1. Hate - self explanatory.
2. Indifference - forgetting after being told.
3. Dishonor - understanding but choosing not to act.
Ouch. The last one hit me... hard!
Look, the Word is Jesus, and Jesus is the Word (read John chapter 1). If we choose or refuse to act on the Word of God, we are literally rejecting what Jesus has done for us. How does that work, you ask? I have always been taught to speak out what the Word of God says about me, a practice that I have sadly neglected recently. If the Word says that I am loved by God, but I don't intentionally speak that out, then I intentionally bypass the opportunity to grow further in the Lord. I will even eventually not believe that fact. When you speak what the Word says about you, the flesh gets humbled. That uncomfortable feeling you have when you say, "I am healed'? That's your flesh complaining. It's uncomfortable to say, "I am healed" when your body is aching with the flu. That discomfort is the flesh trying to back-talk to insist that you are sick. But the more you say it, the more your flesh has to shut up. The more you say it, the more your spirit grows and takes control. The more you say it, the more opportunities to grow will come your way.
Let me add one more thought, and maybe this will bring it home for you. If you are as prideful as I am, you enjoy figuring things out for yourself. You don't really rely that much on outside sources. You even like a good mystery. The Word is here to help solve the mysteries, and when you choose not to act on the Word (or speak it out), you are choosing that your ways are higher than His ways. Let me assure you that they are not better than God's ways. Romans 3:4 "...let God be true and every man a liar..." (NKJV). If God's Word is true, then every time you speak against His Word or you refuse to speak His Word, then basically you are lying (let's not get into the story of Ananias and Sapphira, although when you speak against God's Word, technically you are lying to the Holy Spirit....hmmm...maybe a blog about lying and dying would be a good follow up for this).
Providentially (seriously, this is God-given), we can change our lives with our words while we are still living here on this earth. We don't need a Q-type experience to set us straight. We get the opportunity to correct these little ruts we fall into with the ultimate power - The Word of God. That's what I'm going to do! Join me.
Micale
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