peace . love . joy

Have a look at this movie =]

... & no, I didn't watch it just because Johnny Depp's in it.

Yesterday, Cupcake and I decided to return to the lake, after a beautiful and relaxed yesterday experience there, for round two! We didn't sit long, however, because the cold and powerful wind overpowered the sun and made its warmth negligible, driving us to seek shelter at the nearby Channies, and giving us an excuse to indulge in our curly fries cravings.

But in the short while we were by the lake, I read a passage that intrigued me. A passage, or comment if you like, about humility for a Christian.

Our purpose in life is to worship, to obey, to exalt, to trust... To love God. We labour and toil out of the respect and reverence and relationship we have for and with Him, the love of our lives, and our Lover, who returns our sentiments many uncountable folds over. In so doing, we, the branches, bear fruit for His good purpose, for His glory. Our goal is to love Him, our intentions spilling over and becoming evidential in our lives: the activities we partake in, the words we utter, the creations we give birth to, the thoughts that race through our minds... All, all of it, we purpose and strive to bring Him happiness, to bring Him glory.

Most of us are taught that true humility is to bring ourselves down to a level no better than the lowest in any caste system history has ever seen. To beat ourselves the moment we feel a tinge of pride when we excel in something, produce a work of unspeakable beauty...

No doubt we have fallen from grace, Romans 3:23 tells us that we are a people who have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Our original purpose was to share in God's glory, and to bring God glory, to glorify Him with every pore of our being. But our sin threw a shroud over us, cloaking us in despair, uncleanliness, hopelessness and unworthiness. Romans 3:23 proceeds with verse 24. Encouraging us with the Good News, the reminder of God having already paid our ransom of the highest cost, our justification as a gift, our redemption and restoration to our original purpose.

And if we have been restored our former and rightful title, the title that God had been planning to bestow us with since the beginning of time, should we not receive it with great gratitude and thanksgiving? In what way does brow-beating, head-slapping and toe-stubbing bring glory t our glorious Father, the creator of all things, tangible and intangible?

But here is where my opinion differs slightly from that of the comment I read:
I think humility does not stop at remembering our bleak and dreary past. I think it does not stop at thinking, feeling or perhaps knowing we are unworthy of praise and recognition (though I think perhaps this cultivation of such a sentiment originates from a fear of allowing self-pride to overtake one's faculties, thereby reducing God in our eyes). No, I think true humility goes a step further than just stopping there at self-diminishment, for such an act alone can never bring glory to the Lord.

Humility is knowing our past, and so exalting God with our present and trusting Him for the future.

We know where we came from. We know full well our situation were He not to have intervened and bought us back from slavery. We know now who our Maker is and what He is like and what He likes. We know now to whom we owe our existence, from whom we received our talents and gifts. We know now our greatness, because of whom we were made in the likeness of, but we must never exalt ourselves beyond what we deserve: we are great, we were made great to be capable of tackling great deeds, but God is greater that all man's greatness combined.

Humility is going out into the world with confidence and assurance, creating and producing, giving birth to and encouraging, fighting and winning, but all the time, all the time seeking the wisest counsel that can only be God's, proceeding with the best that can only be God's, and at the end of the day, no, at every moment of the day, pointing all applause, laudation, extolment, acclamation, honour and reverence to the only One who truly deserves it because it is rightfully His - God.

God is not king over a nation of the gutless, neither is He the commandant of an army of cowards. He does not deserve such, and neither did He create such. In what manner does a people of faint hearts bring such a glorious being glory? Under what circumstances does a regiment of wimps and deserters bring such a majestic and powerful entity glory?

The victory is already His.
We face every day knowing that. We face each sunrise with gratitude and thanksgiving, with confidence and assurance.

Later that evening, when Cupcake and I were in her room talking, she said something that made me all the more sure of what I now write. She said that I am never too bad for anyone, and no one is too good for me. And I knew then that bringing God glory came not from demeaning myself. Restricting myself in that manner serves no good purpose, only to limit God's scope of work, the magnitude and variety of opportunities for Him to display His awesome power through me. No, it came from knowing who I am, where I have journeyed from, who I am walking with, and where I am headed. And that is where true humility lies: knowing who I am and knowing who God is.

'Don't let your past dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you will become.'
~ Nick Portokalos, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

'But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.'
~ 1 Corinthians 15: 57-58

God has given us a great task. A task that only the great can embark and attempt, let alone accomplish.

'"But you will receive power when the Holy SPirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth."'
~ Acts 1: 8

Will you shed your shame and embarrassment, your uncertainty and pride,
will you be restored to your orignal purpose, donning the cloak of humility
and let the God prove His strength and greatness in your weakness

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

The more they were valled, the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them up by their arms,
but they did not know that I healed them

I led them with cords of kindness,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
and I bent down to them and fed them.

They shall not return to the land of Egypt,
but Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.

The sword shall rage against their cities,
consume the bars of their gates,
and devour them because of their own counsels.

My people are bent on turning away from me,
and though they call out to the Most High,
he shall not raise them up at all.

How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.

I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.

They shall go after the LORD;
he will roar like a lion;
when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west;
they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes,

declares the LORD.

~ Hosea 11: 1-11

Love is really a fickle-minded thing, huh?

Maybe I should qualify that: of all the different faces of love, romantic love proves to be one of the most, or perhaps even the most tricky and slippery of them all. An exciting prize calling out to be hunted and courted and gained, a warm and beautiful lense with which to view the world and all that exists once possessed and shared, yes, but also pure torture and misery when unrequited or lost.

Sometimes, we think we know someone, we think we love someone, we feel like we're already married, vows yet to be uttered though, but understood between two. When suddenly, the tablecloth is whipped from under us and all that's left are the shiny metal and glass cutlery grinding on the cold hard surface of the table of life. We feel hurt and confused, upset and frustrated.. and somewhat betrayed.

If an Earthly romance that we experience and relate in our puny intellect and finite emotions can cause so much devastation to our entire being, what is it like to an entity whose knowledge and wisdom far exceeds our ability to comprehend its vastness and wealth, to an entity whose vocabulary of feeling is so complex and unfathomable, to an entity who created word and feeling, to an entity such as God?

A creation abandoning its creator, choosing to worship other creations and looking no farther than what its bodily senses register. A beloved betraying her lover, choosing to romp the fields with another. A bride shaming her bridegroom, choosing to satisfy desires of the flesh out of wedlock.

Through our misery and joy, we are like Hosea, we are like he who was chosen by God to reveal to the world His inner turmoil and frustrations. God uses our pain to acquaint us with His pain, to acquaint us with His love.

We are Gomer, the unfaithful, the adulteress, the enlightened creation who abandoned its creator, the courted beloved who betrayed her lover, the promised bride who shamed her bridegroom. Though we have heard of and know this perfect and good love of His, we still choose to satisfy the longings of the flesh and the desires of the world. We choose to worship the senses and that which delights the senses, but forget the One who made it all. We choose to stray. And left to our own devices, the urge and temptation to stray will prove fatal to many, too many.

By instructing Hosea to buy back his wayward whore-wife, God demonstrates a prophetic act which He will and has performed:

He bought us.
Paid the ransom of a pure and blemishless lamb which He loved and still loves with all His heart,
and set us free from sin and eternal death of burning Sulphur, of gnashing teeth, of darkness and rot.

We are habitually unfaithful, serial adulterers, whores.
We are broken. We are dirty.
And yet, God demands us not to clean up our act before we may return to His side.
No.
He is ever ready to heal and to love, to redeem and to revive and to restore.

The one condition is that we return to Him. That's all he asks.
To come back and to let Him do the cleaning, let Him bring out the soap and water and sponge, let Him bring out the cloth and polish.

What kind of creator is that?
What kind of lover is that?
What kind of bridegroom is that?
To take back into His arms the wayward, the strayed, the runaway, the unfaithful?

One who truly knows how to love, who made love, who is love.
Magnanimous to forgive.
Patient to wait.
Extravagant to lavish and ransom.
Faithful to the end.