What does Trust/Faith look like?
This week is going to be rough. I have two sermons, two youth group lessons/meetings, and a couple other things this week that gives me something extra to do everyday of the week. Today I will/did preach in chapel at Western Seminary in Holland, MI. There is something about giving a meditation to a room full of future pastors, ministry leaders, and all your professors that really get the butterflies going.
What is on my mind is the amount of faith I put in Jesus taking care of things after I've done all that I can. The instance I am thinking of is that I am sitting here, 45 minutes before my chapel service, I'm drinking my first Mtn Dew in several months, all because I stayed up till 1:30am last night to prepare more for my service.
My message did indeed change subtlely, but not drastically. I am privilaged to not have class on Mondays, and I worked on it for the majority of the day (minus a nap, and a few youth group hours). But last night when my wife said, "Don't stay up to late," I couldn't bring myself to go to sleep. I had prepared more than enough. I was working on it a little more than a week when I found out I had to lead, till the day of. What more did I expect? Did I really think that staying up late, not actually getting productive work done, was going to make it astronomically better? Halfway through the day, I was content and rather pleased with what I had, but I couldn't convince myself that a good nights rest was better than practicing for perfection.
Where was my faith in God's work through the preaching of the Word enter in? By no means would I suggest not doing anything, because "God has it covered," but the fact was I was prepared, but the overworking caused me to doubt the polishing God would do in the end.
How often does that happen in your life? How often do we give all that we can, pray and give the rest to God, then proceed to take it back in order to finish it ourselves? Pretty vague, but life and personal example to help clarify. Over the summer I realized a little, and worked on, my fear of looking bad. I wouldn't ask for a lot of help when it came to the service preparations. I would do the bulletin, the powerpoint, pick out the songs, and come up with the order. A few times the Administrative assistant did a few things for me, and I checked it over every time. Never once did I "correct" or "fix" anything, but I had to make sure that it was acceptable to the standards that I had set. So the fact of it is, I spent extra time on something I had no business spending the time on.
Does this resonate/relate to people?
For me this opens a new can of worms (more ideas, if the phrase doesn't make sense to you). I was asked a few times if I was nervous about leading chapel, and I simply proceeded to say, "no" and moved along. What I should have done is asked what I was thinking, "Why should I be nervous?" I sit here and wonder that, because how can I be nervous about something when I'm so prepared? Oh wait. By over preparing, am I saying that I indeed was/am I nervous?
It got me thinking about, what else do we say, "I'm giving it to God," and then proceed to over extend ourselves. Again not talking about giving it to God, and not doing anything, but sooner or later enough is enough. We can only do so much, and the rest is in vain.
Maybe this is just my workaholic personality. It's just me being me, or is it a common problem for others? From just a couple conversations I've had with others, I don't think it's just me.
What is on my mind is the amount of faith I put in Jesus taking care of things after I've done all that I can. The instance I am thinking of is that I am sitting here, 45 minutes before my chapel service, I'm drinking my first Mtn Dew in several months, all because I stayed up till 1:30am last night to prepare more for my service.
My message did indeed change subtlely, but not drastically. I am privilaged to not have class on Mondays, and I worked on it for the majority of the day (minus a nap, and a few youth group hours). But last night when my wife said, "Don't stay up to late," I couldn't bring myself to go to sleep. I had prepared more than enough. I was working on it a little more than a week when I found out I had to lead, till the day of. What more did I expect? Did I really think that staying up late, not actually getting productive work done, was going to make it astronomically better? Halfway through the day, I was content and rather pleased with what I had, but I couldn't convince myself that a good nights rest was better than practicing for perfection.
Where was my faith in God's work through the preaching of the Word enter in? By no means would I suggest not doing anything, because "God has it covered," but the fact was I was prepared, but the overworking caused me to doubt the polishing God would do in the end.
How often does that happen in your life? How often do we give all that we can, pray and give the rest to God, then proceed to take it back in order to finish it ourselves? Pretty vague, but life and personal example to help clarify. Over the summer I realized a little, and worked on, my fear of looking bad. I wouldn't ask for a lot of help when it came to the service preparations. I would do the bulletin, the powerpoint, pick out the songs, and come up with the order. A few times the Administrative assistant did a few things for me, and I checked it over every time. Never once did I "correct" or "fix" anything, but I had to make sure that it was acceptable to the standards that I had set. So the fact of it is, I spent extra time on something I had no business spending the time on.
Does this resonate/relate to people?
For me this opens a new can of worms (more ideas, if the phrase doesn't make sense to you). I was asked a few times if I was nervous about leading chapel, and I simply proceeded to say, "no" and moved along. What I should have done is asked what I was thinking, "Why should I be nervous?" I sit here and wonder that, because how can I be nervous about something when I'm so prepared? Oh wait. By over preparing, am I saying that I indeed was/am I nervous?
It got me thinking about, what else do we say, "I'm giving it to God," and then proceed to over extend ourselves. Again not talking about giving it to God, and not doing anything, but sooner or later enough is enough. We can only do so much, and the rest is in vain.
Maybe this is just my workaholic personality. It's just me being me, or is it a common problem for others? From just a couple conversations I've had with others, I don't think it's just me.
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