An interesting question came up in adult Sunday school last week.
"Do you worship and pray to God because you want him to give you something, or do you worship and pray to God because of who he is?"
Wow....that was like a punch to my face. I never really thought about that. Do I worship/pray to God because I want something, or do I worship/pray to God because he's God?
First of all, what do I want in general?
-A nice job
-A nice family
-A nice house
-A nice car
-To be healthy
-To be happy
-To be...
-To be...
-To be...
I can go on and on for days.
What if we don't get what we want?
"I want some of grandma's cookies, so I'll write her a letter. "
"No cookies, grandma? I'm never going to talk to you ever again."
Only God knows what I've prayed for, and never received.
Here's a great story about what I'm talking about.
“Prayer is not about coming to the Lord to ask Him to give us anything we want. It’s about connecting with God on a personal level –and in the way He commands us to.”
He commands us.....hmmm....where have I heard that before?
Not again. Are you going back to that freakishly-long Lord's Prayer post/paper/essay again? Yes, I am. God commands us to pray like this.
"Dear God above, please let me do YOUR will -- not my will. Help me to do it here on earth. Show me some spare time where I can read the Bible and pray to you more often. Please forgive my sins, and the sins of others. Don't let me fall back into sin, either. Keep me away from Satan's power, and help me be closer to you, because you have the power to do all of this. Amen."
During today's Sunday school class, we were talking about Ecclesiastes, and how negative it appears. I was struck while reading this last night.....
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under Heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless (Hevel= vanity, emptiness, false gods, shit), a chasing after the wind.....Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but i learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
....but I want knowledge! I pray to be smarter! Chicks dig smart guys! After reading this passage, I was reminded of the movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In this movie, Indie (Harrison Ford) and several others are captured by a group who want a crystal skull that Indie and his son, Henry "Mutt Williams" Walton (Shia LaBeouf), have. Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchette), the antagonist, is determined to put the last Crystal Skull on the last incomplete crystal skeleton, because she believes a legend that the person who returns the skull will gain all the knowledge of the universe because she wants to utilize its power to better the Soviet Union's military. Indie and his gang lets her put the skull back. When she does this, her eyes catch on fire, and she disintegrates into dust because her brain can't comprehend what all is going on. She overloads.
Why do we want to knowledge? Why do we want to become like God? Honestly, I don't think I want to know everything there is to know about everything. I don't think I can take that kind of stress. Look what happened to Bruce Noland (Jim Carrey) in Bruce Almighty. He thought he could do a better job at being God (Morgan Freeman) than God did. When God offered Bruce the job, he took it. Bruce just couldn't deal with all the prayers being asked at once. Bruce couldn't deal with people asking for petty things like, "Let me win the lottery," or, "Let me lose weight on the Krispy Kream diet." I don't think I can deal with that kind of frivolousness.
Can you?
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Can you get me a cookie? Are we there yet? Can we eat something? Are we there yet? Can I go potty? I really need to potty!!! She's pointing at me! She's staring at me! Are we there yet? Are we there yet?!!!"
I guess this is all just a "ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ITS ALL ABOUT ME" kind of thing....the world revolves around ME. I've seen a teenage girl in a t-shirt that says, "The World Revolves Around Me." I can't help but think how sorry she's going to be when she moves out of mommy and daddy's house and can't get a job because she's too much into herself, and that the boss really isn't going to give one crap about her. I'm sure God gets pretty frustrated with me and everyone else who constantly whine about "me, my, mine," prayers.
I don't think it's a bad thing to ask for green lights between the house and work, but just be aware of what you're praying for, and leave these things for last. Ask God for what is most important: That you have a good, solid relationship with him. After being forgiven, you might get all green lights, but you're stuck behind Old Lady Jones who is 90 years old and can't see over the steering wheel and dashboard in her ginormous 1984 Buick.
Maybe there's a reason Old Lady Jones is holding you back from work. Maybe while on your way to work, you get a call from your boss that you don't have to come in today for one reason or another. If you were at work when that happened, how much more frustrated would you be than if you were halfway there? ("I drove 30 miles for this?") You can just zip a U-turn and head right back home, take your pants off, and flop back into bed!
Thank you, God, for being patient with me. Thank you for putting your own son to death to save us from our sins. Thank you for being you.
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If I don't see you again for a while, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year!!!
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