I have mixed feelings about my life right now. In some aspects of my life, things are absolutely amazing. God is answering some prayers that have been on my heart for a long time now. Growth is being seen in areas that make my heart flutter. But then there are people/areas in my life that are suffering...and suffering bad.
I don't know how to feel about my life. Serious trial and overwhelming rejoice have never both been present at the same time before. I guess this is yet another lesson from the Lord. There really isn't a point to this post, which I'm a little down about. I haven't blogged in about a week and when I do, there's no avid reason or motivation behind it. No underlying message to be learned, just me talking (typing rather) out my thoughts in hopes of coming across an answer.
I went home this weekend and the sermon I heard on Sunday at church really surprised me. (One of my answered prayers) I have been struggling to agree with the way the preaching and teaching are lead in my home church, which makes it hard to want to go. This weekend I left thinking, "Wow, that was good." The last two days I have spent meditating on these verses in my quiet times...
"Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly -- mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. You are still worldly. For since there is jealously and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you acting like mere men? For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe -- as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."
-1 Corinthians 3:1-9
In the sermon on Sunday, the point of the message was that as Christians, we must act like Christians and perform our duty...to plant and water. NOT to conform to this world.
This is a story that my pastor told Sunday to go along with the scripture.
This is the story of the farmer who was walking along one day and found an eagle egg. He took it to his house and put it under a setting hen. It was not too long until that little eagle was hatched. He was the oddest looking chicken that they had ever seen. When the other chicks chirped, he screeched. When the mother hen clucked, he would not come running. There seemed to be no understanding between them. They spoke two different languages. He was odd. The chicks picked on him. He was an eagle. One day when he was in the barnyard, father eagle passed over. He noticed a baby eagle down there in the barnyard. He gave out a loud screech. Father eagle asked the baby eagle what he was doing down there in the barnyard. You are not a chicken. You are an eagle. Eagles are not made to live in a barnyard. Eagles are meant to fly. The heavens are your domain. Come up here with me. The little fellow did not know what to do. He had been living in the barnyard all of his life. Father eagle urged him to just jump and flap his wings. You can fly if you try. The little eagle made a feeble jump and flapped his wings and landed on top of the barnyard fence post. Father eagle screeched again. Child, jump higher! Try again. Make a jump and see how high you can fly. The little eagle did what father eagle asked him to do. And father eagle did what he said he would do. And by a mighty jump of faith the baby eagle was riding on father eagle's wings on his first solo flight into the heavens.
We are eagles. We are not meant to be surrounded and "raised" in this world. We are meant to live and "soar" with our God in Heaven. And if that means being made fun of, being persecuted, and being condemned...then so be it. We are not meant for this world.
"Remember, you are an eagle."
I thought that was a pretty cool metaphor. But then again, I'm a sucker for corny metaphors, so you can be the judge. I often forget that this world is but a mere vapor in comparison to what God has in store for us. This was a good reminder. An answered prayer. And the perfect thing to reflect on in this time of my life.
Thanks Jesus :)
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| Flowers from my valentine -- Logan Cox :) |
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| Where Amy thinks cows are milked. |
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| The flowers my mom got me for Valentine's Day :) |
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| A view from Interstate 64 on the way home. |
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