The Kind of Weak It's Been

I love to worship, and I love to lead people into worship. But so very often I find it is hard for people to direct their affections and responses towards our Creator and not the created.

We try and do our best for God, and so that people will worship God, but in the end all they can do is compliment you on a job well done. And how many times have you engaged in this conversation"

Well meaning person: "Oh you did such a great job tonight! You are so talented. I wish I could do what you do."
Me: "Thanks but really all glory goes to God! (Or something lame like that)."

Don't get me wrong, I do believe all glory should go to God! But how many of us spend our time trying to reveal God's glory only to have people focus on ours! (And let's face it, my glory is pretty shabby at the best of times). So it would seem that the more excellent we function out of our God given talents the harder it is to direct the attention away from ourselves.

My response to this has become praying that God would overwhelm us - fill the room with a tangible presence or cloud so that it would be undeniable as to who is really glorious. I just want people to see HIM!

So last week I read a book about spiritual gifts and it shed some light on my quest.

One of the standouts for me was the reminder that spiritual gifts are not present before we encounter the Spirit. That sounds elementary enough, but how often do I simply function out of my talents (which are also given by God)? The authors went on to site examples like David, Joseph, Moses, Nehemiah. (Did you know that the prophet Amos was a sheep breader?!) All of these guys were overlooked, overshadowed or didn't make the grade. Take a look at the disciples! They had all been overlooked by other Rabbi's and were left to learn their father's trade before Jesus called them to put down their nets and follow him! In my opinion Peter was pretty much a flop until he encontered the Holy Spirit at Pentacost. Now I esteem him as one of the greatest men of faith ever!

So this morning I woke up and saw a book under my nightstand that made me laugh - "Now Discover Your Strengths". I've never actually read this book, but I work in an envoirnment that puts a lot of value in finding the right 'fit' for people (They call it finding your 'sweet spot') and I have the book because I did their online 'Strength Finder'. Now before anyone I work with gets all up in arms I have to say that the book/test does a great job of finding what you are naturally wired for. I am a visionary, entrepanureal, teacher, communicator according to their assessment - and for the most part I agree with them. What made me laugh is that God has been impressing on me the source of Peter's strength's and what the apostle Paul wrote in one of his letters...

"God's power is made perfect in weakness!"

Weakness you say?! Why weakness? Because when I am weak there is no doubt in anyone's mind who's power is at work! When I function out of my strengths it can become very unclear as to who should get the glory. But God says that "He will not give His glory to another".

So why I am rambling on about weakness, spiritual gifts and glory? Because twice this week God has asked me to choose weakness over strength.

On one occasion He asked me to invite a person into leadership that has proven she does not have the skill-set to do it. Why? I am quite certain it is because He knows that when she succeeds there will be no doubt in anyones mind that it was God at work. He will finally get ALL of the glory!

The other situation revolves around God asking me to set aside one of my greatest natural strengths so that I can walk full on into my complete weakness. (Remeber how I said I was a Visionary, Teacher, Communicator? I should also mention that I scored incredibly low on Compassion, Empathy and Mercy. (and when I say 'low' I mean REALLY LOW)). Why is God asking me to walk into my weakness? My only answer is this - He wants to finally get all of the glory!

So I'm left with this thought - If God's power is made perfect in my weakness, and that power is not displayed through natural talents but spiritual giftedness - why does the church spend so much energy doing "Gift Discernments" and "Placement Evaluations"?

Couldn't we simply get down on our knees and ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into His work, believing that no matter were he leads us that He goes before us to ensure the success that work! And couldn't we also believe that any and every gift we will need will be provided at it's appropriate time. And that in the end we will be left with our hands raised giving glory to God for what HE has done - knowing full well that we could never have done what we just did by our own strength or merit.

Now that sounds like a great way of leading people into worship!

Maybe then the broken would come to us for healing.
Maybe then our church would function like the Acts church.
Maybe then we would fear the Lord and confess our sin.
Maybe then we would be pursectued.
Maybe then we would find the joy of our salvation
Maybe then the kingdom would come.
Maybe then we would worship!
Maybe then Jesus would return - for His bride has made herself ready!

The Secret Garden

When I was a kid I helped my dad work on the yard - mowing the grass, picking stones and tending to the garden. I never understood why he spent so much time making our yard look like a park until I got my own house and started to create my own park! Gardening is fun and I love the satisfaction of re-creating my own bit of Eden, but the other day I realized that my park had a secret garden!

Behind our shed there is a significant plot of dirt. I guess it could be used as a small garden but until now I have used it as a place for storing firewood and other unwanted building materials. Nobody really knows it's there so I don't spend a lot of time tending to that part of our yard. Occasionally I venture into this forgot land and trim back the weeds but for the most part I spend my time on the 'visible' gardens in our yard.

Well last month my secret garden decided that it needed a bigger plot of land and started creeping out from behind the shed into our orchard. We have apple trees on either side of our shed and much to my dismay they were no longer surrounded by black dirt! The weeds had overtaken them, creating their own ugly form of grass. A fews days later I tried trimming the hedge that borders our property but I couldn't get to the section behind the shed because small trees (otherwise known as weeds!) were blocking my way. My garden was getting out of control!

After thinking about how this happened I realized something about myself - I deal with my yard in the exact same way that I deal with my life. I like the benefits of having things together, so I work hard at daily keeping things in order. I mow the lawn (and my bad attitudes), I water the plants (feed my spirit), trim back unwanted growth (battle against the worlds way in pursuit of kingdom thinking) and make sure that I start on things that are most visible to myself and others.

My shed represents all of the things that I know are present but I'm too ashamed to let anyone see. However, God has been reminding my of the verse "Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed." If there is no confession we are left with a problem that will only continue to get bigger and bigger until it is out of control.

So last week after having this revelation I did two things - I shared a 'secret garden' with my wife and asked my heavenly Father to begind restoring me...and then I called my dad and asked him to spray the weeds behind my shed!