PREPARATION
If you have been a Faith Notes subscriber for a few months or more, you will recognize my continual attempt to bring new life to religious, churchy words. Today is a good example of that effort.
When Jesus was walking the stone-covered streets of Judea and Galilee, he talked of glorifying God, bringing God glory, and being glorified. Is that some mystical religious rite or ritual? Is it an event?
The early Christians were taught to glorify God and bring glory to him. So, how does that happen? When does it happen? Have we fulfilled the requirement when we sing, "We will glorify the King of Kings, we will glorify the Lamb, we will glorify the Lord of Lords, who is the great I Am"?
Bringing glory to God and glorifying God is bigger than singing a song; it transforms life. Instead of living to make our parents look good or playing the game to make our coach proud, or manipulating circumstances so that we look good, glorify means we live and work and talk so that God looks good. We behave in a way that makes the creator look good--we demonstrate and illustrate his reputation.
That's glorifying God! So, how are we doing? I think we have a long way to go.
Paul put it this way, "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." 1 Thessalonians 2:11-13 NIV. We still need encouragement, comforting, and urging.
This may be our greatest faith challenge, to make God proud, to live like the believers he called us to be.
We seem to get easily distracted. Too many believers have kept the "glorifying God" stuff locked up inside Sunday morning worship, while living the rest of the week complaining arguing, protesting, finding fault, and grumbling. For some, nothing is ever good enough, and no one is ever right enough. How does that make God look good?
So let me offer a little encouragement, comfort. and urging.
INSPIRATION
Sometimes we have problems living so anybody looks good. This obituary of a 79-year-old woman ran on August 16-17, 2008, in in the Vallejo, California, Times-Herald. It was placed by one of the deceased's many daughters.
Dolores Aguilar, born in 1929 in New Mexico, left us on August 7, 2008. She will be met in the afterlife by a host of family members.
Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed, and there will be no lamenting over her passing. Her family will remember Dolores and amongst ourselves we will remember her in our own way, which were mostly sad and troubling times throughout the years. We may have some fond memories of her, and perhaps we will think of those times, too. But I truly believe at the end of the day ALL of us will really only miss what we never had, a good and kind mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I hope she is finally at peace with herself.
As for the rest of us left behind, I hope this is the beginning of a time of healing and learning to be a family again. There will be no service, no prayers, and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart. We cannot come together in the end to see to it that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can say their goodbyes. So I say here for all of us, GOOD BYE, MOM.
MOTIVATION
Encourage:
What do you hope people will say about you in your obit? What do you need to do to make that happen?
Comfort:
Does your life need a turn-around moment? This struggle is universal, but we CAN help each other. Begin each day this week by asking, "What can I do today that makes God look good? What can I do to make him proud? How can I help someone else do the same?"
Urge:
After all, we are in the family, on the team, part of the plan, and players in the story. We should live like it. Grab a friend and make it so.
XML Feeds