Team Work
April 4th, 2009
Jim Rohn tells the story of a man who turned a pile of rocks into a beautiful garden. One evening, he had friends over to view the completed work and one man came up to him and said, “You and God, together, have made quite a garden here sir.” Understanding the man’s point that he shouldn’t take all the credit he replied, “Yes, without God’s help in producing the miracle of the seasons, the sun, the rain, and the growth of new life, this garden would exist. However, you should have seen it a couple years ago when God had it all to Himself.”
The Bible is full of examples of God working through men and women and today we tend to forget this simple truth. We are often quick to see God working through the situations in our lives, but neglect the fact that He regularly attempts to work through the people in our lives. Consequently, when someone seeks to assist us our pride gets in the way and we say things like, “I don’t need your charity!”
In similar fashion, we tend to overlook the movements of God within our own heart. Think of the many times you held back after feeling compelled to share a kind word with a friend or a few dollars with the man standing on the corner of the overpass with a cardboard sign on a below freezing day. What about the countless times you thought about making better food choices, developing some exercise habits, or cultivating a prayer life only to get home from work and flop down for another evening of mindless television.
When I was at the Success Symposium in Dallas, Texas last week, I knelt down to pray in the window sill of my 30th floor hotel room. As I prayed, I looked down at the people on the street and noted just how small they appeared. Half inch men and women scurried about while Micro Machine sized cars made their way around. Suddenly it dawned on me that we all have the mistaken notion that God sees us through this prism. We tend to think He is WAY up there in Heaven completely separate from us until we call begging for His help.
However, the scriptures tell us God is intimately involved the lives of His people. Psalm 24:1 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” Still, it is up to us to stay open to His grace because He will never force His way into our lives. Even the outcome of something as overwhelmingly important as our salvation hinged upon the consent of a young girl named Mary who became the ultimate model of humility when she stated, “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38)
So listen to your heart because God is knocking. He wants to work through you and in you. Will you let Him in?
Tags: Freedom, Theology
Posted in
The Life |
1 Comment »
April 4th, 2009 at 11:59 am
James,
I really like your opening to the blog, I heard a similar story, but in this one it is a preacher in a car coming up to a pretty farm, he stops at the mailbox as the farmer is getting his mail and says, “sir, God sure has blessed you with a beutiful farm” The farm smiles and says back to the preacher “Yes he has pastor, but you should have seen it when he had it all to himself”
I like that story, and you go on to hit on some of the points it presents, but one of the great takeaways I got from it was that God is great, and he will bless us beyond what we could ever dream, but we still must put in some work if we want to fulfill our potential, there is not a prayer we can say that will make us instantly the person living the dream. Like in your case, you had to do your research, put your time and energy into developing the passion for what you do, and God will bless it, But we also have to put our leg work in.
Anyway, Nice blog
Take care
Josh