therewascake.

His Grace is Sufficient

I’ve noticed that humans have a strange tendency to try to do everything alone, resisting help until it is absolutely necessary. For example, my co-workers will struggle to do a task that would be much easier for more than one person and, only when it’s apparent that they cannot possibly complete the task alone, they ask for help. I also see this attitude in myself with regards to my relationship with God. To me, this predisposition most clearly shows itself in the words “I’ve got this.”

To use my own life by way of example, the phrase “I’ve got this” reared its ugly head just two short weeks ago. While reading some Bible, I ran across one of the many warnings against gossip.¹ Instead of heeding its warning and going to God in prayer about it, I thought to myself, “I’ve got this - I don’t ever gossip, I don’t need to pray about this.” Little did I know that God would use my proud, self-sufficient attitude to teach me a lesson.

The next day, I arrived at work just as another two of my co-workers were leaving. After I wished them a good evening and watched them leave, two of my other co-workers came by and we started talking. At first, the conversation was innocent enough - simple small talk - but it soon took a turn for the worse as we all started started gossiping about some of our other co-workers. Immediately after the conversation, my mind skipped to the previous night’s passage of scripture and my proud proclamation of “I’ve got this”. How foolish I felt!

As I continue running the race of life, the more I realize that all of my victories come from trusting completely in Jesus. Paul says it best in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

The more I see my weakness, the more I see the need for Jesus’ strength. The attitude of “I’ve got this” is not sufficient for conquering the mountains of life - only Jesus can give me the strength necessary for scaling those difficulties. Another way I’ve come to look at this is through the words of John the Baptist in John 3:30:

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

My trust in myself must decrease and my trust in Jesus must increase. He is the one called “Faithful and True” - He deserves all the glory, honour, and praise for all of the victories in my life as He is the one that enables me to be victorious.

Have you realized the weakness in your life? Have you felt like you just can’t do this on your own strength? His grace is sufficient for you too.

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1. Some examples: Romans 1:28-32 puts gossipers in the same category as sexual perverts and murderers. James 1:26 tells us that those who consider themselves religious and yet cannot control their tongue have worthless religion. 1 Peter 4:15 condemns murder, thievery, and gossip in the same breath.

The Christian Life in 3 Parts

What does living like a Christian look like? I suspect many books, pamphlets, and sermons have been written and preached through the years to educate followers of Christ on “how we do”. However good these resources are, the number one resource on all things Jesus is, well, the Bible. So, what does the Bible say about Christian living?

In my own search for answers, I was particularly struck by the clarity in 2 Timothy 2:4-7 on this subject, which says

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

In this passage, Paul outlines 3 careers that followers of Christ can use as examples of how to live for Christ: that of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. What does he mean by using these three careers as examples and what lessons can we gain from them?

As Christian Soldiers, we are to not be engaged in the affairs of this life, or, as I like to say, in civilian pursuits. It’s important to realize that we are not of this world and therefore should not be concerned with these pursuits. As Paul says in Romans, we are not to be “conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Secondly, as soldiers, we have one purpose: to “please him who enlisted him as a soldier”. Jesus is our enlistment officer, so we are to please Him and Him alone.

As Christian Athletes, we are to be disciplined in our training (see 2 Timothy 2:15) in order to run the race to a successful completion. Paul goes even further than that by stating that when competing, we must obey the rules. When I read this, my mind immediately jumped to Romans 13:1: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” This is surely part of Paul’s message, but after careful consideration, I don’t think it’s the main part. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep my commandments.” Thus, the complete picture is that the Christian should be obeying worldly authority and, most of all, Godly authority.

As Christian Farmers, we must have endurance for the work to which we are called. In Colossians 1:28-29, Paul outlines the Christian’s work: “Him [Christ] we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” Farmers are not working without a goal or end in mind, as noted by the language used in the last sentence: “to this end I labor.” The goal we are working towards is the harvest, a concept that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” We know that while we are called to do the work, God is the one who gives the results.

Notice how all three of these careers and the principles they embody go together, just as Paul put them together in the original passage. We need to be exercising all three as we go about our journey through this life.

Are you becoming a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer for Christ?

Expectations

Something I’ve been struggling with recently is the disappointment of unfulfilled expectations or, rather, the attitude that comes because of it. Whether disappointment comes from not getting the holiday I wanted or being interrupted while talking to Holly, I tend to be in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

This seems like normal human behaviour - after all, the most (stereotypically) innocent type of human being, a child, is also the most vocal about having unfulfilled expectations. Why worry about my own attitude regarding unfulfilled expectations? The foul mood gave me a reason to worry: I wasn’t being loving to the people that I love. Why was something so trivial causing something so terrible? After going to God about it, my mind turned to James 4:13-17, which says:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

Just like the people who boasted about what they were doing in the future, my expectations forgot God. My expectations were me-centred - I was focused on my own will, not the Lord’s.

How often is this the case for so many of us Christians? Even when sharing the Gospel, some of us expect a conversion. If it doesn’t happen (as it wasn’t the Lord’s will, at least for that point in time), we get disappointed or even angry. “Why didn’t my plans go the way I wanted them to go?” ¹

The solution? To have God-centred expectations. Just as James notes, we ought to say “if the Lord wills, this or that will happen.”

Like Job, we often don’t know why certain things happen the way they do. However, when our expectations allow God to work in any way He wishes, we’re often surprised at the results. How much more can we fulfill our purpose of serving Him if we’re willing along the way!

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1. An aside: this is not an “out” for those who give up stating “it wasn’t the Lord’s will”. Following the example of the Apostle Paul in Acts 16, we can see that “finding” God’s will is an active mandate, not an excuse for inaction!

How I Write

Writing is a process that takes a lot of discipline and effort for me. Just starting to write becomes a supreme effort of will at times. In the past couple of weeks, finding the time to write has really been a challenge, not to mention coming up with good ideas. @johnrust was kind enough to suggest that I write about my writing workflow, and although the original date set has passed, I still feel it’s a good enough topic to write about.

Without further ado, here’s how I write therewascake:

1. An Idea

Like all outlines of this sort, an idea is at the top of the list. What is interesting or different about my particular version of this step is that my Ideas don’t usually come when I’m able write. In fact, my best ideas often hit me in the shower or right before sleep; two times of the day where I physically can’t write or don’t want to physically be able to. In order to catalogue the inspiration as it hits, I keep a few 3”x5” cards on my desk at all time with enough space to write down a sentence or two. When I believe I’ve actually thought of something worth writing about, these cards are reviewed and I’ll try to run with it.

2. WriteRoom

All of my writing on my Mac takes place in the fantastic WriteRoom. I joke sometimes that I’m afflicted with ADD; my Mac proves it. With bouncing icons, vivid colours, and beautiful software as far as the eye can see, it’s no wonder that I’m constantly distracted. WriteRoom’s full screen editing mode and minimalistic feature set does a great job at keeping me focused.

My WriteRoom preferences:

Writing sessions tend to be no longer than 30 minutes at any given time. Past that and my brain seems to turn into mush; ideas that seem good at the time are entirely discarded upon further review.

3. Review

I’d like to think that what I write adheres to a level of quality that satisfies me (and hopefully my readers). In order to keep that level of quality, everything is read over at least twice to make sure words aren’t missing, phrasing is correct, and structure is kept simple. If I’ve written something on a particularly hard day, or wrote longer than 30 minutes, this process can take longer than it took to write the article.

4. Preview

Since my writing is usually published to the web, it’s important that formatting on the web is correct. The body is pasted into the Tumblr text post window and I hit the preview button to view what my formatting has done. Sometimes it’s right, other times it takes a few tries to get it so. But I strive to have it right when published so I don’t have to change it on people after they’ve read it.

5. Post

This is the best part: hitting the publish button. I feel a strange sense of satisfaction when my writing is instantly available to hundreds of millions of people simultaneously, only waiting for them to find it. My desire is that my writing delights all of the people that read it and, most importantly, that it glorifies God.

My workflow is simple, functional, and really as irreducably complex as I can make it. In the least, I hope that this look into how I write therewascake was interesting; a look behind the curtain at the author, so to speak. I hope the others that were tagged will write about their workflow - it’d be very interesting to see how mine compares!