Being the Anti-You

I am impatient by nature. I am constantly battling the tug of impatience in my heart. Impatience has the potential to rob me of the joy that God intends for me to experience in the here and now. It can cause me to despise the blessings that I am actually experiencing by directing my energies on straining, wishing and scheming on how to reach the next level. It is my consistent struggle. 

I can best describe it as a car in stop and go traffic on a major highway. You are parked on the highway waiting for traffic to move. Every time the traffic ahead moves your car races ahead just to put the brakes on again as traffic slows. This uses more gas, there is more wear on the brakes and your stress level begins to rise. Then as you look into the lane beside you others seem to be speeding ahead, changing lanes, reaching their exit, etc, etc. You get the point! 

God has been very good yet I desire more. I want more of Him yes and Amen but I also want more of the pieces that I think should be in my life.  So God has placed me in seasons of waiting that force me to be in prayer and reliance on Him since I can’t humanly conjure up a solution. It’s an uncomfortable but secure place to be. 

He has me in the remedial course on patience and has really taught me three lessons that I will now share with you. In the spirit of full-disclosure these are lessons I am learning and most likely will be re-learning till I meet Jesus. 

1. Being The Anti-You 

This lesson is about Gospel transformation not 6 ways that you can be a better you. Christ is making me into what He wants me to be. He is conforming me into an image that is the antithesis of my broken and flawed self.  He is asking me to follow Him into being the anti-me. He is asking the impatient, self-relient, assertive me to learn patience, reliance and rest in His promises. 

2. Advent

At the Village we have been observing the Advent season. Advent is not the fast-paced commercialized Christmas with the lights, glitz and excess that we so skillfully display in western suburbia. It is a time of reflection about the angst of waiting. We looked back on a time in history when people sat in darkness and oppression. They were looking for The Light and hope that only one person could truly deliver - The Promised Messiah!  For us today it gives hope for a King who will come again and teaches us that God’s timetable is not ours but there is no doubt that what God will do as he has promised. 

3. Mary’s Choice 

This is the most compelling lesson that God has taught me in the last few weeks. I was reading through Luke at the time and I came across a passage that I had read many times yet it hit me in an entirely new way. 

Luke 10:38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Here is the thought. Martha and Mary are the two sides of you and me. We should all be willing to serve and serve the body in that regard. However Jesus response to Martha’s plea was not a reply to her plea but a reply to the heart of the matter “You are worried and upset about many things”. In more modern vernacular “Martha you are stressed about a lot… but there is really only one important thing in life and that is what Mary has chosen and it is not something that anyone will take away from her.” 

Martha was right in her desire to serve but the more important thing when Jesus is in the house is not fixing a meal, but sitting at His feet in worship and resting His presence.  I may be right in my desires for next things in my life but the moment those come in the way of the truly important thing, I am yielding to the impatient side of me. When I am worried and upset about many things it will distract me from the one thing that is better. Truly Christ is better.

I like what Isaiah 26:3 says:

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

God graciously opens doors as yield to Him. So even as I welcome to new things into my life I will still carry the lesson of Mary’s choice with me. 

Merry Christmas!

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Special thanks to Kristin Shyla Cook for her help with this post.