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Yesterday as I stood singing in the choir, I was discouraged. I was watching the people in the congregation as they watched my fellow choir members and me. They probably didn’t even realize that they were being watched. I’m not on a television set; I can see you too, and today was really sad.

As I looked out over the faces of our church, I saw mouths moving but I heard no song. I can understand being sleepy from late nights or even simply being weary and fed up with life. For goodness sake, I am a college student and I also just get tuckered out and don’t want to do anything a lot of the time.

But you know what? GOD’S BIGGER THAN YOU, ALL YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, AND HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR SOURCE. Where is the spark of HIS life, which you claim is part of you as a Christian, in your face when you’re supposed to be connecting and singing to Him?

Did you ever see the movie Chicago? Do you remember the puppet song? If you have not seen the movie, it’s the scene where the lawyer holds his defendant like a marionette and speaks the words he wants her to say for the press to hear. He even pulls the strings of the press themselves so that they agree with his lies. He pulled them according to his desires in the motions that he wanted them to do. That’s kinda what it felt like this morning as I watched from the choir loft. Our church was full of motion but there was no sound or life. Where is your spark of life?

We are ambassadors of Christ and are citizens of heaven; that’s a precious gift. Do you honestly believe that when ambassadors of the same country come together and praise their country and king that they don’t smile and feel good about talking about where they’re from and their fellow natives? We speak more fondly about our childhood home than the place we’re going to spend eternity! How could we get so out of kilter and prefer the temporary over the eternal? God LOVES us! Why do we ignore it?

The choir anthem this morning was “Days of Elijah” and my heart wept as I sang the words to the second verse:

These are the days of Ezekiel, the dry bones becoming as flesh. And these are the days of Your servant, David, rebuilding a temple of praise. And these are the days of the harvest, oh, the fields are as white in Your world. And we are the laborers in Your vineyard, declaring the work of the Lord!

Lord! We’re still dry bones! Our strings are being plucked and we’re just going through the motions without life! We say and declare with our mouths’ but it never reaches past our noses let alone to our eyes, hands or feet. There is no way we can be part of the laborers in the field or rebuilders of the temple of praise if we let something pull our strings. Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord,” will get into heaven. You can declare the work of the Lord 24/7 but until it becomes true to you, you’re just going through the motions.

Did you realize how fickle our emotions really are? Here’s an example to try…Next time you feel grumpy and don’t want to do anything (especially smiling), try smiling as big as you can for as long as you can and see just our long it takes for you mood to change. In fact, I challenge you to try it next time. That includes when you come to church sleepy, weary, or grumpy because of stress. I’ve tried it and it works.

We are Christians, imitators of Christ. So let’s do that. Jesus got frustrated and tired and even angry just like us but every time he looked towards the Father for restoration, hope and peace. God loves us so much and he wants to take our worries, sadness, stress, and anxiety onto his capable shoulders so we won’t have to carry the burden and be crushed by it. Life is not easy, but we have hope, strength, and love just a whisper or a thought away. Are you tapping into it? We are the light, hope and life of the world. “Shine. Make them wonder what you’ve got. Make them wish that they were not on the outside looking in.” If we do not shine together when we are with others like us (i.e. church, home group, etc.), how can we expect to fulfill our calling to be his ambassadors and spread the boundaries of the kingdom?

Smile even if you don’t feel happy. Shine even if it’s just a soft, tiny flicker. Let God work the miracles and bring true peace, joy, love and hope for tomorrow into your life.

This is from my Chambers daily.

Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the tow into a right relationship. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of natural and spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual….For every detail of the commonsense life, there is a revelation fact of God where we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first….God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we cannot have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say, “he that has seen Me has seen the father,” we have something that is real, and faith is boundless.

This one has been simmering in my head for a bit so I thought I’d go ahead and share it. A while back in one of my daily readings Jean Fleming wrote that she “views [her] life as a tree. The trunk represents [her] relationship to Christ; the limbs represent areas of God-given responsibilities such as family, job, ministry, and personal development; and the branches represent the activities and opportunities of life.” She goes on the talk about how the activities can multiply to a point where they are more prominent than the trunk. It kind of reminded me of a hedge bush. Even when the bush is trimmed back the leaves are still more prominent than the trunk of the bush. Have you ever seen an old willow oak (or any old oak would probably do…I just prefer willow oaks because they have more leaves)? There is a willow oak in the front yard of my parents’ house and several here at the school. No matter how big, leafy or branched they get my first impression has primarily been “whoa that’s a huge trunk!” Activities and responsibilities are not bad things, we all have special talents that need to be used, but when they dwarf the trunk (i.e. your relationship with Christ), something is terribly wrong.

Here’s another thought for you. A couple of months back I had a snippet of a dream where I saw these huge trees with the centers burned away so there was a hole in the middle of the trunk and all the limbs, branches and twigs. Now if you know anything about botany or woody plants in general, you know that the xylem, which is made up of dead plant cells (and was the part that was burned away), normally carries water to the tops of the plants and gives structural support, and the phloem (the outer ring of the tree just below the bark) is where the nutrients are exchanged between the roots and the trees (i.e. the part that’s actually alive).

I was a little puzzled at first about these trees. If the centers were burned away, then how does the tree stand up and how does the water get to the branches. And then I realized, God doesn’t need or want a dead, imposed structure to give support or to direct water flow to his people. All He needs is an empty vessel so that he can fill it and make it prosper. Don’t try to impose your view of how you think God wants to fill your life and what things that he wants you to do; you’ll stunt your growth because you aren’t depending on Him for life giving water.

“He is the vine and we are the branches….” Well you know what? He’s also the Giver of Life and our Source of Strength. But even more than that, God wants to be in every part of our lives (down to the tiniest twigs), refreshing us and helping form new leaves that will edify the whole forest.

If you refuse to let circumstances, relationships, or love shape your life, you will stop growing even if you don’t stop aging. We cannot change into the things we want to be if we cocoon ourselves away from people and difficult situations. Wisdom comes from living the life that God places in front of you. It is your road to walk, and at times it will be extremely difficult, but the stumbling blocks are not the end of the trail. If you do not move beyond them and keep in the direction that is laid before you, you will stop, perhaps for an eternity, and will miss out on some wonderful blessings.