I've never had a cat that came running at the sound of a can opener. I do now.
All last week, as part of my diet, I had either canned tuna or chicken for lunch. I would pour a little of the water from the can into Molly's food bowl, and she loved it. But now, when she hears the can opener, she comes running, meowing and rubbing against my leg, begging for tuna or chicken. I try to tell her it's only green beans -- I even let her smell the can -- but I don't think she believes me. She looks a little betrayed, like I'm trying to keep all the tuna for myself.
>
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Friday, September 23, 2005
I don't get it!
"...man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord". Deut. 8:3
I've been on a 1000 calorie diet this week (for the metabolism study at Baylor), and this verse has NOT been a reality to me. I've been very preoccupied by my hunger, by when I'm going to eat next, by what I'm eating, by how much I don't enjoy what I'm eating, etc. Now, part of this may certainly be due to sleepiness, since I've been getting up so early. When I don't get enough sleep, I get cranky, and that will certainly skew my perspective. But I'm also weak and have no energy. This is very frustrating to me, as I have been trying to stay on top of the housework, and this week it has not happened. I'm also very unfocused. So, I don't get how this verse works. How do I live off the words of God? I understand how it works in a spiritual sense, but I really don't get the physical applications. I know the Lord has been very faithful in helping me to stick to this diet, to resist temptation (which is getting harder to do as the week wears on). He has been faithful to provide me with encouragement from His people. And it's not like I'm starving or anything -- I can't imagine what people who are truly starving go through. But I also don't understand how I'm supposed to live off the word of God.
Jesus quoted this verse when he was in the desert being tempted. Now, he hadn't eaten ANYTHING for 40 days. That's a really long time to go without food. Then, when he's tempted to turn a stone into bread, this verse is his response. How was it that he was able to cling to the words of his Father for physical sustenance? I guess it's more of the dying I was talking about earlier in the week. And maybe my perception of my physical weakness has been amplified by my lack of focused time with the Lord. I don't know. I do know I haven't been living too much off the words of the Lord. I think maybe some of my discontent with this diet has stemmed from the fact that I've been very focused on myself this week, and I've felt justified in that because I'm suffering a hardship! Ha -- I have the "right" to focus on me because of what I'm going through. But it's not true, is it?
This reminds me of something I have recently noticed in the creation story. I've always assumed (and been taught), that the sun is the source of light. When the sun rises, there is light. When the sun sets, there is dark. Ergo, the sun is the source of the light, right? Not according to Genesis. God created light and dark on the first day. He called the light "day", and the dark "night". All well and good. But, he didn't make the sun until the FOURTH day. So, there was light (and dark) for a full three days before there was a sun. I never really paid too much attention to that before. The sun is not the source of the light, God is. He is not limited by anything, especially his own creation. So, maybe that's the way Deut. 8:3 works. Yes, for the most part, I get my energy, my strength, my physical life from food. But God is not limited by food. His life extends deeper, beyond what I eat. And it's not just a spiritual application. I guess I don't really have to understand it. But I have to know it, and, knowing it, I am called to practice it; to depend not on what I can do or what I know, but on what the Lord can do and what he says is true.
And, to bring it full circle, since Jesus is the Word of God, this means that I am to live by his life, and none other. Wow. He is not just how I live the Christian life, he is how I live at all. "In him we live and move and have our being" Acts 17:28
Thanks for hanging with me as I worked that out. Please keep me accountable in it, even (especially?) when I don't want to hear it.
I've been on a 1000 calorie diet this week (for the metabolism study at Baylor), and this verse has NOT been a reality to me. I've been very preoccupied by my hunger, by when I'm going to eat next, by what I'm eating, by how much I don't enjoy what I'm eating, etc. Now, part of this may certainly be due to sleepiness, since I've been getting up so early. When I don't get enough sleep, I get cranky, and that will certainly skew my perspective. But I'm also weak and have no energy. This is very frustrating to me, as I have been trying to stay on top of the housework, and this week it has not happened. I'm also very unfocused. So, I don't get how this verse works. How do I live off the words of God? I understand how it works in a spiritual sense, but I really don't get the physical applications. I know the Lord has been very faithful in helping me to stick to this diet, to resist temptation (which is getting harder to do as the week wears on). He has been faithful to provide me with encouragement from His people. And it's not like I'm starving or anything -- I can't imagine what people who are truly starving go through. But I also don't understand how I'm supposed to live off the word of God.
Jesus quoted this verse when he was in the desert being tempted. Now, he hadn't eaten ANYTHING for 40 days. That's a really long time to go without food. Then, when he's tempted to turn a stone into bread, this verse is his response. How was it that he was able to cling to the words of his Father for physical sustenance? I guess it's more of the dying I was talking about earlier in the week. And maybe my perception of my physical weakness has been amplified by my lack of focused time with the Lord. I don't know. I do know I haven't been living too much off the words of the Lord. I think maybe some of my discontent with this diet has stemmed from the fact that I've been very focused on myself this week, and I've felt justified in that because I'm suffering a hardship! Ha -- I have the "right" to focus on me because of what I'm going through. But it's not true, is it?
This reminds me of something I have recently noticed in the creation story. I've always assumed (and been taught), that the sun is the source of light. When the sun rises, there is light. When the sun sets, there is dark. Ergo, the sun is the source of the light, right? Not according to Genesis. God created light and dark on the first day. He called the light "day", and the dark "night". All well and good. But, he didn't make the sun until the FOURTH day. So, there was light (and dark) for a full three days before there was a sun. I never really paid too much attention to that before. The sun is not the source of the light, God is. He is not limited by anything, especially his own creation. So, maybe that's the way Deut. 8:3 works. Yes, for the most part, I get my energy, my strength, my physical life from food. But God is not limited by food. His life extends deeper, beyond what I eat. And it's not just a spiritual application. I guess I don't really have to understand it. But I have to know it, and, knowing it, I am called to practice it; to depend not on what I can do or what I know, but on what the Lord can do and what he says is true.
And, to bring it full circle, since Jesus is the Word of God, this means that I am to live by his life, and none other. Wow. He is not just how I live the Christian life, he is how I live at all. "In him we live and move and have our being" Acts 17:28
Thanks for hanging with me as I worked that out. Please keep me accountable in it, even (especially?) when I don't want to hear it.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Dying
Cheery, huh? Just stick with me...
I've been getting up at 5 in the morning to do a metabolism study at Baylor (ah, that's why she's talking about death), and on my way home this morning, I heard something on the radio that really resonated with me. It's something I've known for a while, but hadn't put into words, and this guy put it into words. The gist of it is, it's just as important, maybe more so, to die daily to self as it is to die physically for your faith. It's very difficult to lay down your "rights", your pride, your desires, sometimes more difficult than laying down your physical life. From where I'm standing right here, right now, if someone were to point a gun at my head and ask me if I believe in Jesus, I could say "yes" with little hesitation. But when Jesus asks me to lay down my rights -- the life I want, the things I want, the way I want to be treated by others -- I don't just hesitate, I stop and dig in my heels.
Jesus said that no one loves his friends more than if he lays down his life for them. Obviously, he did this. But I don't think it was just physical life he was talking about. We know he humbled himself before his friends, serving them by washing their feet. That takes some giving up of rights, and if anyone in history has had rights worth holding onto, it was Jesus. Jesus was able to die for us because he died to self daily. He was emptied of himself and lived by the Father alone (John 6:57). His physical death was basically an extension of his daily dying to self. I think if Jesus hadn't been as practiced as he was at dying to self, He wouldn't have been able to die on the cross. We know He really didn't want to do it, but He was able to say "Father, Your will, not mine". That's not a fluke. It takes some practice to be able to say that and mean it.
I'm certainly not trying to downplay Jesus' physical death, or all the believers through the ages who have died physically for their faith. But in my mind, I tend to see martyrdom as an obscure thing, some noble act of faith that I will probably never be called upon to do. But I am called to be a martyr daily, to take up my cross daily, to die a very hard death. I think this is mainly what Jesus was talking about when he told us to lay down our lives -- not only that we should be willing to die for each other or our faith, but that we should give up our fleshly rights, consider others' needs more important than our own, serve humbly, love when we don't want to -- all through the power of his life within us. And, we can only access that life when we are willing to put the flesh to death.
I've been getting up at 5 in the morning to do a metabolism study at Baylor (ah, that's why she's talking about death), and on my way home this morning, I heard something on the radio that really resonated with me. It's something I've known for a while, but hadn't put into words, and this guy put it into words. The gist of it is, it's just as important, maybe more so, to die daily to self as it is to die physically for your faith. It's very difficult to lay down your "rights", your pride, your desires, sometimes more difficult than laying down your physical life. From where I'm standing right here, right now, if someone were to point a gun at my head and ask me if I believe in Jesus, I could say "yes" with little hesitation. But when Jesus asks me to lay down my rights -- the life I want, the things I want, the way I want to be treated by others -- I don't just hesitate, I stop and dig in my heels.
Jesus said that no one loves his friends more than if he lays down his life for them. Obviously, he did this. But I don't think it was just physical life he was talking about. We know he humbled himself before his friends, serving them by washing their feet. That takes some giving up of rights, and if anyone in history has had rights worth holding onto, it was Jesus. Jesus was able to die for us because he died to self daily. He was emptied of himself and lived by the Father alone (John 6:57). His physical death was basically an extension of his daily dying to self. I think if Jesus hadn't been as practiced as he was at dying to self, He wouldn't have been able to die on the cross. We know He really didn't want to do it, but He was able to say "Father, Your will, not mine". That's not a fluke. It takes some practice to be able to say that and mean it.
I'm certainly not trying to downplay Jesus' physical death, or all the believers through the ages who have died physically for their faith. But in my mind, I tend to see martyrdom as an obscure thing, some noble act of faith that I will probably never be called upon to do. But I am called to be a martyr daily, to take up my cross daily, to die a very hard death. I think this is mainly what Jesus was talking about when he told us to lay down our lives -- not only that we should be willing to die for each other or our faith, but that we should give up our fleshly rights, consider others' needs more important than our own, serve humbly, love when we don't want to -- all through the power of his life within us. And, we can only access that life when we are willing to put the flesh to death.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
...I guess I WOULD jump off the Empire State Building
Actually, I've been dragged over here kicking and screaming. But, after several tries and much patience, Aaron was able to create a blogspot for me, so I guess I'll join the exodus from Xanga. I'm not entirely sure I'll never go back, though. I may be evil and just combine the two...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)