I was talking today w my team about when Jesus spoke on His yoke being easy & His burden being lite (Matt 11:28ff). We were having an honest conversation about how sometimes life doesn’t seem easy nor lite. Then someone talked about their experience in working w horses & using a yoke for 2 horses to pull a load. She described how most of the time one of the 2 horses is usually stronger & takes the majority of the load while the other horse just tends to stroll in synch w the stronger horse, especially on level ground.
I thought that this was a powerful illustration in relation to staying in step w Jesus, as our primary strength & not relying on our own power, wisdom nor efforts. In essence, our main challenge can be to stay in synch w Jesus & to let Him carry our burdens. Perhaps another thought worth considering is the idea of yoke & burden ownership. From time to time, I find that I’m carrying burdens & pulling yokes that Jesus never gave to me – they’re self inflicted. So sometimes, Jesus gives me a friendly wake up call & He helps me to re-prioritize my responsibilities & energies to stay more in step w His assignments & objectives 
Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus & know that He’s helping us along with each step in our lives!
Posts Tagged 'Jesus'
the antidote for “I’m bored!”
Published April 29, 2011 living , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: antidote, boredom, daily living, help!, Jesus
Sometimes I think that we try to use busy-ness to immunize us from boredom – my friends at Starbucks always seem happier when the line snakes out the door rather than when the store is empty. They tell me that having a busy day is much better than a boring day. My problem is that when I use busy-ness to combat boredom, I often find myself in a state of frantic perpetual motion. Busy-ness can be a good thing with proper balance & direction, but if we use it as an antidote for boredom then we run the risk of living hallow, driven & inconsequential lives.
For me, I have found that the best antidote for being bored is to watch and listen for Jesus in my daily living. Here’s my thinking: I believe that Jesus is very much engaged & intertwined within my daily living. He’s with me when I’m driving, He’s in the meetings I attend, He’s sitting by me as I drink coffee, He’s present in the conversations & interactions I have with others, He’s present when I’m helping the kids with their homework & when I cook dinner, . . . . Jesus is ever with me – but even better, He’s not merely a silent & disinterested spectator. He is an active participant in my daily living – with His help, I can be increasingly aware of His internal peace in tumultuous situations. With His help, I can hear Him speak to me through various conversations. With His help, I can sense Him talking through me to encourage someone. With His help, I can grow to recognize His presence, voice, direction & hand throughout each day. As in Psalms 86:11, I pray Lord that you would “Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”
an acquired taste ,)
Published March 21, 2011 living , prayer , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: acquired taste, daily living, enhancing life, Jesus, routines
When I was growing up, my mom had a trick to help me get used to the foods that I didn’t like – eat a small amount every time its served. With this strategy, I learned to like pretty much everything, except canned peas (still can’t do them).
In some respects, I think the same strategy works with Jesus. While we know that He is “good” for us, sometimes He’s not always what we “want.” Sometimes we want frothy, superficial, unhealthy, quick fix answers to the deep issues of our heart. But I’ve found that when I bring even a little bit of Jesus to the issues in my life, at first I may not “like” His meddling, but the more space I give Him to manuever in my life, the more I like the results. In fact, I find that I’m getting to the point where I much prefer His answers & solutions to my own attempts to “fix” stuff. So here’s my suggestion, whatever place you’re at in life w Jesus, pls consider adding a little more of Him into your life (maybe you could include Him in your marriage a little more, maybe you could ask Him to raise your awareness of Him at your job or school, perhaps you might consider reading a Psalm or Proverb every day, . . . .). One of my fb friends gave me the EXTREMELY cool idea about praying for her when I re-heat my coffee (an almost daily routine). The idea of adding more of Jesus into your life can apply to any & everyone so please don’t “exempt” yourself because of your background, or experiences.
What are some other ways you might consider adding a little more of Jesus to your life?
fellowship with Jesus
Published January 28, 2011 enemies to intimacy , Holy Spirit , living , prayer , saving moses , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: crossing guard, diversity, fellowship, Jesus, prayer
I’m pretty turned on with Jesus – He makes my heart palpitate & captivates my attention. I love to have fellowship with Him, be around Him, recognize His work, listen for His whispers, think about His preferences . . . . I’m simply & happily absorbed by Him.
But here’s the fun part of my relationship with Jesus – it takes place not only in my quiet & private prayer time with Him, but I’m experiencing & aware of Him, more and more, throughout my day. This is interesting because my days have such tremendous diversity. On any given day, I might be studying for a sermon, cooking some experimental dish, trying to settle a conflict (among my kids, in a misunderstanding at work, . . . . ), trying to develop my video editing skills, talking about helping starving babies in Angola, getting on a plane to go minister somewhere, getting makeup put on for TV taping, wearing an orange safety vest for my crossing guard fun, . . . . . . . What I’m finding to be so magnificent is that I get to experience & interact with Jesus in all of these contexts & even more. I used to get frustrated about my relationship with Jesus because it seemed very limited & one dimensional – almost like I couldn’t seem to export Him from my prayer time into the daily living.
Of late, I haven’t had this struggle. I’m sensing Jesus throughout my days & the fellowship with Him is rich beyond description. Please check out Psalms 25 & consider reading it slowly, with some reflection
some constructive daydreaming
Published November 20, 2010 Holy Spirit , living , spiritual 5 CommentsTags: daydreaming, Jesus, living, relevant
The other day I was rumaging around in my imagination & playing some “what if” scenarios, when God threw out an interesting idea: Sarah, what would your life look like if you were closer to Jesus? Along this line, I’ve met alot of people who I consider to be really close to Jesus & I watch them carefully (or read about them as much as I can) to pick up some ideas, suggestions & behaviors. So I took this question very personally from God to me. I want to ask you to let yourself consider the same question:
What would your life look like if you were closer to Jesus?
Here are some of my answers: I share these with you, intending to provoke some of your thoughts & possibilities. Please feel free to leave your ideas in the comments
If I were closer to Jesus, I would be less: selfish, judgmental, worried, insecure, fearful, impatient,
If I were closer to Jesus, I would be more: forgiving, confident, loving, insightful, discerning, generous, selfless, concerned, peaceful, justice-minded, supernatural
So what do you think???? If you were closer to Jesus, what would your life look like?
ps – here’s a link to a cool video ,)
The demonstration of genuine love
Published April 3, 2010 living , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: Jesus, love, sacrifice, unconditional
Love is an interesting word in our modern world. This word can conjure up everything from chocolate to movies, from sex to coffee & a wide range of many other things.
I think that genuine has more depth than the best chocolate. I think that genuine love is better than your favorite movie or video game. I think that genuine love exceeds your best efforts & intentions. I think that genuine love is defined & displayed best by Jesus & His words & actions toward us. Genuine love, as expressed by Jesus, is grounded on who Jesus is & not based on our behavior. Genuine love, as Jesus expresses it to us, is nothing short of irresistable.
I pray that you would experience & know Jesus deep, transforming & powerful love for you. His love is without limit. His love is without qualification. His love is sacrificial & His love is ever present.
Jesus displays His love or us that while we were yet sinners He died for us & lives today to express His love to you. Ask Him to help you see, know & experience Jesus’ love. It’s the only genuine love that exists.
a constructive habit
Published March 1, 2010 living , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: experience, Jesus, looking, search
We had a friend come over for dinner a few nights ago & we had a totally great time catching up. My youngest son had a discussion w my friend about the difficulty of breaking a bad habit (an interesting dialogue from the viewpoint of a 6 year old). They both readily agreed that bad habits are a pain in the neck to try & break – so best to avoid making bad habits altogether.
Here’s a good habit to cultive: watching for Jesus. I find that when I get myself into the groove of looking for Jesus, He pops up in some very unexpected places:
- the Chicago airport last week – I watched the faces of the river of diverse people walking through the hallway & saw beyond the diversity to the individual beauty that each person has & I found myself in complete awe of God, His love and His infinite capacity to express beauty in flawed humanity
- I sense some of Jesus’ love for me through my kids – my kids know me extremely well & I’m astounded at their love for me;
- contrasts: I find it interesting how Jesus will take a situation that is hurtful to me & how He will use the situation to expose a deeper reality of who He is in my life
- miscellaneous exchanges with people – I get touched with how seemingly superficial conversations can reveal a deep need for Jesus in a person’s heart
I want my life to be about looking for Jesus – because what I look for is what I find. He is the treasure that I seek.
having some fun with failure
Published January 7, 2010 living , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: failure, fun, grow, Jesus, love
To me, fun and failure don’t really belong in the same sentence. One of the only times that I’ve experienced failure and its been fun is when I bowl. For whatever reason, whenever I bowl, I laugh my head off. Since I don’t really have much opportunity to bowl, I’m a miserable failure with bowling & it makes me TOTALLY laugh at myself in a really healthy way. Except for bowling, fun and failure aren’t very complementary – but here’s the catch: they can be.
I’ve had varying degrees of failure in my life. I’ve failed in various sports, failed in some different school work, failed in some relational contexts, failed with some financial decisions and more. Here’s the good part of failure – its the bottom. Furthermore, we often seem to learn more from our failures than our successes. Success feels better than failure, but failure because of both the feelings and consequences causes us to adapt, change, grow, adjust and improve.
Here’s the tricky part of failure: just because you’ve experienced failure doesn’t mean that you are a failure. The verb isn’t the same as the noun. Sometimes, if we’ve had some catastrophic failure or a whole bunch of failures, it can be easy to transfer the action to our identity. This is contrary to what Paul says in Romans 8:37 – that we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.
Hold your head up high when you fail. Its an opportunity to grow and get better. Through Jesus’ love for us, we are never failures, even when we blow it.
Jesus & Halloween
Published October 26, 2009 living , spiritual 2 CommentsTags: costumes, disguises, Jesus
Personally, I’ve never been a halloween fan. Its a creepy holiday & I never liked being scared, nor celebrating things for their ability to frighten me. I have enough struggles w fear without having a holiday to capitalize on scarey. That being said, the part of halloween that i did like was dressing up in various costumes & pretending to be someone else. It was fun trying to be creative – probably my favorite character that i dressed up as was Charlie Chaplain bc he was the easiest to look like.
So what does Jesus have to do w halloween & wearing costumes??? At various times in Jesus’ life, people didn’t recognize him. Mary thought He was a gardener, some disciples thought He was a fellow traveller, religious leaders thought He was a rebel, etc. Peter saw beyond the “costumes” when he said that Jesus is the Son of God. So i guess my question to you is, what “costumes” might Jesus be wearing in your life? Could He be a neighbor in need? Could He be the co-worker waiting for some of your time to give you some encouragement? Could He be found in the simple answers of a child? I think that Jesus is more present in our lives than we realize
Jesus on a weekday
Published June 15, 2009 living , spiritual Leave a CommentTags: conversations, Jesus, Sundays, weekdays
we had a super good church service yesterday – great preaching, wonderful worship, cool membership presentation, great connections – all sublime. I love it when we walk out of church having experienced God & having a bit of a divine glow from being in God’s presence. I find it interesting for myself that when i’m in the middle of totally worshipping God, i rarely want to be mad at someone or think about how to get back at someone for a rude comment, etc.
However, come Monday morning, or Tues afternoon, or some other time during the week, i can’t always say that i have the same sublime interactions. A couple of months ago, i had a rather unpleasant public conversation with a fellow believer who was very upset about something that was really hard to accept. I totally understand this person’s frustrations, but their conversation wasn’t Christ-like & their demeanor was rather offensive. While I didn’t confront this person, here’s the thing that bugs me in this experience: i don’t want to only be a Sunday Christian. I want the life of Jesus to permeate my daily living so that my conversations & interactions are 1st & foremost pleasing to God. I am obviously not living a perfect life & don’t want to throw stones when i live in a glass house myself. However, i do want to learn from others & endeavor with the help of the Holy Spirit to let Jesus live through me in my family interactions, throughout my weekdays & in my private thoughts. Let’s always be letting Jesus grow in us.
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