September 12, 2008

Living 110%

I hope that my last post wasn't too abrasive, but I challenge you to see the light at this.

Today, in chapel, our Spiritual Emphasis Speaker, John Vermilya (great man of God, by the way) shared with us how if we are going to wear the jersey, then we better get in the game. Are we going to be posers or are we going to live what we believe?

I think of it like this: if I am going to wear this jersey and I am going to be a part of this team called the Church, then I would want to give 110% as Coach Myers would have called it in football at Concord. If I can set my goal to give more than I am every day, I leave the rest to God. If I set my goal to be to give 110% every day to the cause of Christ, I am setting myself up for failure, right? There is no possible way that I am going to be able to exert myself 10% more than God has created in me. But yet, I am called to give Him everything. So what if I let Him do the rest?

When I played football at Concord, I tried (keyword) to play to the fullest extent that my body and mind would allow me to do. I would push myself, and my teammates, to play as hard as possible. Did we accomplish that, maybe. Were we successful? Probably not as much as we could have been or teams in the past HAD been given the same situations. But let's relate this to our war that we are currently in with the Evil One.

What would happen if I did everything that I could to follow after His Will for my life everyday; pushing myself to the limit and leaving nothing on the sidelines? What would happen if, when I got the call from the Coach, I got off the bench and gave my life, my all, my everything to His Cause? Is that good enough? I challenge you to say, no. I challenge you to say that unless I will my life to the guiding of the Holy Spirit, that it isn't even close to good enough. BUT, if I can give the Holy Spirit the control that is needed, I can leave it all on the field, I can give 110%. All of a sudden, I may have been able to fulfill God's call on my life.

Maybe an example would help? If God has called me to something like starting a church and I hear this call early in my life, say college, I have the opportunity to put myself into a place that God can use me and fill me with all the knowledge that may be offered at a institution of higher learning. But on the process of finding what the next step is, you find out that it's going to cost $XXXXX.XX and you don't know that you can afford that, and you don't know where you would live, and you don't know what exactly to study. What if giving 110% is simply putting yourself in a position that the only way to complete the task is to let Him guide you and let Him show up? What if the only way for you to make it through graduate school is to simply listen to His voice for as far as you possibly can on this earth and then let Him do the rest?

Isn't that living 110%? Giving it your all? Is this really tough, OH YEAH! Am I there yet, NO WAY! But what would the world look like if we simply surrendered the fact that we can't do it alone and put ourselves in a position to let God work the way God works?

I pray that this can be my mentality in my life.
I pray that you can realize this philosophy also.


May God Bless your weekend and bring clarity in your next steps.

Blessings!

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