The evening didn’t disappoint; in fact, it was so much more amazing than I could have imagined. SCC and Michael W Smith (who he was touring with) are both phenomenal musicians. I was singing along to every SCC song and there were just so many amazing moments that one blog post could not do it justice. So, rather than trying to summarise the evening, I’m instead going to focus on one key thought that struck me afresh yesterday.
Yesterday morning at church, Tim had been speaking about how we need to be people who are constantly pushing forward, and how the moments we sit back are the times when we in fact get dragged backwards. (Have a listen !)
Now, this is a concept that I’ve been struggling with this week (which is why yesterday was interesting timing!) If I’m honest, I don’t like the concept of always pushing onwards. My reaction is: “yes, but what about being content? Enjoying what God has given to us?” I can also feel like I’ve already had quite enough of challenges and I’d quite like to stay where I am for a while, to rest and recoup a while before the next thing please!
But, yesterday afternoon I realised the problem: it isn’t with the concept, but with my way of thinking. My problem is that I equate pushing forward with striving harder. I constantly put such pressure on myself to be a better person: to work harder, to please this and that person, to be a better friend, the list goes on…But, although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these things in themselves (friends are amazing, and of course I want to do well at my work...), me constantly striving harder just ends up leaving me feeling exhausted and is what leaves me feeling like I’ve had enough.
Yet, that isn’t what the Bible says at all. The Bible doesn’t say: “work harder and you’ll gain eternal life!” In fact, it says that no matter how hard we try we can never be good enough. When we just keep trying harder, we will always feel far from the standards set by ourselves, by society and by a perfect God. We will never fulfil them on our own! But what is amazing, is that the Bible says that Jesus IS life, and we just have to change our way of thinking and come to Him! It's about Him, not us! Now, this is something I “know”, but I think that often I nevertheless continue to live as if it all depends on me!
Now, getting back to SCC, I was struck particularly by 2 of his songs last night – songs that I know inside out, and yet I saw new things in them that I hadn’t seen before.
In For the sake of the call he writes:
“Empty nets lying there at the water’s edge
Told a story that few could believe and none could explain
How some crazy fishermen agreed to go where Jesus led
With no thought for what they would gain
For Jesus had called them by name and they answered”
“Drawn like the rivers are drawn to the sea
No turning back, for the water cannot help but flow
Once we hear the Saviour's call we'll follow wherever he leads
Because of the love He has shown
And because he has called us to go we will answer”
“Not for the sake of a creed or a cause
Not for a dream or a promise
Simply because it is Jesus who calls
And if we believe we'll obey”
Now, rivers don’t say “well, I just don’t feel like flowing today” and they certainly don’t have to strive harder to flow, they just do, it’s the way of things and they can’t help it.
In The great adventure (one of SCC's best known songs) it says:
“I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say
"let's go"!
Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure”
The song isn’t called “The Great Slog”, but “The Great Adventure”, and the key to this adventure is following our leader, Jesus! Pushing forward doesn’t mean trying harder and exhausting ourselves, but simply following wherever Jesus goes, and being where He wants us to be; because we love Him and want to be where He is and because He loves us, has a plan, and He knows the best place for us to be (even if His ways may often seem strange to us at the time!) Jesus Himself said that He only did what He saw His father doing, (rather than running off here, there and everywhere trying to make things work as he saw best!)
It also ties in with this passage that we were looking at recently on a course that I am doing:
"2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice." John10:2-4
Now don’t get me wrong, I know that this means that we will be challenged, and that hard work will often be involved. But, it's about where the motivation is coming from; knowing that we just have to follow Jesus takes the pressure off ourselves, and we know that we don’t have to dread life, but we should instead be excited about it, and about where God is going! All we have to do, is to work out what this looks like for each of us in practise – learning to trust in Him and follow Him. After all, this is the Great Adventure!
p.s. have you spotted the themes with the recent post titles lately ;-)
