Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Only what's done for Christ will last


My heart has been asking the Lord to lead me to His purpose in and for me. But what does that really mean? It seems so magnanimous a chore, even a concept, to visualize it in a few words. Then I realized that it was because I thought I was the driver and the one ultimately responsible for the purpose.

I am not the maker of my purpose, nor am I responsible for my creation. I am His and His will resides in me. When He gave me His Son, Jesus, He set me apart and cleansed me. He showed me how much His love can carry me through. I know that there won't be any time when I could say that I have had all of His love. In my limited capacity, I will not be able to perceive nor measure the magnitude of this love. In my baseness, He is still the perfection of my weaknesses. And yet, because of His love, He allows me to become the character that He has designed for me. He refines. He forgives. He loves like no other.

Recently, I have understood clearly what Paul meant when he said, "For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice." I struggle like Paul and I imagine that I am not the only one going through this. Because I live in this temporary world with temporary promises, I have this tug-of war in me that craves to go the opposite direction - where I was and had long left - and pursue deceptive sweetness in its organic state. The 'temporary' part is an issue, because it becomes more a rarity or some kind of wonderful-now and perhaps-goodbye-later that is absolutely exciting to the senses. But the bigger issue is that I am no longer that temporary kind of gal: I choose the eternal promises assigned to my new nature. This tug-of war between the old and the new is so difficult for me. I know what I need to do and where I should derive my strength. I know, too, that only what's done for Christ will last.
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basically Yours

Convivially, I should attend to all the comments and e-mails that I get when I tell everyone my most private thoughts and, oh, my weaknesses even. But there is a small chance that a lot of people will bump into my own quiet place.

Simply, I don't advertise it, I don't really share it with just anyone, I don't even tell my immediate family about it. I don't even talk about what I really do on a day-to-day basis, or what, quote-unquote, achievements in the bubble-world out there I snag, or how much I do for this and that which, ideal-worldly, merits accolade and, yes, some kind of vertical trophy or something thicker than a cardboard to stuff into some Office Depot certificate frame.

So what is the purpose of this? At first it was just my way of exercise: a sort-of platform to air out what bogs my head when I think, or when I want to say something to someone close but couldn't because it's not appropos at the time or that it's simply immature to even utter, or when I feel like the flow is within me and I want God to be in the know like I am in the know of what's going on in my head, or just to be in the same page with God, because as we all know we aren't always in the same page with the Almighty. It is my own quiet place to be me - suddenly, internally, vocally, artistically, whimsically, stupidly, spiritually - from all adverbial vantage points thesaurus has already, previously factored as a word.

Besides I just am done with the ex-crap, for lack of a better noun, that came with my in-and-ex-baggage I now refer to as pride. It was the stupidity of pride and the ingenuity of embellished prejudice that prevent one's lowest self to be thrown in the air and left to be picked up by a Power stronger and higher than itself. Holding tight to a configuration of self, or the idea of self, is plain stupid in my spiffed-up notion of wisdom, which happens to be the kind that originated from my Maker.

See, I am nobody special to a lot of human beings, but I am special especially to my Maker. This alone, now, gives me peace. He knows what I am doing at all times. I don't really have to announce to Him what my heart's desires are, because He knows me inside and out. But when I blog here, when I use this platform to cry out to Him, it's as if He is right there, ready with His keyboard, ready to respond and comment, or not respond and comment, ready to understand everything I say, ready to forgive me for the foibles that I say in-between-the-lines, ready to decipher the in-between-the-lines before they even come out of here. He is ready for me at all times. He always says, I'm basically yours, my love.

Many times I ask myself: Why do I bother or not bother? Why is it that I am compelled from the deepest recesses of my heart to talk to Him? I don't even seem to exist for any other reason, but to exist for Him. But there is where I could be wrong: He made me for something and that something is so close to me now, just as far as I could stretch my arm. I could smell the purpose. I could even feel the static that creates a whizzing noise when the thin spark implodes. It is here, my purpose. Tapping on my heart, it is here. I am to do what I am supposed to do.

You know what I say to my Maker? Now I say, I am basically Yours, my Maker! Do with me what You will for me to do.

--June 11, 2008, Year of New Beginnings