Ali Ballweg

“Do not pray for easy lives.

Pray to be stronger men.

Do not pray for tasks equal to your power,

But powers equal to your tasks.

Then the doing of your work shall become no miracle,

But YOU shall be a miracle.”

-Phillips Brooks

How often do your prayers center around something that would make your life easier, or at least prevent or get rid of something that is/would make it more difficult?  It is a very natural habit to get into and not entirely wrong, but as Phillips Brooks said, it does not make you stronger.  If you sit around and never face any trials how is your faith going to grow from that? 

Ok so yes we all still end up facing trials and we are taught over and over again about having faith amidst the tough times; standing firm in God’s truth and finding comfort in knowing that He works all out for good.  And yes that is completely true and should without a doubt be a great hope for everyone.

But…. I think we can, and should take it one step further.

We should not just wait for God to put obstacles in our way as a means for us to find faith to jump over hurdles for him.  We should search them out.  You may be thinking, “What is she crazy?  LOOK for troubles to get into?!?”  But I assure you I am not crazy, I am just on fire with passion for furthering God’s mission… Kind of like Paul…

“But there is another urgency before me now.  I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem.  I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there.  I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead.  But that matters little.  What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meek know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.”   -Acts 20:22-24 (The Message)

WOW!  Paul wasn’t just sitting around waiting for people to preach the gospel to and praying that when he did get the chance it would be easy and painless.  Nope, Paul was, with his whole heart, diving headfirst into God’s mission, disregarding any and all possible consequences.  Remember, not long before this Paul himself used to ridicule, to the point of death, people with this same outlook.  And then suddenly he was willing to be imprisoned or maybe killed himself for the purpose of the mission?  Yup, that’s Paul for you!

I think as today’s Christians we need to become more “Paul-like”.  We need to let Christ light our hearts ablaze to the point of us becoming willing to dive headfirst into furthering the mission instead of just looking for the easy opportunities.  It’s not going to be an easy transformation, but then again that’s not the point.  Living life like Paul did, in every single aspect of your life, will not be easy, but it will make you stronger, in every single aspect of your life.  Life is messy and in order to live fully, you must be willing to get dirty.

God Bless all of you in 2009!