Some of my favorite kind of people are the people that ask you: "What has the Lord been teaching you lately?" You can choose to respond to this question with a Christian cliche or you can choose to be vulnerable and think hard about how the Lord is working in your life. We are all broken and need God to save us every day. His power is made perfect in our weakness, and just because we pray to Him and thank Him for our food does not mean that He doesn't have a lot to change in us, and we don't have a lot more to learn. I feel as though sometimes Christians accept way too little from God. We accept that He loves us and that He saved us, but we don't always let those truths lead us every day. We don't always believe that God is good at being God. God is constantly teaching us how to live and come to Him, it's us that doesn't always allow the lessons and wisdom to soak in. He is truly the Great Teacher, and who are we to be His students? Who are we to deserve His lectures, His Word, and His relentless love?
Earlier this week, I was worshipping the God of the universe in my Honda Civic. I was praising Him for who He is and for so many things that He has taught me and done in my life lately. For some reason I started thinking about this poem I have hanging up in my dorm room. I ripped it out of a gross book from a thrift shop. The title is "Better than I could Ask or Dream." That's the title of my life with God. He has done more in my life than I could ask or dream. He has answered prayers in far better ways than I could have expected Him to. He is good. He teaches us how to live in a broken world with broken people, and have pure joy through it all. Through it all, He reminds us that He cares for us. Through it all, He carries us. We don't have to try so hard, we just have to love Him hard. We just have to open our hands and be His students. We have to let go of everything we hold onto. It sounds so simple, but it's not easy.
We hold onto a lot. We hold onto pain because it's easier than choosing forgiveness. We hold onto lies about ourselves because it's easy to forget who we are. We hold onto control because it's hard to surrender. It is hard to open our hands when they are full. We think we're pretty stable with all the weight on our shoulders. We believe in ourselves. We convince ourselves that we don't need God. We can't keep allowing ourselves to be our own teachers. We have to realize how weak our arms are, how weary our feet are, and how drained our minds are. We have to drop everything we hold onto at the foot of the cross and focus on God's arms. They are open so wide for us to run into them. His teachings are not old parables that do not apply to our lives; they are living and active.
I challenge you to stop settling for a mediocre God. Stop believing that this is all there is, and know that God's plan for you is far better than you could ask for or dream of. Remember that God is good at being God. He will strengthen your shoulders because He is 100 percent for you. He's not going to let you fail. He's going to develop you and transform you into a student you never knew you could be. He sees every ounce of potential you have because He made you. He's never going to give us up or let us down.
