Life Between the Anvil & the Hammer

In life their are times you are the Anvil, and times you are the hammer.  Then there are those moments when you are the piece of metal in the middle being pounded.  Life can sometimes not just be unfair, but down right mean.  You can sometimes become trapped between the place we find our selves in (be that physically or spiritually) and the pounding of life's circumstances.

 

When you are in this place it is not a gentle tap, tap, tap.  It is a brutal and seemingly insurmountable barrage.  Going from the fire when your 'metal' is tested and tempered to then placed on the anvil and struck with a hammer that sends sparks in every direction.  This moulding of our metal is not precise.  Not soft, but relentless and painful  Then back into the fire and more pounding.  Until finally you either yield to the process and become what the smith wants or we become scrap metal and thrown into the scrap pile to be melted down and used again.

 

There are time in life when this happens to us and it can seem as if the Lord himself has taken a holiday and left you to circumstances of life.  No matter what you do nothing seems to make a dent.

 

Job probably felt like this as well.  Having everything taken from you and left barely living. He struggled with his own thoughts as well.  The mental anguish of having to balance the pain of his present circumstances with the concept of a "Loving God".  Why did God let this happen?  Why didn't he do something?  Aren't we His children?

 

Hopefully the people who know of our situation have the grace to just walk with us through it instead of trying to 'fix' our attitude and get us to just........ (fill in the blank).  Many of us just do not know what to say and those that do say something usually try and change our minds about God.  Even though at that moment in time we could care less what our attitude is.  We just want the pain to stop.

 

This is also when those very special verses in the Bible about trust and faith are spoken to us. "Trust the Lord." "He knows what he is doing." "Blah blah blah." These words assault us and only serve to increase our pain.

 

In the end you have to silence your own doubts, and re-engage with God.  His Holy Spirit gently and lovingly works in His own time.

 

One of my favourite verses can be found in Lamentations.

 

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 
22 Because of the LORD 's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Lamentations 3: 19 - 24

 

 

It is not a case that I will honour God because He is good or delight in Him for all He has done. Sometimes we praise Him because He is all we have.  Just to honour Him because He is their.  Our circumstance may not presently manifest evidence of His love but this does not mean He has forsaken us.

 

15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;

Job 13:15

 

 

This is not something someone can tell you.  It has to be something you say for yourself.  It is at this point that we move from trusting God because He has been good to us to trusting Him because He is God. It may seem He is far off, but even so I will trust Him.  Life may be pressing in all around but we are still able to just stand.

 

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this

all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 
9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4: 7 - 9

 

 

There is no guilt in having moments when God is not on our top ten list.  All of us have moments when we have had enough and feel like packing it all in. I know, I have been there. I am there.

 

So today as an act of my will, and with what little faith I have I say that He is my God and I will trust in Him.  Though my circumstances and my mind tell me otherwise I CHOOSE to deny what I see, and instead lay what little I have at the feet of a merciful God.

 

 

7 We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7



 

Shalom

 

Dave Mc



 

 

The Paradox of Forced Compliance

THE PARADOX OF FORCED COMPLIANCE

In a spiritual paradigm of free will, how do we motivate change in another person, or indeed how do we ensure compliance with spiritual behaviours?

The usual method is instruction.  This is where we show people scriptures that highlight the need for compliance as it pertains to the spiritual maturity of the believer.  When used in this way, however  it has the tendency to be perceived as a mode of control and therefore actively resisted and the required behaviour not adopted.

These scriptures that are truly the word of God to a lost world are to be read and absorbed as part of the believers "walk life".  When they are told of their lack it can have a negative effect rather than a positive one.

 
The question that should always be asked is this;

"What is the motivation of the speaker?"

If it is to get a person to comply with a spiritual perception then the method of instruction will have an authoritative feel to it. On the other hand if the purpose is to help the person to grow in their experience of God then the method is respectful and generally has a genuineness and humility in the telling.

Understanding why the person is speaking can also give a clear indication as to whether compliance is appropriate.  There are times when compliance is required, and free will is suspended.  Not by the decision of the believer in question but rather it is a forced imposition.  This negates the scriptural basis for such compliance.  Our denial of self should be motivated out of our relationship with the Lord. If we are instructed to comply then the reaction is usually one of rebellion.  This is a normal response to tyranny, and make no mistake it is tyranny.

 
The main thing to remember is that you are a sovereign individual before God. No one has the right to take that away. You have the right to suspend your right of free will,  that but it cannot be mandated.  The minute it becomes a requirement of acceptance then the usurpation of the believer begins.

If we as leaders are truly focused on helping people gain a relationship with the
Lord then this must motivate our interactions with his children. Without this underlying motivation to help them grow in their relationship with the Lord we tend to have an attitude of instruction instead of a mutually beneficial growth relationship.

I guess the question is what is the responsibility of the leader/teacher. Is it to train or is it to impart a desire for the growth in themselves. To acquire the level of relationship with the Lord where they would be positively motivate to change in and of themselves?

Are we as leaders responsible to bring change or to create an atmosphere where the recipient of our ministrations feel safe and encouraged enough to risk?  For indeed true growth cannot come without risking our current paradigm.  However it will only be lasting and in-depth growth if they themselves, out of the desire for a deeper relationship with the Lord, choose to grow.

Growth takes as long as it takes. Have we become so methodistic as a body that everything must comply to a set quantifiable outcomes?  Do we have to manufacture our disciples the same way? By batching them together and then picking out the defects at the end?  We are all different yet we celebrate, affirm and require conformity? Why can't we simply walk beside them and model this "Walk Life" for them.

Coming back to our title, 'The Paradox of Forced Compliance'. If we are truly trying to grow people in Christ then the only thing you get using this, is their compliance.  You don't get their heart or their 'buy in'.  So if all you want is compliance then go ahead, but if you want growth then you need to pursue an  emotional, intellectual and spiritual connectedness with the person.

You must stay true to the goal.  Compliance is not growth. It is simple the acquiescence of the will. 

 


Shalom

Dave Mc

How to make your Soul Sing

While I was living in Africa I saw a commercial for fruit juice.  In this particular commercial there was a women running through a fruit market leaping over cases of fruit and running with a huge smile on her face.  The tag line said that if you put the right things in your body then your body sings.  This got me thinking.  At that point in my life my body, or my soul for that matter, very rarely 'Sang'. 

 

Then I picked up a book by Arthur Miller "Why you can't be what you want to be."  In the book he talks about finding that job you can do all day with no problem.  Doing those things that bring you joy not drag you down in a pit of despair.  This got me thinking that perhaps if you were doing what God, in His infinite wisdom, created you for then your soul might sing.

 

 

This started me  a journey to discover that which bring the greatest joy as well as the greatest return.  It was then that I realised that my gift was my mouth.  Since yielding this gift to the Lord I was able to share, at length, the things of God.  I also realised that simply being able to speak was not enough.  I need something to say.  I went before the Lord and ask Him a simply question.  What must I say?

 

What, if given the opportunity, would I like to do with my gift.  The answer was pretty clear.  I loved building into people.  It is not just motivated from my own understanding of what it is like to be marginalised, but also out of a deep compassion to helps others achieve their purpose in Christ.

 

So I went and studied and got my Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment.  This gave me the opportunity to spend the entire day doing what I love to do, and that is to talk.  To give of myself in such a way that it bring increase to those I talk to, hopefully.

 

Now my soul does sing.  I get up each morning and go to work actually looking forward to what the day will bring.  I also realised the other day I had taken no significant time off in nearly a year.  This was a minor miracle.

 

Let me encourage you to find what God has created you to do.  This will be in area that you are strong in.  Not just what you like doing but what brings the greatest return. John Maxwell speaks of working on your strengths and not your weaknesses.  Marcus Buckingham says the same thing.  The fact remains that at the moment more than half of all people in the workforce do NOT find fulfilment in what they do.  This they find outside of the work environment.

Now it may mean some changes, it may mean letting go of some old habits.  But imagine if you could do what you were created to do.  Not just for the Lord but for your fellow man as well.  Using that gift to build into the lives of others in such a way that you fell fulfilled and encouraged.

 

Have the courage to search for that unique gift the Lord has given you.  Only you will truly know what that is.  That thing that puts a spring in your step and wind to your sails.  Find that life you long for.

 

Then your soul will sing too.

 

Shalom

Dave Mc