An Intense Moment at Gethsemane
For me, there were two lines in this chapter that really got me. The firstline of the chapter:
"Gethsemane is where you go when there's no place to go but God..."
And the very last line of the chapter:
"And that my strength is not found in how courageously I struggle but in how completely I surrender.
The first line and the last line sum up my experience that night I gave myself to God. My Gethsemane was the floor of my dining room. Just like Christ, I laid face down, clawing at the dirt (okay, the carpet. Okay, the dirty carpet...) And it wasn't until I completely and totally surrendered that something inside me shifted.
Talking with P., my mentee, on Monday morning she asked me the same question she's asked me twice before. "But how do you do that? How do you know when You've found God? How did you get Him to find you so that you knew He was real?"
She tells me every week that she's "a very logical person" and I tell her every week that she'll never understand what faith is if she doesn't set "thought" down for just a moment and look inside her heart for Him. She's so engaged with the trappings of her mind that she literally can't "feel" God inside her, working His magic.
It's amazing to watch her go through this process - wanting to find God, talking to Him, hoping he is really 'real' but not understanding that, at some point, she has to realize that if there were proof positive that God is God then we'd ALL be believers. I keep trying to tell her that that last step - that last leap if you will - has absolutely NOTHING to do with logic and thought processess. It has to do with opening your heart and letting in the love. THEN going back to the logic and seeing how that open heart influences what you see and how you see it.
[Am I wrong about this?]
In my own life, it involved total surrender. It was about giving God the chance to have His way instead of my way. It was about 'letting go and letting God.' And it was in that moment that the key fit in the lock and the door swung open and in walked Jesus.
Whether you find God through logic or emotion, struggle or grace, pain or rejoicing, it really doesn't matter. Any place can be Gethsemane if the soil in the garden of your heart is rich and fertile.
He'll grow you if you let Him.
"Gethsemane is where you go when there's no place to go but God..."
And the very last line of the chapter:
"And that my strength is not found in how courageously I struggle but in how completely I surrender.
The first line and the last line sum up my experience that night I gave myself to God. My Gethsemane was the floor of my dining room. Just like Christ, I laid face down, clawing at the dirt (okay, the carpet. Okay, the dirty carpet...) And it wasn't until I completely and totally surrendered that something inside me shifted.
Talking with P., my mentee, on Monday morning she asked me the same question she's asked me twice before. "But how do you do that? How do you know when You've found God? How did you get Him to find you so that you knew He was real?"
She tells me every week that she's "a very logical person" and I tell her every week that she'll never understand what faith is if she doesn't set "thought" down for just a moment and look inside her heart for Him. She's so engaged with the trappings of her mind that she literally can't "feel" God inside her, working His magic.
It's amazing to watch her go through this process - wanting to find God, talking to Him, hoping he is really 'real' but not understanding that, at some point, she has to realize that if there were proof positive that God is God then we'd ALL be believers. I keep trying to tell her that that last step - that last leap if you will - has absolutely NOTHING to do with logic and thought processess. It has to do with opening your heart and letting in the love. THEN going back to the logic and seeing how that open heart influences what you see and how you see it.
[Am I wrong about this?]
In my own life, it involved total surrender. It was about giving God the chance to have His way instead of my way. It was about 'letting go and letting God.' And it was in that moment that the key fit in the lock and the door swung open and in walked Jesus.
Whether you find God through logic or emotion, struggle or grace, pain or rejoicing, it really doesn't matter. Any place can be Gethsemane if the soil in the garden of your heart is rich and fertile.
He'll grow you if you let Him.
posted by HeyJules at
7:23 AM
6 Comments:
I have a hunch that even if God could be proven, there would still be people who'd choose to disobey, to go their own way... if angels could do it, humans wouldn't be far behind.
I totally agree that it takes surrender. Many people confuse surrender with giving up and they feel that's a bad thing. The Buddhists know better.
By
Claire Joy, at 7:40 AM
"The Buddhists know better."
Oh CJ - I still to this day believe it was my looking at life through the eyes of a Buddhist that led me all the way to the Father. It did teach me surrender was not a bad word but something to be embraced.
By
HeyJules, at 9:10 AM
surrender is a hard concept to embrace when the world teaches that power is the key to success... Christianity seems to go against every principle the world teaches and yet as Christians its so hard to distinguish at times, isnt it?
hmmm - I would suggest Patti getting the book Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell since she is of the logical sort... the author set out to prove that the Bible was false, but came across so many truths that he, himself was converted.... just a thought
By
dangermama, at 9:53 AM
Addie, I will most definitely pass that on to Patti. She's already read Lee Strobel's "Case for Faith" and "Case for the Creator" and still hasn't "gotten" it but perhaps this book will move her further in that direction.
By
HeyJules, at 10:29 AM
Excellent book suggestion, Addie! And, there is a sequel to it, "More Evidence that Demands a Verdict."
One cannot always trust one's "emotions". I can remember telling Jim that the rocks are not going to jump up and down and the trees are not going to say Hallelujah when you ask Christ to take the reigns. I kept repeating that in different ways over the year. You recognize your need and then give it to Christ. Then it becomes a matter of faith, since most likely, one hasn't "felt" anything. You take that first step of faith, and God will begin to work. It's amazing what happens to a person the first moment they believe. Wow! That's a neat study to do sometime.
By
Pilot Mom, at 10:50 AM
er...reins...sorry!
By
Pilot Mom, at 10:50 AM
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