Back in the U.A.E, I developed a habit that entailed me, treating myself to dinner at a five star restaurant, ice cream at Häagen-dazs and a movie, at least twice a month. I also bought myself some nice things e.g. clothes, jewelry, books, shoes, electronic gadgets etc. I purposed that I wasn’t going to wait until there was a man in my life, for me to enjoy life, or so that he could do/buy for or impress me with these things. I figured you don’t have to wait for someone to make you feel special, you need to value yourself. I also decided I should learn to enjoy hanging out with myself in the meantime. My policy was: If you don’t enjoy your own company how do you expect someone else to?
Anyway, the three didn’t happen on the same day, as I preferred enjoying my dinner un-rushed, and my ice cream treat, on a day I wasn’t so full from dinner.
On this particular day, I was working the A.M shift, which is from 6am-3pm, and it had been a very busy day. I therefore headed home, rested a while, freshened up, and then left the house for a quick dinner at the mall. After enjoying my burger king whopper, I headed to the box office booth to get me a ticket. ‘Casino Royale’ was new in the theaters, and there was a buzz about it being an absolutely good the movie. Even though I watch some, I am not a fan of action movies, but decided to get me a ticket to this one, so I could see for myself, what the buzz was about.
For some reason I remembered that day today, and it got me thinking of how we may attend the same church service/fellowship meeting but take away very different experiences. One person will go away thinking how they’d selected awesome songs for the praise session, another will take away a joke the pastor cracked in his sermon, another will go out having experienced deeply the presence of God from beginning to end, yet another will go out with just the ticket, popcorn and water - i.e. NOTHING - having been spiritually absent from the whole thing, like I was asleep at the theater. I find it sad that many treat Sunday service as a routine - as another thing on the to-do list to mark the end of the week, or another activity to do as a group.
Even worse is that, this is how most of us handle our salvation-our relationship with God. Like another interesting group activity or another thing to cross off our bucket list, and fail to see the deep importance of its totality. There is a lot entailed in the salvation package, and the purpose of nurturing our relationship with God is not just for a ticket to heaven. God created us in His image and likeness, to do life according to His will and for His purpose but so many of us are caught up in the world’s system of doing life. We’re doing life according to the society we were born in, according to traditions and customs…. We believe and do what Dr. Phil, Robin Sharma, Stephen Covey, Rhonda Byrne etc. say and use their books as the manuals for living, yet dismiss the one person (God) and the one book we ought to live by - the word of God (which is living and active), and wonder why we still feel empty even with our accolades, possessions and achievements.
Trust me I have nothing against these writers, I have read and even possess some of their books; they have some pretty awesome and practical principles to apply, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of your relationship with God. We have esteemed them too highly like gods, taken their teachings practically as the final word, and treated God like a nice fairy tale; acknowledging His existence but switched off to His presence and the realness of His word. The bible says that we live by EVERY word that proceeds from God’s mouth, but how can we do that if we are unaware of His presence. Knowing from head knowledge is one thing, knowing from experience is another. We need to know God by experience.
How long have we lived in oblivion of God’s presence and His working in our lives? How long have we applied our own wisdom in a situation as opposed to first consulting with God on the way forward? How often do we consult with God before doing anything (I bet it sounds stupid), or do we only seek His help when our wisdom backfires? How often do we do God’s instruction (as illogical and stupid as it seems), as opposed to our logical plan? Do we honestly fully trust Him as our absolute guide, above logic, above the ‘norm’, above the voice of reason, above our family and friends? Are we truly in constant alertness of God’s presence in us and in constant communication with Him? How many times as Christians have we only focused on the irrelevant (popcorn and water), and missed the movie (God’s presence and operation around and within us)?
John 5:7 says “My Father is always at his work to this very day….”
God is always doing something in and around us- there is an ongoing 'movie' in the spiritual realm. My prayer is that we wake up from our spiritual slumber and start living life in relationship with God as He intended from the beginning; that we shall not miss the movie.
Anyway, the three didn’t happen on the same day, as I preferred enjoying my dinner un-rushed, and my ice cream treat, on a day I wasn’t so full from dinner.
On this particular day, I was working the A.M shift, which is from 6am-3pm, and it had been a very busy day. I therefore headed home, rested a while, freshened up, and then left the house for a quick dinner at the mall. After enjoying my burger king whopper, I headed to the box office booth to get me a ticket. ‘Casino Royale’ was new in the theaters, and there was a buzz about it being an absolutely good the movie. Even though I watch some, I am not a fan of action movies, but decided to get me a ticket to this one, so I could see for myself, what the buzz was about.
After getting me a medium bucket of cheese popcorn and a bottle of Evian water, I headed to the theater to locate my seat. The movie began after a while. I can’t remember how it began or what I saw on the screen. All I remember is me enjoying bites of my cheese popcorn, and taking a few sips of water, before I folded my legs on my seat and fell into a deep sleep. Not even the amplified gunshots from the movie could keep me awake. My sweet power nap came to a rude end when I heard people clapping. I opened my eyes to see the credits go up as the lights in the theater went on. Everyone was chatting animatedly as they headed out. I grabbed my sling bag, bottle of water and bucket of popcorn, hailed a cab and headed home. I couldn’t believe that I’d just slept through the movie that was allegedly supposed to keep me at the edge of my seat, and glued to the screen!(I’ve actually never watched the movie to date, even though I have it somewhere in my movie archive, but that’s beside the point.)
Even worse is that, this is how most of us handle our salvation-our relationship with God. Like another interesting group activity or another thing to cross off our bucket list, and fail to see the deep importance of its totality. There is a lot entailed in the salvation package, and the purpose of nurturing our relationship with God is not just for a ticket to heaven. God created us in His image and likeness, to do life according to His will and for His purpose but so many of us are caught up in the world’s system of doing life. We’re doing life according to the society we were born in, according to traditions and customs…. We believe and do what Dr. Phil, Robin Sharma, Stephen Covey, Rhonda Byrne etc. say and use their books as the manuals for living, yet dismiss the one person (God) and the one book we ought to live by - the word of God (which is living and active), and wonder why we still feel empty even with our accolades, possessions and achievements.
Trust me I have nothing against these writers, I have read and even possess some of their books; they have some pretty awesome and practical principles to apply, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of your relationship with God. We have esteemed them too highly like gods, taken their teachings practically as the final word, and treated God like a nice fairy tale; acknowledging His existence but switched off to His presence and the realness of His word. The bible says that we live by EVERY word that proceeds from God’s mouth, but how can we do that if we are unaware of His presence. Knowing from head knowledge is one thing, knowing from experience is another. We need to know God by experience.
Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it
(Genesis 28:16 NLT)
God is always doing something in and around us- there is an ongoing 'movie' in the spiritual realm. My prayer is that we wake up from our spiritual slumber and start living life in relationship with God as He intended from the beginning; that we shall not miss the movie.
This is lovely I especially love how you use the cinema analogy, we often do take away nothing from life because we focus on the popcorn instead of the show!
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