Extravagant Self-Sacrifice

 

“It is not a moral life that the gospel promotes –

 it is a life of extravagant self-sacrifice.”

 

These words have been resonating in my soul for over a week now. They were spoken at a conference I attended by Revd Dr John Dickson, who is an extraordinary communicator and the co-founder for Public centre for Christianity.

Extravagant self-sacrifice.

The word extravagant is defined as “exceeding reasonable bounds” and “extremely abundant.”

Responding to this call means that the gospel challenges us to sacrifice ourselves beyond what reason dictates as being normal and to do it abundantly.

A story that moved my heart this week was when I was having coffee with my friend, Renee, and she told me of a friend of hers who had experienced this extravagant self-sacrifice in such an amazing way that he knew it could only be the love of God and so gave his life to the Lord.

Renee told me that her friend was drawn to church one day in a state of hopelessness. He had lost everything he owned and had found himself homeless and lost as to what to do. When visiting this church, he shared with another man his state of despair and loss of hope. Responding in empathy, the man of God turned to Renee’s homeless friend and said “Take my home.”

Stunned and unsure as to how to respond, he looked at the man. “Pardon?”

“Take my home. God will provide for me and you are in need. Take my home and I will find somewhere else.”

This man was so moved by the extravagant self-sacrifice of this Christian man, he knew it could only by the love of God that would enable someone to give up their home and life as they know it for someone else.

Extravagant self-sacrifice.

This is what Jesus gave us. He saw us in despair, lost and in a pit of darkness. He had pity on us and he came to earth and said – Take my life.

Take my life for you are in need of hope. Take my life for you are in need of rescue. Take my life for you are in need of being saved.

It is the pure love of God that elicits extravagant self-sacrifice. And it is extravagant self-sacrifice that draws people to the pure  love of God.

The gospel does not ask us to live a good life. It does not ask us to live a moral life. It asks us to live a life of love….and extravagant self-sacrifice.

What do you see when you look at life- ANTs or Lace?

When you look at this picture, what do you see?

I was scrolling through my facebook last week and on my newsfeed, my friend Tonya Stone who is a brilliant photographer with her own business, Stone Creative Photography, posted this photo.
Before reading the caption my immediate thought was - why is she posting a photo of a leaf with holes in it?
Now obviously the leaf has been nibbled away at by a very hungry insect and I started questioning why Tonya had thought it was a cool thing to take a photo of this.

However...then I read the caption that Tonya had beautifully written alongside the photo:

 

"This delicate heart shaped leaf reminds me of lace. Spend time in nature and really look at the shapes, patterns and textures. There is beauty and love everywhere."

 

What an eye opener this was for me! Tonya had challenged me on my thinking. And suddenly I felt God challenging me on my thinking. Tonya had a beautiful God perspective on creation - and I had missed it.

 

I had seen roughness where she had seen beauty. I had seen an ugly pattern, where she had seen the elegance of lace. I had seen something unrefined where she had seen love and loveliness.

 

In my psychology lecture this week, we have been talking about ANTs - Automatic Negative Thoughts. These ANTs are what can cause us to see the glass half empty. They can cause us to have a negative perspective on life and, if prevalent for long enough, they can eventually lead us into depression.

 

These ANTs are not of God either. Our God is good and lovely and beautiful and as one who created us, He wants us to have beautiful minds also. God challenges us on our thinking in Romans 12:2 :

 

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

 

The pattern of this world is to look at life the opposite of how God sees it. And the pattern of how we can see ourselves is to look at ourselves the way the world sees us, not how God see us.

Do you know that when God looks at us, He doesn't see the holes, the scars and the ugly pattern that we see? He sees us as beautiful elegant lace. The heart that is scarred from a life of hardship and challenges is a heart that He sees as beautiful and lovely.

 

God doesn't view us the way the world does. And He doesn't want us to view life with Automatic Negative Thoughts. He wants us to invite the Holy Spirit to transform our minds so that we see life differently and have a new perspective on things. Where we once saw ugliness, He wants us to see beauty.

 

My challenge this week is to stop my ANTs in their track and ask God's Holy Spirit to transform my mind, so that I can see beauty in my everyday life.

 

What do you see when you look at life - ANTs or Lace?

 

When Admiration becomes Envy

Have you ever been camping and had tent envy?

 

Our family just went camping last week for the first time in 4 years. And we had a brilliant time...but I experienced a severe cast of tent envy. Well actually tarp envy!!! 

Anyone who has been camping before knows that it is a common practice to check out other people's setup. You know that when you arrive, people will be watching you. You can feel their eyes on you as you set up your tent and they are watching how you go about this process and also checkout what sort of camping gear you have. And then you do the exact same thing when other people arrive after you...you sit back and watch them setup their camping spot!

It has been 4 years since our last camping trip so we did not have a lot of camping gear, however, we had enough to make do. We had two tents, sleeping bags, a gas cooker, a weber bbq, a table and chairs and a friend of ours generously offered us his tarp to use as our shelter for our eating area.

 But when we got there to setup, we realized we only had 4 tent poles to hold the tarp up and being such a heavy tarp and a windy campsite, this was a recipe for trouble. James, my husband, spent most of the time over 2 days adjusting the poles and tightening the straps until eventually on third day we were there, a lovely old man waltzed over to inform us that there was a wind of 30knots coming through and we should really just take it down.

Meanwhile, over yonder on another campsite, there was a couple who had set up the day after us. I had watched him intently in his setting up because the more I observed him, the more I was in awe. In fact, I was mesmerized! This man displayed such organisation, efficiency and ease in his setting up, he was clearly a camping expert! His tarp had a crossbeam, many strong tent poles and ropes and within a matter of 15 minutes or so - it was in place - and it was staying there!  Whilst we were experiencing continuous trouble with our tarp, this couple were chilling back and relaxing!! Not once in the entire 4 days we were there did he have to adjust the ropes, move poles, or check its stability..not even during the 30knot wind gust!
I wanted his setup!!! I had a severe case of tent and tarp envy!

 So...when does admiration become envy? When does looking to other people's example become jealousy?  When do we move from being inspired to being green?

Often we can look to other people's lives and be envious of where they are at and the lives they are living and the setup they have, not realizing that we are really telling God that the life He has given us and all that He has blessed us with is not good enough.  Our green eyes can lead to a resentful heart without our realization.

 

In our jealousy and wishfulness for someone else's life, we miss the point. When we spoke to our fabulous tarp man, he informed us that his setup was the result of years of camping failures, mishaps and experiences that have led him to learn how to create a great camping experience. This is the point that we miss!! What we fail to realize is that the setup others have in their life is because they are in a different season to us, they have different experiences to us and God has given them a different purpose to us. We miss this because we envy what they have in the present and neglect what they have been through in the past.

 

Don't envy the life that someone else has. They are just on a different journey to you and in a different season to you. They have learnt from their experiences, their mishaps, their failures. Yes, the bible tells us to look wisely to other people's example. But it also warns us against envy. It can harden your heart and make you lose focus.

 

God has created you unique and special. There is no one else like you and there never will be. No one else is in the same season as you...similar ...but not the same. Because you are unique.

 So..learn. Learn from others, learn from your mistakes, mishaps, and experiences - but most of all, learn from the word of God that is your guide to a great setup. Do this...and you will be able to live and enjoy a great inspirational life that is created from experience, knowledge and wisdom - after all, wisdom is just knowledge applied in practice with experience. Do this and you will set an example to others and they will look to you for how well you are setup for life!

 A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones. Proverbs 14:30

 

"Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." 1 Timothy 4:12