Solo De Gloria

And now some thoughts on some weeknesses that I have...(I know it's hard to believe all of you who thought I could do no wrong :) ) Well, as most of you know, I enjoy doing a lot of things for other people. I am a creative minded person who would just about do anything for anyone. A lot of the things that I do are things that people praise me for...for those of you that know me, I do NOT know how to take a compliment. I brush it off saying that it's not that great or just kind of give back a shy thank you, and brush it off like it was nothing...well, I was listening to the radio tonight, and another song came on that made me start thinking on my way home from work, so, here are my thoughts on what is going through my mind right now...

Can you take me by the hand

Can you use me as I am

Break me into who you want me to be

When the time is finally right

You will open up my eyes

Show me everything you want me to see

This life is not my own

Chorus:

To God alone be the glory

To God alone be the praise

Everything I say and do

Let it be all for you

The glory is yours alone

Yours alone Take the offering

I bring You want more than what I sing

Can I give you every part of me

Turn these pennies into gold

Take this life I call my own

Until I'm running after your heart

I'm needing to let go

We will rise and we will fall

But you remain after all

You're glorious and beautiful You're beautiful

Aaron Shust was on the radio this evening talking about this song, and how it got it's origin...aparently, Bach, Handle, and some other famous composers would end their scores of music with the letters S.D.G "Solo De Gloria" (To God Alone) meaning that wether they were writing that song for the king, for a church service, or to make money, they were giving the credit to God because He is the one who gave them the talent and everything they do should be to His glory.

Well, I got to thinking (scary!!) You know, so often, at least I know for me, I don't like taking compliments because I feel like I would be stroking my own ego, and I don't want to do that. Although, I do like to hear that people enjoyed what I did, I don't like to show that I enjoy it. When I heard this song on the Radio, I was thinking, how often do I just brush off the compliments because I want to make myself look humble, which in turn makes me feel better about myself? The thing I do, the talents that I have were given to me for a reason, and I realize that a lot of the time, I do not give the glory to God. I want to keep it all to myself, and affirm myself with the compliments that people give me.

So often, we get caught up in just wanting to be accepted and affirmed by others when we do things that we do not even realize that we are taking the glory away from God, who gave us the gifts that we use, in order to affirm ourselves in what we do. I do believe that God uses these times in our lives to show us exactly what our lives are not about...ourselves! When we learn that we are wholy here for His purpose, and begin to use our talents in exactly the way that He wants us to, and to give Him the glory for everything we say and do, life finaly begins to make sense. I never thought about how I rob God of the glory when I deny compliments by others. There is a fine line of receiving praise and keeping it to ourselves, and receiving the praise and giving the glory to God. I have struggled with it, and I'm sure you have too, but when I heard this song, I just started thinking about how often we can rob God of His praise and we don't even realize it. I hope that this makes sense, and that it will challenge you to in everything you say and do, give ALL glory to God, for He is the one who has blessed you!

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him givern diligently, if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."

Romans 12:6-8

I don't want to go through the motions!

I have had an interesting few months. As it has been over a year since I have blogged, I figured I would try to get back into it because I feel like I should share how I feel because you never know who might read this that it might help, so here we go, hopefully I will be more up to date with things and not let another year go by!

Over the past couple years I have gone through a lot with my friends, I have had some move to North Carolina and stay, and some move, and come back. Each of them has tought me some amazing life lessons that I have been able to learn and grow from, but I have also had one friend who did not move, and through it all, we have grown to be best friends! He has challenged me, encouraged me, and helped me through many tough times and helped form me into the man I am today. We got into an argument the other day over some stuff, and some things that he said to me got me thinking about a lot of stuff! On my way home a song came on the radio by Matthew West called "The Motions" I have pasted the lyrics below... I encourage you to read through them and let them sink in, there's a lot of meaning in there.

This might hurt, it's not safe

But I know that I've gotta make a change

I don't care if I break,

At least I'll be feeling something

'Cause just okay is not enough

Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,

"What if I had given everything,

instead of going through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time

I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind

Let Your love make me whole

I think I'm finally feeling something

'Cause just okay is not enough

Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,

"What if I had given everything,

instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)

take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)

take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)

take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,

"What if I had given everything,

instead of going through the motions?"

I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,

"What if I had given everything,

instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)

take me all the way (I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)

take me all the way (through the motions)

take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

The motions, how often do we get caught up in them. We have come to expect so much in our lives, and want all these grandious things, that even just the "menial" things in our lives are overlooked and just completely ignored. A recent episode that happened that got me thinking about things was at Vacation Bible School. One night we had some major air conditioning problems (an underground pipe broke at church) the A/C was down one night during rehersal, and it was a little warm in the room (ok, it was hot!) and I am sitting in the back of the room listening to everyone complain about how hot it was. After sitting in the back of the room all week and continually watching kids come back each night for salvation, it is always a good eye openier as to why we do what we do...but I am sitting there listening to everyone and getting frustrated because it's not our comfort that we are there for. it could be a sauna in that room, and if one child that night receive Christ, it is all worth it! It made me think about all of the comforts that we have grown used to and how often we are not willing to step out of our comfort zone, and if we do, we whine and complain about it, but it could be in that moment of uncomfort for us that the Lord is able to use us the most.

But it is so often that we all overlook the little things in life, and we jsut wake up, go to work, go to church, talk to our normal people, come home, spend time with the family....you get what I mean, it's our daily routine that we do, or our weekend routine, or our church routine. How great would things be if we just got back to the basics and appreciated the little things in life? How many of us wake up in the morning and just thank the Lord for sustaining us through the night? How many of us see our friends, and thank the Lord for even letting us be a part of each others lives? How about the air conditioning that we just expect to always work? Our jobs? Our very breath? It seems like little stuff, but we have all built up our lives into what we think that they should be and what we want them to be, but what does GOD want them to be? I know for me, I am laying here in bed on my laptop typing on my high speed interenet in the comfort of my home, protected from the elements outside...yes, I have been beyond blessed with these things, and I so too often overlook it all in my life and don't thank the Lord for what he has done for me near often as I should! How great would it be if we could all get out of the rut of we consider how our lives should be and just appreciate the little things that we have? Forget the plans that WE have for our lives, and focus on the plans GOD has for us! I don't know if this might mean anything to you, but I know when I got to thinking about life and how short it is, and how blessed we are, what if we stepped out of our comfort zone, tell that cashier that God loves them, tell that person sitting on the sidewalk that there is hope for them in God, show our own friends through our actions that God can work everything our for His good if we let Him use us! We all have so much possiblities, but not many of us want to slump down to the simplicity of the matters that God can use us best in, we all want so much better, even when it comes to showing God's love, we think that we deserve better people, better situations to show God's love to others...but what if we slumped? Knowing that we ARE the least of these, we are above no one...God could do such awesome things through us all!

There are my thoughts for tonight, I'm sure I'll have more because I just heard another song that I liked....I'll save that for another night :) I hope my friend reads this knowing who they are and hope they realize how much of a blessing they are in my life, and how much they mean to me, and have helped me!! You're the best! And to the rest of you, I know I might always say it, but I hope that I will start showing it more, but you are all such a blessing in my life, and each of you in your own way has helped me grow into who I am today! One of God's greatest blessings (as far as I'm concerned) is the gift of friendship...life was not mean to be gone through alone, but with friends who will help you through the good and the tough times in life!! Thank you all!!