Realities of Daily Submission

"In many ways, God sized dreaming is more about an attitude than an action.  It's living with an ongoing yes to whatever God asks of you."

-Holley Gerth-

Opening the Door to Your God-Sized Dream

As I read these words during morning devotions, I found myself thinking about what that really looks like in my life...

Saying yes to God for whatever He has for my life, the ongoing yes, seems so easy in the beginning.  It's almost like falling in love...the thrill of the unknown...the excitement that newness brings with it...the never-ending anticipation...

And then, somewhere down the road, it may be weeks or it may be years, I realize the freedom that accompanies the falling sensation has been replaced with something new.  It is inevitable; anything that falls eventually bumps into another object.

The ongoing yes to God is no different.  Reality sets in and I realize two things:

1. The object I've hit is myself.

2. Love is a choice, not a mere feeling.

Self is the worst enemy of love, of this I am convinced.  I believe God commands us to daily die to self, because it is our most lethal possession.  Our ways are fully encased within ourselves, but our ways are not His ways- a crucial fact I often forget.  My self will continually struggle with this never-ending invitation to say yes to God.

Sure, at first it's easy.  Saying yes feels like I'm getting my way.  In the beginning, saying yes requires no initial sacrifice.  But, as time goes by, I realize that saying yes to whatever God has for my life means letting go of all expectations.  Saying yes hurts and requires more of myself than I realized I had to give.  Saying yes, in matters both large and small, is accepting disappointment...accepting lowliness and humility...accepting a loss of any sense of control (however false it may be) that I desire to hang onto...accepting my own unimportance.  Yes, daily saying yes is much like the realities of love once the feelings begin to fade.  It's easy until I realize how hard it is.

When I hit reality, I remember that love is a choice; it has always been more than just a feeling.  

I can choose to say yes or I can choose to say no.

I can choose to be bitter when it's hard or I can choose to be broken.

I can choose to let the daily death kill me or I can choose to be resurrected.

I can choose obedience or I can choose rebellion.

The choice raises the stakes.  The choice not only allows me to see what I'm losing, but it also enables me to clearly see what I have to gain.

I have no hope to choose wisely in my own strength.  Besides, I am not all that strong when truth be told.  Luckily, though my culture may mock me for this admission, it actually puts me in a perfect spot to receive grace, to accept love and for God's strength to be perfected in my dead self.  These are the pearls of saying yes to whatever God asks of me- both the transforming nature and power of true love.

Beauty for ashes.

Joy instead of mourning.

A garment of praise instead of despair.

The process is painful, however, reality reveals that true love often is.  It requires so much of ourselves that it kills us.  But, isn't that the ultimate goal anyway...so that we may be called oaks of righteousness...a display of HIS splendor?

Check out project: 10,000 Reasons