Don't tell me to "just...let it go" or I'll puke

Today church was really intense.  During worship, Pastor Steve asked anyone to come forward who needed healing.   The emotional kind.  I never go up there, it's really hard for me, but I did it.  Actually, this was twice this month for two unrelated things.

Anyway, I was up there and thinking... ok, now what?   I was trying to let this thing go and honestly I wasn't even sure what it was exactly.  I went back to my seat and was aggravated.  Not with God or myself, just in my lack of knowledge of how to let this thing go.

I've let A LOT go in the past year and a half, but there are a couple areas of my life that I just can't seem to progress in.

So I get back to my seat and I wanted to stand up and yell "WAIT!  I don't get it.  Everyone seems to go up there and get better and get 'fixed' what am I missing?  How do I 'let things go' ????"

I know if I had yelled out, it would have been welcome, I just couldn't make myself do it.

But when Pastor Steve started preaching, he explained how to do it. I don't even know if he realized it.  It's too much to type out here, but he was talking about how we should focus on His majesty.  Really try to get it.  To behold it.  Focus on it.  LOVE IT!   How God made us to be the most satisfied when we are giving Him the most glory.

I was thinking maybe if I just do that, everything else will either cease to matter or be resolved.  If my focus is fully on Him, period, then I won't have to worry about letting these things go.  They'll just be gone.  Or they won't matter.  Or I just won't think of them.  In other words, stop focusing on how to let them go and start focusing on Him.

Immediately, my brain starts going "how do I do that?  How do I focus on His majesty?  What if I can't?" until I just hushed myself. I'm just going to do it.  I'm going to focus on Him.  Get lost in Him.   I'm thinking that everything else will fall into place.

When we first started going to Celebration, I came upon this book called "It's Not About Me" by Max Lucado.  I read it in one sitting.  It was what started this whole blogging adventure.  (Look for my first blogs and you'll see).   Here are some examples from the book that rocked my whole perspective.


"When God looks at the center of the universe, he doesn't look at you.  When heaven's stagehands direct the spotlight toward the star of the show, I need no sunglasses.  No light falls onto me.


Lesser orbs, that's us.  Appreciated.  Valued. Loved dearly.  But central?  Essential?  Pivotal?  Nope.  Sorry.   Contrary to the Ptolemy within us, the world does not revolve around us.  Our comfort is not God's priority.  If it is,something's gone awry.  If we are the marquee event, how do we explain flat-earth challenges like death, disease, slumping economies or rumbling earthquakes?  If God exists to please us, then shouldn't we always be pleased?"


"God does not exist to make a big deal out of us.  We exist to make a big deal out of him."


"Life makes sense when we accept our place.  The gift of pleasures, the purpose of problems--all for him. The God-centered life works.  And it rescues us from a life that doesn't.  


But how do we make the shift?  How can we be bumped off self-center?  Attend a seminar, howl at the moon, read a Lucado book?  None of these things.  We move from a me-focus to  God-focus by pondering him.  Witnessing him.  Following the counsel of the apostle Paul: 'Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' 2 Cor 3:18


Beholding him changes us.  Couldn't we use a change? Let's give it a go.  Who knows?  We might just discover our place in the universe."  

This book really took the pressure off me.  Lucado basically says all we're here to do is reflect God's glory to the world.  I am not the center of God's universe.  He is.  But, He is the center of mine.  It's what Pastor Steve was talking about today.  When you really get this, you go from being offended that He created you to not need you... to feeling pressure lift off your shoulders!  I have to be His mirror.

"We are his mirrors, you know.  Tools of heaven's heliography.   Reduce the human job description down to one phrase and this is it: Reflect God's glory. "-Lucado 




There's something big going down at Celebration.  Like perspective changing big and not just for the sake of having something new.  If you're looking for a home church, you should come check it out.  That's not the purpose of this blog, it's just burning inside of me and I want you to be a part of it.