My burden for the lost is not what it should be, but that's not what He revealed. He revealed to me that my life is predictable. Everything about it is predictable.
My prayers are predictable.
My worship is predictable.
My decisions are predictable - and safe.
My home life is predictable.
Even how I reach out with His love to other people is predictable.
pre·dict·a·ble/priˈdiktəbəl/Adjective
1. Able to be predicted.
2. Behaving or occurring in a way that is expected
(according to Merriam-Webster.com)
My life is predictable and that's the way I like it.
It's much easier for me to reach out to someone I perceive as predictable, someone "like me". Someone I perceive as "normal". Someone who doesn't challenge the parameters of my predictable life.
But -put me with someone whose life is a little different than mine, and I squirm. I don't mean squirm in the sense that I don't want them to know the love of our Great God, but squirm in the sense that I am intimidated by what may come next, intimidated by their "unpredictability". I'm standoffish and have to force myself to engage. It's like I would prefer them to follow some formula of predictability so that I can relate, so that I'm not uncomfortable.
As I prayed through this, praying to love the way Jesus loves, I sensed His whisper to my heart -
I love unpredictably.
He does, doesn't He?
Predictable love is love that is expected. Love that is returned for something. Unpredictable love is given in the most unexpected situations, unexpected times, to the unexpected person. Given while expecting absolutely nothing.
Nothing.
Giving love just to be giving it.
He loves unpredictably. He loves me when I'm in the mire. He loves me when I'm swimming in a puddle of sin. He loves me when I turn my face away from Him.
He loves the beggar.
He loves the prostitute.
He loves the orphan.
He loves the criminal.
He loves the meth-maker.
He loves the thief.
He loves the diseased.
He loves the most unpredictable people in the most unpredictable places. They don't intimidate Him, They don't make Him squirm, and they certainly don't make Him uncomfortable.
He loves unpredictably.
Jesus, thank You for pulling the curtain back enough for me to see this part of my heart. Thank You for revealing it in your own gentle way, You taught me this without condemnation. You taught me this with encouragement. Father, remind me to look with Your eyes for unpredictable people this week and give me the love and the courage to love them unpredictably.
How predictable, my friends, is your life?
Royal Princess Daughter Of The King
WOW! I'm gonna have to really spend some time pondering that one!!! God's been speaking this one to my heart since about April. When we went on our trip you know I was overwhelmed with the sense that my life was so "scheduled" or "predictable" that it was not easy for me to leave for 7 days!!!!! I had so much to get lined up and worked out so that everything would run just like I was here. (Pride must be involved too since it has to be "just like I would do it"). He just has been really speaking to me......do I live a life that I could just drop everything and follow him.....even just for one day??? If he had something totally out of the ordinary he wanted to speak to me to do for 1 day, am I open to it??? Am I able to leave my comfort zone of my predicable agenda to allow him to use me?? thanks for sharing and reminding me that he still wants to know my answers to those questions that I tend to push aside. I'm not who I used to be, but praise God I'm still not who I'm gonna be :)))
ReplyDelete- Brittany
It is so good to be able to read your blog. I have not been able to do that for quite a while.. Our life has been a blur for many weeks!! What a great subject - predictability..
ReplyDeleteWe are now in unpridictability!!! I always thought of myself as trusting God in my life, but when it came time to let go of everything, step over the cliff I got sort of panicky until I took that first step. The only one who can work our life out now is God. I don't have all the answers. There is an amazing peace and rest in my soul that only God could do!!! He is the only one who can catch us. I truly believe He already has it all worked out. It is a moment by moment trust in Him and not in what you can see!!! Carla