morph yourself

this past weekend was mother's day. i was really excited to go home this weekend to see my momma and the rest of my family for a cookout!! on sunday i decided to go to grace fellowship to hear kelly's husband, keith preach. it was sooo good :) keith has a lot of energy/passion when he preaches, which gets you pumped up just listening-- at one point i leaned over to kelly and asked what he had for breakfast lol.
something that really stuck with me from the sermon was when keith started talking about god and itunes. (i do not promise to quote this exactly ;) itunes can like read your mind, as soon as you start to type something in the search bar it has already come up with the exact title/artist you needed! oh you want jay-z? done! black eyed peas? which album? it does the work for you! so how is god like itunes? by his gracious giving of his son he made an inaccessible god accessible to ALL. jesus died on the cross for our sins, he did the hard work!! are you worrying about your future? done! if you are a follower of jesus he paid the price, your future is in his hands. there is nothing you can begin to say to god that he doesn't already know the answer to...but do we take the time to listen or do we still complain day to day and want someone to look upon our situation and feel sorry for us?
do you remember the story of the invalid who for 38 yrs. laid by the gate waiting for someone to help him get in the pool? and jesus came to him and said do you want to get well? and the man said sir, there is no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. while i am trying to get in, someone goes ahead of me.
so, you're telling me this guy just laid here for 30 some yrs. without trying to crawl or roll or anything to get in this pool?! dumb. jesus said to him get up! oh, and take your mat with you.

another really good point keith talked about was how we need to get good at morphing into the person another person needs us to be. meet them where they're at. i was convicted this weekend and today of this thought. a friend of mine was telling me how she was not excited about wearing a bathing suit this summer. and i suggested some things she could do and she wasn't really feelin them. so i said ok then i don't want to hear you complain about wearing a bathing suit if you're not willing to help yourself. i didn't say it out of harshness and we were half picking at each other but when i said that i didn't want to hear her complain she was done. and that night i felt convicted by it a little but i shrugged it off. then at church when i heard this message i related it to myself-- when i am talking to someone about having anxiety/panic and i just want comfort, to know everything is gonna be alright the last thing i would want them to say is just get over it, let it go. it's just not that easy. just b/c eating certain foods/exercise are things i enjoy doesn't mean it comes easy to everyone. i needed to meet my friend where she was and just listen, or give encouragement-- (so i'm sorry for not just being there for you and listening--you are beautiful always :) --jesus did this and so much more....he actually put on skin and morphed into a man to meet us in our brokenness.
my challenge to you is to morph yourself this week/weekend. it's not going to be easy but what could it do to your relationships? what if you put that person above yourself? what would the world look like if we all tried to love each other the way we love ourselves?? be bold!! get up and take your mat with you!!

i can't take credit for a lot of this blog ;) thanks for sharing your heart keith