Waiting....

Waiting.

What is waiting, other than something christians seem to do a lot of?

I'm learning to wait.

Right now, what I think it means is sitting still. You know, be still and know He is God? That sort of thing. But can you do stuff in stillness?

Maybe. I don't really know.

I think... I think waiting and being still means you aren't trying to make yourself do anything. It means you're not trying to make yourself stronger or more honest or more faithful or a harder worker.

It means you're just.... Being. It means you're sitting (Well, not literally sitting but whatevs.) and Thinking.

(You: Oh, well that's easy. I can do that)
No, you can't. cuz it's not thinking like... I think Sally and Mindy are cool people but they need to stop fighting over Jake cuz he and Rose make a perfect couple already.

That's easy thinking. Or thinking about yourself. That's easy too. Or thinking about what you're gonna do later, or what you're gonna wear or what your friend will say when you tell her what happened today... That's not being still. That's planning a future. And that's definitely not waiting.

You know when you're picking up a friend for school and they're taking forever and you're sitting in your car bored out of your skull and worried that you'll be late for class but you can't do anything about it?

That. That is waiting.

And if you read the old testament, people did a lot of that. They have to wait for Moses to go talk to God, they have to wait to go into the promise land, they have to wait for God before they can go decimate people in battle.

And if you pull a Saul and decide, screw this waiting sucks, you get immense consequences. Saul got his entire kingdom stripped from him.

Of courseeeeee...... God knows us. He knows how impatient we are. he knows how our tiny little selves are only so disciplined.

And he toook the kingdom from Saul not just cause he didn't wait, but mostly because Saul had a long history of doing what was bad from Israel simply cuz he wanted to look good.

God knows your heart. He punishes and rewards us based on that, not based on our actions. (Though... Actions do stem from the heart, most of the time.)

But back to waiting.

It's a discipline.
(You: So where does thinking come in?)

Fantastic question! The discipline set before us is meditation. Which is thinking. (You: Right. Got that. Still confused.)

Have patience I'm getting there.
Waiting, which is sitting still and thinking, which is meditation, has to be focused on something or else we humans tend to focus it by accident.

(You: Ok. Still confused though. What am I focusing on.)

God.

(you:......)

Right. Exactly. There's my problem. I think... Well, I sort of know anyways, what that means meditating on who God is and who He says I am. If you're thinking of yourself it's not good but if you're thinking of what God thinks of you (And asking Him. Not just thinking.) Then... That's good.

And you're waiting for an answer.

But... What if other than that you don't know what you're waiting for or what needs answered, you just know you're supposed to be waiting. What then?




~Silver

Holiness, which doesn't fit inside my head

So, I wrote this paper for my class. And about a third of the way through it, I thought Hey, this would make a great blog post!
So yeah.
It's written more formally than other posts (Obviously).

Tell me your thoughts... It's due tuesday. I don't actually know how formally it had to be written. But yeah. If you feel like pointing out mistakes, comment :)

We are human. Holiness has become to us as a people similar to what love is: a shallow shadow of the truth. There is no real way to describe the holiness of God. Holy, to the world, really just means divine or consecrated. Sometimes it means perfect. Most times it’s part of something to exclaim when you stub your toe, like “Holy crap!” This is what the American culture has created out of God. They’ve made Him and any description of Him something so shallow that it can be fit into and used in their own unfortunate lives. As Christians, however, we cannot live with this shabby definition, this imposter of Holiness. So what, then, is the Holiness of God?

Holy, as the Greek word ἅγιος (said ag-ee-os) means “set apart” or “other than,” originally anyways. That our God is holy means, obviously, that He is other than. Other than what? Other than human. Set apart from anything of this world. Completely other than and set apart from anything that is not God. That is what He is other than. This may not fit into our heads but then again, if it did, would it really be the truth? Holiness is the entirety of just how much and how perfectly God is separate than man. The infinity of that can never and probably will never really make sense to us as humans but that’s ok. The moment it makes sense to you is when you should start worrying.

Having said that, this is what me, in my weak and unfortunate understanding of the complete other-ness of God, knows. People can say that they are other than other people. Especially in this age, everyone is “unique.” But that’s not holy. Yeah, God is unique. But that is because He is perfect. He is like nothing else because any similarities a person can have to Him makes that person like God, not vice versa. Holy speaks of every aspect of God. It speaks of His Justice. Who else could judge perfectly in love? It speaks of His infinitude; He is like no one because there is no one He can be like. He came first. He always was and always will be. He isn’t like a fire. Rather, fire is like Him. He had to make things to represent himself because His Holiness, He Himself, is so vastly unfathomable that we need something to compare to Him. And He doesn’t change to be more than or less than anything; He simply is. And He simply is perfect. Unlike the world, there is no part of God that makes bad decisions, that protects itself, or that unexpectedly is born into a bad place. There is no such thing as unexpected for God!

What I have said barely even scratches the surface of the Holy One who decided to create a form in the dust and breathe into it. And it doesn’t really say what Holiness is. Is Holiness righteousness? Yes. But that isn’t all it is. So is it loving-kindness? Yes. But that still isn’t the entirety of Holiness. Holiness is the only word that can describe who God is as a perfect Judge, a perfect Lover. Holiness is just how high above creation God is.

This is what moves my heart the most; that as big of a word as Holy is and as big of a God our God is, He sees us. This is a being, an entity, so beautiful and glorious that we have to use barely definable words to describe Him. And at the same time this is a Man. The God so vast that He can’t fit into logic or reason lives in the innermost center of our hearts. This is a spirit dwelling within dust. This is the breath that we breathe. Holiness, the concept of separation, likes me. It washes me in the blood of its Holy Son and it calls me clean. It tells me I can be Holy as it is Holy. And it doesn’t do this grudgingly and it doesn’t sigh and shake its head at me. Holiness does not say I AM higher than you. Holiness says I AM love and I will teach you how to be like me. Holiness says “Come up here” (Rev 4:1). It calls us to repentance and to reverence for our good.

What sort of God do we have that it could create the heavens and the world and molecules and atoms and make everything work perfectly, but then turn around and Love the very definition of immaturity and imperfection? How much unlike humanity is He! How can He love us? It is because He is Holy. He is a trinity that lives, and loves, and died, and lives again. Who came and stayed in our hearts changing us to be with Him in Holiness.

Our God is Holy, but He is not unattainable. Our God is not a slave driver or a impulsive mass murderer, rather He is Just. Our God is not like the gods of this world. Our God is Holy, and a mystery, and that is why our God is real. Because if we could understand how Holiness works and how we are allowed into the throne room, (Trust me, you can’t. There’s logic to it but the logic and reasoning itself doesn’t even make sense.) then He wouldn’t be God any more. He would fit in our heads. We’d have conquered the mystery, just like we have “conquered” the rest of the things of this universe.

Holiness wants us. It is the greatest and most beautiful mystery. Dwell on that; if it doesn’t shake you at all, even to make your brain stop working for a second so all you can hear is your fragile heart beating as you realize Holiness is the reason for it, then you have a serious problem on your hands.

~Silver