lets not be robots

my husband and i got into a conversation this evening about living up to our potential. we started talking about how sometimes as humans we adapt to the “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” mentality about ourselves. we get into a groove of doing things, going to work, coming home, making dinner, spending a few hours doing whatever we feel like, going to bed, repeat. we do our lives with however much Jesus we feel like having. figuring that as long as it’s working well enough, there’s nothing to improve. i think all of us can fall into this now and then. even when we’re being intentional about going to church, being in community, being in Gods word, etc.

imagine you created a robot. state of the art. this thing was able to build cars, to ice skate at olympic levels, to fly, to have full emotional relationships and connections. it was human but better, everything technology has been waiting for. you finish the final touches, the things come to life and you look at it say “you’re done! you are amazing! i can’t believe i’ve created this! what do you want to do on your first day of life?” and the thing looks at you and says, “i’m gonna go outside and pick up sticks.”
yard work, the thing decided to do yard work. you gave it so much potential and ability and it’s outside picking up sticks. i can only imagine that would be so disappointing and discouraging. and I can’t help but wonder if that’s sometimes how God feels about us.

He created us in His own image. with so much ability, so many gifts and talents, and so much potential. and we spend hours on end scrolling through our phones. watching netflix. complaining to our friends. being “too busy”.

i find something wrong with this. as a culture and a generation, we lack so much self-discipline and motivation. we know what we want, we know what we dream, but we fear were not good enough or don’t have the time to make it happen. so instead we just live through the people on youtube and social media who are actually living the life we want. It pains me that this is good enough for us.

in this conversation, my husband and I also talked about how opinionated i am and how often i try to fix people. something I’m really trying to work on. having opinions isn’t bad, i just need to work on practicing discernment as to when my opinions honor God and when they’re just from my own world view. and also use discernment on when it’s actually productive to share them.

this is something that’s really hard for me, especially the fixing people part. it’s not that i think i know all the answers, or think i know what’s best for people. i don’t think i’m better than anyone or that everyone should do things exactly like me. i struggle because i know how good it is to be in fellowship with Jesus. i have tasted and seen how good He is. my heart explodes when i think about how lucky i am to be able to be close to my creator, to converse with Him, to be known by Him and to learn about His heart and character. it is something so precious that i can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want it. i can’t fathom how we can sometimes just float through life with a little Jesus sprinkled in in the morning or on sundays. because it is so much more than that. so much better than that. but it takes work, it takes effort. He promises to come close to us when we come close to Him. we have to seek Him in order to find Him.

so here’s where this all connects. i really struggle when people are okay with keeping God at a distance. or when they want to be close to God but aren’t willing to put in the effort, to have the self-discipline it sometimes takes. being close to Him is so worth getting up an hour earlier. it’s worth setting time limits on your phone. it’s worth ending that relationship. it’s worth making yourself sit down and finish that book. it’s worth changing the music you listen to. it’s worth changing your work schedule. i’m not saying these things are easy, they can be so darn hard in our culture. but I’m saying if we ever want to stop just picking up sticks and actually live how God intended us to, how He calls us to, we’re going to have to get up, put down our phones, and do it. we need to stop admiring someone else’s life, someone else’s faith, someone else’s relationship with God, and realize that we’re called to have that too. we’re gonna have to take some risks and fight our natural desires. but it’ll be so worth it.