Not merely improved but brand new

The past couple of weeks/months have been really busy - leading a team offsite at work and re-examining team dynamics after a turbulent 2021-22, preparing for and attending my church AGM as council member for the first time, visiting friends at our rental block neighbourhood, re-starting our overseas work with a school/orphanage in a nearby country now that Covid-19 restrictions have diminished, spending time trying to guide and support new cell leaders in our church family, and going out with young/new friends on the weekends...

As I was walking home with my wife yesterday evening, I couldn't help but reflect with her on the life journey that led us to this point - WHAT HAPPENED THERE?? 

I am very much an introvert by nature. When I started work, all I wanted to do was to be a technical specialist and solo worker. I rather vainly thought I was really good at the technical skills in my profession, and had even won a competition for that in University, so, just leave me alone to do the work. Well, that didn't happen. I am still an introvert, by no means a charismatic super-leader, and definitely make people mistakes, but much of my time is now spent trying to support my team members, give them opportunities to shine, keeping them engaged and proud of their work, and worrying when they're not.

I felt the same about my Christian faith when I was a younger believer. I loved the feeling of being loved and cared for, not just by God, but also my leaders in church. And I thought - I am so busy at work, I need to build my career, I have a young family, and honestly I kinda just like doing my own thing. My leaders seem so busy, and they seem to have to spend a lot of time around other people, which would make me real uncomfortable... I never want to be a leader! 

Well, I was wrong about that. I am still busy at work, I still want to be with my family, and I still feel weird hanging out with people, but now my Christian life is basically about spending time with people.

There's more. 

I told myself, I can only support the underprivileged by giving money and attending occasional CSR events. I get nervous, I can't speak the language, and I feel I can't relate. Well I was wrong about that.

I would (secretly seriously) sing the joke Christian song "Please don't send me to Africa!" because I was sure I would never do mission work, with no toilets and weird food (I am a real picky eater), and anyway missions aren't for normal people like me. Well I was wrong about that.

After I ended up becoming a cell leader, my new thought was, I guess I'm ok spending time with small groups of people, whether at my cell family meeting, the rental blocks, or overseas on our mission work. But I don't want to do any of the higher-level administrative or governance work around this. Feels too much like my office work. Keep me at ground level, doing the ground work. 

Well I was wrong about that, see paragraph 3 above, history repeated itself. I ended up helping my team pastor lead leaders, and joining the church Council on top of that. These are still really new to me, so hopefully I'll get better at it, with the help of my more experienced peers and leaders :/

This is my takeaway - when someone decides to follow Christ, the typical starting point is, there are a bunch of things I want to do with my life, and God is going to make my existing life better. So we go to God and tell Him - I want to be ABC, I want to achieve DEF, protect my GHI, grow my JKL. Here are my life goals, help me to get there. Make the life that I have better.

God is interested in all those things. He made us from top to bottom, inside to out. So He knows what we are like, what we want, and how we think and feel. And because He loves us, and knows these things matter to us, He will attend to them. But He doesn't do so as a Santa Claus. He does so as a loving Father, giving only so much as He knows is good for us, and withholding what He knows is no good for us.

But much much more fundamentally, God doesn't just want to improve our existing life. He wants to entirely exchange the life we have for a new one. Jesus observed, "No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst... they pour new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved." Matthew 9:17.

And "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.

The old has gone. The new is here. God doesn't merely help us get what we wanted in the old and tattered life we had before we knew Him. He has a brand new life to exchange for it. 

And this new life is amazing, far superior to the little wants and desires we had before, because He is "able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" Ephesians 3:20

Out - our old jealousies and vain ambitions. In - a new, non-self obsessed, others-first outlook. 

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" Philippians 2:3-4   

Out - our old inhibitions and insecurities. In - a new, unassailable God-reliant trust and courage. 

"But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"... For when I am weak, then I am strong" 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Out - our tired old chase for significance in the eyes of men. In - the unconditional and enduring love of God, and His joy that is our infallible strength.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt." Jeremiah 31:3-4

And even as we embrace this new and not merely improved life - God doesn't forget who we are, and what we care about. When we seek first His kingdom, then, then, He adds much much more, more than we could ask or imagine. A glorious new adventure. 

This is our life in Christ. I have so much more to let go, and so much more to receive. So may I continue to learn to let go, and let God!  


Comments

Vanessa N said…
Simply inspiring and echoes a lot of my thoughts...esp the self- doubt, I cant and I dont want:)
22 May 2022 at 11:56
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