It’s All About God!

09/04/2004

I love that it’s all about You, God!! What a freeing, wonderful way to live life!

When it’s not about me, then I can be the child you have called me to be. I don’t have to grow up and take on the responsibility of the "world." It’s Your call, Your game, Your decision, and I can just depend on You each day I live.

If you have never had a teenager, I know that you can you can probably remember being one. In a teenager’s life, it is all about them. There is no question. The world revolves around what is important to them, and they just "know" what needs to be done. Their goal in life is to grow up and be an adult so they can do anything they want...you know, be really free from all the rules and regulations they have to live under now...!

Aahhh, they think true freedom at last will be found when they are living on their own, making their own decisions, and they don’t have anybody around telling them what to do anymore! High school will be behind them! Some will find their independence in college. Some will find it as they join the work force. Wherever it is, they just know freedom will be found when they no longer have to live under the strict rules of their household!

And so off they go, eventually, into the real world, and what do they find? Rules, regulations, people telling them what to do, bosses who are unfair and work experiences that are much tougher than the life they had in high school. I remember my dad telling me when I was a teenager that I wouldn’t appreciate the new roll of toilet paper that just magically appears until I’m the one who has to buy the new one. It’s a little thing but almost every time I replace the toilet paper roll, I think of what he said!

There is a bumper sticker that I’ve seen that says, "If you want know something, ask a teenager, they know everything." Now this message I’m writing is not a put down to teenagers, as much as it is gathering an understanding of their mindset. We have all been there, not one of us can honestly say we weren’t a rebellious teen to some degree or another...we can just ask our parents if we’re in doubt!

That’s the mindset I’m getting at, a rebellious knowing and the problems that arise because during that rebellious age of knowing all, we don’t yet grasp the concept that the more we know, the more we know we don’t know. We never get there as teenagers. The more we think we know as teenagers, the more rebellious we become. It’s only when we start to grow out of that rebellion, usually somewhere in our 20’s, that we realize how foolish we have been, how smart our parents really are, and how much we need them for advice from time to time.

This means that you will receive your kingdom back
again when you have learned that heaven rules.
Daniel 4:26 (NLT)

In this passage, Daniel was telling King Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of the dream he had had. The king was proud and unwilling to humble himself. He was unwilling to give God the glory for all that had happened, and all he had was going to be taken away from him until he learned a great lesson about God’s goodness. Sort of like, "You’re grounded son!"

Teenagers live in a world where they seem to think that what they have is owed to them. They may not have worked for it, but that does not matter, it is theirs. If their parents are rich, they are rich. If they drive a nice car that their parents have bought, it is simply part of the package deal of their life. Most times, they can’t be seen wearing what is not in style, it would be below them! Their parents may be going without to supply it for them, but it is barely noticed. Now, I know there are some very grateful teens out there, there are always exceptions to the rules, but for the most part, teens are in a rebellious stage of their life, they think only of themselves, their needs and their wants. It will take some years before the world no longer revolves around them, in their minds.

Enter the adult world...us. We have grown out of that stage of rebellion, we know how the world works so much better now and we have been a part of that "working" world for a good many years now. It’s had its ups and down, the good days, the bad, the hard days, the fun days, the good bosses and the difficult ones. It’s no longer so important that we wear the latest styles, make an impression on our peers, or get to do just what we want when we want to. We had to give that up when we had our own children. Their needs must be met; we must clothe them, feed them and give wise counsel to them. It’s no longer just about us anymore, there are others to consider along the way now. The freedom of the adult world we longed for is now ours...but where did it disappear? Where is the freedom we were looking for? How come this isn’t as easy as it appeared it would be? How come that toilet paper doesn’t magically replace itself like we thought it did when we were teens?

Worshipping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but
they don’t even know it. Israel is like an old man with
graying hair, unaware of how weak and old he has become.
His arrogance testifies against him, yet he doesn’t return to
the Lord his God or even try to find him.
Hosea 7:9-10 (NLT)

What did we do in the transition from teenager to adult? Did we learn anything, or did we just carry our rebellion into our adult years, transferring it from not wanting to listen to our parents to not wanting to listen to our Father in Heaven? Have we really grasped the concept that this world does not revolve around us, or have we simply exchanged the teenage rebellion of wanting into adult rebellion of trying to make it so? It is easy to see teenage rebellion; you can see it from a mile away! Their words are not so kind, their eyes roll, their shoulders shrug and their answer usually is, "I don’t know" to most any question they are asked. Adult rebellion is not so easy to see; perhaps because it’s so commonplace we miss it.

In a group of teens, they will not notice that they are dressed "funny" because everyone they are standing with is dressed the same way—whatever the style of the day might be. They feel they fit in as long as they look like all their peers. They look at adults as outcasts with our outdated styles and our outdated attitudes. We’re dressed funny, and they won’t hesitate to let us know!

In a group of adults, us, our rebellion is much the same. We just don’t notice it because we blend in with the rest of adult society, just as the teens blend in with other teens. In our "blending," so many seem frustrated with their jobs and a great majority is tired and much too busy. There is not a whole lot of happiness going around and most of us just try to make it from one day to the next, hoping to get by. We don’t see the problem though, because "everyone else is doing it."

Is this any way to live? Is this what God has called us to? A life of drudgery and misery and tiredness and the weight of the world seemingly sitting on our shoulders making us moody and angry...like a teenager? I don’t think this is what our Father had in mind! I believe we bring this upon ourselves because we are a rebellious people!! Unwilling to say, "Yes, Father."

"I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot
evil against me. They look everywhere except to heaven,
to the Most High. They are like a crooked bow that always
misses its target."
Hosea 7:15-16 (NLT)

Our "aim" is off! We are setting our sights on the wrong target! We are working for something that is not even there, fulfillment in the things of this world, and missing what is right before our eyes...God’s eternal blessings!

We love our teenagers, even when they are making us crazy. We would do anything for them, but they refuse our help so much of the time. Just like the terrible two’s, the terrible teens say, "I can do it myself." Now we as "terrible transgressors" continue on with that tradition! We can do it ourselves!! We don’t need any help! Please God, stay out of my way, I know what I’m doing!

"When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son, and I
called my son out of Egypt. But the more I called to
him, the more he rebelled, offering sacrifices to the
images of Baal and burning incense to idols. It was I
who taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by
the hand. But he doesn’t know or even care that it was
I who took care of him. I led Israel along with my ropes
of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck,
and I myself stooped to feed him."
Hosea 11:1-4

God loves us, takes care of us, feeds us, is kind to us, helps us and leads us but we still remain rebellious to His care. We convince ourselves that we don’t need Him and that we are fine without Him. But are we?

How prosperous Israel is—a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit!
But the more wealth the people got, the more they poured it on
the altars of their foreign gods...The hearts of the people are fickle;
they are guilty and must be punished...They spout empty words
and make promises they don’t intend to keep. So perverted justice
springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer’s field.
Hosea 10:1,2,4 (NLT)

This is starting to sound like the world we live in with its perverted justice, the promises that aren’t kept and the empty words we hear from so many. God keeps watering, He keeps pouring down His blessings on us, but the weeds just seem to take it over faster than the crops He intends as a blessing in our lives.

I was out weeding the other day. Yes, even in an RV park, there were weeds that need tending too. We have a section of rocks right outside our door and as we move our sprinkler around, keeping the lawn nice and green, the rocks also get "watered." The desert in Nevada may be dry and desolate, but when you put a little water on it, all kinds of things will grow. We’ve noticed that living in Fallon, it’s called the "Oasis of Nevada." This area is irrigated and it is a patch of green in an otherwise large state of grays and browns.

So, I found myself weeding the green that was springing out of the rocks and beginning to overtake that area. I could have let it just grow wild. It was not my responsibility to take care of it since there is a facilities man here who mows the lawns and tends to whatever maintenance needs there are here in the park, but I felt God calling me to pull some weeds, so I did.

Some were easy to yank out, coming out in one pull, with hardly any dirt attached. Some were in deep, and came up with a large clump of dirt. Some had little round stickers that prevented me from pulling them with my bare hands. Some remained because they required more than a bare hand to remove them, at least with the strength I have. But in the end, the area looked better and I was glad to have done my part, for however long it will last. They will grow back! As we continue to water, they will be fed and spring to life again. Without some sort of weed killer on them, they will be free to take over this area of rocks. If not tended to, someday the rocks could totally be covered by the weeds. It’s not a problem for weeds to grow!

And "weeds" will grow in our lives. It’s not a problem for them. They grow quite naturally, and if they are not pulled out, they will take over. God says in Hosea, "...you have cultivated wickedness and raised a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies—trusting in your military might, believing that great armies could make your nation safe!" (Hosea 10:13 NLT)

When we trust in anything besides our Father in heaven, we have put our trust in the wrong place. When we live in the wickedness of rebellion against Him, we are raising a "crop of sins." The weeds are taking over our lives! Before we know it, we won’t even see the "rocks" anymore! But God says:

"Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest
a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts,
for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come
and shower righteousness upon you."
Hosea 10:12 (NLT)

The "hard ground" of our hearts is our rebellion, just like teenagers have; only we have it in a much worse way as adults. Teenagers rebel against us, that’s true, but eventually they come back to us, loving us, respecting us, and sometimes even asking for our advice on some things. On the other hand we as adults, a lot of times, will not turn back to our Father God. We will never ask for His advice, never love Him or give Him the respect that He fully deserves. We live in our rebellion until our dying day...never fully living the blessed life He wants to give us!

How long will you be incapable of innocence?
This calf you worship was crafted by your own
hands! It is not God! Therefore, it must be
smashed to bits.
"They have planted the wind
and will harvest the whirlwind."
Hosea 8:5b-7a (NLT)

Innocence is what we miss when our children become teenagers. They no longer think we know everything, they no longer want to be with us doing what we think is fun. They no longer trust us as they once did, and they can become cynical and be very negative about many things. It is just a period that they must pass through on the way to adulthood. And pass through it they will, coming out on the other side, most times, as very loving and very wonderful people who we will greatly enjoy spending time with! Yes, miracles do happen!

Innocence is what God misses when we become those very same adults. We become cynical, and negative. We no longer trust the God we might have learned about in Sunday school when we were like a sponge ready to absorb the love He was offering to us. We cannot believe that Jesus really died and rose again unless we have seen it with our own eyes, and we don’t really want to spend time with God--we think it is boring! We want to do our own thing, be with our friends, and make our own decisions! After all, we’re all grown up now.

But what do we miss when we give up our innocence? We allow the "weeds" to take over our lives and smother the beauty of the garden we have been given to live in. Not the same garden as was in Eden, that is long gone and will not be replaced here on earth. But we still can live in a beautiful garden of peace and joy that our Father longs to give to us. It is a garden were we can feel truly free to be ourselves, relive those childhood memories of being cared for and loved, and find that place under that shady tree where we can lie on our backs, look up into the blue sky and smile because we are able to enjoy some time without feeling rushed and stressed with all the things we "need" to get done.

Don’t we all long for that innocent time again in our lives when we didn’t have to think about tomorrow? When the worries of today were not ours but they belonged to our parents, and if truth be told, we didn’t even realize there was anything we should be worried about?

Now some may say, I didn’t have that kind of childhood. My childhood was far from carefree, I lived in a terrible situation the likes of which you cannot even imagine. This is very true; there are far too many people with a childhood that they would rather forget. People who have parents or other people in their past who were not loving and were not kind, and in fact were very abusive. This is a fact of the world we live in. There are households where the "weeds" smother out any goodness there could have been. A place where innocence died long ago.

I saw that happen with my own son. I saw his innocence die, long before the disease of cancer caused his physical body to die. I witnessed a child who much to early in his life had to make life-and-death decisions when other teenagers were deciding whom they would take to the winter formal. I saw him grow up seemingly over night from the 10 year old that loved playgrounds to a child who no longer even had the energy to enjoy them anymore. Because of the weed of cancer, our child went from a childhood of innocence to the harsh realities of life long before many do, and it broke my heart.

But... I also witnessed something very amazing in the process of his childhood innocence being lost. The weed of cancer that attempted to smother his innocence about life as a whole was pulled out time and time again by his faith. His faith would not allow his innocence as a child of God to be smothered. And in fact, by the time the weed of cancer consumed his life here on earth, I witnessed in my son a soul so trusting and so innocent that he was filled with the hope and looking forward to what was to come in his new home with his Father. He found his innocence again when he truly discovered that he was not only our child, but a child of God. He may have grown up in our eyes, but not in God’s eyes because God always sees us as a child who needs help and comfort and love, and it was all given to Phil when he kept his heart opened up to God.

Phil remained a child at heart through it all because of his faith--whether he was a ten year old being diagnosed with cancer, or a 16-year-old teenager dying of cancer. I was able to enjoy the experience of seeing the child that remained within him even though he was forced to live prematurely in a very adult world.

When Phil was ten and first admitted to the hospital, there was a 15 year old in the bed next to him. A teenager who was not extremely kind to his mother. I remember thanking God that Phil was only ten because he still thought I knew best. Five and a half years later when Phil died, he still thought I knew best. I thank God for the childlike heart he had because we never battled as some do with a teenager. Maybe because we didn’t have time for that or because his faith plucked that weed out again and again...but he never rebelled against his dad or me, and continued to look to us for answers and for guidance.

Phil reacted the very same way with his Father God. He looked to Him and sought Him out. He wanted to know more about Him. He did not immediately believe, it took some time. He questioned, he doubted, but he did not rebel. He remained open to what might be true, and he found Truth in the end that could not be denied.

I was just reading something yesterday that I had written down that Phil said. He said, "Mom, I’m glad I have lived as long as I have because now I know I really do believe in God." I had forgotten that he said that. It brought joy to my heart to read it again. He said that in his last year of life, a year that I truly believe was an extra year that God gave to us to enjoy together.

God won’t give us all that extra year; some will be gone before I finish writing this message. Some will live another 90 years, but whatever time we have we need to keep our innocence alive. We need to keep asking questions and searching for the Truth until we can say, "I’m glad I’ve lived as long as I have because now I know I really do believe in God."

A rebellious teen won’t listen...a rebellious adult won’t listen either. We may wonder why teens act the way they do but do we ever stop and ask ourselves why we act the way we do? Why we chose to live in rebellion rather than freedom?

"Israel has built great palaces, and Judah has
fortified its cities. But they have both forgotten
their Maker."
Hosea 8:14 (NLT)

When we forget our Maker, we lose our innocence. Our hearts become hard and we attempt to tough it out each day we live, and life can be very rough. In the fight, we forget that we are really just children, meant to live a life of innocence and trust in our Father. We can find that innocence and that trust again if we are willing to relinquish our rebellious spirit and come home to the One who loves us most.

I’m reminded of the story my mom tells about one of my brothers who was thinking of running away from home when we were teenagers. She really didn’t know what his plans were but she didn’t go out and look for him, knowing she could not force him to come home. When dinnertime rolled around, he showed up. She never asked him why he came back, but she’s pretty sure it was because he knew dinner would be on the table at six, like it always was. He knew his place had been set, his dinner had been prepared, and she would be waiting for him... so, he came home. He never did run away.

It’s "dinner time" and our Father is calling us to the table, there is a feast waiting. He longs to fill our cups to overflowing and pursue us with His love every day of our lives...why would we want to go anywhere else? Why would we want to rebel against the freedom of living like a child in a very adult world when He is offering it to those who will simply come home to Him?

King Nebuchadnezzar started off by saying, "I, by my own mighty power, have built this beautiful city as my royal residence and as an expression of my royal splendor." (Hosea 4:30b NLT). He later was recorded as saying, "After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever. His rule is everlasting and his kingdom is eternal." (Hosea 4:34 NLT)

This "rebellious teenager" had seen the light and returned to his Father.

We don’t have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, Jesus said He would carry it for us and replace it with His yoke which fits perfectly and his burden which is light. (Matt. 12:30)

Then Jesus prayed this prayer: "O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so
wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike. Yes, Father,
it pleased you to do it this way!"
Matthew 11:25-26 (NLT)

Let’s not act like "wise and clever teenagers" for the rest of our lives, living in our rebellion and thinking it’s all about us! Let’s grow up and become the children of God we are called to be. Let’s go home where we will find true rest for our souls! (Matt. 11:29b)

Dinner’s on the table!!
Our Father is waiting for us to join Him!

Learning to rest like a child,

Diane