Daring to be Restless

 Yesterday, as I sat down to consider my choices for further devotional reading, I picked up the book my sister-in-law gave us for Christmas: Radical by David Platt … and I have to say, I am astounded.   I am excited and nervous, and ready to be challenged like never before as I work my way through the pages of this book.   Writing about Luke 9, in which Jesus tells a variety of would-be disciples why they won’t find the journey to God particularly comfortable , Platt writes on page 12:                 “But we don’t want to believe it.   We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives.   So we rationalize these passages away.   ‘Jesus wouldn’t really tell us not to bury our father or say good-bye to our family.   Jesus didn’t literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor.   What Jesus really meant was …’         ...

As I’ve been reading through John and Stasi Edlredge’s book Captivating this month, the theme that has continued to jump out at me has been, “What lies are you believing?”   The authors write about how our past (particularly the painful parts) continue to hurt us, how it speaks messages to us that are not true, how it hinders the work of God in our lives when we do not let it go and move on with our lives.   In their own words, on pages 100-101, they write, “Your wounds brought messages with them.   Lots of messages.   Somehow they all usually land in the same place.   They had a similar theme. ‘You’re worthless’ … ‘You’re too much … and not enough.’   ‘You’re a disappointment.’   ‘You are repulsive.’   On and on they go …   They pierced our hearts, and they seemed so true.   So we accepted the message as fact.   We embraced it as the verdict on us” and lived in bondage to that verdict, whether or not it was an accurate one. ...