Resolutions and Reasons (Galatians 1)
This is my New Year's Resolution.
Well, okay, not this post, per say, but being more intentional about blogging in general. So often, though, I want to write but struggle with deciding what to write. While I have nothing against the types of blogs where people post every day about what they had for dinner, I never wanted to be like that. There's not much meat to those kind of posts (pun intended). Instead, I issued myself a challenge. I decided to pick a book of the Bible and spend an entire week on each chapter. At the end of the week I'd blog about something related to what I'd learned and what God had been teaching me.
Sounds pretty easy, right?
Here's the thing, though: A week is a long time to spend on just a chapter of the Bible. A looooong time. With this in mind, I set out to pick a book with two stipulations: 1) It had to be one I hadn't studied intensely before (where's the challenge in picking one I know super well?) and 2) It had to be a short book (I didn't want this project to last for the next sixth months, just in case I hated it). And so, after a period of deliberation, I ended up with Galatians.
As I dove in this week, I found there's actually something to be said about spending that much time on just one chapter. Coming back to the same section day after day helped me to notice details I hadn't seen before. I spent the week reading and journaling. In the occasional moments when I wondered what I'd blog about, I found myself thinking over and over:
You know, Lord, I'll blog about whatever you want but I don't want to focus on Galatians 1:10.
You think that by this point in my faith journey I would stop telling God what to do, but apparently not.
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, Paul writes, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
This week I was so struck by how often I try to win the approval of my fellow man. Some of it comes from years of being a people-pleasing, A+ seeking, goody-two-shoes perfectionist: I've trained myself to thrive on the approval of people. Some of it comes from my words of encouragement love language: I love it when people tell me "Good job!" or, "I agree!" Trying to make decisions about anything freaks me out because I'm constantly worried that I'm not making the choice God wants me to make, AND that whatever choice I do make will disappoint someone around me. It's slightly exhausting, and it's not healthy.
It also got me thinking about why I blog. I love writing- I really, truly do. I love blogging because it forces me to communicate my ideas more articulately than I have to in my journal; it forces me to think about my audience and sentence structure and why I really shouldn't start a sixth sentence in a row with the word "I". But there's another part of me, a part that whispers deep in my soul, that admits that I like blogging because I get attention. I enjoy seeing the "likes" on my Facebook page. I like tracking stats and seeing what posts are getting the most hits. It's in these moments, though, that blogging starts to become more about me and less about a way to connect to God. I don't like that.
This is a space that's about more than just me. This is about a journey through faith- it's about mine, and it's about yours, too. Hopefully, clicking on this link starts similar veins of thought clicking in your heads. Hopefully it helps your faith stretch and grow, or at least helps you contemplate a different perspective. At the end of the day, this space is about communicating the Gospel to whoever reads it. I don't want to be like the people Paul talks about in verses 6-9, who are perverting the message of Christ. I don't want to merely say things because I know that it will make people like me. I want to communicate truth. I want to communicate grace. I want to share Christ here. I want to be a servant of Christ here, through my actions. And I want to do it together.
It's my hope that this space starts to become more like a "community," for lack of a better word. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Galatians in the coming weeks, and I want to hear your opinions on the book. I'm going to start asking questions at the end of each post--if you'd like to answer them here, on Facebook, by emailing me, or in person, I'd love to dive into this together.
This isn't the best post I'd ever written, and I contemplated apologizing for that. But you know what? I shouldn't need your approval.
How about you? Why do you think people get wrapped up in winning the approval of others? Is this a common struggle? Why? Do you have any good suggestions about how we can stop seeking it so much? What does it mean to you to be a servant of Christ?
Well, okay, not this post, per say, but being more intentional about blogging in general. So often, though, I want to write but struggle with deciding what to write. While I have nothing against the types of blogs where people post every day about what they had for dinner, I never wanted to be like that. There's not much meat to those kind of posts (pun intended). Instead, I issued myself a challenge. I decided to pick a book of the Bible and spend an entire week on each chapter. At the end of the week I'd blog about something related to what I'd learned and what God had been teaching me.
Sounds pretty easy, right?
Here's the thing, though: A week is a long time to spend on just a chapter of the Bible. A looooong time. With this in mind, I set out to pick a book with two stipulations: 1) It had to be one I hadn't studied intensely before (where's the challenge in picking one I know super well?) and 2) It had to be a short book (I didn't want this project to last for the next sixth months, just in case I hated it). And so, after a period of deliberation, I ended up with Galatians.
As I dove in this week, I found there's actually something to be said about spending that much time on just one chapter. Coming back to the same section day after day helped me to notice details I hadn't seen before. I spent the week reading and journaling. In the occasional moments when I wondered what I'd blog about, I found myself thinking over and over:
You know, Lord, I'll blog about whatever you want but I don't want to focus on Galatians 1:10.
You think that by this point in my faith journey I would stop telling God what to do, but apparently not.
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, Paul writes, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
This week I was so struck by how often I try to win the approval of my fellow man. Some of it comes from years of being a people-pleasing, A+ seeking, goody-two-shoes perfectionist: I've trained myself to thrive on the approval of people. Some of it comes from my words of encouragement love language: I love it when people tell me "Good job!" or, "I agree!" Trying to make decisions about anything freaks me out because I'm constantly worried that I'm not making the choice God wants me to make, AND that whatever choice I do make will disappoint someone around me. It's slightly exhausting, and it's not healthy.
It also got me thinking about why I blog. I love writing- I really, truly do. I love blogging because it forces me to communicate my ideas more articulately than I have to in my journal; it forces me to think about my audience and sentence structure and why I really shouldn't start a sixth sentence in a row with the word "I". But there's another part of me, a part that whispers deep in my soul, that admits that I like blogging because I get attention. I enjoy seeing the "likes" on my Facebook page. I like tracking stats and seeing what posts are getting the most hits. It's in these moments, though, that blogging starts to become more about me and less about a way to connect to God. I don't like that.
This is a space that's about more than just me. This is about a journey through faith- it's about mine, and it's about yours, too. Hopefully, clicking on this link starts similar veins of thought clicking in your heads. Hopefully it helps your faith stretch and grow, or at least helps you contemplate a different perspective. At the end of the day, this space is about communicating the Gospel to whoever reads it. I don't want to be like the people Paul talks about in verses 6-9, who are perverting the message of Christ. I don't want to merely say things because I know that it will make people like me. I want to communicate truth. I want to communicate grace. I want to share Christ here. I want to be a servant of Christ here, through my actions. And I want to do it together.
It's my hope that this space starts to become more like a "community," for lack of a better word. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Galatians in the coming weeks, and I want to hear your opinions on the book. I'm going to start asking questions at the end of each post--if you'd like to answer them here, on Facebook, by emailing me, or in person, I'd love to dive into this together.
This isn't the best post I'd ever written, and I contemplated apologizing for that. But you know what? I shouldn't need your approval.
How about you? Why do you think people get wrapped up in winning the approval of others? Is this a common struggle? Why? Do you have any good suggestions about how we can stop seeking it so much? What does it mean to you to be a servant of Christ?
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