Switching Thought Processes
Okay, so I just got done reading Herschel's latest post and it was a great reminder to me about how I should be thankful for everything...including the small stuff. He was talking about how we're so quick to complain and yet we often don't praise God or get joyful over "small" things. But reading that also sparked something else in my mind. I was thinking about something that Matt Wallace told me about the people of Russia and their mindset on dealing with problems and what they request from God...
Matt was talking to me one day at church camp about how in this country, we pray for God to heal us or take away pain and suffering. But the Russian mindset is that we should pray for perseverance. We have relied so much on God's omnipotence, that we've forgotten another part of the picture...and this is a very vital part. God uses things in our lives to build us up and to change us into the people He needs us to be in order to further His kingdom. But we always just rush for Him to take away whatever is causing suffering in our lives. Now, when God is taken out of the picture here, and we go through life's struggles without calling on God for help, I think it's much easier in our society for that to transform into complaining. We're not used to enduring pain...nor do we want to be. We're so fixed on immediate gratification, that when life throws a rock in our path, we complain instead of looking ahead at what we will become if we only learn what we can from our suffering.
I think we can learn so much from the Russians, in that we should not just be looking to God to bring back our comfort every time something, no matter how severe, comes up. They pray to be strong...to endure what has happened to them. This is the opposite of immediate gratification. They know that suffering will end, but they need God's help to get through it, not around it. But I think we should also pray for open eyes, so that through our perseverance, we don't just put our heads down and trudge on, creating bitter hearts and feelings. We need to raise our eyes and see the road that God has marked out for us and embrace the new person that develops after the trials.
Matt was talking to me one day at church camp about how in this country, we pray for God to heal us or take away pain and suffering. But the Russian mindset is that we should pray for perseverance. We have relied so much on God's omnipotence, that we've forgotten another part of the picture...and this is a very vital part. God uses things in our lives to build us up and to change us into the people He needs us to be in order to further His kingdom. But we always just rush for Him to take away whatever is causing suffering in our lives. Now, when God is taken out of the picture here, and we go through life's struggles without calling on God for help, I think it's much easier in our society for that to transform into complaining. We're not used to enduring pain...nor do we want to be. We're so fixed on immediate gratification, that when life throws a rock in our path, we complain instead of looking ahead at what we will become if we only learn what we can from our suffering.
I think we can learn so much from the Russians, in that we should not just be looking to God to bring back our comfort every time something, no matter how severe, comes up. They pray to be strong...to endure what has happened to them. This is the opposite of immediate gratification. They know that suffering will end, but they need God's help to get through it, not around it. But I think we should also pray for open eyes, so that through our perseverance, we don't just put our heads down and trudge on, creating bitter hearts and feelings. We need to raise our eyes and see the road that God has marked out for us and embrace the new person that develops after the trials.
posted by agitswhoiam at 1:57 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, thanks for reminding me Amanda! Especially the part at the end about not just putting our heads down and trudging through! We can have joy!
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