Like a Rock

Anyone love that Chev commercial and sing along!? No, just me... Great :oP Actually, that song is not the inspiration for this blog, just what I thought of as I typed the title. I am back on Twitter so come follow me! Being back on Twitter I found the quote below and decided it was begging to be expounded upon. (ooohh, look at my use of large words! haha!)

"Like a rock, you must be hard. Like an oak, you must stand firm. Cut quick like my blade. Think fast, unafraid. –Mulan (as tweeted by Disney Words.)

"Like a rock, you must be hard..." Mama always taught me "Don't wear your feelings on your sleeve..." I frequently can hear her voice telling me "You've gotta toughen up a little, grow a thicker skin..." when I would get upset because I heard someone speak negatively about me.  I suppose that's all a part of life and we do need to "be hard." But can I remind us, in all of our toughness, past those sleeves where our feelings no longer hang and the thick skin we should remain soft toward others and toward God... Please remember none of us were born perfect and since you're probably not reading this blog from glory I think we can establish you haven't reached perfection and been translated or taken up in a chariot either... Of course although I'm writing a bit tongue-in-cheek I am serious about remaining soft... Vulnerable... Mould-able... Kind... Sensitive. I'm sure, especially if you're male, you consider some (if not all) of the last four adjectives to be for the weak... But I challenge you to flip the script, do you not need courage and strength to show your soft side, be vulnerable, allow your perspectives and/or actions to be moulded, to be kind to another person who may not have shown you the same consideration the past and to remain sensitive to others and God after experiencing such pain in your past?

"...Like an oak, you must stand firm..." Something I've unfortunately had to learn the hard way is you have to stand firm for yourself and your beliefs... Through junior high I did not stand up for much of what I believed in, or the things I didn't believe in for that matter... Not that I was drinking, smoking, robbing and doing drugs (I wasn't) but I was far from an reflection of God's love. Don't read into this incorrectly, I'm not in any way saying you should shove your beliefs down the throat of another I'm just saying don't have a jelly spine... If all your friends are going on a bender and you don't believe in drinking just say "no thanks" and smile, if those people are actually your friends they will be okay with your "no," they will realize your "no" to drinking (or whatever you are saying no to in any given situation) is not a "no" to the friendship.  True friends will respect a "no" instead of trying to make you feel like an idiot for not wanting to drink for three days and barf for ten and eventually people will respect you more for standing firm even if they haven't stood up for themselves.  My best friend, Amanda, stood firm in her beliefs all through school and I could see the difference of respect people had for her than for me... Everyone knew I claimed to be Christian yet didn't show God through my actions and because of that who would listen to my witness?  Thankfully I turned that around in High School and haven't looked back since.

"...Think fast, unafraid." Did you know the phrase "fear not!" is written more than any other command in the Bible?  2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline." (American Standard Version) God doesn't want us to be fearful, he wants our first thoughts of help to be of Him! He is there for us, so think fast of Him and ask for His help! Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." God's got this, relax!

"...Cut quick like my blade..."  Uh-oh, here's where we run into problems... We should not be quick to cut! One of my greatest lessons in life was taught to me by the Pastor of One Church in Halifax, NS, Justin MacKenzie (he went to Bible College in my City and used to be youth pastor at Capital Community.)  I had a lot of hurt in my life growing up and very little trust left over for anyone else... Because of my past I was very raw to anything I perceived as negativity toward me and I would lash out with cutting words of anger.  I would make it a point to quickly learn where the most sensitive area of a person was in case I ever needed to "defend myself." The problem was without knowing it I had also begun to not only defend myself but to hurt first...  My mantra had become "get them first... go for the jugular." and I was proud of it.  One Wednesday night after a youth service Justin caught me in one of my "get them first moments" and told me I needed to be aware of myself, consider others and realize how hurtful I could be... I think his words were somewhere along the lines of "that's enough. You can be mean not funny sometimes you know. Think about what you're doing and saying before you speak... You have a tendency of cutting people down and being harsh when you don't need to. If someone says something about you, you have to be able to let it ride. God will take care of anything false or people who are being mean, spreading rumors if you allow Him to." (my paraphrase of course.) At the time I was angry with Justin, he embarrassed me... On some level I'm sure I knew he was right but at the time I just wanted to be cool. I've now realized Justin was right all along, sarcasm isn't always okay... Yes, it's used as a defence but it's definitely overused... We need to be careful that our "defences" never become "get them firsts." We need to love each other, be kind... John 13:35 says "This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (New International Version) if we don't have love we cannot be known as His followers. Think of it this way, the Bible teaches that God is love... His very essence consists of love, love is what drove Jesus to the cross for people that didn't even know about Him. If we don't know love or show love we are not only unknown as followers of God but we do not know Him. 1 John 4:8 "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." And if the word of God doesn't convince you to show love instead of being so quick to cut let's go back to Disney Words "It's not easy to find someone to see your best." - Piglet, Whinnie the Pooh. Let's make it a little easier for people to find a person to see their best, see them through God's eyes...  "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Plato (as tweeted by Philosophers Quotes.)