A good friend of mine told me a story a few years back that has stuck with me ever since. At the time my friend and his brother were sharing a room and going to school.
One morning my friend woke up before his brother and started getting ready for the day. When his brother woke up a few minutes later he looked over and said, “Man, I just had a terrible dream.”
“What was it?”
“It was so weird…. I dreamed that God was trying to kill me!! Can you believe that?”
“Well…. actually…. He kinda is”
2 things about that story.
First,
What does he mean TRYING?!?
How was God trying to kill him? Was He unsuccessful? Was it really hard for God? Was He trying something new like a gun or a knife? Was He getting bored with the whole “and the Earth swallowed them up” deal? What about fire and brimstone? In this guys dream, were those methods not good enough to get the job done? If so, he must be the baddest man on the planet. This guy is like Chuck Norris if he and Barry Bonds ever had the same “trainer” bad. (For those of you who may not get that or if you just want a good laugh, check out this site http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/)
And second,
Don’t worry, God doesn’t want to actually kill you. What my friend means, of course, is that God wants you to die to yourself and he is trying to live in and through you to touch a world in desperate need of Him. Isn’t that awesome? God actually wants to live inside of you.
The only catch is that for Him to do that, you have to get yourself out of the way, and that’s hard. It’s never easy to break old selfish habits and ways of life because they’re engrained in us from such a young age.
The key is to remember that it’s worth it. When you really think about it, you’re giving up next to nothing and gaining a lot. If we can give up our selfishness, we get to have the Lord of the universe live in our hearts and show us an abundant life.
What part of your life could God be trying to get you to die to this week?
