I heard of Nick Vujicic a couple years ago at a conference. Unfortunately I didn't get to hear him speak then, but only heard the rave reviews about him and his message. Nick speaks about the beautifying love of Jesus Christ.
I think we all look at ourselves and some days we hate the reflection of selfishness, pride, arrogance, and even our physical appearance. During my own ugly duckling phase, where the combination of headgear, glasses, and acne was my reflection, I failed to realize I was beautifully and fearfully made. Pslams 139:14 should really be on every mirror in every middle school.
We constantly think of ourselves as inferior to those that don't have the same problems we see in ourselves. Nick Vujicic struggled with the same feelings, but on a scale that makes my own insecurities pale in comparison. Nick was born without hands or feet. He struggled with everything I did/do but overcame these obstacles with such strength that only a mighty God could give.
I heard a message from him recently on TV that still resonates in my mind:
Right now I can't answer the latter question. I'm still struggling on how to answer the first one. I've never put much effort into bringing someone with me to heaven. I've spent a lot of time focusing on how to get myself there. I guess it's about time for me to start caring about others and not just my own soul. I don't know how well the metaphorical church is doing at "bringing others" it seems like a lot of time and money is spent on entertaining the souls that are already won. Jesus won the acceptance of others just by loving them, so I guess that's a good place to start, except he loved them unconditionally and purely. I can't even love myself or my family that way.
I ask for a lot of things (literally, things) from God, but I think it's about time I started asking Him to let me genuinely love people the way He does. Nick loves wholeheartedly because he firmly believes that the reason he was born without limbs was so he could witness to thousands of people. He no longer prays for a miracle of arms and legs, like he did when he was a child because he knows that his circumstances are the reason people flock to listen to his messages of Christ.
What if we all quit asking for changes to our "deformities" and started asking God to show us how to use them to bring someone to Him? There has always only been one thing on my bucket list- bring One Person to Christ...that seems pretty lazy considering I've been alive for 25 years, and that still hasn't been crossed off. What the heck have I been doing?!
Time for a new plan: I want to bring PEOPLE to Christ. I want that to be my mission, my purpose. It's going to take me out of my comfort zone, take a whole lot more effort, more time in prayer, more time in real conversations, more time in self-reflection, and a slew of other sacrifices that I'm too naive to realize. But, really...it's about time that I gave MORE, because people with LESS are doing MORE.
http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/
I think we all look at ourselves and some days we hate the reflection of selfishness, pride, arrogance, and even our physical appearance. During my own ugly duckling phase, where the combination of headgear, glasses, and acne was my reflection, I failed to realize I was beautifully and fearfully made. Pslams 139:14 should really be on every mirror in every middle school.
We constantly think of ourselves as inferior to those that don't have the same problems we see in ourselves. Nick Vujicic struggled with the same feelings, but on a scale that makes my own insecurities pale in comparison. Nick was born without hands or feet. He struggled with everything I did/do but overcame these obstacles with such strength that only a mighty God could give.
I heard a message from him recently on TV that still resonates in my mind:
"When I get to heaven I believe Jesus will ask me two things:
Do you know me and Who did you bring?"
Right now I can't answer the latter question. I'm still struggling on how to answer the first one. I've never put much effort into bringing someone with me to heaven. I've spent a lot of time focusing on how to get myself there. I guess it's about time for me to start caring about others and not just my own soul. I don't know how well the metaphorical church is doing at "bringing others" it seems like a lot of time and money is spent on entertaining the souls that are already won. Jesus won the acceptance of others just by loving them, so I guess that's a good place to start, except he loved them unconditionally and purely. I can't even love myself or my family that way.
I ask for a lot of things (literally, things) from God, but I think it's about time I started asking Him to let me genuinely love people the way He does. Nick loves wholeheartedly because he firmly believes that the reason he was born without limbs was so he could witness to thousands of people. He no longer prays for a miracle of arms and legs, like he did when he was a child because he knows that his circumstances are the reason people flock to listen to his messages of Christ.
What if we all quit asking for changes to our "deformities" and started asking God to show us how to use them to bring someone to Him? There has always only been one thing on my bucket list- bring One Person to Christ...that seems pretty lazy considering I've been alive for 25 years, and that still hasn't been crossed off. What the heck have I been doing?!
Time for a new plan: I want to bring PEOPLE to Christ. I want that to be my mission, my purpose. It's going to take me out of my comfort zone, take a whole lot more effort, more time in prayer, more time in real conversations, more time in self-reflection, and a slew of other sacrifices that I'm too naive to realize. But, really...it's about time that I gave MORE, because people with LESS are doing MORE.
http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/
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