Squat, you know, like find a group of people or a cause or a ministry and squat on it. Claim it. Stake my flag on it. Leave my fingerprints all over it and call it Mine. Put a protective fence around it and require permission to enter. Give myself wholly unto it. Pour my time and energy into it until I am exhausted and spent.
Squatting usually comes with a title, a list of duties, expectations and is performed in a building, usually on Sundays and sometimes even with mediocrity because it’s not our passion. Ok, maybe that is a bit unfair, but…
While this kind of serving sounds all righteous and committed, I’m thinking that for the majority of us it’s dangerously close to a religious service project than God’s Plan. Instead of Ministry Squatting with some undying commitment to duty, what if our single focus was finding and following God’s plan for our life, whatever it is and wherever it leads? Why is this even a struggle for me? I mean, God would not write a plan for my life from the beginning of time and then play hide and seek with it.
My struggle? Yielding. Yielding my squat…I don’t like Yielding. I’m not even fond of the letter Y. I’m a peddle to the metal kind of girl. Do first, ask questions later. Translation…I think it might be…Agenda masquerading as the more pc term Goal. Doing for the sake of doing just because I can.
I’m working on redefining my Squat. I want to be so on Mission with His plan for me that I disappear and all that remains is a Funnel. A Funnel that HIS energy flows through, instead of mine. A Funnel for His gifts and talents which almost effortlessly sustain the work; His work…and my Passion for it so great that even in exhaustion or frustration I’m completely Spiritually and humanly energized. I want to be so invested in the Plan that to move on to a new thing is as exciting as opening the cover of a fresh new book…maybe a long awaited sequel where the character is familiar but new adventures await…
Yep, I’m thinking…thou shalt not squat.
8 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://awarriorprincess.voxtropolis.com/2007/04/08/thou-shalt-not-squat/trackback/
April 27, 2007 at 10:47 am
Pingback from trying to listen · We Move Forward with Hope
April 25, 2007 at 9:51 am
billclark
G.
This is an interesting tension that I’m not sure I’m ever going to fully understand. Practice is important (”train unto godliness”), performance is important (otherwise what’s all this talk from Paul about running races?) but transformation is what its all about (too many versus to mention) - but what’s cause? what’s effect? what’s the means? what’s the end?
Sometimes it seems like a gestalt test - the more you look at it, the more the images flip back and forth!
April 25, 2007 at 11:22 am
obahsomah
bill clark you are always thinking!
I think the performing part is to perform before one and only one…God. When we set out to proclaim and perform our deeds as something WE are doing, not something God is doing through us, then it is showing off.
Gwen…always getting me thinking way to early! Love you!
April 25, 2007 at 12:01 pm
awarriorprincess
maybe its where the energy is coming from to begin with? maybe when we expect nothing in return? Maybe when we project the shekina shine away from ourselves? maybe when we walk away without having flown our banner at all and make people want to ask “why”?
April 25, 2007 at 1:43 pm
parke
In some unhealthy situations there really is a sense of performance. I think that it’s worthwhile noting that sometimes we mistake things for performance that are healthy. For example, non-profits frequently tout what they are doing. There is a wrong way to do this, but they know that by touting what is being done (via the power of the supporters and with the energy of the receivers) encourages even more people to jump in. And there is a certain amount of that which you’ll see Paul doing in his letters. He praises what some people over here are doing in a letter that will go around so that others will be jealous to do good things.
There’s also an element of praising God. One of my roles in life is to praise God in my writing. Part of that is pointing out miraculous moments that are clearly all God. I think another part of that though is pointing out God at work in the community around me and in the lives of those serving.
It certainly does make for a complex situation to dive into.
April 27, 2007 at 9:11 am
Gwen
True Parke, I think when there is performance but it’s not for self, that there is a bigger picture for the good of others, that’s transformance.
When I think of Performance I think ritualistic and empty, just going through the motions because we were taught that Christians live a certain way or perform kind deeds. There doesn’t appear to be any life behind it.
April 27, 2007 at 10:19 am
parke
That’s fair.
April 27, 2007 at 10:23 am
Gwen
but sad…