Take my World Apart

After some time off from regular every-day life I have come to the conclusion that for me to grow God needs to take me apart to rebuild me up from the beginning… this song is powerful, and thought provoking…

It has been hard to realize I am not perfect. (no, it is true!) It is in His weakness that we are made strong. The hardest thing for most people to do is give up the control of their weakness to someone else, especially to a God who is not tangible. Our pride can, and will, get in the way. In my experiences it has been in the moments I feel the weakest that I become the strongest, when I give it to God to take care of. It is hard to describe, unless you have experienced this for yourself.

I am quite independent, almost to a fault. I have a very hard time asking for help. It may be one of the reasons I am still single; I do not make myself vulnerable enough. Which is why I also find it hard to give my life, the pieces I believe I am in control of, to someone who has my best interests at heart: God.

Some people see asking for help as a weakness, or even to be a shameful act. Growing up I was made to feel this way when I would ask people for rides, when I didn’t have one. To this day I try to find my own way of getting to where I am going, before asking someone to come pick me up. I have been taught, from an early age, to be independent. In most cases it can be a great skill set to have, but when I truly need help it is very hard to ask for help. This, translated to my relationship with God, makes it difficult for me, a lot of the time, to ask God for his help, even though I know it IS the best resource I have.

Have you ever started an activity where you were very close to presenting the final product and realised there was a flaw at the beginning of the project and you had to take the almost completed project and strip it to the very beginning to correct the problem? Once you did this two things happened, firstly you were going to be very aware of the construction of the project at every stage so you didn’t have to start again. Secondly,  by going back to the very first cog in the process you are able to establish a very solid foundation for the, soon to be, finished project. This is what happens when we allow God to take our whole world apart, and let Him rebuild it for us.

I know that I have mentioned that we cannot let other people control our lives; it is ours, not theirs. Allowing Christ to control one’s life is not the same; our lives are His. Our life was created for him to be a part of every decision we make. It is our (selfish) human nature that separates us from Him. The trick is, as humans, to figure out (for ourselves, as each of us have a different relationship with Christ) how to master this skill; having God place his two-cents into everything we do. I do not know the answer for this. I am still trying to figure this one out myself. I do know it is the secret to a completely whole, and fulfilling life, and it is a daily struggle, but one I believe you cannot give up on.

I challenge you to trust God enough to take your world apart and then the two of you can start rebuilding it together. You will not be sorry you made the decision to do so!

Listen to the song linked to this post. The lyrics are below, and on the music page for you to follow along and contemplate.

THE CHALLENGE: To be as vulnerable as you can be with God. Have a conversation with Him. Give him all you worries, cares, and concerns. You can even get mad at him directly; He can take it. Allow your soul to feel helpless. Then ask for His strength and wisdom to fill the void that was just created. Finally, thank him for being exactly who he says he is. Then take a deep breath and move forward with your life with God as the Editor-in-Chief of your autobiography.

LYRICS:

I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
to give and dieTo turn away and not become
Another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
more deeply than the oceans,
more abundant than the tears
Of a world embracing every heartache

Can I be the one to sacrifice
Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow

To love you – take my world apart
To need you – I am on my knees
To love you – take my world apart
To need you – broken on my knees

All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me

Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart

[Additional lyrics:]

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now
and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can’t deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away
I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
so wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
so steal my heart and take the pain
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
take my world apart

Now what?!

We have looked at the verses that describe a Woman of Nobel Character, found in Proverbs 31: 10-31, so now what? Now it is time to simplify what we have learned and put this information into practice. Let’s start with summarizing the character traits that this woman has. A blog entitled Unlocking Femininity summarizes them very well…

~ She Is Trustworthy All The Time (v.11-12).

~ She Takes Care of Her Home & Works Hard (v.13-15,18-19, 27).

~ She’s Resourceful & Financially Responsible (v.16-19, 24).

~ She Helps Those in Need (v. 20-21)

~ She Takes Care of Herself Too (v. 17, 22)

~ She Chooses A Quality Man (v. 22-23, 29)

~ She Lives with Joy and Confidence (v.24-26)

~ She Speaks with Wisdom & Kindness

~ She Loves Children  (v. 28-29)

~ She Looks to God, Not Her Looks or Personality, to Fulfill Her (v.30-31)

Now that we know what characteristics define a Proverbs 31 Woman it is time to get started on this journey of self-development and character growth. Step one: Simplify and Purge. The way I see it is that when there are many distractions around us we are much less likely to use our time wisely. This is one of the traits, which is not mentioned in the above summary statements, I noticed about this woman while going through the verses is that she is a master of using her time well; she doesn’t have time to waste, there is so much to do. If we can lessen the things that distract us from using our time well, our procrastination activities, if you will, then we will be able to get so much more accomplished in a day, and in-turn a month, and especially within a year.

I know when I started this project I was thinking about focusing on developing one of these traits each month, but over the last month, while taking the chapter apart, I have concluded that this may be counter productive to this journey we are on. Most of these traits need to be practiced as often as possible, not just concentrated on for only  one month. For example to work on bettering our financial practices for one month is good, but when that month is done we need to still be practicing our newly learned habits and knowledge, right? So what we are going to do is have a main focus each month, but take advantage of growing other traits as the opportunities to do so come our way. This being said, this month we will be focusing on going through all of our rooms and cleaning them and at the same time putting aside,1: every item that we have not used for two years or more, 2: anything we have wanted to get rid of or sell off at any time, or 3. any item where there is no need for the item any more. In November we will be focusing on the financial part of this woman’s character. We will be looking at ways to make and save money, through little tricks that most of are not taught, or at least information that we have not taken seriously as impactful to our finances. We are going to start taking them seriously, as money, for most people, is tight. What we will look at is how, on a daily basis, we can save our money, and spend it more wisely. We will also focusing on selling or giving away the big pile of items we will have set aside from our purge the month before.

I am so honoured that you coming on this journey with me. I would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences as you too choose to go on this journey to become a Woman of Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31:10

Proverbs, as a whole, is considered to be full of wisdom and secrets on how to find wisdom. This is one reason that I am excited to really focus on what it says. In studying the bible we will grow closer to God, and in wisdom, at the same time slowly become this woman of nobel character Proverbs 31 talks about and defines.

What I am going to do is pull this chapter apart, one verse at a time, starting with verse 10.

^10 [b]A wife of noble character who can find?
    She is worth far more than rubies. (NIV)

So often through the bible, and in some societies, women are not seen as having much value. This verse states other wise. Here it almost seems like it is questioning if nobel women are out there, if they even exist. It states that they are as rare and as valuable as rubies. According to http://www.gemsociety.org/info/gems/Ruby.htm, “Rubies are the most valuable members of the corundum family. Large gem quality rubies can be more valuable than comparably sized diamonds and are certainly rarer.” With this information it would make sense that it should be every woman’s goal to become this woman of noble character, and every parent’s focus to guide their little girl to become this woman who is defined in Proverbs 31. Why do we not make this a focus within our church’s teachings. Could you imagine how different the family unit, the home, the church, the community, the world would look if it was full of women with nobel character? I don’t think we would be able to recognize it. It would be incredible! Don’t you think?!

I pose to you these questions, why is it so rare to find a woman who is of nobel character? What holds us back from achieving this quality? Is it our lack of relationship with Christ? Is it the way we are raised? Is it that, even though God values women more than people do rubies, society doesn’t value women enough to raise them in such a way so that they understand the value they can have? Is there another possible reason? I would love to hear your theory on why we do not raise our girls to be women of, biblically defined, nobel character.

Through the process of learning what it takes to be a woman of Proverbs 31 it seems our “value” should go up. As we get closer to becoming the woman as defined in Proverbs 31, according to verse 10, it makes sense that we will become more valuable, to the people in our lives, mainly our husband, children, and family, as our value in God’s eyes is static; that cannot waiver, no matter what we do or how far we get from him. He loves us with unconditional love, but what this process will do, I believe, will warm his heart, just like a proud parent who has realized how proud they are of who their child has become. To the world we will see our value rise, but when it comes to God we know that his smile is getting bigger because he is so proud of the woman/ mother/ sister/ daughter/ aunt/ grand mother/ great-grandmother that we are becoming.

Blessings to you, always.