Steve-ism number 1

You may be asking yourself, “What is a Steve-ism?”  A Steve-ism is simply a thought on life that my brain has found to contain truth.  You may not agree with every Steve-ism.  If that is the case then you should develop your own (insert your name here)-ism.  Enjoy.

STEVE-ISM #1:  PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY WANT TO DO.

Yes, I truly believe that people will always end up doing what they want to do.  This hypothesis has only come after lots of self-reflection and observation of human behavior.  Since ole’ Adam and Eve messed up way back in Genesis 3, humanity has been infected with the disease known as selfishness.  (By the way, Genesis 3 is on page 3 of my pocket Bible.  Seriously, couldn’t humanity go a little longer without jacking up God’s plan?)

Let’s look at a simple scenario that might put some meat on the bones of this Steve-ism.

Say one night you want to go out for dinner.  You jump in your car after making that decision and head towards town.  You are by yourself so you think, “What do I want to eat?”  The entire thought process is about you and your desires.  You ultimately decide that you want to eat Taco Bell and you go get it.  This is a basic example of somebody doing what they want to do.

I can hear the skeptics now, so let’s modify the scenario.  One night you and your significant other decide to go out for dinner.  You both jump in the car after making that decision and head towards town.  After looking at all the options, you declare, “I want Taco Bell.  That sounds good.”  Your significant other responds, “No, not really.  I really want Wendy’s.”  You being the perfect significant other decide to selflessly eat at Wendy’s for the evening.  Before you think I already proved my own theory wrong, let me explain.  You did want to go to Taco Bell.  However, you wanted to make that person happy MORE than you wanted to go to Taco Bell.  You still did what you ultimately wanted to do the most.  That is an example where pleasing people is what you want to do over your own selfish desires.

One more scenario:  A teenage guy gets interrupted by his parents during his nightly four hour conversation with the girlfriend.  The parents angrily threat grounding him from the phone, Ipod, car, computer, tv, and breathing if he doesn’t immediately hang up the phone and clean his room.  He drudgingly gets off the phone and cleans his room.  He obviously would rather want to stay on the phone with his girlfriend.  His girlfriend would rather he stay on the phone.  His parents want him to get off the phone.  However, this rebellious punk obviously wasn’t motivated to do what his parents wanted simply because his parents wanted him to do it.  His motivation to do what he did was to stay out of trouble.  So what he ultimately wanted was to stay out of trouble more than his desire to do what he wanted or more than his desire to please somebody his girlfriend.  Still another example of somebody ultimately doing what he wanted to do.

The cool thing is that as we grow in our relationship with God, God begins to change us.  His desires and what He wants starts to become our desires and our wants.  Through being transformed and renewing our minds (Romans 12:2), we start to slowly value, cherish, and desire what God wants more than what we want.  Talk about a life change!  That is good stuff.

There you go – Steve-ism #1.  People do what they want to do.

Chew on that a while.  Tell me what you think.  I can handle it.

Are You Listening?

I was reading Exodus 3 & 4 earlier this week.  This is where Moses encounters the burning bush.  For the longest time I have been intrigued by this moment.  It has gone way beyond an entertaining VBS story in my life.  It amazes me.  It baffles me.

To be honest, I have struggled with this chunk of God’s Word – not with its reliability but with my personal encounters with God.  For the longest time I would read this and get frustrated because I wanted God to communicate to me like that.  I even prayed for it – to hear the audible voice of God.  I wanted so bad to wake up one morning, stumble out of bed, and find a burning bush on my way to the bathroom where God would audible tell me what to do with my life and give me specific instructions.  Have you ever wanted this?

As I have grown and matured more in my faith, I understand more why God did not answer my prayers.  Do I believe it is possible?  Absolutely, with God all things are possible.  However, I believe God was calling me to have more faith and broaden my horizon of how I listened to Him.

I learned during that process that God does communicate to you and me on a consistent basis (probably more than we can ever realize).  I have learned to listen better.  I have learned that there are many “burning bushes” – instruments of God’s voice – in my life.  Here are four ways that I now listen to God’s voice:

• Through people – I hear God’s voice through mentors who I trust, through close friends who know me and love me, through the teens I work with, and even through strangers.  Some of you reading this right now have probably been used by God to speak a God-given, truth-filled word to me. 
• Through doors opening & closing – God often communicates to us through Him opening and closing specific doors in my life.  I know God has called me to be the youth minister in Fairfield.  One of the reasons I know that is because He opened a door for me to do that.  God has not called me to be the starting right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers because He has not opened that door in my life.
• Through God’s Word- In my season of praying and being frustrated with not hearing God’s voice, I had a light-bulb moment where I finally understood that the book that too often sat on my bookshelf collecting dust had God-breathed words for me.  The Bible is one major way God communicates to us today.  It is not some old history book, but a divine book that gives light and speaks truth.
• Through peace- I hear God’s voice through feeling peace – especially during times when I should not feel peace.  It is like He is gently whispering, “thata boy!”

How about you?  How do you listen to God’s voice?  What are the “burning bushes” in your life right now?  I would love to hear how you translate the voice of God in your life because I know I can learn from you.  Finally, if you are struggling right now – like I did and like so many others do – with not hearing God’s voice in your life, do not be discouraged.  He is there.  Maybe the problem is not that God is not talking, but maybe we are not really listening…