Expectations from Man

Fair warning, this blog may be a little bit rambling, but I just wanna write about what I've been thinking about lately.

My small group is one amazing group of some amazing girls.  Most of them I just met last September, but we get real with each other every Tuesday night.

Something that's come up lately is the way we live our lives versus the way the world expects us to live our lives.  This is stemming from the book we're reading and the series at our church.  The world expects you to live in a performance based society.  Performance, accomplishments, and material success are what should drive you.  Character, relationships with the Lord, your morals = not important.  Or at least according to the world.

Success according to the world is lots of money, power in the workplace, and lots of materialistic things.  That's a lot of expectation from others.

Success to God is none of those things.  As John Maxwell says, it's:

-Knowing God and His purpose for our lives
-Growing to reach our maximum potential
-Sowing seeds that benefit others

I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure that if I suddenly started making millions a year and had a ridiculously nice house and car, I would hate myself.  Yeah, it'd be nice to pay off my student loans and not have to worry about money.  But I KNOW I would become consumed with money and nice things.  And that's not to say it's not okay to want nice things or have nice things- I think that's fine.  It's not okay to allow them to become idols in your life.

I was listening to a NewSpring sermon on Wednesday morning, and Perry Noble said something along these lines...We cannot live up to the expectations of man- not even Jesus will live up to that.  We need to respond to the convictions of God.

I think God's been working in my heart over the past month to really hone in on that and to be able hear the convictions of God.

A few weeks ago, I found out I was a finalist for teacher of the year at my school.  Listen, I am NOT bragging about this.  I have some personal issues with this recognition that need their own post.  I had to answer some essay questions and then get observed (by a crap ton of people that stressed me out).

I found out Friday I didn't win.  However, I am 100% okay with that.  I promise.  And I'm not just saying this because I didn't win- I've had this conversation with my mom and several friends before the winner was announced.

Because here's the thing.

When I am 80 years old, I will absolutely not regret that I did not win teacher of the year.  It is not a big deal to me.  It doesn't define me.

What I will regret, however, is not serving the Lord to the fullest.  I will regret it if I don't love my students, my friends, my family, and other people the way Jesus loved others.  I will regret it if I am not a compassionate person who ignores the pain and suffering of others.

I cannot imagine looking back on my life and being okay with a life like that.  I'm not okay with it now.  Last week, my group talked about how when you're living in Christ, you absolutely cannot ignore the problems of this world and the hurt and the pain of the people in the world.  You can't not care.

DO YOU KNOW HOW OFTEN I WISH I COULD TURN OFF MY HEART?  Like, not make it stop working, but make it stop caring?

All. The. Time.

It is physically impossible for me to not care about injustice in this world and the hurting of others.  I don't do a good job of showing that, though.  That's where these convictions are coming in.  They are loud and clear, and I cannot ignore them.

I'm listening, Lord.



**Well, it took me a good week to finish this post.  I don't know if it makes a lot of sense, but thank you if you stuck with it.