It's Just Not For Me

 

 When I was pregnant with our first kid, I took up Antenatal Aquarobics (aerobics in a swimming pool for pregnant women) - now leaving aside the fact that I can't actually swim, (turns out, you don't need to for this particular exercise class) and everyone in the class was exceptionally pregnant - the class was full of  Keen-o's. For those who have never attend such a class, it involved us all basically fighting for our lives at one end of the pool for an hour to music - a pool noodle became involved at one point and am still not sure it should have been. Anyway, at the end of the hour of splashing about like beached whales, (the subsequent current that we collectively created actually knocked me off my feet more than once and left me floating away down the pool and then fighting my way back to the group for most of the session) I hauled myself out of the water, whereby the Keen-o's then turned to me and said, "Oh, we're just going to stay in the pool and have a swim for a bit longer, do you want to join us?". I was so hot I couldn't tell if I was wet from the pool or that it was, in fact, me melting in my costume, I was more out of breath than I'd been in my entire life and every muscle in my body ached. "No!" I said in utter disbelief, "I'm going for a Mars Bar in the changing rooms thanks" and waddled off to find my locker. 

Antenatal Aquarobics...it's just not for me.

Now, it might seem like a  while ago now but way back when we started the Two Soups Challenge, I promised that if you gave it a whirl and didn't get anything out of it then we could go our separate ways on this topic...remember that? And I stand by it. If you've genuinely done some hospitality in some form over the last few months and you honestly don't think God has used you to teach others or taught you something through it then, ok. But let me tell you what I often get told in response to my challenge to do hospitality...

9 times out of 10 someone will say this...

"It's just not for me"

My response to this sentence varies (usually depending on how well my day is going!) but I often have a small chuckle to myself inside when it is uttered because 

IT'S JUST NOT FOR ME EITHER!!!!!!

Very much like Antenatal Aquarobics, the gym and salad at Christmas left to my own choice, this whole thing is not my cup of tea. And it's taken me a long time to think of a response to someone when they say this to me...until now, so here we go...

I absolutely hear ya! It's not for me either. 

But you know what else isn't for me? 

Salvation. 

Following Jesus. 

Acknowledging that God is in charge and I don't know what I'm doing. 

Surrendering control of my life to someone else.

Reading my bible every day.

Praying.

Trusting that God knows what He's doing when things, to be frank, look like a car crash.

Wanting what God want's.

Telling my friends about Jesus.

All these things, all of them, in all honesty are just not for me. They are not NATURALLY for me. Given the choice I would always choose to not do these things, or believe these things, or want these things. And yet here I am. Saved, following Jesus, trusting that God knows what He's doing, reading my bible, praying, wanting God's plans, and even trying to evangelise. (All with different levels of success I might add...)

The Christian life is one long list of things that naturally just aren't our thing. It begins with us not wanting Jesus to save us and carries on with us battling to make that the priority.

And the bible completely understands that...

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

Romans also tells us that there is no-one who seeks God, the truth is that our faith has nothing to do with us, He sought us. He reached down and saved us. Salvation itself wasn't really our thing...until, by God's grace it was.

God gives us what we need. We needed rescuing and He rescued. We needed help day by day to follow Him, and he sent the Holy Spirit. Whenever God calls us to do something He never expects us to do it ourselves. He always, ALWAYS, equips us with what we need to do it. Sometimes He does it for us, like on the cross, sometimes He gives us the tools needed even though we don't think He has, like when we open our bibles.

If God is asking us to do something we are not alone in doing it. He is committed to us getting it done even when we don't want to do it. Especially when we don't want to do it. Our reluctance is not a problem to Him. Our fear is no barrier. Our hesitancy does not slow His pace.

God's has already de-railed your plans for life by saving you. You are already doing many, many things every day as His child that you naturally, don't want to do - and I bet, a lot of them are no longer done reluctantly but joyfully and willingly by now. Your life was never your own, if you're a Christian, that fact is only confirmed by the sheer truth that you were dead and now you aren't. And dead men don't resurrect themselves, someone else had to do that. You are already so far from what you naturally were you are unrecognisable. This life you live is nothing like what you planned. You planned on staying dead. We can all agree that God's plan was better.

If hospitality's not your thing...I hear ya...

But once upon a time salvation wasn't either...