Dear Introverted friends,
I need your help.
I need some ideas of how to have fun. My idea of a good time is having lots of people over for a game night, or playing soccer with twelve other people, or putting on a play, or playing Murder Charades, or choreographing a dance routine...
And what does this all have to do with anything? It all involves people. Lots of people...or a place to be loud and crazy without annoying the neighbors which is also hard to come by. So what do I do when I'm alone, need some time to unwind and not think about really deep things, without having to organize a party or travel to a far away place?
Reading before bed has given me nightmares...perhaps I need a new kind of book? TV puts me to sleep. I can't sew or knit.
What do I do?
Signed,
A desperate extrovert
The Tragic Lie in Ministry
There are moments...
when I have driven my 30th lap around Westwood, searching for one all-day parking spot on the right side of the street, or when I've got $30 left in my bank account and am seriously contemplating if I should buy food and gas or sarcastically wait in my room all week doing nothing until I get paid again, or when I've worked 20 hours in the lab and 40 hours doing work for Intervarsity in one week, or when I've finished my tenth phone call of the night feeling stupid and like I stumbled over all my words....yes, there are moments when I am tempted to believe one of the greatest lies of the enemy...
That God is out to get me. I am tempted to believe that He's got some vicious plan to make me "take up my cross" and "refine me in the fire" to the point that there is no more Kelly left and only one sharp, perfect tool for ministry.
BUT. The great tragedy, is that that couldn't be further from the truth. No, it is not that God is using me for ministry. He is using ministry for me. He's using it to bring to the surface all of my distrust and unbelief so that He can cut it all out...completely. He's using it to wipe out all of those things that I rely on and depend on for false security, in order that I can know the one and only person who is, in fact, safe. And I couldn't be more grateful.
I mustn't ever lose sight of this truth.
when I have driven my 30th lap around Westwood, searching for one all-day parking spot on the right side of the street, or when I've got $30 left in my bank account and am seriously contemplating if I should buy food and gas or sarcastically wait in my room all week doing nothing until I get paid again, or when I've worked 20 hours in the lab and 40 hours doing work for Intervarsity in one week, or when I've finished my tenth phone call of the night feeling stupid and like I stumbled over all my words....yes, there are moments when I am tempted to believe one of the greatest lies of the enemy...
That God is out to get me. I am tempted to believe that He's got some vicious plan to make me "take up my cross" and "refine me in the fire" to the point that there is no more Kelly left and only one sharp, perfect tool for ministry.
BUT. The great tragedy, is that that couldn't be further from the truth. No, it is not that God is using me for ministry. He is using ministry for me. He's using it to bring to the surface all of my distrust and unbelief so that He can cut it all out...completely. He's using it to wipe out all of those things that I rely on and depend on for false security, in order that I can know the one and only person who is, in fact, safe. And I couldn't be more grateful.
I mustn't ever lose sight of this truth.
