'The Me I Want To Be' - part two


Continuing with my blog about the book 'The Me I Want To Be' by John Ortberg, I have reached the end of part two 'Flowing With The Spirit'. These are my thoughts and reflections as I have read this second section of the book. If you want to read the first part and start with me on this journey from the begining, please have a look for 'part one' in my blog archive. How about subscribing or 'following' my blog so that you don't miss future installments?

Part Two - Flowing With The Spirit

The key to happiness and fulfilment is staying connected to God (not the gaining or money, prestige or celebrity, not succeeding at an achievement or the gaining of fame). This simple, yet powerful concept underpins this second part of the book. For me to fully become the me I want to be, the me God created me to be, all I need to do is to stay connected to him. This will give me ultimate fulfilment, satisfaction and happiness - everything else in life will fall into place from there.

I realise I have mistaken other people's 'formulas' and have not had much joy or success in trying to copy them and the way they live their lives and relate to God. These are some areas I have found to be different from those of others who seem to be more 'successful' in these areas:
  •  How they study the Bible and have 'quite times'
  •  The times of day and duration of prayers (mine are usually quite short)
  •  How often they practise the guitar (I tend to only have enough time to practise at band practise on a Thursday in praparation for the service - that's all!)
  •  How some can memorise worship songs so they don't need a music stand when they lead at church (my memory is appauling - so I use chord charts and a music stand a lot)
I also admit that I have learnt to 'fake it' quite a lot of the time and as I continue to be inauthentic I also start to loose the will and desire to continue (eg. making time for prayer, reading the Bible etc).

It is a great relief to learn that, just I have been saved by grace, there is grace for me to become who God has made me to be! It's not my job through self effort to bridge the gap between the me I am right now and the me God's made me to be. The Holy Spirit will empower me and guide me - all I have to do is to stay connected to Him.

How?

In order to stay connected to the flow of the Spirit I realise I need to have the flow of the spirit continually running through me. I'm often jolted out of the flow. Reading this book has helped me to recognise when this is happening in real-time and therefore I am able to get back on track more quickly.

For example: yesterday as we were setting up for church, I was jolted out of the flow of the Spirit in my life as I allowed myself to get angry and frustrated. However, I was able to recognise this as something that was separating me from the flow of the Spirit in my life. So I was able to go into the store cupboard, quiet myself down, say a quick prayer and regain peace within me.

I'm still discovering how I grow, not as a copy of someone else's spiritual journey. It is great to learn that what works for someone else may not necessarily work for me - this is freeing stuff!

Ortberg puts it in a great way: "The Bible does not say you are God's appliance, it says you are his masterpiece. Appliances get mass-produced. Masterpieces get hand-crafted".

These are some of the things that make me feel alive:
  •  singing
  •  recording
  •  writing songs
  •  looking at art
  •  gardening
  •  watching a good movie
  •  drinking coffee with friends
  •  building and updating websites
  •  generating ideas
  •  planning events
I realise there are a lot of other areas, such as my learning style and my temperament that I need to discover.

The Key

The Key to flowing with the Spirit and continue doing so is staying connected to God. How do we do this? Surrender!

Surrender is the key to keeping in step with the Spirit. This causes me to pause and consider the important question: Am I fully surrendered to Jesus? I guess truthfully, the answer is: No, I'm not! I know there are areas of my thought life; the words I speak about others at work; my temper when leading 'difficult' people; and the control over my finances that are not totally and completely 100% surrendered to Jesus - and these are just the areas I thought of in 5 minutes! I find having this divided heart makes me miserable and I really do want to change, to live a life fully surrendered to Christ. To become the me God made me to be - the me I want to be!

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" Galatians 2:20

Surrender can be uncomfortable - disclosing some of these things here is uncomfortable for me to do - but I'm surrendering and moving closer to God as I do so.

Try Softer

This is a great concept from Ortberg! It is very libetaring and freeing if we (if I) get hold of it completely! (read the book to get the full picture!)

Another way of putting this idea is: let go and let God. In other words, stop trying with your self effort to achieve something in your own strength, relax and let God do His work as you surrender to His will.

Trying harder focuses on my self-effort (which I am very good at doing!). Trying softer focuses more on God's goodness and His abilities working in and through me. I must not push the river of the flow of the Spirit - I must just be open, be obedient and allow it to flow - ahhhh yes! That's better . . . . come and flow Lord . . . . I let go and let you in . . . . I surrender!


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