Author: Scott Strand

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Becoming Who God Wants Me To Be (pt 1)

I am who I am becoming. No this is not some philosophical, pie in the sky statement, it is an idea taken from the Apostle Paul in his writings to the church in Corinth:

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
2 Corinthians 5:17 The Message

As a new creation I already am who I am, the goal now is to do the work of stripping away the old and letting the new shine forth.

I will admit that it is easy to strip away some of the old, those things that stare you in the face and you know are not honoring to our newly created life. I sometimes talk about this using an onion as my illustration. Take an onion and around the outside is the dried, papery layer that easily falls away. As you move in the layers of the onion become harder and harder to separate. As new creations we are able to put away some of our old habits that are not needed or wanted in our new life. These things are the outer layers of the onion. But then we get into the tough stuff. Those habits, actions, sins that we try to keep “hidden” in our new life. These aren’t as easily reomoved. Let me make a point here, God can and at times does remove these hard, hidden things, but I believe that going thought this transformation process is what gives us the Godly character and wisdom that the world needs to not only hear from us but see lived out in our life.

For me this has not been an overnight, a ha moment. I have been a Christ-follower for close to 30 years. I have completed 2 post graduate degrees, a certificate and I am currently working on my Doctor of Ministy degree. Though all these years, through all this education, though all my life experiences this is what I have learned – God wants me to be someone who walks along side others as they do life, listen to their stories, offer advise when asked and help them move one step closer in their relationship with other but more importantly in their relationship with God.

This is getting a little long so tomorrow I will share with you how it is I got to the point where I could make the above statement with confidence and clarity. The question I leave you with today is “Who does God want you to become?”

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Distractions

There are a number of Bible books that I keep coming back to – they just seem to resonate with me. One of these books was written by the prophet Haggai. In this short two chapter book, we drop in on the Isrealites who have lost their focus, they have become distracted. I know I have written about Haggai in the past, but what I want to focus on today is the idea of distractions. I am coming off a five day staycation. We were going to travel, but ended up staying home. I had great plans of spending a couple of days reading and pondering and then spending some time doing things with my wife. Unfortunately I lost my focus almost immediately.

Bathroom redo, new rotors on the car, roof vents, extra shift running a camera at church – don’t get me wrong these were all good things, but they became distractions for me when what I wanted/needed was some time alone with God. I got that in the mornings, but as I thought about what needed to get done I would run to Ikea or Menards, I would Google how to replace a rotor(not really that hard), and sometimes I would just let my mind wander- it goes to a lot of interesting places. This all added to an interesting sermon prep as I was living out what Haggai was warning the remnant about. It was as if Haggai was speaking to me in a way that it hadn’t in the past.

The question that is forming for my sermon is “What is distracting you from your God given focus – loving God, loving others, making disciples, or making use of your spiritual gifts?” Haggai wasn’t condeming the people for living their life, rather he was talking to them because they seemed to have forgotten God in the process.

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Knowing That God Is In It

I don’t know why, but I am often surprised by how God is at work orchestrating things so that I am able to use the gifts and newly formed passions that He has stirred in my heart. Let me explain.

For the last 4 years or so I have been spending my Wednesday night being locked up in Lino Lakes state prison, working with a group of offenders who have finished or are just finishing their 18 month long IFI program. I work with the me n to help them understand their core beliefs and values and encourage them to live them out in specific ways. This is a ministry that energizes me. In June I was asked if I could switch to Monday nights as the IFI staff was going to me doing some different things on Wednesday with the men. I didn’t mind the switch, but I didn’t know why we had to move. The question “why” was rolling around in my head. Some times God has us do thing where He knows the “why” but we are just to follow.

Jumping ahead a couple weeks now, I have decided to become part of our HopeLink ministry team at my church. This is a ministry where you come along side an individual to help them through a tough time in their life. This is the type of ministry the God has been stirring in my heart for a while now. To wrap this rambling up, I applied for and was accept into the training program for this ministry. So how do I know God was in this, training starts in September on Wednesday nights. If the IFI program hadn’t shifted, if I hadn’t agreed to switch come September I would have had to made a choice between IFI and HopeLink. But due to, I believe, God’s timing I am able to do both.

So do you have a story of where you know that God is in it? Have you been inconvenienced or asked to change something and you’re not quite sure why? Maybe God has something new and exciting for you to try or do. Be open, be listening, Be willing.