After Darkness, Light
We attended Ligonier's national conference this past weekend. It was surprisingly the first conference I'd ever been to. I have a confession to make about it, though. The weeks leading up to the conference held a good bit of indifference on my part. I was excited to see my friends and travel, but not too interested in the actual conferencing part. I didn't know anything about it, and in my ignorance, I just assumed it would be kind of…blah.
I know, shame on me. I'm not even sure where those thoughts came from. My first thoughts upon entering the building were ones of awe and admiration at how freaking big everything was. The total of attendees was the total of people who live in my town. It was like a small city. It was run efficiently and everyone knew what to do. I was impressed.
Once the sessions started and I actually listened to what they were saying, I got really into it, and realized that the opportunity to sit under godly, passionate men was huge. The speakers were hardcore. They spoke the truth of God and His word unapologetically. They spoke with conviction, and they spoke in a way that gave clarity to often times difficult situations. A lot of the weekend was spent with an overwhelming sense of gratitude, wonder, and conviction. Gratitude for God's word, wonder at His holiness and greatness, and conviction of man's complete lowliness, frailty and total dependence on the Lord. We need to be reminded of that. God is a KING. We are His servants. So often we try to make the difference between us and God smaller, and we fail to remember that we are not on the same level. He is perfect, and we are sinners. He has never failed at anything, and we fail daily. The list goes on.
Those three days of learning and worshipping were some of the greatest of my life, and I was sad when they were over. I wanted to sit and listen to words of wisdom for the rest of my life. When you're sitting in a room of 4,000 other Christians and someone is feeding you the gospel, every trial seems petty and every problem dissolves. You sit there thinking, "This is what matters. This learning about God and basking in His holiness. This is what I want to do with my life." It's a wonderful moment and a wonderful feeling.
But. You have to get up, and leave, and live life. And this, my friends, is the hard part - application. We can listen to people talk about God all day every day, but we have to APPLY what we learn. We have to remember those words that convicted us and keep being convicted. We have to pray that God will work in us not just sometimes, but all the time; that He will soften our hearts not just sometimes, but all the time. Worship shouldn't just be for Sundays and conferences. Neither should conviction, repentance, or the desire to honor God. These should be things we do every day.
Life gets so ridiculously hard and painful sometimes. You just want to buy a one way ticket and escape the struggles. (Or is that just me?) But there is grace and a God who works all things for good to those who love Him. I don't think running away is the answer. I think looking at our problems in the light of eternity is. Because after darkness, there is light.
I know, shame on me. I'm not even sure where those thoughts came from. My first thoughts upon entering the building were ones of awe and admiration at how freaking big everything was. The total of attendees was the total of people who live in my town. It was like a small city. It was run efficiently and everyone knew what to do. I was impressed.
Once the sessions started and I actually listened to what they were saying, I got really into it, and realized that the opportunity to sit under godly, passionate men was huge. The speakers were hardcore. They spoke the truth of God and His word unapologetically. They spoke with conviction, and they spoke in a way that gave clarity to often times difficult situations. A lot of the weekend was spent with an overwhelming sense of gratitude, wonder, and conviction. Gratitude for God's word, wonder at His holiness and greatness, and conviction of man's complete lowliness, frailty and total dependence on the Lord. We need to be reminded of that. God is a KING. We are His servants. So often we try to make the difference between us and God smaller, and we fail to remember that we are not on the same level. He is perfect, and we are sinners. He has never failed at anything, and we fail daily. The list goes on.
Those three days of learning and worshipping were some of the greatest of my life, and I was sad when they were over. I wanted to sit and listen to words of wisdom for the rest of my life. When you're sitting in a room of 4,000 other Christians and someone is feeding you the gospel, every trial seems petty and every problem dissolves. You sit there thinking, "This is what matters. This learning about God and basking in His holiness. This is what I want to do with my life." It's a wonderful moment and a wonderful feeling.
But. You have to get up, and leave, and live life. And this, my friends, is the hard part - application. We can listen to people talk about God all day every day, but we have to APPLY what we learn. We have to remember those words that convicted us and keep being convicted. We have to pray that God will work in us not just sometimes, but all the time; that He will soften our hearts not just sometimes, but all the time. Worship shouldn't just be for Sundays and conferences. Neither should conviction, repentance, or the desire to honor God. These should be things we do every day.
Life gets so ridiculously hard and painful sometimes. You just want to buy a one way ticket and escape the struggles. (Or is that just me?) But there is grace and a God who works all things for good to those who love Him. I don't think running away is the answer. I think looking at our problems in the light of eternity is. Because after darkness, there is light.
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<3 Em