Calculate Consciousness

Today I want to speak about something that can never be spoken of enough. I am calling it, calculated consciousness. What is it? Calculated consciousness is taking hold of every opportunity pleasant and UNPLEASANT and using it for the glory of God. You might ask, Rachel why are you shouting the word unpleasant at me? Well that would be because I need to shout it at myself. It is incredibly simple to treat people with a loving spirit when they are kind to you, that is no earth shattering revelation. Therefore it is also not an earth shattering revelation that it is difficult to treat people incredibly kind when they are not kind to you. Well duh. Yeah that’s a no brainer.

The part of this that is an earth shattering revelation, at least to me, is remembering that God places every circumstance, person, frustration, joy, disappointment, and opportunity by hand into our lives. I think we forget that God has EVERY single details of our lives hand picked, for a reason. Did the wind blow west at 3.2 miles per hour today at 2:16? Yep, God wanted it that way. Did you sleep through two alarms and rush out the door late for school? You know that was God’s plan right? Did you decide to say hi to someone you never talk to? Also God’s plan. God is wrapped up in every breath we take, book we read, conversation we have and even now he is purposely allowing every word I type to be exactly what He wants me to say.

Yes Rachel, I know. I know God is wrapped up in my life. I have known that forever. In fact even if you’re reading this and you’re not a Christian you’ve probably still heard that God controls your life. So what is the big deal? The big deal is this, everyday God is working through us. Everyone has that conscience in their mind telling them to say hi to someone or maybe not to say something harsh to someone else. Our conscience and the Holy Spirit guide us through every decision we make. We are always given the choice of whether we are going to respond according to what we want to say or what God would want us to say.

Lately it is becoming so apparent to me that our responses mean so much more in the times that are mediocre and frustrating than the great times. I have experienced different times when I was trying to work with people who have made things difficult for me, whether it’s from a lack of communication or a lack of listening, when these types of people have difficulties in their lives it’s really easy to think, great now my life is going to be even more difficult and give them the cold shoulder or become frustrated, but when you chose to respond with mercy and patience, and pour into that person, you are acting like Christ would and people don’t expect it. It doesn’t always give you the response you were hoping for but it makes a difference. People aren’t treated with patience and kindness a lot and when you treat them differently they notice.

So sometimes as Christians God puts us in a holding period where we are facing things that don’t feel like God’s miraculous plans for our life. I think of the Israelites in the Bible who were placed into slavery for 400 hundred years before Moses led them out of Egypt. 400 years! And this is after God promised to Abraham that he would father a great nation.

“Now the Lord said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you of a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1-2 

Do you think that years and years later this nation, now held as slaves in Egypt felt like a great and blessed nation? Nope! Probably not. I mean would you? God promised all these amazing things to Abraham and I’m sure their were a few faithful Christians in Egypt who were wondering if God picks favorites. Like excuse me God will I ever get to have a blessed nation or… do I just have to be a slave my whole life? I think we think those things a lot today when other Christians we know find great success and we’re just left waiting for the miraculous plans God has for us. I’m going to be real with you though sometimes God needs us to hold the pieces, for a season, or maybe for a long time. Think of how many people over the years have learned how to better follow God because of the Isrealites and their years of hardship. In the end there was a promised land waiting for them, and every struggle they went through has been a help to generations after them who are trying to follow God.

Here’s my point. Sometimes it can feel like we have more “holding the pieces” moments than “miraculous plan” moments, and that can be super discouraging. But there is a promised land and it might not even be here on earth but every Christian gets to see the promised land called heaven. When we consciously live these “holding the pieces” moments in a way that glorifies God we may very well be in the middle of a 400 year plan for God to restore His people, and hey if I’m even the smallest piece in God’s plan, that’s fine by me!  I hope this helps you remember that God has a big picture this week! I’m always praying that my blog helps someone and if you ever need someone to pray for you please reach out to me! Until Thursday!