Honestly...

"When you see the best in me, it's mostly God."

When I deflect a praise from me towards God, I don't know if I really mean to give God credit, or if I just want it to seem that way so I can receive more praise. It's a vicious cycle, really. I mean, even if a small part of me enjoys the praise, does that mean that God doesn't get it all? But then, how do you not enjoy receiving praise every once in a while? Not that receiving praise is necessarily a bad thing...maybe I just don't know how to respond to it. But, unfortunately, I think it's habit a lot of times or maybe just what I think I should say when I reply, "It's not me, it's all GOD."

Is the first step admitting this? Or accepting this?

If one thing is for certain, I can't deny it.

Have I been genuine? Totally honest and transparent in this whole Christian thing? For the most part, I think that's what God wants. Honesty. Not just with Him, but with those that are on this journey with me. With us.

Why does pretending always seem like the best thing to do? Who are we trying to please? Is it because we don't want to 'hurt our witness'? Or is it that the judgment of others has become our God? Think about it.

It's hard to see an invisible God. That's a pretty common thought, I think. So, what if (somehow) all that we see has sadly become how we see God? In kind of an ironic, twisted way, our sight has limited our faith. The writer in Hebrews says that faith is the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. What if somehow the things we see have destroyed the evidence of faith in our lives? Have we even seen real faith in our lifetime?

I take note of small things a lot of times. My wife would probably tell you differently, but I'm talking about things in church. People are tired a lot of times, I hear it quite often: at church on Sunday morning, at choir practice after Wednesday night service, at Christmas play practices. Someone is always ready to go home. Someone has always had a long day. My question is - Do they think everyone else just sat at home all day, waiting to get off their couch so they could come to church?

This brings me to a harsh conclusion: we're selfish, self-centered creatures. It's ALWAYS got to come back to us somehow. If it didn't, why would I be whining about how hard my day was? And on the other side of that coin: why would I care if people whined about how hard their day was? That selfishness soon leads to 'sharing' with some other church member about how frustrating it is that 'So and So' is always whining about getting home. Is me talking like that about 'So and So' really any better than their whining?

Think about this - How many times do you hear the words 'me' or 'I' at church? Or what about this conversation:

"Hi! How are you today?"

"I'm doing OK."

"Oh...just OK?"

"Well, I've had better days."

Better days? What does that even mean? You live in a country where you're free to get up, put on a $150 outfit, fix your hair up real nice, and come to worship an Almighty God. Why should there need to be a better day than that? ...Because we're selfish. Which leads me to another question:

Why vacation?

Vacations are not a bad thing at all, but I've heard it said on many occasions that 'Everybody needs a vacation...a little time just to get away.' Get away from what? A nice house with running water, electricity, a clean bathroom, and a kitchen full of food? Nobody needs a vacation, we just want vacations. Why do we always feel like we deserve something else? I mean, we get stressed out about our jobs and paying our bills, when there are lots of people that would love to even know what it's like to have to stress about that.

How pampered have we become that we feel like we need to get away from a place that some people only dream about?