preach it piper

My friend Abbie sent me something this morning from John Piper that totally hit the nail on the head for me...

Jesus Christ is refreshing, but flight from him into Christless leisure makes the soul parched. At first it may feel like freedom and fun to skimp on prayer, and neglect the Word. But then we pay: shallowness, powerlessness, vulnerability to sin, preoccupation with trifles, superficial relationships, and a frightening loss of interest in worship and the things of the Spirit.

Not only can I totally identify with this but I am also really scared by it. Scared by how easily I let it happen knowing full well what the outcome would be. Disappointed in myself for falling for the lie that it wouldn't happen or that I could fight it or that it would be no big deal. One of the lessons I am learning here is that my job is to pour into and serve others. To pour into some of these girls who are fighting to keep faith the priority in their lives, and who are struggling against a culture of "church" where the word "relevance" isn't even on the radar. I want to encourage them to persevere, to keep fighting the good fight, to press on towards the goal of knowing Christ and making him known. I also want to pour into the girls I know who are not interested in God in the slightest. Girls who are looking at everything in the world to make them happy and slowly finding every option meaningless. To be their friend, to love them the way God loves them and to know that my own value lies in Christ.

But NONE of that is possible unless God gives it to me. I cannot pour out something that hasn't first been poured into me. i cannot love with the love of God unless I have experienced it myself. I cannot encourage others to live a life I cannot live myself. I cannot preach something I am not willing to practice myself. My summer of "Christless leisure" is making my job more difficult here but the beauty is that I see it and that God has offered to walk me through the drought and back into a refreshment that is found in Christ alone. I can do nothing apart from God who is the SOURCE of all comfort, strength, forgiveness, blessing, mercy and love. All my efforts to do things in my own strength are bound to fail.