Is This What God Wants?

It tis so easy to become ensnared by the trap of preformance. One minute we are enjoying the bliss of a subject, or a task and when we shine, we excell, the dreaded expectiation is concieved. Suddenly what was once a joy, what was sheer ecstacy has became a burden, a yoke upon your shoulders. You feel like shell, opressed by the expectations of the unseen, and the seen. You carry those books, which were once light, like ten ton weights on your back. A task which was exciting is now devoid of enjoyment. Such is the preformance trap.

I'm not saying we shouldn't strive for excellent, or attempt to do our best. However, in midst of excellence is a beast that seeks to sink its teeth into us. This monster takes are value and calculates it by letters A, B, C, D, F. It crunches the numbers, 15k, 20k, 30k, 50k. Suddenly our entire being, who we are is summed up by these numbers, by how we measure up in academics or the job market. Tis sad, for this was not what God meant for us. He created us with two tasks: Procreation and Stewardship. We were to have children, to raise and rear them, to teach them God's Ways, and to take care of our world. Now because of the World's Institutions, because of its System, we must wait a longer duration to have a family, we must wait before we can afford a patch of land. In Biblical times and even in other cultures aside from America, people were married at eleven to twelve years of age. Now we are lucky if we can marry at thirty or forty. 

The standards have been raised so high, that its becoming a burden to facilitate love. Can you imagine? Love has become stressful, rather than blissful. The revenues required to rent or pay mortage, the water and electric bills, the price of gas, all of it is like a link of chains holding us down from ever achieving our dreams. Is this really what God wanted?  I weep, nay I swoon as I watch brillant inviduals tare their hair out, beg, and collapse because they don't measure up. These geniuses, these sivants, these innovaters have ideas that could change everything, but they can't pass the SAT. Too bad for them eh? What has happened? Why is love growing cold? Why instead are people selling their souls for a home, for a grill, and new car? 

At this rate, it tis a wonder how we will survive. Each year the economic defecit grows and we end up having to pay more and more for the same luxeries and pleasentries. What's going to happen when it all crashes? How can we keep living like this? My solace in this mess is Christ, he keeps me sound, he breaths new life into me daily. He reminds me with his strength I can achieve anything, that my dreams are not beyond reach. Its a shame the world is chasing Satan's System, that of position. We were never meant for position, that is a angelic insitution. We were meant for one purpose: love. Why do you think we soar when we wade in waters of Amore? Because its what we were made for! God didn't make us to serve him like the angels, to take positions and preform duties. He wanted a family, a creation he could love and that would love him back.

We've fallen for the trap, we have traded romance for a shiny cap. We are under a trance, like the song by RED, we continue to "feed the machine." To waste our days chasing after empty things, seeking vain idolatries. We ignore the voice, that cries within, that says its ok, "I've forgiven you sin." Stop tilling a barren field, stop measuring your worth by this world. We are each unique and beautifully made, yet we are told if we don't look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, if we aren't a brillant as Mark Twain and Plato, if we can't sing like Celine or play a musical number like Mozart, that we arn't exceptional. Well I say we are! We are all exceptional, it is the devil that wants you to believe you are lowly, lacking, and worthless. He is the cruel judge, the critical seraph, the Lord of Lies. Listen to him no more! According to Christ, all who believe are perfect! Without blemish, white as snow, and oh so beautiful! God cares about who you are, not what you can do. He loves you for you, not the numbers you can produce. "He loves you for you, not because what you have done or what you'll become." -JJ Heller :)