So movies confuse me...

So I was recently watching the movie P.S. I Love You. And its a touching movie (if you don't wanna cry, steer clear cause yeah...tear-jerker). I love it primarily because I am a girl and Gerard Butler is in it. In the movie, Holly loses her husband of 10 years, Gerry. (Gerard Butler...*sigh*). It devastates her. She is a mess. Then letters begin to come in the mail from Gerry. He tells her various things to do to move on. One of those things is to go to Ireland! Exciting I know! She gets there, its beauitful and she goes out for a night on the town. She meets a somewhat sutdly Irishman named Billy and they hit it off. And when I say hit it off, I mean they sleep together. I hated it. It flew in the face of the point of the movie. She is trying to heal after her husband's death and she complicates it with a sexual relationship. Personally I was rooting for Daniel, the other male love interest in the movie. Daniel works as a bartender for Holly's Mom. He is a bit blunt and crude but he cares for Holly. He asks her to go out for food and something (and yes it might have been soon. ) But She says that a date is too soon then ends up in bed with a man she just met. It is a contradiction. And so it got me thinking. We view emotional and physical as two seperate things. But they are rather connected. These days we validate what is right on our emotions. Society has taught us this. "Do what you feel! It will all work out!" The contrary is true. If we are to survive life, we need to guide our emotions not let them guide us. And the only person who can do that is God, Its Jesus. He made us! I hate to be cheesy but he did! He knows us more than anyone even ourselves. His wisdom will help us make decisions based on solid foundations not on flimsy emotions.

When God is your matchmaker?

My last post dealt with letting God have control over your life. I mentioned dating but I didn't exactly go in too deep. I will attempt to do that here. What exactly does it mean to have God control your love life. First I wanted to deal with a viewpoint I noticed a bit in the Christian arena of dating. We actually do say we want God to have control of our love lives. But it seems to go as far as "I need to date a Godly guy or girl." And so we look for people who tout themselves as A christian but thats where the standards seem to end. But what if God asked you to stay single for a bit? What if that was his plan for you? Would you obey God's will then? See thats where it gets difficult. We want God to find our match for us but we don't want to be involved in the whole business of being single. And I know its hard. I know how it feels to long in the depths of your soul for that one person. But I think we really overlook how valuable being single is. It is a blessing. It is not a waiting period, likened to a doctors office, waiting to be fixed by another person. It is a treasured time to be free, and to be molded by God.

We are all Control Freaks.

I will start today's blog with a verse. Now it is from the message but bear with me. It communicates the message.

First pay attention to me, and then relax. Now you can take it easy--you're in good hands.-Proverbs 1:33 MSG

It really cannot get much simpler. Pay attention to what God is saying and then chill out. But I am sure that you as well as I struggle with that. We do not want to relinquish control. We want God to be a spot God, where we only want him in our lives when we are in a tough spot. But God wants to be so much more to us. He wants to be our all, the one we lean on. Because the fact is, you show love to someone when you rely on them. You are saying "I trust you." But so often we put our trust in other things and other people. We put our trust in our own abilities or in our significant other. Then when God wants to step in, we hold up a hand and say "I got this." Then a moment comes where we do not have it down. And we wonder how we got to this hard spot. We cry out to God to save us. But things would have been so much easier if we had trusted him all along! And don't misunderstand, God is not a control freak. He doesn't want control for the sake of control. He wants to guide us because he loves us and hates to see us fall. Picture it like this, A father is teaching his child to ride a bike. He helps them onto the bike and starts to push, holding on to the bike so the child can balance. But the child pushes him away. "I can do it on my own daddy." The child says. And the father reluctantly pulls away. Then he watches as the child rides for a bit but then falls hard onto the ground. As he runs to help his child, his baby up, the child exclaims "Why didn't you hold me?". Thats what we are like when we push God out of the picture. I have found we want God out of the picture in the part of the lives where we need him most: dating. But more on that in my next post. The bottom line is, God is waiting to guide us. He is the one who orchestrated this life and loves us so much. If we let him have control, he will guide us into exactly where we need to be.