Designed to be BIG in Jesus
I’ve been reflecting on Isaiah 61:3 “For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.” He pictures God’s people as a grove of “oak trees.” Why didn’t he say “squash plants” or “mesquite trees”?
My first thought is squash plants and mesquite tress are small and neither provides an accurate picture of our massive potential in Christ. Now this idea of BIGNESS is concerning because all of my evangelical life I have been proud of being small because God is the only one who can be BIG. So I have worked hard at developing a “small mentality” about all things. I have concluded that somehow I am more spiritual if I am small.
Yet just a cursory read through the Bible awakens me to followers of God that are really BIG. I think of people like Moses, Joseph, Esther, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Deborah, etc. Somehow I have gotten it all wrong . . . all backwards. I am designed to be BIG and this bigness is to glorify my Father in heaven. WOW, now that’s a new thought.
Let me offer you a few thoughts about how to identify someone who is NOT BIG.
Someone is not BIG when . . .
- he or she must impress you with his/her bigness.
- he or she is more concerned about being big than being close to God.
- he or she can’t affirm the bigness of others.
- he or she uses power to manipulate and/or control others.
- he or she can’t ask for help.
- he or she can’t receive correction.
I want to BIG and BENEVOLENT like Jesus not a self-centered, power-broker with narcissistic tendencies. Let me know your thoughts about this idea of being BIG.
Paul
posted by Paul Carlisle @ 7:51 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Good thoughts, Dr. Carlisle. Your focus on being 'small' and looking to God for 'bigness' has had great influence in my life the last 8 months or so. And yet, I see what you mean by the oak trees scripture. Actually, I don't think that anything I've learned from you has changed. It's like salvation & sanctification--a process. Though we are small (to some degree), we are constantly striving to be big. And hopefully at times, we are showing positive signs of 'benevolent bigness,' though they might be few & far between. In the stillness and solitude I have been seeking lately, I have become even more abundantly aware of my smallness and the dichotomy of the bigness God wants me to be. Lord, help me be 'big' only in the ways You want me to be!
Hello Fellow Freak,
I am so glad to be back in touch with your reflections on life from yours and God's perspective. I am really seeing the things your blog addresses regarding bigness in our role here on earth. My health is not good, and the position of weakness I am in has created a new clarity on my relationship with Christ. It is easy for me to be trapped by the world's thoughts on "who's who" and man's way of measuring greatness or bigness. The recurrent entrapment is old, and I want to shed the old away and walk into the bigness that Christ has planned for me.
It is a deep sense in my spirit that there is so much more waiting for me than the world has offered or denied to me. I have been weeping deep life-changing tears of late, not the tears of depression or anxiety, tears of reality and knowing God's desire for me. His desire to see me walk in His way is overwhelming my petty desire to be the one to choose what happens next.
I have been so miserable in my body, so resistant to what He is doing that at times I felt like laying down to die. That is what I had to do; lay down and die to the desire to live in my little ways, my little world, created by my little mind, all in the misguided understanding of being humble.
I recently did a refresher on Esther to reinforce the truths of her life in my own. Talk about a BIG role model, she is magnificent! God wrote greatness into her heart as a child. It was never easy for her, she was an orphan, she lived as an alien unidentified with her native people, was chosen for her physical beauty, yet lived so close to the heart of God that she saved the Jewish nation.
Yes, I agree we have a distorted view of who we are to be. How does one grasp and hold onto the vision of BIGNESS? Is it by listening to the gut-wrenching truth of God's word? Is is by rejecting all the values listed in your NOT BIG list that the world has so throughly ingrained into me? How can I embrace Him more?
Mari
Dr. Paul,
I, too, have felt small and unworthy in the presence of the Master. I make myself remember that when we are covered by His blood, His blood is all that can be seen. His blood makes us who He intends us to be. It hides our pre/misconceptions and shows only Him. I don't want him to be perceived as small or less than He is, so I must accept that I am not the one to determine my worth. To quote a favorite Rich Mullins' song, "the world just seems so big and my faith just seems so small". Grief and fear and bone jarring stress have become so large lately that the vision of the cross has diminished in my sight. I have to work at seeing all BEHIND the cross, not in front of it. Keep reminding us that God has a vision of us that is more than we can imagine. Be strong and of good courage...
Louan
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