“The parent, the pastor, the Christian, (the photographer) who is always available won’t be available long. Sometimes we have to say no to good things to pursue greater things.” -John Pokluda
“Find what stirs your affections for God…and do more of that.”
“To go fast, you have to slow down.”
Oh, what a weekend. We stood, maybe 2500 of us, singing in unison the praises of our Holy God. It was a taste of heaven…and I never wanted to leave. I wanted to remain. To stay. To linger.
This last weekend I attended the Linger Conference, a weekend marked with the vision and purpose of imparting the fundamental importance of remaining or “Lingering” in the presence of God. The hope was to spark a hunger for the presence of God and a lifelong pursuit of beholding His Glory. I had heard about the conference from a friend several months ago and decided with a break in my wedding season, I was going to take advantage of the opportunity. Little did I realize though, how much God would use the weekend to refocus my energy. I desperately needed some refocusing too because you see… I suffer from something I lovingly like to call ‘Be the Best Syndrome.’ A desperate need to always be improving yourself and therefore what you do so that you feel value. It’s a nasty syndrome and one that only ends in a bottomless pit of exhaustion because you see it’s a futile attempt. Our value when we get it from anything but God is worthless. One of my favorite song lyrics is from Watermark’s ‘Knees to the Earth,‘ when it says, ‘Jesus, you are my only worth.’ When I first heard it, it struck me as kind of rude, cold-hearted and hurtful. After taking it in though, I realized just how beautiful it is. You see, if Jesus is our only worth, we are worth more than anything in the world. The key is that it only comes from Him and it is nothing that we can do or accomplish that gets us there. No matter what you do for a living, the temptation in our culture is to work to give yourself value. Compete. Earn. Conquer. Yet, the truth is that the only satisfying answer to our value is Jesus and the only way to hold on to that truth is to linger with Him. To sit at His feet and let Him be our worth.
So, In the name of lingering with Christ and Him being my only worth,
I Say, Take Me Back
(Thanks to Lara Casey for this incredible visual reminder of what we really need. Her shop is AWESOME and you should check it out here)
