Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"Crazy Love" Week 8/Chapter 8 - A Profile of the Obsessed

Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.

Question 1: Describe a time in your life when you were obsessed with something or someone. When the rubber met the road, what emotions surfaced as a result of this obsession.

Question 2: Francis Chan profiles a person obsessed with Jesus Christ. From the list given, which of these do you feel like describe you best? Which do you feel like you need more of in your life or which do you struggle with the most?

Challenge: Ask the Lord to work an obsession for Jesus Christ into the very marrow of your bones this week and in the weeks to come.

4 comments:

Faye said...

Goodmorning Leah,You gave me a lot to think about!Hope you have a great day! Blessings, Faye

Janice said...

Question 1: Wow! God's timing is always right on schedule, isn't it? Listen to this...I am reviewing my Bible study on the Book of Daniel by Beth Moore that I did in 2007. I am on the pages dealing with Babylon and how it had the mentality of "I am and there is none besides me." And how God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to come in and take the Holy Vessels from His temple and put them in the temple of the Babylonian gods. Boy, will Satan ever use our Holy selves when we compromise. To answer the question, I was once obsessed with someone so much that I made BAD decisions. "There was none besides me," and that turned out to be a LIE!!! When the rubber met the road, it was awful! Many loved ones were hurt and disappointed. I had never felt such guilt, but what a motivation it has been to never let it happen again! God will give us what we want - or think we want.

Question 2: Without sounding like I've arrived, I would say that the obessions that best describe me are "Servers," "Unguarded Ones," and "Rooted." I'm sure I could work on these, but I feel that these are the ones that best describe where I am in my walk right now. I need more of several of them! Like, "The Humble," "Friends of All," and "Risk Takers," to name a few. I think a recent example of how I need to be more humble is this: our choir went to sing at a church in our area that was holding a revival. The next Sunday at our church, one of our members came up to me and said her sister goes to the church where we sang. She said her sister had called her and said they were going to steal our pianist - that would be me. I, like Chan, enjoyed that compliment and just said, "Oh, how nice!" I really should be more humble and give God the glory for the talent He has given me. I'm honored that He uses me at the piano to bring glory to Him. I need to give Him the credit!!
I need to think of the poor more and find ways to minister to them.
Ouch! There are many ways I need to improve in my obsession with the Father!

Leah Adams said...

Question 1: I was obsessed with my weight and become anorexic in my late teens and early 20's. I 'allowed' myself to eat only 600 calories a day and weighed less than 100 pounds at 5 feet 5 inches. I was passing out multiple times a day but felt fat. The emotions that surfaced were a need for control, which never came. I could never be thin enough to satisfy the demon of anorexia. The other emotion was hatred of the anorexia. I hated being so obsessed with food and my weight but I was in such a stronghold that I couldn't do anything different. Finally one of my pharmacy school professors recognized that there was a problem and referred me to counseling. It saved my life. No doubt, I would be dead now had he not recognized that I was sick.

Question 2: I have learned the hard way that the best thing I can do is be faithful to Him and so I try with all I have to be. I know I fail Him so often, but I do try. I am also completely unguarded with Him...raw before Him. There is so much ugliness inside of me and I keep asking Him to bring it out and wash it away. He is faithful to do that and so I just continually lay myself open before Him, giving Him free reign to renovate me in any way He sees fit. After the spec house debacle, I am totally obsessed with making sure I am doing His will and not my own. Regret is an aweful thing!!

The areas that I need to do better with are not being consumed with my personal safety and comfort. It is hard to serve the poor and abandoned when you never put yourself in a place to meet the poor and abandoned. We in America live pretty cushy lives, to be honest. Pride is always a battle for me. I try to be very conscious to it and ask the Lord to reveal to me ANY pride in my heart. He is faithful to do so.

Leah

Channy said...

1. I can readily answer this first question. When I think back on a particular obsession, how captivated and surrendered I was to that relationship and situation I realize how God used it to show me a very important reality--Only Christ is a safe obsession. I was willing to lay everything aside for that relationship, to fit the profile, to give up my life's direction. I was totally baffled and flat as a pancake when I realized that it was all one-sided. I had put all my marbles in an unhealthy, non-God ordained situation. Walking in a deluded, self-guided independence leads straight down the road to destruction. Why am I so shocked to find myself at failure when I do so?
2. God is teaching me to be an unguarded one. Have you noticed that people don't really want you to be unguarded? They'd really rather you just be fine and leave your skeletons safely locked in a freshly painted, wreath decorated closet. Tell someone the filth that lurks within and you can quickly tell who really loves you and Jesus. Sometimes I feel I am very raw with Jesus, but I'm not nearly as willing to submit myself to His healing. I want to show Him the dirty, infected wound but I don't want Him to come at me with the peroxide and scrub brush. Instead I want him to put a bandaid over it and "have faith" it will get better.
I definitely need to be a sojourner. I am way too attached to that which is temporary. I need to invest all of me and all He gives me to that which will survive the trial of fire.