Why put pen to paper when you can put fingers to keys?

Riley Ross and James McEvoy

July 3, 2008 at 2:55 pm (Uncategorized)

I thoroughly enjoy reading Riley’s blog- not as much as I enjoy being his friend- but I enjoy it a lot. Recently Riley made a post about what turns up when you Google “Riley Ross”. This was probably enough to make me curious about my own name, but then… I saw Wanted, the new Angelina Jolie-Morgan Freeman- James (women drool over you) McEvoy movie… and when the main character Google’s his name (while contimplating how meaningless his life is) Google pops up the following message “No results found” and a blank screen. Funny stuff. We all have those days- especially at work.

Anyway, I Googled me… I get a 6th grader who wants to save trees, a Facebook person (which sucks because she has the EXACT SAME NAME and lives in Springfield, MO (essentially my home town) and I’m sure people think I’m her, I don’t know her but I don’t want to be confused with her either), and finally the 4th one down is me… and my blog! haha. Then there’s an article from the Baylor Lariat (also the real me) and then stuff no one cares about (because it’s not about me -haha).

However, both things made me start to think about a question that plagues us all “What is my purpose? What makes me “important” or “unimportant”? What in the heck am I doing here?” I think God has great plans for all of us. For some people your great plan is to save a nation, for others it is to raise godly children- all equally important in His eyes. I think the point is more about doing as much as you can for as long as you can… which is why I think your purpose (if you want to call it that) changes like the seasons (Eccl 3:1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven”).

By nature I’m an encourager, it’s been more difficult the last few years (I’ve just been spiritually tired) but I’m getting back and with more fervency than before. My purpose is to help other people make their dreams come true or fulfill their purpose, God always puts you where you probably struggle to accept your place (like I’m in the background and I’m more of a foreground person- or so I think, but who am I to argue with God). I saw a Beth Moore study the other day and she pointed out something very interesting… the context: Beth is discussing when Mary (the mother) tells Jesus that they are out of wine…

Beth “So she goes to him and she says this “They have no more wine.” “They have no more wine.” Just need you to know, they’re out of wine. I love her approach and I’d like to suggest that you and I would be a lot better off if we try it. What she did not do is go, “Here are the following four ways you can meet my need that I can live with.” Aren’t you tempted to do that? When you need something from God, don’t you also want to tell him the ways that he could meet that need that you could live with and the ways that you cannot. “Lord, I don’t need you to do this — I need you to do this. This is the way I need you to answer this because I can’t live with this particular way of you meeting that need.” No, she didn’t say any of that. She didn’t tell him how to do his job, she just stated the need — she just stated the need. And the need was that there needed to be more where there was no more. I love that. I love that that was the context of the first miracle.”

It’s good stuff. I’m always tempted to do that, and by tempted I mean I do… I say “I need You to stop making me come to this job every day because it is making me unhappy and I have to bribe myself to get out of bed every morning because I’m so miserable there. Please make the internship end sooner” See that last part, that part where I told Jesus how to do His job? Funny huh? Well, only kind of. As long as we realize our human-ness and stop doing it.

So maybe today your prayer will be “Jesus, please make something wholesome appear when I Google my name”