My Life in 2015:
Ruin Me O God!
January 2015
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
-- Isaiah 6:1 – 8
Reflect
We are silent observers here of the moment when Isaiah encountered God in a remarkable and unique way, and we see him transformed from a man afraid of God into a prophet willing to speak for God. He comes face to face with the holiness of God, and walks away ruined.
Not ruined in the sense of being a bundle of unhinged emotions. No, Isaiah saw God clearly, and became ruined for an ordinary life. Anything less than a heart surrendered to God was not good enough.
When we pray as a church for God to ruin us, we are asking for the same thing. We are giving God permission to ruin us for the ordinary life.
Being ruined for the ordinary sounds nifty and very spiritual, but what does it actually mean?
Rewind
Being ruined for the ordinary does not mean we all quit our jobs and sit in a circle holding hands while singing songs to Jesus. It also does not necessarily mean becoming a missionary (though it could).
Being ruined for the ordinary means we look first to God and His priorities. We have to stop building a fiefdom for ourselves, and instead beginning asking the hard questions about how our lives can extend the fame and goodness of God.
This is no easy task, because it means we must change. We have to stop focusing on our own comfort, stop making decisions only based on how we will benefit, and stop building a life that is centered on us.
React
God loves to answer this plea to be ruined. In the same way He honored Isaiah’s prayer with a call to serve, God will do the same in our lives. As God ruins us for the ordinary, we can expect two things to be a normal part of our life.
1) God will pull us out of our comfort zone.
God gives us opportunities to step into new experiences when we lay down our right to an ordinary life. As we stay available to be used by God and pay attention, opportunities will arise.
We might feel as though we should pray for a neighbor who is going through a rough patch in his marriage. Perhaps we need to invite a coworker to church. Both of these could feel very uncomfortable for us, but God is calling us into a new season of risk and trust. Being ruined for the ordinary means growing in our ability to move through discomfort.
2) God will adjust our appetites.
It is easy to spend our lives on things that, at the end of the day, really don’t matter much. Wake up just in time to rush out the door for work. Keep our heads down at our desk for eight hours. Fight traffic for 45 minutes to get home. Make dinner. Watch TV. Go to bed. Rinse and repeat every morning.
These habits create comfort, because they are known. As we step out of comfort, our appetites will also change. We will find that our old routines are just not enough anymore. We will feel an emptiness in our spirits, one that wasn’t there before.
Embrace this shift when it comes, and use it as a chance to connect with God in a simple prayer:
“God thank you for changing my heart. Thank you for opening my eyes to a wider world. Fill my heart with new longings, and show me how to honor You not only with my life, but with each moment in my life. Continue to ruin me O God.”
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
-- Isaiah 6:1 – 8
Reflect
We are silent observers here of the moment when Isaiah encountered God in a remarkable and unique way, and we see him transformed from a man afraid of God into a prophet willing to speak for God. He comes face to face with the holiness of God, and walks away ruined.
Not ruined in the sense of being a bundle of unhinged emotions. No, Isaiah saw God clearly, and became ruined for an ordinary life. Anything less than a heart surrendered to God was not good enough.
When we pray as a church for God to ruin us, we are asking for the same thing. We are giving God permission to ruin us for the ordinary life.
Being ruined for the ordinary sounds nifty and very spiritual, but what does it actually mean?
Rewind
Being ruined for the ordinary does not mean we all quit our jobs and sit in a circle holding hands while singing songs to Jesus. It also does not necessarily mean becoming a missionary (though it could).
Being ruined for the ordinary means we look first to God and His priorities. We have to stop building a fiefdom for ourselves, and instead beginning asking the hard questions about how our lives can extend the fame and goodness of God.
This is no easy task, because it means we must change. We have to stop focusing on our own comfort, stop making decisions only based on how we will benefit, and stop building a life that is centered on us.
React
God loves to answer this plea to be ruined. In the same way He honored Isaiah’s prayer with a call to serve, God will do the same in our lives. As God ruins us for the ordinary, we can expect two things to be a normal part of our life.
1) God will pull us out of our comfort zone.
God gives us opportunities to step into new experiences when we lay down our right to an ordinary life. As we stay available to be used by God and pay attention, opportunities will arise.
We might feel as though we should pray for a neighbor who is going through a rough patch in his marriage. Perhaps we need to invite a coworker to church. Both of these could feel very uncomfortable for us, but God is calling us into a new season of risk and trust. Being ruined for the ordinary means growing in our ability to move through discomfort.
2) God will adjust our appetites.
It is easy to spend our lives on things that, at the end of the day, really don’t matter much. Wake up just in time to rush out the door for work. Keep our heads down at our desk for eight hours. Fight traffic for 45 minutes to get home. Make dinner. Watch TV. Go to bed. Rinse and repeat every morning.
These habits create comfort, because they are known. As we step out of comfort, our appetites will also change. We will find that our old routines are just not enough anymore. We will feel an emptiness in our spirits, one that wasn’t there before.
Embrace this shift when it comes, and use it as a chance to connect with God in a simple prayer:
“God thank you for changing my heart. Thank you for opening my eyes to a wider world. Fill my heart with new longings, and show me how to honor You not only with my life, but with each moment in my life. Continue to ruin me O God.”
