Finding God w/ A Curious Thing

Meet Jess from A Curious Thing. She's gorgeous, talented, and has such a big heart for the Lord. I'm so glad she's here today with her story! Thanks so much for sharing, Jess!

Be WEIRD.

{Because normal thinking isn't working.}

 

Hi. I'm Jess from A CURIOUS THING over here.

Laura and I are doing a little blog swap, so here's whats been on my heart lately...

(BTW...thank you Laura!)

 

The lesson below has been a painful one for me.

It is my testimony. See my whole story here.

 

I began my journey last year trying to please everyone,

 and ending up very empty, lonely, single, and depressed (among other things).

Here's the bottom line I eventually figured out:

 God loves me.

God thinks about me.

God sees me and choses to hold me anyway.

So here goes!

Read and be encouraged!

Normal thinking:

People exist to make me happy.

If not, they are expendable.

Design by Jess

My son, Ephrym's, 'weird' face

We need different thinking...we need WEIRD thinking.

Being normal is a natural role.

But it does not satisfy your soul.

design by jess

If you want what normal people have, do what normal people do.

If you want what few people have, do what few people do.

Get weird.

Matthew 7:13-14

There is a wide road and the narrow road.

Taking the narrow road carries with it challenges on the front end.

-It is uncomfortable

-It is not normal

-It is 'weird'

Peters word for weird is HOLY:

God's word for 'weird': 1 Peter 1:16

"You shall be holy, for I am holy.

Holiness is living a life for God's purposes.

Normal means life devoted to yourself.

We can be like cattle lead to slaughter- all following each other to their own demise.

And we don't even know it because we are caught up in the following.

source

As we choose to leave the herd and walk with Jesus on the narrow road

these two things will never change:

1) Wide road people will belittle you

2) Your 'herd' instinct will kick in and will tempt you to return

Psalm 69:9-12 (the Message)

"My brothers shun me like a bum off the street;
My family treats me like an unwanted guest.

⁹ I love you more than I can say.
Because I'm madly in love with you,
They blame me for everything they dislike about you.

¹⁰ When I poured myself out in prayer and fasting,
All it got me was more contempt.

¹¹ When I put on a sad face,
They treated me like a clown.

¹² Now drunks and gluttons
Make up drinking songs about me."

And all because he was passionate about following his Maker.

All because he was 'weird' to them.

The wide-road people will say to you:

"Yeah, I saw you before.

What are you doing?

You're so fake.

You Think your so holy now...to good for us."

-People might gossip about you

-People might harshly judge you

-People just might think you're weird

-It might provoke others to worry about you

-Pressure might be exerted for us all to return to 'normalcy'

source

Proverbs 29:25 (the Message)

²⁵ The fear of human opinion disables;
trusting in God protects you from that.

It is like a ring in a bulls nose...anyone could lead it around.

Becoming obsessed with what people think about you

 is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.

Hmmm, did I ask what God thought about me?

{If not, get ready to be back in the herd.}

source

John 15

^{18 -19}"If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me.

If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own.

But since I picked you to live on God's terms and no longer on the world's terms, the world is going to hate you.

²⁰"When that happens, remember this: Servants don't get better treatment than their masters.

 If they beat on me, they will certainly beat on you.

If they did what I told them, they will do what you tell them.



Persecution- it can come from anyone.

Strangers.

Friends.

Family.

Alle (lil sis) and me last year

Matthew 5


¹⁰"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution.


The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.


^{11 -12}"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me.


What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.


 You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do!


 And all heaven applauds.


And know that you are in good company.


 My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.



If peple aren't saying anything mean about me-


Am I walking holy enough?


Truthfully enough?


I'm not talking about being disrespectful-


But just walking with Jesus will do it.


You can't please everyone...But you can please God.


1 Thessalonians 2:4


Be assured that when we speak to you we're not after crowd approval—only God approval.


And to please God fullfills the very core of our soul.

We were created for Him, and Him alone.

design by jess