Stuck Pages

Stuck Pages

I love to read. On most of our trips, I take 500 books and constantly have one in my hands. It helps my hubby out a lot because then he doesn't have to constantly hear me jabbering, or screaming that he needs to slow down ;). On more than one occasion he has calmly asked me to just keep reading.

The other day I was doing just that. We were almost to the hotel and I was getting into a good part of the book. I flipped the page and just kind of sat there, a little confused. The page that I had turned to made no sense at all. It was like the story line changed completely around. I flipped back and forth a couple of times before I realized what the problem was. There were 2 pages that got stuck together. A full 2 pages of words that were skipped, leaving me with a story that just didn't completely make sense. After I unstuck them, I continued on and the story was crystal clear once again.

How many of us want to glue part of our pages together? Is there a place in your past that you would rather just skip over and not share with anyone?

I have learned along the way, that if you ever truly want to get to know someone, you have to know where they came from and what they walked through. Have you ever heard that phrase "you need to walk a mile in their shoes"? Well that is so much truer than you know. It is impossible to "judge a book by its cover". But yet, so many of us do exactly that!

If you look back on your past, how many of you really ever have shared everything? How many of us glue maybe ages 16-21 together and pick back up at 22? We may summarize a whole 5 years into one simple phrase: "those were my rebel years". Or something like that! Our books will never make sense to anyone except those people that walked through it with us and actually watched you write those pages. So everyone else only sees bits and pieces. They have a distorted view of who you really are and why you are the way you are!

So if you have glued your pages together, don't you think that the person you maybe can't stand might have a few stuck pages too? It might be surprising to you to really get to know them before snap judging who they are. (I, by the way, am the worst at this!)

Jesus came for not just you and not just me! I heard part of a Casting Crowns song this morning that says "Jesus paid way too high a price, for us to pick and choose who should come". Wow! I find myself picking and choosing…what about you?

I want to challenge every one of you to change our mindset on a couple of things! First off, what would it take for us to go back through our own books and tear apart any pages that may be stuck? I know that it may be painful…definitely more for some than others. But, I want you to think about how freeing for you and eye opening for others that may be! One thing with testimonies that I have learned: they are not for my pats on the back! They are so powerful when we openly share everything because it shows the redemptive powers of Jesus! It shows that He can love a wretch like me, pick me up out of the mud, wash me clean, and USE ME!! It shows that no one is helpless and no one is worthless! It shows Jesus' story through you!

So think about that as you change your mind set on one more thing. How we view others and how we love them too! Remember that they have things hidden just like you. Something in where they have been has made them who they are today! Before you write them off, look for the hidden pages and after reading everything, you may just find that their story makes so much sense!

Let's all remember why we are here: for Jesus! We aren't here for ourselves or to bring ourselves glory. If you want to keep the selfish mindset, then keep those pages glued together! But if you want to fully live out the purpose of bringing glory to God…start tearing apart any and all pages that you have tried to hide! You will see the effects reaching so many! They too will see just how powerful Jesus can be!