Fresh Vision: Getting into Alignment

Alignment

a state of agreement or cooperation among persons, groups, nations, etc., with a common cause or viewpoint.

Pastor Jules Moore of Shiloh Church preached a great sermon about Generosity and he used the text of King David and the return of the ark of the covenant and Uzzah's unfortunate demise because he touched the ark of the Covenant which you weren't supposed to do.

Pastor Jules pointed out that David was not in alignment with God's law about the ark of the covenant and Uzzah was an  unfortunate casualty of his lack of alignment.

The word alignment was what stood out to me.

So many of us receive messages about what our lives should look like from parents, peers, society, the internet, television, business coaches etc.  

We begin to get out of alignment with our actual values and our mission because we want our lives ot look like what we've been told they should look like.

Alignment and Success

Success is a big issue for me.  

I have certain ideas about how success should look and because my life doesn't resemble those ideas, I can start to get out of alignment for what I'm actually supposed to be doing at this point in my life.

Every single time I have gotten out of alignment with what I am supposed to be doing at the time, I've ended up becoming frustrated, angry, and ready to throw it all away....so even though I feel like the process is long, tedious, and feeling like we're not going anyplace...I don't want my success to be out of alignment with my values and my mission.

What if success doesn't look like I thought it would?  I'm in alignment but the success isn't what I thought it would like?  

Would I rather be out of alignment and have conventional appearing success or would I rather be in alignment and have a success that appears unconventional.

I'm convincing myself or growing to the place of being in alignment but have unconventional success.

Sharing a Common Cause or Viewpoint

I want to be in alignment with God who has my highest and best good in mind...and who wants to see his glory displayed through my life

If I truly believe that God has my highest good in mind and I want to see his glory, then that means throwing out some of my ideas about how to get there.

It also means throwing out some of my desires that I had that I only wanted because I thought it was what I should desire and I had desires that would glorify ME 

I've already thrown out some of my desires which turned out to be for the best.

What does getting into alignment look like?

It means going with the flow instead of trying to make things happen.  For our Bible Study last week, we had to make affirmations.  Nearly every one of mine had to do with not trying to run ahead to make stuff happen but allowing God to do it.

Control freaks...I tell you.  We just find it so hard to let go

It also means letting go of your own limited vision and expectations.  We always have the way we think it should go and look like and God has his...soooooo yeah.  

Getting into alignment basically means letting go.

<Sigh> We'll see how it goes