Simplicity and Authenticity

If you have been a Christian as long as I have, you long for the simplicity of faith that once accompanied your childhood church days. Where there weren't questions that couldn't be answered with a simple, "pray about it", or  "God loves you" and there weren't big words like sanctification that we had to understand. Faith, belief, and the love of God weren't something that you couldn't understand, they just were a part of who God was and who you were. 

As you get older you realize that most adults, just need to have the mind of a faithful child. Albeit simple, the truest form of authenticity. Where we aren't afraid to ask big questions or try new things or grow or do anything that might require a new level of being that we just needed to understand. The more I realize the deeper relationship that I want have or achieve is really just about going back to basics. It's about rediscovering your roots, recognizing your flaws or insecurities, and embracing them. Reconnecting with the simplest truth and embracing the deepest part of faith and that is in loving others as Christ did for us. 

I often wonder what would happen if we just loved each other, flaws and all. Loved people we didn't like until we actually might like them. How would the world change? I think we can fundamentally change the world that way. Then all the world will know the Christ that we do, we would be the compasses directing people to Him. All the words and concepts that come along with being a true believer would then fall into place: we would forgive easily- because we love the people who have hurt us. We would extend grace- because we love the people who are different from us. We would be sanctified with the saints- because we loved people enough to show them the only way to him. Favor would rest on our shoulder- because we loved others because He first loved us. Truth would be spoken- because even though we might not agree, we still love others enough to speak over the lies that they have been told. Think about how the walls would come down- doors would be opened, if we just get past a stigma of legalism that has tainted the church for centuries. 

My faith journey started before I was born- in a rejoicing mother's heart as she shared with other children about miracles. It was grown in the church, rooted in love and a deep seeded loyalty to care about those around me. 

Today, I see the great evidence of His hand on my journey- my journey to try to understand a God who just loves me. Loves me enough to pursue me, loves me enough to die for me when He didn't have to. I am thankful that I have always known Him in some form, though I didn't always understand what having a relationship meant- how to actually do it. I've search for redemption in the waters of (multiple baptisms), as if believing in that act alone would make me know Him more, but all the time not understanding that I already knew Him. In His infinite love for me, He dropped His Confident truth into my life last summer, right when I needed Him too. So, when I was twelve years old, I committed my life to Him in a Confirmation Ceremony. All those consequent baptisms, confirming that choice. Satan tried to convince me that I wasn't really saved all those years, but in my quiet times with God He's made me know that His had has always guided me and that simple faith still exists inside.

This all to say, when life gets complicated or you become overwhelmed with the task of being a Christ follower- just remember LOVE. It's at the core of everything. Once that is rooted in our hearts, as simple as it sounds, it overflows to those around us. Change abounds if our hearts know love and share it as freely as we are given it. 

1st John 4:7-8

Apologies and Peace

First off, I would like to apologize to all of you who are reading this. I have gotten off track with my changed purposeful activities that I made public to you, one of which is two days of blogging a week. One devoted to God's purposes and general items that are going on in the world around me, as well as another chapter about my Grandfather. There are no really good excuses, as I have been at work about as much as I've been working from home the past few weeks. So, I ask your forgiveness and start again.

Sometimes I get so caught up in what I have to do to stay afloat, that I forget about the other purposes God has for me and how to spend time getting to know Him more. I have never been diligent about spending time with Him, so much so, that I often wonder how much closer I could be to Him if I had just devoted the time HE deserved. Then I remember that God always has a way of making His will happen despite our reluctance and lack of due diligence.

We spend our time in relentless state of trying to make things balance, that ultimately things fall off that we don't ever intend to have do so. These things we all try to balance: family, relationships, friends, work, church, service, etc are all critical components of God's purposes in our lives with Him at the head of them of course.

I often get caught up in the big picture, what I need to do to make things happen in my life. It's so hard to take the "I" out of that sentence. The details are often superfluous to me as I work my way to the big picture- there's that "I" again. While I often work in generalities and grandious-ness, God is working in the details, as I have seen evidenced in my life.

Now, I know I speak often of enjoying the journey, well, it gets harder the longer the journey is and the less you know what steps to take. All we can do is lean in, lean in to God. The peace that comes with that, well, it makes the journey a little more bearable. It makes our "trust with out borders", as my favorite Hillsong United song says, the cornerstone of what God is doing in our lives. Doing it day to day, in the details, I only hope that my attempt to do that are evidenced in my words and actions that I share with you. My prayers is that you all know the peace of trusting without borders, which I finally understand, but have to consistently work at doing.

Look for another post next week in my other blog, the one for my grandfather. As always, I am humbled that you chose to read along this journey. If you can be in prayer for each day being a day to have the strength and resolve to trust without borders, it would be greatly appreciated.

Ignorance Isn't Always Bliss

Finally, I've returned to place where my heart finds rest- the pages where I can create and share. Thank you for waiting for me here. I've been sick and have just gotten back my full strength.

I find that I'm exceptional at ignoring direction, ignoring God. The difference between not knowing what you should be doing and knowing and not doing it is astounding. Especially when it comes to God. I find myself knowing that the key to drawing closer to God is spending time in the Word and in Prayer, yet, I'm often passing over spending that critical time in light of sleep or time or whatever. You probably say, if He's your priority, then you make it a priority. To that end I consider myself an epic fail. I don't always may Him a priority- I speak grandiose ideas of who God is and then put a limit on drawing closer to Him. I find myself often wondering where I would be if I didn't put these limits on myself, limits on God. It's like an endless cycle and like so many other things in my life it seems it never changes. 

Then I catch glimpses of small changes- evidence that God has taken me to a new place, understanding. I see the infinite wisdom that flows from His Spirit within me. I realize that all along- the things that I see as faults, weakness, God is using and transforming me. All those broken dreams, plans, promises, ideas- procrastination, ignorance- there is grace and a love that never fails us, no matter how we try, we can never fall out of that. So in not knowing the stuff we're not supposed to know yet- Ignorance is bliss, getting to the Bliss leaves us right where we're supposed to be.