Today was a day that started out like most of the other days. I woke up, got ready for the day, watched some news while I ate my waffles with peanut butter (a great combination if you haven’t tried it before) then headed out to work a little early to help out with a few issues from the weekend. The day continued to press forward from there, work, lunch and more work. I had wanted a change of pace from my normal leave work and go home so that I could play XBOX and it was great.
I got the chance before I headed out to a bible study (which feels a lot like FLOOD) to stop off at Wendy’s, grab a root beer float and read some of David Platt. One of his main questions that he asks in the book I was reading was “Is this really all that there is to life?” Do we really want to live out our faith inside the confides of our house, our church with the comfy seats, our normal, everyday lives? I have begun to ask the question more often of myself – and I think there is so much more that we are missing out on.
Life is meant to be lived. We as a generation of young people spend way to much time staying within our routine, our comfort zone. For some reason we have this fear of stepping out and doing something. Even if it is just changing one night from going home and using Facebook or playing video games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these things are bad – but just there has to be something more. We spend to much time worrying about what is coming, rather than the now. God is not I will be, he calls himself the great “I am.” Present tense. We are supposed to live now. Not any other time. This moment is what matters.
In asking this question, it has lead me to continue down the path. I want more. Like a hungry lion about that searches high and low for prey, I want that. I hope that I’m not the only one on this journey, because I want to share this with you – but even if I am, I know in the end it is totally worth it. But as I learn that there is more to life, more to God, more to existence than even where I am now – I’m learning that it requires me to continually give things over to God. And as this journey continues, it gets easier and easier to trust God with everything. Yes, I trust God – but I keep finding that as he takes over more things that I let go of, they turn out a ton better than I ever though they could. But then again, God has never done anything that would hurt me or harm me – he has always done what is best.
If I could take a quote that really encompasses what I want from my faith walk – David Platt sets it up nicely in his book The Radical Question: What is Jesus worth to you? saying:
To sacrifice everything in radical devotion to Jesus means to surrender our lives, our rights, our ambitions, our plans, our dreams, our families, our relationships, our possessions, our safety, our security, our past, our present, and our future to the absolute lordship of Jesus
I want that. I don’t have all of those things given over, but I want to. I desire to. I’m finding that as I give things over to God, it doesn’t mean that I don’t get to have any say in the matter anymore. I just have a new way to look at them. God allows me to be part of the decision making process, but he helps me see the decisions clearly.
This isn’t a radical new concept probably to any of us. But there is a disconnect between saying that we want this and actually doing this. Sometimes we loose focus, sometimes we go off on our own, but God wants us to have more of him. There is so much more to God that you have yet to even discover, I’ve spent most of my life as a Christian and there are still things that amaze me each day.
We were never called to be normal. We were called to step out. We were called to follow in full devotion to God. So if you are comfortable with your faith right now, get uncomfortable. If you like where you are with God, desire more. If you have spent the last months talking about how much you want to change – do it. Our time is now men and women. Stop living like this is generation you – this life isn’t about you. This is our generation – and we have some leading to do. But before we can lead, we must follow the one who is the ultimate leader, Jesus Christ.
Moving at the speed of life and loving every second of it,
Kyle
