So...a lot has happened since my last post. I have been so busy meticulously picking through thoughts about where my life is going and what God is communicating to me, feeling like if I do not figure it out fast enough I am going to miss it completely. However, I just saw a quote on someones facebook that spoke to my terribly mistaken mind set.
"Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things." Donald Miller
And boy have I felt like running lately. Throughout this semester God has constantly been hounding me. A good kind of hounding, but hounding none the less. He has constantly been revealing His desire for His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. From Gulf Coast Getaway (campus ministry conference in Panama city), Disciple now in Brewton, AL, Brown House and Blue house ministries in Tuscaloosa, and so many other things I have been running into lately have all had this same message. We are supposed to be living out the Kingdom of God in our everday lives, where ever God has put us.
This daunting thought is why my mind has just been running around in circles for the past few months. Until tonight. Tonight I have been reminded that I am never going to miraculously have all the answers or imediantly know exactly what I am supposed to do about this Kingdom living. Lucky for me our God strolls. If He went any faster then that I am positive I could not keep up with Him. Instead of dwelling on my future I have to take a deep breath and stroll with my Father. Taking in everything around me. People. Needs. Hurts. Concerns. Joy. Laughter. Relationships. Until my eyes are open to these things I can never hope to bring God's Kingdom to any situation.
The following are somethings I cannot resist sharing from Gulf Coast Getaway:
We are not following the Lord for a reward one day far off in the future. We are following the Lord because we are in love with Him because of His passionate love for us. Because of that love, living the way he has modeled for us and has called us too is Heaven on Earth!
We must deny the false ego that drives our lives. We do not deserve anything, but God deserves everything. The Kingdom of God is not about us it is about God.Maybe God needs to rescue me from what I want so I can be who he wants me to be
And Finally Randy Harris' closing points: 10 Ways to experience the Tangible Kingdom Today ( I am a huge fan of lists, so I love this!)
1. Make covanent
2. Memorize the sermon on the mount
3. Quiet Whineing
4. Take a Risk
5. Walk/amble/stroll
6. Relocate
7. Calm Down
8. Simplify
9. Commit
10. Be present
These look so simple neatly in a list but they do not come easy for me but Jesus did them all. He established covanent with those who shared his vision, created the sermon on the mount, did not think of himself long enough to whine, risked everything he had, ambled through life so he could heal the leper or eat with the tax collector along the way, relocated himself to be where people needed him most, even the sea was calm at His hand, lived so simply he did not even have a place to lay his head, was commited to his mission even to death on a cross, and was fully and completely present where ever he happened to be.
