Anything ...

Just finished this book ... it rocked my face right off. It's of the same mind frame of the Francis Chan, Kyle Idleman, & David Platt books... that in your face, what are you doing with your life kinda thing!

I truly believe that I found this book at just the right moment. My heart was in a searching state and feeling that there had to be more than this life I was living. This book met my heart right where I was and started challenging me to be willing to do "anything."

I'm not sure what my "anything" is yet. I do believe God has sparked some ideas in my imagination and I'm praying over those for clarity and  courage (because honestly with a couple of them, the "godly" people in my life will be quick to tell me how crazy that is). But here's the thing God did in my heart he made it okay to not care. Ultimately following him is what I'm supposed to do, I have to be willing and he will take care of the rest. My job is obedience. I still have a lot to work to do here because I often allow myself to be led by fear and even my own fleshly desires - but I have a heart that wants desperately to obey, no matter the cost.

Honestly, praying that ... praying "anything" scares me! I'm no longer scared that God might call me to Africa or some remote part of the world (that thought actually excites me), I'm more scared of what he might be asking me to do now. Invite my neighbors over for dinner, sacrifice my own wants to take care of someone else's needs, be willing to listen when he tells me to talk to someone (or not to!). It seems silly ... but this is where my heart is. I'll continue to post about what my "anything" is and what God is doing in my heart ... but I want to leave you with something that really rocked my socks.

The author Jennie Allen talks about posed a question to one of her professors. She asked how do we really know God? This was his answer, "He began by listing all the ways we grow or know God: prayer, studying Scripture, church, worship, experiences, suffering, confession, community, and on and on. The he said, " but obviously each of these is unpredictable...many people who study the Bible never find God. Many people who go to church never really know Him. The only exercise that works 100 percent of the time to draw one close to the real God is risk. (and here is where it really gets good ...) To risk is to willingly place your life in the hand of an unseen God and an unknown future, then to watch him come through. He starts to get real when you live like that."

So it begs the question ... where in my life am I living like that? Where am I putting it all out there in the hands of my unseen God and watching for Him to come through? For me I think that's where "anything" begins.