My journey to God began at a young age. I was raised in a Christian home to loving, God-fearing parents. I was raised to honor God with my life, but I think the knowledge got stuck in my head and never made it to my heart for years. I began playing drums at age 10. Quite quickly, I began to play drums for our church of about 800. It was in this environment that I learned how to move with the Spirit and work with other musicians. Yet throughout all this, I didn’t personalize my faith.
In 2000, we relocated to Muscatine, IA from Seattle, my home of 15 years. All I knew, uprooted. I grew rebellious, if not outwardly, inwardly. They told me not to date, so I did anyway. Not do drink, so I did. Not to smoke, so I did. High school was a rough patch for me, mainly because I had just moved away from all my friends of 15 years from Seattle to a new school, a new town in eastern Iowa. I uprooted everything familiar for the unknown, a completely different state and climate. This, along with my head knowledge and anger and resentment towards God and my parents made for somewhat rocky high school years.
It was during high school that I made my first visit to IHOP-KC. We visited friends in the area and checked out IHOP when it was still in the blue trailers. Because the nature of my spiritual life was relegated to Sundays, I was not that impressed with the setup, but the seed was planted.
It was my senior year. A local church was taking a group to OneThing ’03. I was originally motivated by seeing my friends who were going to be there from Seattle, but God knew better. I came away from that time with a better understanding of how Christians can live victoriously and righteously and radically. I saw Jason Upton pouring his heart out at a piano, passionately talking about God in a way I’d never seen. Allen Hood’s son was praying and he was about 9 at the time! I’ve never heard such a passionate prayer coming from a child! I saw a leadership team dedicated to living lives that touch the heart of God and touch a world in need. The burden was stirred in my heart, though I knew not yet the path that I would need to take for me to begin this journey to living as a radical follower of Christ.
It was after this conference that I desired to do an internship after high school but got distracted. I started dating a girl shortly after onething 03 the last semester of my senior year. I allowed my emotions to dictate what my next course of action would be rather than doing what I had felt God leading me to do. This relationship lasted until about June 2006. I look back at this time and I see a man struggling to embrace spiritual maturity and torn away from that path by the flesh. Satan used this relationship to distract both of us. I was called to be the leader and I failed at that. Rife with compromise, I still saw God’s at work in my own life. God showed me time and time again that He continues to use imperfect vessels to do His will. It is humbling to be in the service of such a being.
The struggles that I went through have been used by God for His glory. My spiritual foundation has been strengthened, roots deepened, and most importantly, my faith personalized. Before, my head knowledge got me through, but there was little relationship. Within the last few years, God has beckoned me back into His family with open arms. I now endeavor to live a bit more like Jesus everyday. The struggles I have dealt with have made me stronger, prepared me to walk in my calling. My musical abilities have always been a driving force in my life and I strive to use my talents for good. This internship will continue to develop those roots that have deepened, continue to personalize my faith, increase and expand my abilities as a musician, and deepen my understanding of God’s Word. I look forward to spending a portion of my life in service to the King of Kings.
31 March 2010
24 March 2010
The Priority
For those who know me, I am opinionated and political. Normally a dangerous combination. Lately, my own thoughts and debate on the divisive issue of healthcare have caused me reevaluate my priorities through the lens of scripture. My own passion often neglects compassion when discussing matters of such importance.
Jesus is the ultimate example of love and justice for the Christian to follow. Sometimes I get so focused on my opinion, my paradigm being right, that I lose sight of the first commandment: Love God with everything within me. Such profound simplicity.
These Old Testament words are echoed again by Jesus in Matthew 22 after being questioned by the Pharisees. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Jesus understood this truth more than we ever could. In order to fully carry out all the rules and rituals that the Jews had to follow in that day, a love for God was required.
Tonight, for the first time, I began to understand this more clearly. In my quest to spread the love of God, I neglect to love God fully! I fall short in other commandments simply because I have overlooked the most important one-loving God! It is out of this love for God that I can begin to understand His heart for the world.
In relationships, one gets to know the other by spending time with that person. One doesn't suddenly develop intimacy overnight; it is a gradual process. Since we are created in God's image (Gen. 1:26) it makes sense that this human analogy fits so well with the relationship between God and His ultimate creation. We develop intimacy with God by cultivating a relationship with Him through surrendering our will to His, accepting He is the only way to God. We enter into this faith and continue our journey through discipleship--spending time in God's word, reading and absorbing the living truth-treasures found between the pages. Through our daily lives we interact with other humans and see how God's purposes and divine will work through our lives and the world around us.
Consequently, as we get to know the Creator, we gradually see things through His perspective to a limited degree. We develop compassion for the hurting, the poor, the sick, the "least of these" (Matt. 25:40). Yet it is only by and through this intimacy with Christ that my motives can be pure. I will love others simply because He loves them and is not willing that any man should perish without repenting (2 Peter 3). God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16-17).
What a great hope! What a promise! Three sentences in John's Gospel sum it up this way: "This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you."
Oh that I would love like that! That is my prayer. That is my priority. Is it yours?
Jesus is the ultimate example of love and justice for the Christian to follow. Sometimes I get so focused on my opinion, my paradigm being right, that I lose sight of the first commandment: Love God with everything within me. Such profound simplicity.
These Old Testament words are echoed again by Jesus in Matthew 22 after being questioned by the Pharisees. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Jesus understood this truth more than we ever could. In order to fully carry out all the rules and rituals that the Jews had to follow in that day, a love for God was required.
Tonight, for the first time, I began to understand this more clearly. In my quest to spread the love of God, I neglect to love God fully! I fall short in other commandments simply because I have overlooked the most important one-loving God! It is out of this love for God that I can begin to understand His heart for the world.
In relationships, one gets to know the other by spending time with that person. One doesn't suddenly develop intimacy overnight; it is a gradual process. Since we are created in God's image (Gen. 1:26) it makes sense that this human analogy fits so well with the relationship between God and His ultimate creation. We develop intimacy with God by cultivating a relationship with Him through surrendering our will to His, accepting He is the only way to God. We enter into this faith and continue our journey through discipleship--spending time in God's word, reading and absorbing the living truth-treasures found between the pages. Through our daily lives we interact with other humans and see how God's purposes and divine will work through our lives and the world around us.
Consequently, as we get to know the Creator, we gradually see things through His perspective to a limited degree. We develop compassion for the hurting, the poor, the sick, the "least of these" (Matt. 25:40). Yet it is only by and through this intimacy with Christ that my motives can be pure. I will love others simply because He loves them and is not willing that any man should perish without repenting (2 Peter 3). God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16-17).
What a great hope! What a promise! Three sentences in John's Gospel sum it up this way: "This is My command: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you."
Oh that I would love like that! That is my prayer. That is my priority. Is it yours?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)