Another Sunday Afternoon...

It’s another Sunday afternoon. Church is over, my belly's full, my house is quiet, and I have nothing planned to do. This makes me restless for some reason. I find myself sitting at my computer, hoping to escape to the portal of the outside world. The comforts of life don't feel so nice to me. I wish I could replace my full stomach and air conditioning house with the open sea, the breeze of the wind, the vast expanse of sky, and a little bowl of soup with stale crackers. Or how bout' a dirty Mozambiquan hut filled with people dancing wilding about for hours - otherwise known as church.

Bottom line, I'm restless, and I wonder why I am this way...but when I sit silent, I feel the comfort of my Father in heaven saying this is the way he created me to be. The longing to be caught up into a grand epic story, one of battles, far-away places, love, sacrifice, joy...to live for something far grander than myself - in my heart, there's a longing for my King. I know He will return one day soon. When He does, His Kingdom will be established on the earth, just as it is in Heaven.

I'm not a good writer. That's partly why I'm going to start blogging again. I want to be able to write what's on my heart. I question whether what I write is even real...words can be crafted and comforted to say whatever I want; I hope that this blog is an avenue for me to write honest and true things. Most of all, I hope that people may see a reflection of Jesus in all of this...to be encouraged to pursue Him to the end.

Here's a parting thought. Read this quote from a guy named Kevin Deadmon.

"If I offered to take you to Hawaii on an all expense-paid vacation, would you get a little excited as you thought about the white, sandy beaches, the coconut aroma on the tropic breezes, and the mesmerizing waves lapping towards your lounge chair as the rest of the world is washed away? Well, what if I told you that I was going to be flying the plane, and that I had never actually flown a plane, but I had read the manual and know everything there is to know about flying. Would you still be excited about going to Hawaii with me?

If you answered “yes” to that question, then you are crazy! You should never fly with someone who has never actually flown a plane! Yet, how many suffice to just read the manual (the Bible), thinking that doing that alone will enable them to have a personal relationship with God. And then we think that the world is going to want to fly with us to the Kingdom of God, when we have no personal experience."

Ouch! I was really struck by that sentence. My desire is to lead people into God's Kingdom, but people won't be drawn to it unless the Kingdom I speak of is real in me first. It can't be limited to reading the words of Christ...these words must change my very nature until I am living fully in His Kingdom! As Bill Johnson would say, "the Kingdom inside becomes the Kingdom around me." Righteousness, peace, and joy is my inheritance, and to be stuck in depression, fear, shame means I am stuck in Egypt again...again I am a slave. I must experience this Jesus! I must know who He is, and from the place of encounter, I will be a witness of Him...