Important Life Lessons That I Am Learning

1. God loves me – no matter what you say. I blow it sometimes, and I can’t live up to the expectations that everyone has of me. Yet, God loves me no matter what you say. In my faith, the Bible is central to my knowledge and understanding of who God is. The ancient scriptures tell me that God will never leave me nor forsake me. God is with me no matter what. Although some people will try to convince me that I am not even a true Christian, I just don’t buy it. I don’t need their affirmation anyway. I only need Gods.

2. I am more interested in sharing Jesus than I am selling religion. You may not know this, but full-time church work is a brutal field to be in. There is so much self-righteous Pharisee-ism in churches that it makes me sick. I feel called to help people connect with Jesus more than anything else; more than denominationalism, legalism, or any other ism. I’m not interested in putting God in a slick package and trying to sell it to people either. At this point, I just want to model a life of following Jesus authentically. I’m focused on sharing my learning’s along the way with anyone who is interested. And, finally, I’m passionate about encouraging people who are trying to love and follow after God themselves. Model, share, and encourage feels much more natural than package, promote, and proselytize.

3. People, especially family, are more important than anything else in life. I love projects. I love envisioning, strategizing, and executing a plan that results in the accomplishment of a goal. There’s something powerful and adrenaline-producing about that experience. But more than ever, I love spending time with people (despite the fact that I’m a slight introvert). It is my belief that God created every single one of us uniquely, and despite being marred by sin, we are made in God’s image. There is something extraordinary about human beings and every person deserves love, care, and compassion. This is as much part of my spirituality as anything else.

4. Hard work, rest, and play time are important too. I believe these three things truly flow out of a healthy relationship with God. They aren’t disconnected from who God is. Hard work is good for me. It keeps me creative, productive, and provides purpose. Rest is something that God commands me to do, and I’m learning to embrace God’s directive. It is for my own benefit, and it is a spiritual practice. Recreaction is an outgrowth of my ability to enjoy life moment by moment. If God gave me this one and only life to live, I want to enjoy it with plenty of recreational time.

These breakthroughs and insights have come to me over time and through the fires of testing. In some ways I am DECONSTRUCTING my faith away from church-ism and RECONSTRUCTING a new relationship with GOD, FAMILY, PEOPLE, WORK, REST, and RECREATION.