Chasing

As I was at Brunch Bunch this past Sunday, I had the opportunity to talk to two of my friends about my plans for the future and some of my goals I would like to see accomplished. We talked about what the balance was between having our own goals and completely trusting in God's plan for our lives, or if there is even a balance. Coming into college, I had all of these goals and plans for this career/lifestyle that were being more fueled by my personal desires, and since then, I've really tried to align my desires with those of God, and to try to follow the path that he has for me. This isn't always easy, because it's not like God has this neon sign pointing here that say, "This is the way to go!", but with faithful prayer, I think that we can learn what God has planned for our lives.

So one of the responses that got raised at brunch about this conversation was, "How do we know what God wants us to do?" As I said in the line before, obviously prayer has a huge part in it. 1st Thessalonians 5:17 calls us to "Pray Continually." If we look back through the bible, the people who seemed most in line with God's calling were the ones who talked to him the most.

I think that one of the most important things to realize is that even though God didn't highlight and define the specific path that we are supposed to follow, He still instructs us on how we should live our lives. In 1st Peter 1:16, God says that, "for it is written, "Be holy, because I am holy."" This is such a strong command, that packs so much into so few words. With this statement, God basically tells each of us the standard to how we should live and conduct ourselves.

This got me thinking. Are we really pursing God and attempting to "Be Holy?" or are we trying to match up to the worlds standards, while being a generally good person? So I guess the question of this becomes, what are you chasing. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Passion Conference this past January, and Louie Giglio spoke one night about freedom, and what it meant to have true freedom. So many of us are trying so desperately to obtain this sense of freedom, and in that desperate search, we begin to fill our lives with things that we think will give us that feeling. The way that Louie described it was imagine if we had this chain that we carry around with us. The chain is our desire to get this "true sense of freedom" that the world does such a good job of telling us we need. We go around attaching our chain to different ideas, to other people, or to relationships. The list is endless, but what it boils down to is that most of us are so willing to attach ourselves to anything besides Jesus. And I guess my question is, why do we chase after things of this world, when Jesus is the only one who can break all of our chains and set us completely free.

Why do we need the world now when we are given a paradise in Heaven?

Along with God calling us to be holy, he also calls us to be perfect. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect." At first, I was a bit put off by this verse, because the bible very clearly says that we are all sinners, and that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. So why would God call us to do something that He then goes on to say is virtually impossible because we are all sinners. After a lot of thought and talking with some friends, I think that God had to call us to perfection. If He called us to anything less, eventually, someone somehow would reach that level. So He calls us to perfection, not because he is trying to make life impossible, but because with Him, life is possible and that is what we should be striving for. A perfect and holy lifestyle.

That's all I have for right now, but as you go throughout this week, try to stop and think about what or who you are chasing. If the answer to that question is anything but God, then try to identify what you have latched your chain around and begin to break the hold that is separating you from a satisfying life in the pursuit of God.

We are a house of Worship.

JD