Awake

If there is one thing I have noticed in life, it is that being comfortable is not an acceptable way to live. As a Christian I find that God usually wishes to begin stretching me in new and different areas about the time I am comfortable in one place. Sometimes this is spiritually, emotionally, or intellectually – but during these times I am stretched I am also going through stress, the stress and tension that comes with growth that comes with changing, transforming, and maturing into a more efficient human, and a more importantly, a more efficient worker in the Kingdom of God.

The last few months have been something of a whirlwind in my life, with so many things going on it sometimes was almost too much to handle mentally. Some nights I got less sleep because I would stay up thinking about things and solution or actions or inaction's I should take. Sometimes my stomach would begin to churn from the worry, from the confusion, from my inability to make any significant change now. When all one believes they can do is wait, it takes some time to be at peace in that context; yet sometimes that is our calling as Christians, to wait on the Lord.

In the past, I had the tendency to wait, to say no to things that seemed like they would be too much for me. However, now things seem to be changing to some extent. I do things that stretch me, though I know they will make me uncomfortable. I do things despite myself... and I suppose this is an answer to my past prayers for more boldness and courage in my life, as a person and as a Christian. I do not say this to be prideful but to say that as a person who is not usually comfortable up front, God is pushing me ever-forward. So, now my conundrum is the waiting process… I am graduating in December and really do not know what is going to happen. The last month this troubled me much, but now I am feeling much more at peace with things. We always want answers from God but maybe sometimes we are asking the wrong questions, maybe we are trying to be reasonable when God is calling us to think unreasonably, to see with his heart and mind and not our own.

Growth is hard, that is why teenage years can be so hard, so much is going on mentally and physically and emotionally – trying to keep up with everything can be challenging… and so I am at a point in my life where I am being challenged once again, being stretched, being changed. I am not the same boy I was in high school, not the same guy I was in college, and no longer the same man I was when I started graduate school. Life is changing me, God is changing me... and I believe though I am struggling, that this change is for the best, and maturity only comes through such times. I pray that those are struggling would look at those struggles as a challenge, something to produce a wonderful change, not something to bring us down.

Life is a journey to be lived,
It stretches us and comforts us,
Challenges us and other times makes us laugh.

The Lord be with You!
~ Daniel

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