I get disappointed when I look at how busy my life gets and come to the realization that I’ve lost sight of what is important to me in my life. Things I KNOW I should doing/seeing/writing about/thinking on, but often falls to the back of the line when everything else is begging for my attention.
Anyone? Can you relate?
This morning, I opened my email to find a personalized invite (lol) to go to the onething 2010 Conference in Kansas City. It’s put on by International House of Prayer (IHOP–not to be confused with the pancake place)… I checked out the Prayer Room there when I was in Kansas City this past July for a worship conference. It was intense, to say the least, but I loved it. People on their face before God, people strolling around the room, seeming to be in earnest, heartfelt prayer, people reading and highlighting their Bibles, others singing along with the band that was singing repetitive lines about who God is, and what Jesus has done and is going to do.
And standing there, I got hungry. No, my stomach wasn’t growling, as I had eaten at the most wonderful chinese restaurant with the yummiest crab rangoon just before I’d arrived at IHOP. No. I was hungry to know God even more. Maybe it was more my ‘soul’ that was growling from not being fed enough from that which brings life. While I was standing there, I took stock of the things in my life that were so very distracting from pursuing the call on my life– the honest to goodness call that is on my life to simply serve Jesus and believe that I’m to be part of showing the world that Jesus wasn’t JUST a man–that the words He spoke when he was on earth really WERE Truth.
That was just over a month ago that I had tha overwhelming sense of wanting more.
Today, that feeling has come back with this email. It’s a challenge that has hit me right in the face, in the midst of this (yet again) busy season in my life. (Getting programs and everything ready for Fall when you work at a church can be extremement crazy busy!)
Mike Bickle, the pastor at IHOP wrote:
“In America alone, abortion continues to kill 4,000 babies every day in their mothers’ wombs. The sanctity of marriage has come under siege like no other time, threatening to destroy the moral foundations of our nation. The number being trafficked into the sex industry is growing at an alarming rate. Sexual immorality is reaching epic heights of depravity in our nation.
Meanwhile, the Church of the West, caged by our passivity and compromise is dulled by the “gospel” of cheap grace, leaving it bored, depressed, and disengaged from the great harvest.”
It’s so easy to point fingers at other Christians and say “that sums them up for sure”, but really, it makes me look at the life I’m leading and ask ‘am I living up to my potential, or having I fallen into the trap of going through the motions again’?
I really want to live a life of passion–a radical life of faith. It’s a bit scary when I think about it.
I was recently challenged by a friend of mine to really live what I say I believe. That stopped me a bit…I don’t want to just be lip service and say something but not truly believe it in my core.
Today, yet again, I’ve been reminded of the importance of integrity, and the necessity of living close to the Truth, and standing boldly for it. I want to stay hungry! Today I don’t want to give in to compromise or have a quiescent faith.
I’m so glad today is a new day!!!
