Jesus Didn't Journal...

What makes us each individuals?  As different as we are, how do we learn to deal with one another?  What is it we are created to be?  In John Ortberg's book The Me I Want To Be we discover how we each have our own identity.  God creates masterpieces, not appliances...we are not mass produced.  Each one of us has the thumb prints of God all over us and no two of us are exactly alike. 

I find myself in comparison a lot of times.  I see a close friend spending hours of quiet time reading and I see how God brings them to life, or maybe a good friend will go for a hike and they seem to be thriving in life.  The truth of the matter is what works for them may not work for me.  My identity is found in Christ and not in anyone around me.  I could be holier but God also wants me to be "youier".  He created me as Matt Tudor.  Not too long ago I came out of a shell that I have lived like a hermit in for a while...21 years actually.  I realized that the life God has blessed me with is exactly that!  IT"S A BLESSING!  I began to do more things that Matt likes to do.  I walked the walk and talked the talk so to speak.  However, this "walk and talk" was the very thing God created me to do!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I do as I please and I have freedom to anything, but I have realized how I thrive.  If you ask me to go be alone for days and not talk much, maybe read a book and ponder, the fact is that's not me!  I thrive in groups and by having deep relationships with others.  Sure, I have my quiet time in the Word and spend my alone time with God but that doesn't discredit my ability to love and care for others because that itself is a spiritual gift and that is where I sense our Father most. 

I encourage you to challenge yourself for a week.  Break down society's wall that is put in front of you in this life and begin to flourish!  Come alive with Christ and find what your gifts are and how you thrive and how you love.  God created us out of His love and that is what He wants us to encourage others with, but we must find out how to effectively show this love by dicovering who we are in Christ.  Mother Teresa used to say, "If you can't do great things, do little things with great love. If you can't do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can't do them with a little love, do them anyway. Love grows when people serve." 

Life is a dance you don't want to miss.  It's the time we have now to serve our Father.  This life is merely a small period compared to our future home in His Kingdom but we are investing in it now!  How many times do we just miss the dance? How many times do we turn away and shrug our shoulders because we’re tired, or lonely, or forgot why we even cared in the first place? The world is a big and scary place sometimes. Without each other none of us would learn how to dance the way God planned.  I will end with a quote from John Ortberg that inspired much of this topic.  "I don’t want to miss the dance. I get hung up on so many things in life, worrying about what I will never do or achieve or have. But I don’t want to miss the dance. I want to love my spouse, care for my kids, and give life to my friends. I want to do the work God made me to do. I want to love God and the world he made. I want to do my part to help it flourish, for my spiritual maturity is not measured by following rules. “The me God made me to be” is measured by my capacity to love. When we live in love, we flourish. That is the dance."

Confessions Worth Noting

Thanks to my friend Cassie (link to her blog), I have created a blog.  Here's to a new "xanga"...not really.

Much of my days are spent wondering what more I could do to be interactive with the Word of God.  My walk with the Lord is personal to me but is by no means private.  After talking with Cassie, she encouraged me that this would be a good thing for me to have to share my thoughts and experiences with Christ as I come to know Him more and more everyday and keep His Word alive in my life.  I pray that as I write these blogs that they may be a blessing to those who read, and I look forward to getting responses from those who would like to respond.  Anyways, I am excited to share my life with you all and how I am being used as a tool in the hand of our Creator to spread the Good News.

Blessings!