Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52:9-10

First of all, I am so sorry for how long it has been since my last blog. I will do better. God is just steadily bringing people into my life to challenge me and to speak bits of truth.

So . . .

I’ve been going to this church called Bloom. It’s been fantastic, and I love their feel and approach to being the Church. Aside from the beautiful mix of the artistically contemporary and historically liturgical, I just love the philosophy behind what they do.

Here’s the idea: “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:4-5

We as Christians are being used by God, like living stones, to build a place here on earth for God’s kingdom to come. It’s a beautiful image, and one that I think is worth keeping in mind, especially in our dealings with other Christians. What if we believed that God knows what God is doing, and that “He who began a good work” in them will complete it, and is in the process of calling them, and wooing them towards God.

For me, in this time, I’m really trying to learn what trusting in God actually looks like. It may mean learning to trust that I am where God needs me to be, and that other people are where they need to be. That God is actually working in other people’s lives too.

I’ll try and explain:

One of the places in my journey that I think I’m finally growing out of is the place that says,”I’m right, and if you don’t think like I do, I will make you.”

It was a place that served me well, and a mindset through which I learned many things that are really important to my faith, but I think I’m coming to understand it as that—a place where I was, and a place that I needed to pass through to get to where I am.

However, when I’m in this place where I feel the need to convert everyone who thinks differently than I do, and that everyone needs to be passionate about the same things that I’m passionate about, then I’m not really acting like I believe that God is sovereign and working in their lives; giving them their own passions, and taking them on their own journey toward God; even if that journey looks different than mine, or is even coming from a totally different direction.

In humility consider others better than yourselves.

By finding pride in my own understanding, no matter what face I put on in public, I’m not considering others better than myself. And it is my responsibility to love my neighbor, which is hard to do when I think that I know what you’re supposed to believe, or how you’re supposed to worship.

To take it further, God is meant to be experienced in community. That is one of the things the Church is for; that is, for us to share our experiences with God and remind each other that God is at work outside of our own egocentric heads.

God is bigger.

I would ask that those of you who read this pray that God would continue to place those people in my life to grow and challenge me, and that he would give me peace as I continue to seek the next steps in my life.

-grace and peace be yours in abundance