Hello from Honduras!
God really hit me hard in a beautiful way a few weeks ago. I had been really craving something huge to happen with God, something that I had never experienced or dreamt about before.
I was sitting with God one morning, wondering why I wasn’t getting wrecked for God. Wondering why my heart wasn’t breaking for these people, why I wasn’t crying, or feeling like I was experiencing something I never had before. I thought, “shouldn’t I be experiencing more? Isn’t there something else? Somewhere I should be with God because I’m in a new country, on the world race?”
I thought back to a challenge my teammate Mindy gave us a few weeks ago, to come up with 3 challenges or goals that we wanted to accomplish with God these next 11 months.
“Alright God, what sounds like a good goal? What at the end of this race do I want to be true of my life? What would I love to have you do in my life? What do I want to walk away with at the very least? Something Crazy and Amazing?”
God surprised me in his answer, he didn’t bring up anything new, but rather he brought up something old. something that I had been doing and loving for years, but had recently forgotten about.
“Enjoy Me Jake. Love Me Jake.”
See this had and has been the basis of my relationship with God for years. Sitting down, getting with Jesus to enjoy his presence. Just connect with God. Then let him take me from there. I have loved this in the past so much I even rewrote the word ENJOII with two ii’s because it is more enjoyable to write.
So it wasn’t about a schedule, or getting blown away, or even being broken for people, it was about enjoiing a savior and lover. I couldn’t be happier. So thats what I did that day, just sit in Gods presence and have fun with Jesus. That is what I have done sense, And it is wonderful : )
God dropped goal #2 in a similar way. “Enjoii and love on my people, and the life I have given you today.” This was also a relief, I was putting so much into trying to figure out the reason I was in these specific countries, that I forgot the reasons I was in these countries. –> To love on and enjoii these people, to enjoii life here to the fullest.
Maybe that looks like pouring into people, grieving, having fun, maybe just getting to know them. Playing soccer, laughing, eating great market foods, anything that God has blessed this culture and my day with. Just enjoii, soak it all in, because it is good. I wasn’t doing any of that with a good heart because I was so ready for something unreal to happen to me.
My favorite C.S. Lewis quote from his book The Weight of Glory.
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering natureof the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C.S. Lewis agrees, enjoii God life and people even more than we have imagined possible in the past.
The 3rd goal dropped in my lap when I thought about what I would be great with if I did every day for a whole year.
- Enjoii and love God.
- Enjoii and love life and people today.
- Ask “what’s next Jesus”.
Simple. No schedule, no guidelines, no expectations, just Jesus.
“What would you have me do with the day you have given me God?”
Forget about something crazy and amazing happening. If I was blessed enough to be able to enjoii God, life and people and ask what’s next for a whole year that is enough. In fact, more that enough, that is crazy and amazing in it’s self.
Enjoii today,
Jake
