I thought I was going on an adventure with Jesus when I started the race. While that may have been true in the physical form, I found that it wasn’t true in the spiritual realm. It wasn’t long until I realized that I was doing the same spiritual routine that I do at home scattered across the globe. Meaning I was confining God to my unlined pages in my journal, and a few hours in the morning. That was the time slot I gave God and the rest of the day consisted of my own tangled thoughts.
On a cool and foggy morning in Swaziland, I dragged my body to a rock on the side of a desert land. As I looked out at the view that was lingering below me, I felt the need to sing praises to the Lord. If you don’t already know this, I am not one gifted with a voice that anyone would want to hear. Looking to my right, to my left and glancing behind me, I agreed to the voice that asked for praise. Entering into the realm where it becomes me and One other, I hear a whisper; “break Me out of the box you put me in”. That sentence hung over me for weeks and to be honest I am still unpacking that box with Him.
A few days later, I was challenged by two of my teammates to not journal for the whole month. It’s funny how God uses the people around you to help push you into something that He really wants you to grasp with Him. Grudgingly, I agreed to challenge. I would be lying if I told you it wasn’t hard for me. It is never easy to hand something over where you have the control and can hide underneath your cozy security blanket.
Moving forward, I asked God to show me His vastness – to explode my view of Him and reveal to me just how big and mighty He is. To show me different dimensions of who He is and unknown realms that I have not yet tasted. As I wrote my last letter to Him, He gave me the word Explore. Immediately my mind started racing and my heart started laughing. “Are you asking me to come Explore more of you, Jesus?” I took the silence mixed with excitement as a yes.
Suddenly, I was thrilled to travel down this foreign road with Him; breaking down the walls built inside my soul and allowing myself to be led into a jungle where He is my guide. It’s been about a month and half since I received these instructions and I am still in the preface of the exploration. Instead of restricting my time with Jesus to my morning hours and white pages, I allow Him to move me into communion, asking Him, “what do you want me to do today? Where do you want me to look? What do you want me to see? Show me a different side of You.” As I have hacked away at this idea, I find something new everyday; big and small.
It has propelled me into a different outlook; a deeper well, a more intriguing and flamboyant walk of life. Jesus has opened a new door for me to look behind. But this time, I have the sense that the door is not just a life lesson or a different conviction. No. This time it is meant to be carried for life.
A life style that allows Jesus to be who HE is. A life style that is focused on discovering more of HIS heart, HIS passions, HIS dreams and desires for the world, HIS heart ache, HIS wisdom and depth, HIS excitement and wonder. Bringing me to the thought of, who am I to focus so plainly on myself? My qualifications, accomplishments, my desires, my persona.
No. No. No. Enough of me. I’m tired of me. If it’s just me, then I am bland and I reach an end to my depth. But with Jesus, oh how much sweeter life gets. Everything becomes so much more captivating and exuberant because He has no depth. He cannot be contained. Doesn’t that just shatter your mind in itself?
God literally cannot be contained by any means of measurement; He is never ending.
Which means, we will spend our lives learning something new from Him every single day….if we allow Him the space to do so in our lives. If we would just let go of our stubbornness and arrogance and let the Creator of us step in and take over the farming of everything that is planted inside of our garden.
I get this image of a four year old child, placed in the middle of a forest. The child isn’t just going to stand there, picking it’s nose. Nonsense. The child would run barefoot to feel the grass and mud squish beneath its feet. The little tater tot is going to run through the trees, gazing up into the sky with innocent wonder. It’s going to look under rocks, searching for new and unusual critters and slimy worms. It’s going to walk across fallen trees, hanging above the water, providing a beam for endless curiosity and risk.
Are we not the children of God? Are we not to play on earth like the children of God? (See Luke 18:15-17 & Romans 8:16 NIV) Why take yourself so seriously? The things of this world are going to waste away anyways. Don’t you want to know more about the God that knit you together for 9 months inside your mothers womb? The God that created earth in 7 days? The God that heals the sick, gives the blind their sight, and restores the paralyzed to run free? Do you not wonder about a life, where there is more to be received? Aren’t you thirsty for richer mineral water, rather than the classic tap water?
There is so much more exploring to do. There are realms that we have not yet seen. Let God show you more of who He is. Don’t fall for the lie that this is all there is to life. There is a life time of exploration that you can do with Jesus and I would bet that you won’t get bored. If you do, then go to Jesus, because if you steward the Spirit that He gave you well, then He will continue to show you the mysteries of who He is.
I’ll leave you with this one question: If you could choose one thing to be known for, one thing that would distinguish you from everyone else, what would it be?
“You can’t crave for something sweet if something sweet doesn’t exist. In the same way, the hunger for more in God testifies that more actually exists and is available” (Hosting the Presence, Bill Johnson). ”
All those angles, they are swimming, in this Ocean, and still they can find no shore. Day and night, night and day, we keep seeing NEW sides of Your face” (Endless ocean, Jonathan David & Melissa Hesler).
