My brother (Jason) and I used to joke (actually we were serious) that we were on a quest for the perfect workout. I would spend hours at the gym trying different things, hours reading magazines and books- looking for the PERFECT WORKOUT. I would ride my bike to the gym before school, after school, and often I would bike back in after dinner. I spent hours in my basement using the equipment down there. My parents wished I worked that hard on my school work.
The idea of a quest is what many of us men dream about. I don’t know what causes us to give up. I still love to work out, and am still learning and searching for the greatest workout of all time, but this is no longer what drives me. I would probably go insane without the intense physical effort daily, but the 24/7 total focus is no longer there. Physical exercise is what makes me feel alive, helps me to live better, but is not the reason for life anymore.
I do have one quest that is totally consuming- I want to understand truth. Not mere christianity, but truth. For years I have tried to fit in to what AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY has for me, but it just does not feed the soul. In fact, I feel like the hope many christians have is to totally deaden the soul, disconnect from what makes you come alive. I can’t do this anymore, and realize my quest for truth has lead me to ‘the world race’.
In preparing for this pilgrimage, this journey, my mind is being altered, I am seeing so many things so differently. Right now I am reading a book by Bill Johnson, ‘The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind’.
Chapter 1 is called ‘Change Your Mind’. It is unnatural for a Christian to not have an appetite for the impossible. He talks of a ‘new Norm’.
“I have come to see that the normal Christian life means miracles, spiritual intervention, and revelation. It means peace, joy, love, a sense of well-being and purpose-all these traits that elude so many Christians. Written into the spiritual DNA of every believer is an appetite for the impossible that cannot be ignored or wished away. The Holy Spirit, the very spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us, making it impossible for us to be content with what we can only see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. Our hearts know there is much more to life than what we perceive with our senses; we are spiritually agitated by the lack of connection with the realm of the supernatural. In the end, nothing satisfies the heart of the Christian like seeing so-called impossibilities bow their knees to the name of Jesus. Anthing less than this is abnormal and unfulfilling.”
“Bad teaching and disappointment have robbed many people of this reality.”
As I read this, I say sign me up. I want to see this. I am so tired of all of this other stuff, I want to see what Bill Johnson says is normal.
