Journeys

There are a couple of things, that as I have grown in my world, I have discovered a couple of things about life that for the most part help spur a personal relationship with Christ. After a time of searching, I realized that my own personal search was actually a journey. Since then I have helped a couple of individuals get to the point where they finally make the connection with Jesus teachings and their lives. I have decided to post the journey in a couple of brief parts.

The first part of my journey simply started by doing one of the hardest things I had to do. I stripped myself of my relationship. Unfortunately, this girl did not support my decision and that friendship was forever broken. This sent me into a small fall down and then BOOM! The start of my journey came with a look in the mirror and a vow to my wife. FIRST STEP ALERT! The first step is to look in the mirror (metaphorically or physically) and realize what your struggle is. What is the one thing holding you back? What is that one thing, that when you get going, brings you right back to square one? WRITE IT DOWN! Do it right now! Do not have a pen? Take mine! If you are serious about getting Jesus to be center of your life, you have to figure out what is currently taking that spot. Some people it is pride, for others it is sexual sin, for others it is loneliness, for others it is insecurity, for others it is a desire to have attention. It does not matter what it is as long as you understand whatever that hurdle is, it is taking the center stage and it is making it difficult to get closer to Christ.

The second thing that I did in my journey was I started running, physically and spiritually. I got into a mind-set that I was going to run after the right answers to the right questions. To accomplish this was a two-fold process. First thing was simple, I had to be able to match something physical to what I was going through spiritually. I began to focus on my health. I started to run. I wanted this to track with how I was doing spiritually. I wanted to start small and end the journey being able to run consistently. This is something I suggest. Attach the physical to the spiritual. The second part to accomplish this was I had to have the correct venue in which to grow. What a lot of people, which is the nice way of saying, what a lot of Christians will tell you is to read your Bible. I grew up in  Christian school system. I knew the Bible, clearly at this moment that was not what I needed personally. Prior to breaking up with the girl I was with at the time I started, she and her friends had told me about a pastor named Andy Stanley. I have referenced him in the past. You can follow the link on his name to his churches’ website for messages or get them FREE on itunes. I chose the free option on itunes. Podcasts! Perfect solution to my issue. I started to listen to him speak. I started with one of his sermons that stated a simple question, “What is the wise thing to do?”. Profound? Absolutely, because no one was asking me this question. Another thing I did was read Wild at Heart by John Elderedge. This book greatly helped me as well.

The third thing I started to do was journal. OH MAN! Journal like crazy. If you are a blogger, you should still journal your experience. There is something deeply personal about attaching your penmanship to your heart through a journal. You will want to carve out time during your journey every month, week, or even day if you are extreme and share exactly what is going on in your world. I remember reading my journal a year later and being shocked at what I was writing during these days. I have to admit, I was shocked at how profound it was. I felt smart. I had not felt that way ever.

As you can safely assume, I started to want to read my Bible. Did you catch that? I wanted to know God deeper. I desired it. Not only did I want to know God deeper, but I began to get desperate as if I needed to know God deeper. I hope you saw the switch of word. I needed to know what God intended for my world. I needed to know where he wanted me. I needed to know what God said about wisdom, about love, about all sorts of things. Naturally the need for this information fused with the desire for this information and birthed my need and want for God’s guidance, and more importantly His word the Bible.

This process was predetermined to take 6 months by me, and I started almost 2 years ago now, and I’m not even remotely done. The few things that have changed. In that 6 months I decided for me it was best to not be in a relationship. I stayed away from girls in general for a long time. I started putting up guidelines and rules protecting myself from certain destruction and failure.

More on this topic in the future for sure.