As this year began, I prayed and continue to pray that God will work with me this year to show me how to better a better husband to my wife, child to my parents, brother to my siblings, employee to my employer and all around better person. I pray that by December of this year I am “unrecognizably different” in my total character and including my physical body (by way of exercise and proper eating.) It didn’t occur to me that this change hurts or is uncomfortable a bit at times.
God has indeed been keeping his end of the bargain… almost daily. He will illuminate a situation or something that I said or did that needs to be adjusted in my life. Several times within these short weeks in conversations with my wife the Lord has pointed out something that I should not have said or did, even things that seem somewhat innocuous. Even when I am right, when I react “in the flesh” that makes me wrong. And there are other tough lessons that I am learning. And sometimes it is somewhat embarrassing. I even asked God in the shower today that is there a way that he can show me how to get better without seemingly eroding my credibility with those around me when I make a fool of myself.
To which he reminded me not to be ashamed when he allows my reactions to bubble up to the top because it is at that time that I can see them and he can shed light on them… and I can see them and change. I understand this now. And it does hurt a little. The Lord helped to seal this lesson as I woke up and headed to the gym at 5am this morning. I haven’t been in the gym in that capacity in years and as I went through my workout it was uncomfortable and even painful. I was exhausted. But that is the cost of change. It takes exercise and one day it will be comfortable and second nature.
Change is not change until it’s changed, but the uncomfortable journey to that change is a necessary thing. And I have to learn to embrace it.
I found this somewhere, I don’t know where so forgive me for not giving the proper credit…
I have a love/hate relationship with sappy jokes. These are real sappy but here is a few jokes if college students wrote the bible:
Loaves and Fishes replaced by Pizza and Chips
Ten Commandments are actually only five, but because they are double-spaced and written in a large font, they look like ten.
Forbidden fruit would have been eaten because it wasnt dorm food.
Pauls Letters to the Romans become Pauls E-Mail to the Romans.
Reason Cain killed Abel: They were roommates. The place where the end of the world occurs, not the Plains of Armageddon, rather Finals.
Tower of Babel blamed for Foreign Language requirement. Reason why Moses and followers walked in desert for 40 years: They didnt want to ask directions and look like a Freshman.
Instead of God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, He would have put it off until the night before it was due and then pulled an all-nighter and hoped no one noticed.
I decided to finally put legs to the thing that I believe God has put on my heart to do for the last couple years. I am going to go and start this Bible Study/College Ministry on Georgia State University campus. It’s not something I haven’t done before. I have done this sort of thing for over 5 years in the past. The only difference that made it a little easier was because I was a student at the time so I was already on campus and had a network of people. Now I am starting from scratch. It’s been so long since I’ve been in college that anybody that I would know there has graduated.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when I reached out to a few people on Twitter and they let me know that either they support it and will be there or that they have graduated but will pass the word along. So I look forward to next Thursday.
Here are the details:
Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at Georgia State University Student Center 3rd floor lounge at 7pm
