Many of the people that know me, know that I am a very passionate person.  When I believe in something or someone, it is never with half a heart.  I believe in going all in or not going at all.  For the biggest part of my life, I thought I was taking risks and the reality was, that I was playing it safe, while appearing to take risk and live by faith.  My life today is very different and while I still have a long way to go, I can say that I am on the journey – a journey of grace and it is amazing.

A few years ago, God began to rock my world by teaching me that almost everything that I thought I understood, was fatally flawed.  It was not that I did not have a belief system,  I had a very good and very well thought out belief system.  A system so good in fact, that I actually believed that I was that good man in the three piece suit.  But then the Spirit began to point out areas of hypocrisy in my life and before I knew it, I discovered that the real estate of my life was being held in the wrong hands.

I started thinking, praying and trying to figure out how I was going to make right my wrongs and just ended up making a bigger mess than what I began with and then life happened.  What seemed like some of the greatest challenge of my life, was really opportunity to step out of the false comfort zone of my own creating and into an amazing life of faith.  This was not an overnight occurrence, but more like a journey of a thousand miles that began with the first step.

A couple of things that I am learning:

#1 “I still have so much to learn!”  I am not anywhere near where I need to be in this journey, but I am glad that I for the first time in a long time, can say with honesty and assurance that I am making progress.  And my progress is not about anything that I have done, but what I have allowed and am allowing the Spirit to do to and through me.

#2 “Living a life of obedience to Christ is not easy!”  It often means stepping, no running away from everything that we have been taught that is wrong and learning to embrace a totally new way of life.  It often means leaving what you thought were friends behind and be willing to walk all alone if you have to.  The good news is this – God shows you who your friends really are!

It means that popular is something that you will never have to worry about being.  We will have to say goodbye to comfort that we have become accustomed to.  We may have to risk our health and what we think is sanity.  Wealth is something that you will learn to define in a new way, not with money, bank accounts or possessions, but with life, peace and blessing.

Real obedience to Christ runs the risk of our losing everything, but the reward of gaining what really matters.  I am learning that Jesus is more than enough.  I say that I am learning, because I am not anywhere near where I need to be, but I am on a journey and while it is sometimes very hard, it is almost always very rewarding and always blessed!