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!

It seems that the older we get, the harder it is to let go of things.  But we must learn to let go and the best way to learn is by practicing a little letting go everyday.  In order to let go, you have to trust that someone or something.  Letting go is not easy, but you cannot enjoy the peace that you were created to live in, with clenched fists.

As we learn that God has got this – whatever “this” is, then we will begin to relax and open our hands, so that we might take hold of some new and better things that He has in store for us.  All hell can be breaking loose around you, and you can be calm, cool and collected, if you can learn to “let go and let God!”

It is not the absence of strife that brings peace, it is the presence of our Creator in the midst of strife that brings peace and peace opens the door for blessings to flow.  Our Creator has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, therefore we will never ever have to face anything alone, so we can let go of whatever we have allowed to become false security for us and grab hold of and enjoy the embrace of our Maker.

It is a blessing to know that every step of the way, He is holding my hand and leading me to live blessed!

This time of year is a great time to be reminded of the blessing of waiting.  We don’t think of waiting as a blessing, because most of us want it and want it now, but waiting is actually a good thing.  One of my most special memories as a boy was going to my Grandma’s and looking through the Sears and J.C. Penny Catalogs and thinking about what I might get for Christmas.  I would draw circles around that things that I was hoping that Santa would bring and I would always get the same advice:  “You will just have to wait and see!”  I can honestly tell you, that I was never disappointed.  Looking back, I did not get everything that I circled, not even close, but I always got something special and many times, it was better than what I had circled.

While we don’t like to wait, wait is exactly what we need to do a lot of times, because it is in the waiting that our Creator is able to do some work on and in us that needs to be done.  When we learn to wait on our Creator, we learn to direct our attention and live in hopeful anticipation of what can be.  This grows our faith, which allows all kinds of amazing things to happen in and through our lives.

Waiting helps me to get better at trusting, not just with a part of me, but with every ounce of my being.  I don’t have to figure everything out.  I don’t always have to have the answer.  I was designed to wait and in the wait is when my design begins to function miraculously.

Our Creator has promised that when we wait on Him, He will renew our strength – enabling us to live above our circumstances, empowered by His blessed hope and encouraged by His continual presence.  My waiting shows my dependence and my willingness to do His will above my own, showing that I trust Him above any and everything else.

So, what is your big hurry?  Take some time to enjoy the wait, because the waiting allows us to enjoy Him and helps us to live blessed!