Game Changer

Hello again!

     It's time for an update! I am officially in my Denver CW house and ready for the summer. Last night as I sat out on the front porch in the cool night air, I looked around the neighborhood and looked at the city skyline a few blocks away and thought to myself how incredible my God is with the way He is orchestrating everything all the time. There are just some things in your life that you cannot deny must be part of God's plan because they just fit so perfectly, and that is where I am.
     While I was preparing to come, I was nervous and anxious about giving up some of the selfish conveniences I'm used to like running to the store to buy whatever it is I'm impulsively desiring at the moment or doing whatever I feel like doing whenever I feel like doing it. But now that I'm here, and I've met everyone, I'm just excited to be part of this community/family. I've started looking at life and the world in a little different way. I feel almost like a spectator looking at my habits and ways of life from the outside and realizing that so much of what I do and what I strive for is all part of a societal game. My perception of the goal of this game is that I should have a job, make money, spend money on lots of things like new clothes, newer technology, etc. all for the pleasure and success of myself. In order to achieve that I have had to harden my heart to the needs of others and be selectively blind to the brokenness of people so I can focus on my own game. I can't deny that even now part of me still desires those things, but they seem less shiny and more empty from out here.  In Ezekiel 11, God is going to bring His people back from exile and this is what He tells them, "An I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart." I feel the need to get out of this game of self-seeking, not because I think those things are wrong or evil, but because I can't run the race God has asked me to run for Him while I'm carrying all that stuff. I'm still figuring out what this looks like and how the idea will manifest in my life, but I'm excited for the uncomfortable shift.
    God's peace and love to you!