Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Doer: the person who does something

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

Nothing ruins your plans to go to sleep early like being wide awake. Well actually, it's being so wide awake that you decide to check social media and see an adorable photo of a super sweet guy kissing a baby (if you're reading this, aca-awkward). It's in that moment that I realized I was not at Passion anymore.

For those of you who don't know, I spent the weekend in Atlanta at Passion. There I got so close to God that it felt like me and God were in our own little bubble. But, now, the bubble seems to have burst. I feel like a little kid who tries to blow this really huge bubble only to have their sibling stick their finger through it and end up with a sticky face.

But, then, something happened. I opened Pandora. I don't really know why. It was either that or play "Dear John, " by T Swizzle, and considering I haven't listened to that song in about a year (not on purpose anyway), I decided to leave it be. But, anyway, I digress. So, I opened Pandora and my Andrew Ripp radio was playing. He has an amazing voice, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was that his song "Peace Like a River" came on. No, this is not a Christian song, but one of my best friends shared it with me just because (without knowing I had the some of the toughest weeks of my life). In this moment, it was pure comfort. Because you know who planned that song just then, God. 

It was in that moment that I realized the bubble was still there. God is just waiting on me to continue drawing closer to Him. This past weekend we sang many amazing songs. One song repeated the lines "I draw near, I draw near to you. You draw near, you draw near to me." God didn't stop chasing after me this weekend. I just needed a reminder that I needed to draw near to Him. He is still surrounding me with comfort and peace just as He did this weekend.

The only problem is that when you aren't surrounded by 20,000 other people who are worshipping with you, it becomes a little harder to focus. For those of you who don't know me, my mind runs a hundred miles a minute. I'm usually thinking about either how attractive some boy is or how much is on my to-do list, and if it's the month of January, my birthday. This makes me sound really self-absorbed. Maybe I should clarify, these are typically what occupy my mind when I'm alone. When I'm surrounded by others, I'm usually good at focusing on them, okay I'm alright at focusing on them. Unless it's January, then I'm probably thinking, "Should I invite them to my birthday dinner or nah?" But, anyway, hundred miles a minute. I get so caught up in myself, even when I'm reading my Bible or praying. But this weekend, I was surrounded by people all doing the same thing: drawing closer to God. And, we learned a lot. But just like all that has been learned, it needs to be applied. God reminded me tonight that the things I learned at Passion needed to be applied in order for them to mean something.

We all go through these points in our life. We all have a really awesome church service and we leave and that's about it. We don't carry that feeling over for the rest of the week. We don't let what we learn encourage us to apply it. And, if I've learned anything in my education classes, application is an awesome learning tool. Students thrive off of it. Not applying something, is not okay. As a future teacher, if my  students know how to work a pedigree but have no idea how to determine the percentage of someone being born color-blind or how it could impact future generations, what does it matter? What does it matter if God is trying to teach us something and we don't apply it? I'm speaking as much to myself as anybody. So much so, that this weekend I told my family group at Passion that my relationship with Christ was suffering because of my lack of application. I read my Bible daily and attend church, lead Bible Study, and go to FCA every week, and God teaches me all of these awesome things. But I seldom apply them. I find comfort in them. I write them down in pretty fonts. I hang them on my bulletin board, and there they stay. I refuse to do this anymore and I don't want this for you either. I don't want whoever is reading this to say, "Yeah, that's such a great idea" and then never give it another thought. So can we all just make a promise, that we will start applying things? That we will let God use us for whatever? That we will draw near to God so that He can draw near to us? I am out of room to pin things on my bulletin board but I am not out of things to apply. Things that will make me a better Christian. Things that will help me draw near to Christ.

We need to stop quoting and start doing.

Be the person who does something about what God is trying to teach them. Be a doer.