Three Phrases for 2012

In the circles that I run, it's become a meaningful exercise to identify three words to help focus your days and efforts heading into the new year. This is my first go at it, but I'm amending the exercise a bit. 

Instead of words, I'm opting for phrases. I guess I just need the extra clarity or don't have the discipline to edit down what I write. And speaking of not editing, here are some initial thoughts on my three phrases: 

Obedience over Comfort

  • The point of life isn't ease or comfort. And by way of cultural indulgence and creeping conformity, that has become my default mode of living in many areas. Efficiency and (perceived) necessity. Safety. God calls us to be many things - holy being the main one.  But specifically, we are to be patient, kind, generous, loving, selfless, forgiving... My disobedience in these things is because it has been more comfortable for me not to do them. I'd like to say it's not because I don't believe in them, but if I truly believed in them, I'd already live them out, no? I need to choose to pour myself out and to live out every one of the beliefs I profess to hold. I want to be uncomfortable by way of choosing against my own comfort in order to be obedient to what God is calling me to do and to be. 
  • It feels a little dangerous to say "I want to live uncomfortably" (because it could get real around here if God takes me up on it), but I guess that's where it begins. I want to live a life that really seeks comfort from God - not from what I can cobble together with my own hands. I want to find comfort in and from God alone. As Francis Chan says: "Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the 'Helper' or 'Comforter.' Let me ask you a simple question: Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?"

Letting Hope and Joy Flourish

  • These things should pour out of anyone who aims to serve God and follow Jesus. I'm not sure how I've gotten this far along without feeling the conviction that we are all called to be people of hope and joy - unconditionally. God is good, He is faithful, and I need to let that exude from me every single day.

Expanding the Borders

  • I have lived in Oklahoma for a little more than a year now. And for someone who is (or at least was) an adventerous, people-loving, whimsical fellow, it's shocking how few people I've come to know and interact with, how often I simply "stay in", and how few adventures I've plotted. Time to kick the dust off the tires.

 

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