Keeping it clean

This is so ironic…

Over the years, I have developed this habit of buying nice things, like a pair of shoes and being so afraid of getting them dirty that I’ve never worn them. They might not ever get ruined, but they will never accomplish what they were built to do. 

Too many people live life like that. God gave you a brain. He gave you an imagination. Gifts. A personality. Yet you let the most ridiculous things keep you from living life with intensity and passion. Making excuses for not having the things that we want or think we want. 

Not too long ago, I talked with a man in his forties who told me that if he could go back, he would want to be a Bible teacher. So, naturally, I asked him, “Why don’t you…” Then, I heard a lot of excuses: " Why not? I am too old. I have a family now. I don’t have the energy I used to…etc. 

Yeah, dude! Cause that is what you want to teach your kids! Teach them that life is mostly about settling. That the “adult” thing to do is to live the exact same year 50 times over and call it a life. Meandering through, like an old dog who just wants to be alone and die. 

WHAT!? 

It just seems to me like we settle far too much in life and then spiritualize it by saying it is “faithfulness.” It’s NOT faithfulness. It’s fear. Let’s just call it what it is. I believe some of God’s greatest blessings are not just around the corner they are actually right where we think they are…at the top of the hardest mountain you’ll ever have to climb. But we, being lazy, decide to coast to whatever finish line we have dreamed up in our own little soft minds. 

No. What I would dream for you is to make the climb. Buy the supplies. Make a plan. Burn the ships and go. From there, anything could happen. You might not want or like the thing you thought you did. But maybe you’ll find something else that’s even better. And you know what you’ll discover? That the thing that we always tried to avoid was the very thing that made us feel most alive. PAIN. There is something about having to endure and fight for what you want without the guarantee that you’ll get it. 

And that is taking those new shoes out of the box, putting them on your feet, and living your life the way it was built to be lived. 

Enough is enough. 

How much different would your life look if you actually took to heart the one thing that Jesus always said…

D O. N O T. B E. A F R A I D.