Saturday, January 9, 2016

Hamster Wheel

Sometimes life feels a bit like a hamster wheel.

God teaches me something once. I forget. He teaches me again. I forget again. I'm running in circles. Running in place.

Maybe that's part of the reason I have been kind of quiet here for a while. I haven't had anything witty or poignant or insightful to say. What I've been learning is what I've already known.

Christ must be the focus of my life.

This life is just so incredibly distracting. I go to Bible college to learn how to serve God better. And while I'm there I learn to love the state where I'm living, I take on new hobbies, new friends, and suddenly all these side attractions--these perks God has allowed in my service to Him--become the main thing in my mind. I start seeking to please my friends before my God. I want to learn more about my new hobbies more than I want to study God's Word. I look for new scenery rather than new people to serve.

I've been encouraged by Francis Chan's book Crazy Love lately. I haven't finished it yet, but as I sit and read, I've realized that the life I'm living is only a pale reflection of what true Christian living is supposed to be. Christianity was never meant to be something I do or one label among many. It is to be my entire identity and purpose.

It's daunting. And the truth is, I can't do it on my own.

I'm just thankful that as I seek Him, the God I serve remodels my life into what He desires.

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

So what's to be said about that hamster wheel? Am I really running in place?

Sometimes. But only when I'm running in my own strength.

There is victory in Christ.

Only in Christ.

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