Hello everyone! This is my first post (as I’m sure you are all aware) and I want to just start out by putting a few thoughts on paper (or in a database as it may be).
This past year and a half has really been very exciting and I am very eager to share it with you. I won’t be getting in to any details tonight as I can barely keep my eyes open, but suffice it to say that God has done some incredible things this year which, as I look back, I am shocked to find seem quite normal if I was not paying attention.
Today, however, I want to take a brief moment to just refocus. This has been a busy week and I am feeling very distracted. So as we go into tomorrow, the Lord’s day, and prepare for worship, I would like to take just a moment to reflect.
We are leading the service tomorrow with a new song called No Chains on Me (see above). This is a song that rejoices in our freedom in Christ. One line that sticks out:
Now is the Time
Now is the Time for freedom
Abandon my cold religion
My heart on fire
How often and how easily does our religion turn cold? The moment that we view our Christianity as a task and not as a relationship… SHAZAAAM!! … cold religion. This is something that has been on the back of my mind over the past, well, long time. I can get so busy so easily and I find that I settle into a comfort zone of tasking. Relationships get pushed to the back burner and I am enslaved by the tyranny of the urgent.
Cold religion is simply a description of what our lives are like when we are focused on doing instead of being. And, in a sense, doing so inhibits us from living freely as God has made us.
So, I guess, that is my constant challenge; to remember that living free is not about the amount of free time I have in the day but rather living free is about taking advantage of the time that God has given us by focusing on being who God has made us to be instead of being distracted by the tasks that occupy that time.