I have not been here for a while.

A few weeks ago I went back packing for 6 days, I learned a lot.

Let me fill you in on me.... God has caught my eye in a big way and

I have a lot of life to examine.

When I do something I really do it, I process, I get consumed. And God is that topic for me. You see, I have been completely ruined in a good way. Do you know that feeling that leaves you in total awe, shocked, surprised, terrified, angry, confused but relieved. God is that topic for me.

I have to back up a bit.

I grew up around God, it was apart of my environment. Personally, I thought this God thing was over rated and more of an obligation but more than anything I didn't give it much attention, so i just went with the flow.

I went on to graduate high school and i figured I should know something useful just in case i needed to fall back on something, so I learned a trade. Years, jobs, classes, traveling, people go by and God was cool but I still thought He was small and I wasn't impressed.

I had a conversation (prayer) that went something like ..."god i respect you but are you worth it? Would you let me know if you're real or just an obligation? I need to know if I'm wasting my time"

2 weeks later God answered my prayer: that changed every aspect of life; I didn't see it coming and I'm still trying to understand that as well as live my life. I have been occupied the last few years. I got pounded, but at least I know Im not wasting my time. (and what if thats the point of living?)

If God was real, how would it change things for you?

starting over

There are times we want to start over in life. I am not one of those "I have no regrets" type of person. There are things I would like a redo on. In case you are someone who wants a redo on something, here you can have my notes....

When you start over:
know what you are not going to do, Have a picture if you're visual. then know what you are replacing it with.
I have been trying to accept the whole starting over thing, its hard. My identity has always been in what i did. That was who i was and nothing could change that.

Accept the new. But other than new things what does that even look like? A new car, job, house, vacation or shirt doesn't do much at all for redoing, it just changes the outside, and that's cheap.

I actually have a lot of new now , so who I was cannot be my identity anymore. After fighting that reality for a long time, I have reached the conclusion that the only thing to do that made sense is to start over.

How do you start over?

1) Know that to live the best is to get your identity in who God says you are in His word.
Do some reading and some praying. He knows you better than anyone.

2) Next, get a solid foundation to build your life on, that will lead you to love (not feminizing life, ironically,it is the back bone of life, before the muscles go on) without love nothing you do matters (1 cor 13, ecclisiastes). I see how true that is so be a ridiculously strong person and love.

3) Now, you'll need some purpose or you'll go insane, so read 'purpose driven life' - rick warren or something that emphasizes purpose (I'm also a fan of Rob Bell) - know your purpose. We are all unique human beings so its going to be something you are interested in or will be after your identity is in God. Doesn't necessarily mean being a "Nun" or a "Gandhi" or rich, but you will have peace and that is priceless.

4) expect Life, ( ) peaceful, joyful Life because you now have a solid foundation, and a relationship with your creator who is pretty strong and smart and funny. Now there is no need to complain but we still can and will, just know that God is there. Get in an accountability group so you can be around people who challenge you and care. Don't be a person who just consumes all this life and does nothing with it or you will turn on yourself. Too much of a good thing does that.

*you can expand these into more specifics or make them more complicated. I am not telling anyone how to live because I actually would have issues with that. I notice, that in 2010 we have no idea how to live and its getting harder to see life.
If you want the best then do it His way.
If you don't, your foundation looks like this....