God is Patient with Us
New Life Ranch's summer theme of 2008 was Identity. Most of the time, it only takes a month or so to catch myself verbalizing what I'm currently learning in the words of the past summer's theme.
A year ago I would have told you I knew exactly who I was and would have had no doubts about it. So, three, four, even five months passed after Identity '08 and the word identity couldn't have been further from my lips when conversing with people about what God was teaching me.
I guess it just needed time.
Perhaps, my pride needed to fall. Perhaps, I just wasn't ready.
January 1st rang in a new year, but it also rang in a new lesson for me to learn. All of the sudden I caught myself talking to people about identity. At one point I felt as if mine had been erased and I had no idea who I was. Then God spoke through a friend of mine and said "You know who you are." My first reaction was "No, I don't!" But then I heard that Still Small Voice whisper to me "Yes, you do."
All this seems pretty vague, I'm sure, and at times it is even to me, but these past couple of months have got me celebrating. I am following God in a time of intense identity rediscovery/spiritual formation. When I came out to Denver Seminary I thought I was pursuing a MA in Spiritual Formation to learn how to guide other people, but now I see that God brought me to Denver Seminary to be guided into spiritual formation.
Wiping away the dust and grime from one's insecurities that have become one's safety net allowing God to reveal who He made underneath is scary, beautiful, mysterious, and joyous.
Where this journey leads tomorrow I do not know, but I'm living it.
grace and peace.
A year ago I would have told you I knew exactly who I was and would have had no doubts about it. So, three, four, even five months passed after Identity '08 and the word identity couldn't have been further from my lips when conversing with people about what God was teaching me.
I guess it just needed time.
Perhaps, my pride needed to fall. Perhaps, I just wasn't ready.
January 1st rang in a new year, but it also rang in a new lesson for me to learn. All of the sudden I caught myself talking to people about identity. At one point I felt as if mine had been erased and I had no idea who I was. Then God spoke through a friend of mine and said "You know who you are." My first reaction was "No, I don't!" But then I heard that Still Small Voice whisper to me "Yes, you do."
All this seems pretty vague, I'm sure, and at times it is even to me, but these past couple of months have got me celebrating. I am following God in a time of intense identity rediscovery/spiritual formation. When I came out to Denver Seminary I thought I was pursuing a MA in Spiritual Formation to learn how to guide other people, but now I see that God brought me to Denver Seminary to be guided into spiritual formation.
Wiping away the dust and grime from one's insecurities that have become one's safety net allowing God to reveal who He made underneath is scary, beautiful, mysterious, and joyous.
Where this journey leads tomorrow I do not know, but I'm living it.
grace and peace.
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