Discovery!

Discovery!

As I’m writing this, I am sitting in the upstairs bedroom of a 300 year-old home in Leominster, Massachusetts, which is just outside of Boston. Leominster will be my home for twelve weeks as I complete a pastoral internship at New Life Church. So far, my experience here has been very educational and I have been very busy (in a good way) working with the staff and church. Most of the tasks that I have had to perform and events that I have had to be involved with have taught me a lot about how a professional workplace operates. I have also had to meet a lot of new people and remember a lot of new names. I have a handful of new surface level friends that I am sure will develop into great friendships over the summer. However, there is someone here with me whom I have already gotten to know very well over the past two weeks. That person is….me. (A bit ironic right?) In the midst of meeting new people and trying to make new friends, I have actually gotten to know Austin Westlake better than ever. To be completely honest, I have learned more about myself in the past two weeks, than I have learned in the past two years combined. I have learned that I love to read, I have learned that I love to explore, I have learned that I love hot coffee in the mornings and iced-coffee in the afternoons (also learned, “the hard way”, that too much coffee makes me sick), I have learned that I love silence almost as much as I love music, I have learned that I like to wake up before 7:30 every day,  and finally I have learned that when I am exploring a new place, I don’t like to stop for food, I would rather just skip the meal altogether.

            The past two weeks have been full of new self-discoveries for me, and it has truly been a cool experience. There is a key ingredient however, that has made this“season of self-discovery” possible. That ingredient has been alone time. Since I have arrived in Massachusetts, I have spent more time alone than in any other two-week period of my life. (I am a very strong “people person”, I thrive off of relationships. So, for me, alone time is a foreign concept.) On two occasions I have explored the 4.5 million person-city of Boston all alone, I have taken the ferry between New York and Connecticut alone, I have spent hours alone on the back porch of this house reading, I have spent hours on the train between Leominster and Downtown Boston alone. I have spent plenty of car rides alone, getting lost on these windy New England roads. And to top it all off, my cell-phone service is absolutely terrible out here, so trying to make phone calls is basically a failure (foul play on AT&T). The bottom line is, I have had a ridiculous amount of alone time…and to my surprise, it has been awesome! Although not as great as having other people around, I have gained a friend in myself that I honestly didn’t even know I had. Austin Westlake and I are genuinely becoming homeboys.

            So as all of these thoughts of self-discovery started to swirl around in my brain,I noticed that I also started to realize a different discovery in my life. A more significant kind of discovery; a God Discovery!  This concept of God Discovery is basically self-explanatory;it is when we, as people, make a new discovery about God and our relationship with Him. So then let me ask you a question, when was the last time you made a God Discovery? When was the last time you learned something new about your relationship with God? When was the last time you had a spiritual breakthrough? When was the last time you felt like you were in His presence rather than in this world? Until recently, for me, it had been too long since I learned something new about our creator. It had been too long since I learned something about my relationship with Him. It had been too long since I made a God Discovery!

            Now that begs the question, “how on earth do we make a God Discovery?” Yes, you probably guessed it. We can make God Discoveries in the same exact way that we make self-discoveries. By getting alone. By spending some time getting to know our creator. By setting aside quality alone time with God almighty. In Psalm 91:1 the statement is clear, “He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the almighty”. And I believe that in the shadow of the Almighty, we get to know the Almighty. And in getting to know the Almighty, we make our greatest God Discoveries! So let this be a challenge to you. A challenge to get alone. A challenge to start spending some one-on-one time with God. A challenge to put the cell-phone down for a few minutes (this one is tough for me. I wish God could just shoot me a text) and give God the time he deserves. Pull out your Bible and read a chapter, talk to God, read some Christian literature, just give Him some quality time (Quality time is definitely God’s love language, but that is a whole other topic). When we give God that alone time, He will give us ridiculous God Discoveries! I mean, look at Moses. The guy walked up a mountain to get alone with God and he came back down with the 10 Commandments. That sounds pretty ridiculous to me…ridiculously cool though!

Now is the time!

            Get alone with God!

                        Start making discoveries!

           

                       

Peace

Love

God Bless