Neutral

Tonight at youth group, we had a guest speaker in town! Woot woot shout out to Stephen!

You know how when a person shares often one phrase will stick out and stay stuck on you? Yes that happened. Stephen had a word for our group; he said he got this picture of a car that was in neutral and just revving up and revving up, but because it wasn't in gear, it couldn't go anywhere. He went on to share how spiritually we can do the same and be putting all of this empty energy into God when what we need to do first is "get in gear."

And it hit my heart. Whammo. But, strangely, I didn't know why it affected me in my chest so much, because I didn't completely understand it. What does it mean to be "in gear" with God. And what defines energy as "empty" or "wasted" (i.e. revving up)? No energy or effort spent on God is wasted right? But . . . this energy can be ineffective.

So, I probed my mind a little more as the night continued, and a word landed on my brain totally unlocking the idea for me -- obedience. OBEDIENCE is the gear (to continue the metaphor). Often, I will have a period of closeness with the Lord, but then, through a series of little steps, I find myself, two weeks later, in a fog and not knowing how I got there. I then proceed to talk to God, and He tells me, "What was the last thing I asked you to obey me about?" That drifting, the subtle, sneaky drift, happens when I ignore God's often subtle (but clear) voice.

If I'm not in obedience to God, I can pour all the energy I want out, raise my hands during worship, cry on my knees in prayer, but it might not be moving things forward at all.

The thing about obedience is, it can often smack of legalism. When I hear a voice in my head saying to sacrifice some movie veggin' time for God time, I most often dismiss it as the "pharisee" within. God is a God of grace; He wants me to enjoy myself. This is so true. But but but --- there are times when God definitely asks for the sacrifice of your time. Because it is a thing as "small" as time, I don't consider it disobedience. I'm not a pothead or sex addict . . . and so I justify my disobedience.

But ignoring God's voice is ignoring God's voice, not matter what the situation. Period.

And the scary thing. The subtly, sneaky scary thing is -- these little disobediences are one of the biggest reasons why we drift out of gear. Why we pour out energy. Rev our engines. And stay in the same spot. Parked in the garage.

Okay, thanks, Stephen for this grand metaphor, which I've proceeded to juice for all its worth.

Love an stuff,
Chris

Explanations

So, this blog isn't completely abandoned. Yes. It's been almost a year since the last post. But, let me explain.

I think one of the biggest reasons why I don't blog is because of my relationship with writing. For me, it is a personal deal. I am terrible at faking emotion or writing only half of what I think. It sort of dries up the creativity in my opinion.

Honesty seems inseparably linked to imagination. Thus, writing is me -- what you see is what's really there, not a hyped up, toned down, or glossed over version.
But, the itch to write (and not just "journal" write, but form thoughts to share), has been bothering my brain. I revamped the blog a little, seriously considered taking off some of my older posts (but then decided no -- that was part of me), and here I am again -- the cyber version anyways.


And all this mulling on blogging has me thinking about imagination and creativity in general. The times of my life that I would consider the most beautiful are those moments when I have been creating. I don't consider myself an artsy person. I'd love to consider myself as such. But, remember, I have this chronic honesty problem.

But think about this, art is not a synonym of creativity. Art is a PART of creativity, but it is not the only thing. Consider, within the word "creativity" is the root "create," and creating can apply to a million different things. The important thing is that YOU are engaged in the act.

Passivity is easy. And, granted, there are times when being the spectator is necessary. You can learn from others' creations, etc. But, if it stops there, you will become glutted with what you see and hear. Just like with food, we take in creativity so we can breathe it out.

The piece of art carries parts of the artist, right? Perhaps it's debatable, but the creator leaves his touch on his work; it's part of him. In the same way, I think humans were created to resemble their artist as well. I believe God is a creating entity, and He left his touch all over us -- meaning we are also creators. Made in the image of a creating God. No, I cannot whip up galaxies -- but I can spin up poetry to describe them.

Welcome back once again, Christen, to blogging.