(The Moses analogy below is adapted from Rob Bell's phenomenal book Velvet Elvis)
I don’t have any amazing stories about how I came to be a Christian. No miracles, no incredible testimony, no life-changing event that brought me to my Savior. I’ve been to church my whole life, as well as a Christian camp for the past decade, and I can recall giving my heart to God at least five or six different times on retreats or at camp. Don’t get me wrong-- those times were spiritual and very important to me, but they were temporary. A few faith-filled hours against a lifetime of sin, lies, failure, and apathy.
Apathy.
It eats away at a faith like mine. And yours. Just going to church every Sunday won’t get you any closer to God than watching football when you get home, a lesson I took more than a few years to learn. In my mind I would be proud that I was going instead of sleeping in; the gold star was certainly being put on my Heavenly attendance chart. I bowed my head during prayer, but the words just didn’t register. I listened to the sermon just long enough to have a sufficient answer when my parents asked us what we learned as we drove home.
The pattern extended through the rest of the week, too. Every day was the same as the last- school, practice, dinner, homework. Rinse and repeat. A prayer would be thrown in as I lay about to fall asleep at night- but hey, it’s the thought that counts, right? Since I was already a saved Christian, I spent a long time in this cycle, convincing my mind that everything was alright while my heart slowly fell apart from God and deteriorated. Satan’s strongest ally in the battle for your soul is your mind, and I was no exception.
I’ve come to realize now that truly having faith means finding ways to break the cycle. To be able to step away from the repetition and routine and really examine your life. To be willing to insert God into every aspect of your daily life rather than cramming Him into an hour-long slot on Sunday mornings. If you go to church only for peace of mind, you won’t find Him there.
Look for His presence shining through in everyday life. You don’t have to look far. When was the last time a stranger smiled at you, or that you told a friend you loved them? God puts beauty right in front of our face, and it’s so easy to forget to thank him for it. Appreciate the majesty in the world around you, and praise the Creator that put it here for us.
And most importantly, love. Christ’s command to us was to love others as ourselves, and true Love itself is a manifest of God. A hug, a smile, a kiss, a word of encouragement, a crying shoulder, a listening ear…there are many different kinds of love and even more ways to show them. Showing one visible sign of love to a person each day, and really meaning it, goes a much longer way than you think.
Moses passed the burning bush hundreds of times while tending to his flock before God spoke to him from it. A miracle sprung up through an ordinary detail of his everyday life, and when he realized it he took off his sandals and knelt in awe of the Lord. The reality is, those bushes are all around us. God is in every aspect of our lives, waiting for us to discover Him. When was the last time you found him?
Find ways to love and praise God in every part of the day.
Take off your sandals. He is here.
