Sparks of God

Since I was first diagnosed with cancer back in 2007 life has been different. My view of life has been different and in many ways I have attempted to use this blog as a means to communicate with you how I have changed through this journey.

This morning an ex-co-worker of mine, who I didn't have a lot of interaction with, but when I did always left me amazed at who he was as a person, and wishing I could spend more time with him. Needless to say I really looked up to him, and continue to do so. He and I, and a few others, back things on Kickstarter on occasion and when my friends back something I will generally go in there and have a look at the project because if it's something that they are backing it might be worth me tossing a few bucks in that person's direction as well. Anyway, tangent that this was, to get to a point. He backed a project that I looked into and then ended up downloading the author's free ebook.

In a lot of ways the author (AJ Leon) captures some of the ideas and encouragements I have been attempting to push on you guys for a while. I have learned things about myself, that no matter how long I live will make it impossible for me to work in a "traditional" job ever again. Some of this is why I left Seattle for Colorado Springs to follow a dream I had about what a "perfect job" would look like for me. (And despite the cancer, that job has gotten better over time)

What I am saying, and his free book echos much more clearly, is that life is short, and I think our enemy, the devil, would like nothing more for us to conform to the ebb and flow of society. It's as David Platt points out in "Radical": God is an amazing God whose goodness knows NO limits, and on top of that the creativity that God can provide if we follow Him and what He wants us to do, to be Radically different from society around us is how we are to be lights, beacons, to the world around us.

I've had conversations with some of you the past two months. I know you're out there, unhappy with your jobs, and at the same time afraid of what it might mean for you, or your immediate family. I would love to see even a part, a sliver, of my readership be radical, be outstanding, being a beacon because they rejected the daily grind that was grinding THEM down, and decided to do something that would change the world. Either locally, nationally, internationally, or even in some small niche where light needs to be shown.

That doubt you have about where you are and what you're doing that nags at you from time to time and you shush with "wisdom" that you can't do X or Y because you have a family to take care of, or a mortgage to fulfill, or a little voice just says, "That's just not realistic". No. Maybe it's not realistic, maybe it's fantastic, but isn't the fantastical, the strange, the anti-social action isn't that what Jesus did? Isn't that the things that stick in our minds and inspire us?

I know I am inspired by a few people who read my blog who have gone that route. Adopting an unknown amount of children from the Ukraine two different times. People said, "CRAZY", God said, "These kids need love" and these people went... I have no doubt that there is more "crazy" in their future, but I admire them so much for it. Or another case, a survivor of a cancer far worse than mine, running a pastor's conference center in Russia for Russian pastors. It's not safe, it's not the advice a doctor would have suggested they do, but God called them and said, "You have a special set of skills that I could use here." And despite everything, they went and made it work.

There are more examples of what God has done in others lives, but the real question is what will that spark be for you? What is God calling you to do that seems "crazy" (even to yourself?). I believe that God has something for everyone. You just need to sit down and listen to what He has to say, and then instead of batting the ideas the start coming to mind down, write them down, think about them, DREAM about them, and pray about them. Then start taking a step here or there to see what happens when you start to go down that path. You're not alone. God is there and relying on Him is how you're going to get any further than you are today.

Sir Francis Drake seemed to grasp a little about just sitting around, and I am sure you have seen this prayer around, but this was penned by him before he started the adventure that would take him around the whole of the globe.

"Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little, When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love."

~B.
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