An Epiphany

This is Justin (I have to say that because normally Sally writes on here).

So, I used to have this blog - thedoulosproject.org - where I would post all kinds of thoughts about all kinds of things (typically spiritual things). I did a good job of actually posting pretty regularly...at least once every other day or so, probably for almost a year. Then it kinda faded away and I got out of the habit.

Well, I don't necessarily have any intentions of getting back in the habit, but there was something I thought about earlier today that I wanted to post here, not just to tell everyone who visits this site, but to remind myself. So, here goes...

I'm not really sure how I thought about this (what train of thought led me to it, that is), so there's not really any sort of introduction to this. What I thought about was this: the less you tangibly experience God in your daily life, the more you will be distanced from Him. I don't necessarily have any sort of scripture from which that though was derived, but I still do think that it is Biblical in a sense. If you are not partaking in the work of God regularly, then you will find yourself further and further from Him.

Let me define two phrases I have already used to avoid confusion. First, by "work of God", I mean doing the actual Biblical things that he has told us to do. Serve others, be kind towards other, share the good news about Jesus, love your enemies. Now, there are a lot of things that many of us might consider to be the work of God, but it isn't really. For instance, I play guitar at my church in the worship band. Yes, that is spiritual and yes, it is a good thing. But I don't really believe it is the work of God that He has explicitly called us to do. By that I do not mean that He did not call me to do it, but if you read the Bible you will find a bunch of verses about the previous things I mentioned and little to none about standing up in front of a few people once a week strumming an instrument. I don't say that to belittle that task of leading worship. I love it and totally enjoy it. I just think that there are many other things that he has explicitly called us to in Scripture that probably have a much bigger impact on his kingdom.

Definition two: when I say "distancing yourself from God", I obviously don't mean literally distancing yourself. Not even really spiritually distancing yourself. It's more of a figurative distance. And what I mean is that your relationship with Him will not be fresh, active, vibrant, and full of life. It will feel as though God is more of a thought, an idea, or something abstract because, in actuality, that is what He is in your mind when He is not active in your life.

I say all of this mostly because I am speaking to myself. I find myself in danger of letting God become more of an idea or theory than a person. It may even be a powerful, glorious, beautiful idea, but it's still an idea. And that is useless. We (I) must actively seek to join in the work that He is doing all around us by speaking of Him and doing what He has told us to do.

I could probably write a whole lot more on this right now, but it's late (yes, 10:15 is late for me these days) and I'm pretty tired. Maybe there will be a part two one day.

Oh, and forgive any grammatical errors. I usually make them, and I don't really feel like proofreading this now.