I was going about life minding my own business when she stepped in and disrupted everything. You know how you have settled into a routine because of where you have found yourself and your life is going on but you have never realised just how stuck you are? That was me. I didn’t realise how unhappy I was with my life until I met this girl who was living her best life without many of the trappings I was chasing.

Her calmness in this hectic world was annoying because she seemed unmoved that she didn’t have loads of cash or a fancy job. She didn’t mind that she didn’t know how she would make ends meet. It was insane to me to say the least but she wore it with grace and joy that I had to sit with her and understand. However, she had everything she needed at the time she needed it.

In fact, one day she told how all she does is ask God for what she needs and He sends it to her. I was like what???? I ask Him and more often than not He doesn’t respond and here is someone saying HE always responds? That is just so unfair, I said to myself. Anyway…we would crack this madness.

I am a busy guy but I decided I would make time to hang out and watch her life because I wanted to understand it. I had many questions I needed answered and maybe shadowing her would produce them. For instance, how could we be raised in similar circumstances yet turn out so different? What did she connect to that makes her so close to God? Did I miss a step or go off the rails or is her connection to God a crutch and she’s denying it?

I just don’t understand.

Adapted from a story told to me

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I can empathise with my friend because I too have walked that road in living colour. The first time I was told there was greatness within me I couldn’t even wrap my mind around it. I kept hearing that we are created to build for God, bring His will to life and be a full representation of who He saw from before time but I didn’t know how to translate it.

It took me awhile to really take off because I had to unlearn all my existing patterns, beliefs and behaviour and learn this new pattern. Why? I was totally set in my way. There is a way I was raised that was my holy grail and anything that didn’t conform to that pattern was eliminated. This included ideology, learned behaviour, traditions, beliefs and judgments that made up how I lived, loved, communicated and socialised with people. I realised that though I was raised well, there were things I had imbibed from those patterns that I needed to let go of.

I needed to get away from the things people needed to do get approval from me. I needed to let people be themselves. I needed to stop letting people’s behaviour to upset me or make me happy. I needed to know the voice of God so clearly that when He spoke I moved quickly and confidently. I needed to re-write the script of my life from my belief system, values, desires, dreams and networks.

The shift from everything I knew to a new pattern was the hardest move.

Think for a minute about Abraham who was safely in a city, had a solid family and secure future then he comes face to face with an unknown, invisible God who says, ‘Come with me to a land I will show you’ and he goes. Picture Noah, a misfit in his generation talking about rain and floods then building a huge boat to be safe from it yet they had never seen water from above.

‘I get it! I sound strange and so do many others but don’t let that get to you,’ I said to my friend. ‘We have to continue to press into God because He is the only one who can explain all these things and make sense out of our path. I don’t have all the answers, I just know that walking with Him daily has changed my life and the same offer is available to all who would dare to let go of all their traditions and meet Him on His terms.’

He loves us all. He is available. Let’s make contact and grow into the fullness HE sees in us.