Awakened & On Fire
just the beginnning
I am pretty new to this whole blogging stuff but I am hoping that I would make a habit out of this and maybe gain a following in the blogging community while I try to express myself and write about the journey I am on. Since this is my first post on this community I will fill you (The Reader) in on my life in the last 8 months so bear with me, I promise it is important.
8 months ago I prayed that God would open and close the doors necessary for me to become “the man of God” that he intended me to become. Before those words left my mouth God was already working in me, I felt the knock on the door of my heart stronger than ever and a change needed to happen. My life, to most of the worlds standards, was pretty on point as a 19 year old kid. I was in college, owned a car, had a job that paid more than $10 dollars an hour, I was in a relationship with a really awesome girl, but still something was missing.
Now, I have really awesome parents who support, council and love me; they are still married, they are missionaries and are pastors of a church in the inner city. So I have had a strong christian influence my whole life, and have attended churches, youth groups, and bible studies my whole life. I gave my life to the Lord when I was 13 and have encountered God in a real way, but for some reason as a blessed 19 year old guy I still felt like I was missing something critical.
A lot of young adults are in the place I was in, a place of “complacency”, a place of the “status quo”, where the youth are raised up to understand success and fulfillment as a check list. This is where we are taught to balance out how successful we by how much we have checked off, and when we see results and wealth that is when we can consider ourselves as responsible, mature, independent individuals. I would like to imagine I had reasonable amount of checks on my list, I was walking down the right roads.
Chasing “The American Dream”, you know what I mean, it’s all about having a hot wife, a 401k, white collar, nice car, athletic kids, nice house, the works! That is what I was chasing, that is the pressure on the youth of today. A placid facade that consists of fake smiles, nice hair cuts, and no wrinkles. Please don’t cross me off as bitter or anything like that, but consider what I am about to say and try to look past my ranting. I needed a savior, I needed something to live for greater than myself. Some people look for this, and answer it with a humanitarian work of some sort so at the end of the day they can get in their BMW, lay in their king sized bed and pat themselves on the back. I yearned for something more, something that would edify every fiber of my being. That is exactly when Jesus knocked on the doors of my heart, or maybe when I started listening. I uttered that prayer while laying on my couch watching Netflix on my flat-screen TV that I bought with my own earnings, and with-in a month God took full advantage of those words and I was selling everything and moving away from my friends and family, to attend a school of Disciple Training where I would spend 6 months of intense character building, learning who I was, who God is, and my purpose on this Earth. I live today to bring God glory, but this is just a beginning, and I am happy to have found Jesus in a real way.
Now, I am finished with that school, and God has lit my heart with a burning passion for him and bringing him to people all around the world. This is what is birthing this blog, I have a lot to process and I feel like its important that people can read what I have to say and the things on my heart. I am looking for people to reach out with support, encouragment, and disscussion, so please write me. Talk to me. Fellowship.
Sincerely,
Aaron.
