What consumes my life?

Over the last week or so God has really been pressing a bunch of things on my heart. I could probably right a small novel on what I feel He has been speaking into my life (which I probably should do in my handy dandy journal, but will save you all the painful reading of disjointed thoughts and ideas); but I will give you a small glimpse into a few of the things. The first came in the way of a pod cast from Matt Chandler I listened to on the way out to Catalyst '09 while riding in the van with my good friends James and Penny. It was a challenge to make prayer a larger focal point in our lives. (Something I have struggled with off an on throughout my Christian walk). This is also something that over the last 4 months God has really been pressing in on my heart to live a prayer centered life. So I heard this message and like most messages I thought to myself that's good, but at the very moment there wasn't much change in my life. A couple days later during the Catalyst conference Matt Chandler was also one of the presenting speakers/pastors. He talked about how if God is calling you to anything there is a hitch on your part from following through with what God is calling you to, that is sin and that you need to repent and act on what God is calling you to. That hit me square in the face. So looking back over the last 4-5 months, and possible longer I see that I have been living in disobedience to God, I have been living in unresolved sin because I know God is calling me to something but yet I am unwilling to listen to His beckoning calling me to lead a life centered on prayer. So, last night on the way back from the Bible Study I go to on Monday's I listened to a podcast by Mark Driscoll on the book of proverbs focusing on how we organize our lives. I felt convicted on what and how my life is centered! If you know me well a good portion of my time is spent being well connected with the people around me as well as those around the world via facebook, twitter, etc. So, not only am I not obeying God in some of the things He is calling me to, I have also arranged my life where it is often hard for me to connect with God because I am so connected to the things around me that there is no space, no room for any more connections, no room for the God of the Universe to speak into my heart. (btw, most of the times God has pressed these things on my heart has been in times when I have been disconnected from all or part of the world) So, today I tried something new. I will get to that in a bit but I want to give you a glimpse into what a normal day for me at work looks like this. I go into work. If I am not too busy I chat a little with others in the office to see how their days are going and such, and then I sit down at my desk and then proceed to check my email, facebook, and look at all of my friends most current tweets to see if there is anything I have missed out on. (the email is somewhat essential to my job, but facebook, and twitter?? really? should that be a priority in my daily work schedule?) I then proceed to keep my email, facebook, and tweet page up for the rest of the day just incase there is something I cant do without hearing for a few hours. These three things often cause distractions as well as a open door to hours wasted while at work. So, like I said, today I tried something new. I got to work, visited a little (I think it's essential for working relationships), checked my email, then I proceeded to not even open up my facebook or tweet pages. Now some of you this may be a no big deal type of thing, but for me in my world it was a first step towards aiming my life towards more of what God has called/is calling me to. You see we are so easily distracted by the things around us. It is so easy for us to become consumed by irrelevant and insignificant things. My life, without me even being truly aware is being stolen from me before my eyes without me even putting up much of a fight for it, by things that in the bigger picture of God's story have no eternal significance. So, I would ask for your prayers for my life. That I would be conscience of what is consuming my life. That I would be conscience of what God is speaking into my life, and even more than that, that I would be obedient to what God is calling me to because He is truly what my life should be consumed by! I think that's all for now..

striving towards obedience.
sg