Introduction

Hello friends!

Today I am joining the ranks of so many who want to capture the world’s attention through the medium of the blog. Like my fellow bloggers, I feel that I have something valuable and important to say. So valuable, in fact, that I am allowing perfect strangers to be privy to my thoughts. Before I launch into my purpose for writing, I feel I should tell you a bit about myself.

I am a recent UNC Chapel Hill graduate. I have spent the majority of my life running myself into the ground, achieving, thinking, pushing, planning, pleasing. I have accumulated quite a resume for myself, but have very little soul or substance behind those two flimsy sheets of paper. Now, having graduated from college, I find myself in a program designed to equip young adults to merge their vocation with their walk with Jesus Christ.

Here is the problem: I am becoming increasingly more aware of the fact that I do not actually have a walk with Christ.  I have spent my life believing that I know God because I have prescribed answers, biblical knowledge, and the understanding that I am a sinner in need of a Savior.  Upon reflection, I now see that my concept of God, the Gospel, and who I am in Christ are relatively rudimentary. I have a vague intellectual understanding of Who my Father in heaven is, but no real relationship with Him.

Essentially, I have information and religious duty, but no heart.

Which brings us to my next problem: I desperately want to know Him. I very much want to seek Him. I want to be His daughter. I want to serve and glorify Him. I just don’t have a concept of what that looks like. And, to be frank, I am afraid of how very much He will change me.

The truth is, I do not believe I am alone in this. I look at Christians around me and see myself mirrored in so many of them.  We believe we know God because we dutifully go to church and Bible study and pay lip service to Him when asked probing questions about our beliefs. After all, what more can we expect when we have so many important things to accomplish?

But I have seen enough now to know that that kind of faith and knowledge of God does not satisfy. I have watched real believers in relationship with God:  their lives are attractive. I have caught glimpses of communion with and the presence of our Heavenly Father: it is too beautiful for me to not chase after.

So I want to invite others into my exploration.  This might seem daunting, but good news: the pressure is off. It’s not on us. God initiates and pursues us first. We only have to respond to His call and trust His promise …

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8