So I am on a quest. A quest to simplify my life in the hopes that my time on this rock is worthwhile. I am reminded of the first time I felt God. Yes, felt. You see I was raised in the church, the bible belt, if you will. A good, ole southern congregation. And I am so very thankful for my little southern church because it is so much of who I am today, but it is not where I first felt God. I first felt the presence of Almighty God in my tiny, two twin bed dorm room at the University of Kentucky. It was the first time in my life that I was all alone.
It was Sunday. And in the south, Sundays are for family. Church service, then a potluck, then a nap on the porch swing. I’d been doing Sundays that way my whole life. But on the first Sunday after my move to the big city, I didn’t have a church service to attend and I wasn’t invited to a potluck and there was no porch swing just outside my dorm window. And I was heartbroken. All of these things that I had taken for granted all those years were now just out of reach. I knew my family was all together back home enjoying these simple pleasures of life.
But in those moments of loneliness, when Sunday was stripped down to its bare bones, I realized that those moments of togetherness, though precious and good, are not what Sundays are for.
Matthew 22: 37 “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment”
Love God. Maybe I had been doing it wrong? I realized that in my loneliest season I was not alone after all. The Creator of the universe was right there with me, and what I had known in my mind, I felt in my heart. These moments are so precious to me now because they were the beginning of a lifelong friendship. A friendship that gets better and stronger and closer as time goes on. A friendship that has awakened my mind, soothed my soul and ignited my heart.
Live Simply in Christ 