Comfortable?

Stagnancy will kill your spirit. The Christian who is not being used by God to change lives, to make a difference for Christ, will dry up, stagnate. Transformation will not happen. The Bible tells us that God puts this dissatisfaction with a stagnant life in your heart.

...Once they've tasted the haphazard, horn-honking, chickens-everywhere, annoying vendors, pungent odor, soggy air, crazed taxi drivers, dunk policemen, disorienting, take-life-as-it-comes world away from home...they want more. They can't wait to board the next plane to somewhere far and away. And maybe life is better like that. This world is not for making home, so live on the go - go and live; really live.

I would argue then that moral transformation often comes when we are willing to step outside our places of comfort and safety and not just think morally but do morally. When you give your life away to this world, when you live out your religion as God intended, you open your life to being stunned by God and your moral character to being transformed.
"True Religion" by Palmer Chinchen

"Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
Matthew 8:19, 20, 22

I've been thinking about that passage a lot the past couple of weeks. And how Jesus must have felt as a 22 yr old...28 yr old..33 yr old with no home. Crazy to think about really. (I particularly like to think of him as the young 22 yr old. haha)
And how he really didn't store up treasures on this earth. I look around and see many examples of how to store up treasures on this earth - heck I'm a walking example of it. I have way too many things that moths and rust can destroy.
But to see the example of truly storing up treasures in heaven...what a rare thing!
I'm hoping to be refined in this area.
Not that things are bad...I'm not saying that. But I just can't escape the fact that Jesus really didn't have that many earthly possessions. There's got to be some importance in that, right?

Anyways, I've coined Mondays as "Rollerblade Mondays". The past few weeks I've gone rollerblading every Monday night. It's good for my soul. I'm hoping it will catch on. Do it. Go blading tomorrow. Or at least just a walk if you don't have any blades.

Ha. "Say My Name" by Destiny's Child just came on my itunes. That's definitely worth mentioning.

There's too much going on in this little mind of mine, so I'll just end it with a quick story.
Today I went for a run, as I do many days. And today I was really feelin it. :) Well I came up to an intersection and there was a car waiting to turn left. I'm not sure if I got nervous or just wasn't paying attention, but before I knew it I'm on the ground. I ate it! I just fell right in front of this car, tripped over my own feet! Talk about feeling stupid. I was so embarrassed!! I immediately jumped up, obviously, and ran with much more intensity and speed than I had been before.
I was fine, but I couldn't shake the embarrassment. I know I was blushing, and the fall was all I thought about for the next few minutes. Then it hit me. What's the big deal? So I looked really dumb in front of a few people, but brushed myself off, and just kept going. And I ended up having one of the best runs I've had in awhile.
And I thought about my life - what's the big deal with feeling silly or dumb sometimes?
So today I decided this: taking a step out there, risking embarrassment, doing something that someone else may think is foolish...it's all worth it in the end. A little bump in the road is worth a really really good run.
Wow. I'm such a great storyteller. ha. oh well. I hope you get the parallel I'm trying to make.

"Sometimes reckless faith requires no further action. You just have to hold on to the limb you've been led out on and trust it doesn't break."

Love you all.
Cheers.

(shout out to clint and eve sibbitt. the top portion of this post reminds me so much of you two. thanks for being such great examples in what this looks like in real life.)