On Purpose

I'd like to be able to say that everything is ideal right now.  In November, I was dreaming about my first semester out of college being full of extra time to sit in coffee shops, date Taylor, and live out some dreams of mine.  I thought I would finally be able to have it all at once.

Wrong.  So wrong.  Really, really wrong.  

If anything, the past three months have taught me that patience is a virtue, schedules exist for a reason, and, regrettably enough, I can't have it all.  

A few weeks ago, I told Kelsi, my housemate, how bummed I was with life - not single but not married, doing 'free labor' for several ministries I care about, missing my girlfriends, strung out beyond all reason...  I wanted to quit.  Enter challenge: Be intentional with your time, plan ahead, and surrender to Jesus.

Simple.  So simple.  Really, really simple... Right?

In the days that have followed, I have started to contemplate what this looked like for Jesus.  Being fully God AND fully human, Jesus didn't necessarily have all the time He wanted either.  He only had 33 years, to be exact.  So how did He do it?  He lived every moment intentionally, whether this meant that He got up early to pray and be with His father or hung out with His disciples or healed the multitudes.  Jesus lived every moment with the purpose of entering into deeper intimacy with God or bringing Heaven to earth.  

As I've been looking at my time and schedule, I've begun to ask myself those questions: How does this help me grow closer to Jesus?  How does this reveal Jesus to the world around me?  A huge perspective changer.  What I'm discovering is that I need to pursue intimacy with Jesus on purpose.  I need to enter every situation with the intention of bringing Jesus into it.  

This is what gives life meaning.  This is what makes any season worth living, no matter how far it is from my ideal.  Jesus is up to a ton of incredible things right now.  I've decided that I'm in.  Over the next few months, I'm going to be praying through each thing in my schedule so that I can grow deeper with God and reveal more of Him to the world around me.  It probably won't be ideal, it likely won't be pretty, and I plan to learn a lot about myself in the process.