Eureka!

Hello world! Nice to see you again. If this is your first read, welcome! But I recommend you read my first post. It is basically the point of this whole blog. Otherwise, here's a little catch-up for ya. Since 2010, I have felt that God kind of gave me a few words to remind myself of whenever I have questions or don't know where to go next.

SEEK, FOCUS, CREATE

Specifically in that order. Seek God. Focus on whatever that may lead to. Create something-anything.
This blog is my way to keep myself accountable on that last part, mostly. This is where I can create, or at least show that I have been. If you're reading, thanks for helping with that. :)

I have often said that I think this is my own little motto. Maybe a tiny tip just for me to carry around. It's not directly the bible and I would never claim it is nearly as credible as the Good Book itself. Never. However, I do have a relationship with God, and I believe it is from him. So, if it helps you too, that's groovy. If not, okay then.

So, I have this friend. She was actually my roomie. And she had a little adage that she felt was from God too, a bit like mine. Pray Listen Receive. I always thought it was cool, but I eventually noticed something. Now maybe it's a stretch- it's very possible- but here's what I think. When you pray, isn't that the primary method of seeking God? I'd say. And when I'm listening, that's me focusing on the results of that seeking/praying, right? And the way I react to Receiving what he sends my way is to take on what he would do- create. And you may say you're not crafty, but we are all made to create. Maybe not in the "artsy" sense, but even if you just speak it out, you've created something out of nothing, words out of thin air. So, in my humble opinion, all of us appropriately respond with creating when we receive from God.
So, "Nifty," I thought, "How strange that her little message would be so similar to mine." But it's not significant enough to stop me in my tracks. So, I moved on.

Then, Jeremy Johnson (You may have heard of him; he's a pretty popular pastor. He was a youth pastor at this time though.) started promoting his little battle cry: Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild. This one's a little bit more of a stretch, but play along. Infiltrate and Seek both have the "begin here, dive deep into God" feeling to me. Destroy and Focus both bring me to "simplify, get down to the basics, get rid of distractions". Finally, Rebuild and Create go without explanation.
Strange, right? But whatevs, maybe I'm crazy.

Aaaaannyway, my husband's one of three youth leaders at our church, and I attend the youth services as often as I can. This week, the sermon was done by one of the other youth leaders. He had three notes. I would summarize them like so: Build your relationship with God, Have expectations, Be Confident. That's as similar as I see it getting, especially with the way his commentary went for each note. Here's my summary. Seeking God is clearly identical to building your relationship with God. Having expectation, the way he put it, is actually looking forward to what He leads you to and pushing toward it- zeroing in, if you will. Focusing. Lastly, being confident. Now, he never used the word "Create", but the idea of Creating is to do something with what you've got from the last two steps. The idea of being confident, according to this sermon, was to be brave, step out, and do something with that newly-strengthened relationship with God.

(UPDATE: I just saw "Lights Camera Action" on an ad and thought. When I'm searching for my keys, phone, etc. or when helicopter cops are looking for their criminals, we have to shine light in the dark. And cameras just plainly don't function well at all unless their focus is adjusted. And action is just about the simplest way to communicate "do SOMETHING". So, another one is here!)

So, here I am with this.
Seek Focus Create
Pray Listen Receive
Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild
Build Expect Be Confident
Lights Camera Action
And I can deny one, but not four five, so similar. Maybe this is the skeleton of how to approach life. Again, I'm NOT saying this is anything close to the merit of the Word of God. But maybe it's the summary, a quick idea of what the Word would have us do. Maybe it's a little mnemonic device to just remind me, you, us to go to the King- to find him more. My point in all of this: Word it how you like, God wants us to find him, and he wants us to share him by doing something. And that's the gospel truth.

So, choose your catchphrase as you please, but do something. And with this, I bid you adeu.

Ready
Aim
Fire