Aspirations Remembered

In pondering my star word for 2019, #aspire, I find myself looking back today instead of forward.  Long before I became a pastor, before I had gone back to school and finished my bachelors, I met God in a new and deeper way in the midst of a powerful worship service and told God I wanted to help others know him in this deeper way.  For me, the change was from God being someone I knew about to being someone I knew, from being someone out there to being someone in here, from being someone I feared and somewhat distrusted to being someone I loved and wanted to know more.  Those are the foundational aspirations that led me to become a pastor, and those are the aspirations that came to mind today as I read Genesis 28:18-22 in which Jacob realizes that God is good and faithful, and so Jacob commits to trusting God with his life.

I'm posting this here as a reminder to myself of that original aspiration so that it will continue to guide me in my future aspirations, and in my future discouragements, when I need to remember that it's not so much about budgets and polity and buildings and programs.  It's about knowing God deeply and being transformed by God's grace.

Thanks, God.