Can you hear when Jesus Calls?

"Not many soles have traveled here, not many feet this way have come, but many they've seen it clear and say this path is done and done. What they cannot see from their slumbered perch, whether mountaintop or facile church, is the miles and miles along side this trail filled with piles and piles of honest travail. All the letting go that has happened here, the moments of pause, the thoughts of return, all the days of fear and the pain that churns. All these shiny things dropped along the way have something stunning that they must say. They tell us with a muted scream that the the things we live for are not as important as they seem. They point us to the poignant few who threw them down in pursuit of YOU. So dig down deep into your side pocket and see what weighs your heart to here and set it down and step beyond it with the one less thing to interfere."

A Poem by Joshua Culver.

For quite a long time now, I have felt God tugging on my heart, to give up one of my beloved passions.

He was telling me to lay it down and to follow Him. To focus on Him more. I kept ignoring him, and finally last week, I could disobey my Lord no longer. I laid that passion down, and it was painful. My heart ached as the shiny treasure in my side pocket, hit the ground. My heart still aches to think of it.

Giving up something you have, for God, is not easy. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. But- I answered the call. I know Christ will honor that.

It is not easy to give up something or someone, you love. Whether you want to or not, if you truly love it, it can tear your heart in two. But God's plans are bigger then mine, then yours, then all else. If You feel him calling you to set aside a part of your life to honor Him, he will honor you. He doesn't want to hurt you, His love for you is unconditional. I learned that through this experience.

If Jesus is Calling you- take what he is calling you to do- and run with it.

Run and run wildly. Because you are loved. This is all for His Glory.

Until the whole world hears.

(Originally published July 11, 2016.)