Almost a year ago, I stopped blogging because, as I read back through my blogs… many of my posts came off arrogant and puffed up (because they probably were). I was talking like a person who had answers, while the truth is, I don’t have many answers at all except that every day, I draw nearer to Christ, I am more aware of my own frailty… and I somehow find this process exhilirating. The more I’ve come to depend on Christ, the more satisfied I am in my own life.

I’ve discovered that even when we’ve "found" Christ, we must never stop looking. Every room we find in our travels through the House of God is really just a passageway to another place where there is more to see, more to know… there’s just more. We’re invited to explore every room and enjoy the things we find there. We’re encouraged to explore and learn, but we mustn’t make the mistake of setting up camp in this room because we find so much joy there. The joy turns to comfort. Comfort becomes complacency. Complacency withers to bitterness. That bitterness turns you into a Pharisee and you decide that everyone needs to be in the room you’re in.

Over the years, I worked hard to trap many people in a room with me. Many others escaped while there were those that I somehow helped get back to rooms they’d already left. When they did… I abandoned them to those older rooms. After all, I’d told them what they needed to know in order to stay in the obviously better room I was in. I had a great opportunity to be a fellow traveler and point the way to rooms that go deeper and deeper into the House to explore untold riches. Something I failed to do. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I’ve failed many people… mostly I failed God. More concerned with my own contentment and unwilling to risk exploration, I deluded myself into thinking that if I got people to share this room with me, I was actually helping them. I know now that I wasn’t.

To all the people I tried to trap in a room with me… I ask your forgiveness. Now, I know, I know – people only stay in a room when they want to and everyone is an individual… blah blah, I get that. It doesn’t excuse my helping them to remain complacent and to eventually grow bitter. Thankfully, I’m aware that God has forgiven me and in His gracious sovereignty used these experiences to shape me, to mold me and, most importantly, to get me off of my ass to start exploring this wondrous House He has built called Life.

Amazing Grace – how truly sweet the sound that has saved this wretched sinner. I once was lost, stuck, put away, but thank You Lord, I am now found. I was groping in the darkness, utterly blind, but… sweet precious grace… I finally see.

Another passageway just ahead… and would you look at that… come and look with me… see what He’s done and what He’s doing. It’s simply breathtaking.