Self-control

I lack self-control. There, I said it. However, I don't mean that I do all kinds of bad things. I mean that I do all kinds of good things that I probably am not supposed to do. Think about it. I can fill my life with good things but never accomplish what God has called me to do. Pastor Bill talked to us about this yesterday in school. Boy do I need to hear it. It is so true that we need to focus on what it is that we are supposed to do. Think about it from the standpoint of just giving your full attention to a task that you are currently doing. You will have much greater success at what you are doing if you are single-minded and focusing on that particular task. I am currently trying to write this blog without being distracted by other things such as email, news, or thinking about what I will do next and hopefully this blog will have more power behind it because the words that I write will be more carefully chosen than if I just haphazardly threw something together while doing 10 other things.

When Pastor Bill mentioned this yesterday I immediately thought about music. For those of you who haven't known me for long, I played trumpet for 13 years but haven't played it the past two years and I was on the worship team at my church in Florida for 3.5 years playing keyboard but haven't done that since June. While I stepped aside from playing the trumpet just because I didn't have the time to practice every day, God had to help me out a little bit to give up playing the keyboard in worship. Among other things, a big problem I have is trying to take on things that are too big of a load for me to carry. That can also be translated into taking on too many things so that the combined load is too big. I have realized that right now I have too many things on my plate and so when I came to the conclusion that I must spend more time with God (my own hunger, not someone forcing me) I knew that something else would have to go. So I decided to quit my job so that I can get some more sleep and also have more time to give to my relationship with God. Before you say that I am being religious (haha, I caught ya!), I know plenty of people who cut things out of their schedule so that they can spend more time with their boyfriend/girlfriend, so don't even try to tell me that I am out of line for wanting to spend more time with God.

It is my hopes that my relationship with God will develop to a place of greater intimacy with Him so that I know what it is that He wants for me to focus on. Right now my schedule is filled with good things, many of which may be distracting me from my main purpose. Again, they are all good things. It is possible that even my favorite activities are things that are not working towards my purpose. Shawn Bolz said that this generation will be one that will do many different things and not stick with just one thing their whole life. While I can totally see this happening, I believe that God still wants us to be focused on our purpose for the season that we are in. It is true that when resources are spread out over a wide area, the impact is not as great. Make the most of what God has given you. Find what it is that He has called you to do and go after that with such a focus that good things are no longer a distraction.