I WILL DO A NEW THING...MY (SPIRITUAL) LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.  Isaiah 43:19

 New dress, new shoes, new hair and even a new line of make up all because...we want something different...SOMETHING NEW.  When we want a change, we make a change....unless it's in our spiritual life.  Many of us have gotten into this comfort zone that's making our relationship with God....BLAH.  What's so odd is that when other relationships are....BLAH, we happily look for ways to invigorate them...to reinvent them...to breath new life into them so that all parties involved might be better served in the relationship.  That's the way it supposed to be.  If something is not working, or maybe it's fundamentally working, but you aren't as fulfilled as you once were, then make a change.  I grew up in the Baptist church and can, to this day, tell you the rules and regulations (written, spoken and understood) of the Missionary Baptist church.  But, when what I grew up with wasn't enough anymore, I sought something new.  I think back to my first introduction to the Episcopal church, the kids I was working with at the time probably had a lot to do with my shift.  I was working with high school kids as a college volunteer with Young Life (an outreach organization committed to introducing high school kids to Christ), and I was the Youth Director at Grace Mission Church, in the Frenchtown neighborhood of Tallahassee, FL.  Both jobs were so full of life and energy.  I was stretched and engaged and energized in ways I hadn't experienced before.  Taking kids to camp for the first time in their lives and meeting regularly with them to discuss the bible and how much God loved them was EPIC.  I was also having bible studies with like minded twenty something's who were thirsty for more.  Then, another shift happened.  I got a new television job and a new life and in all of the newness, I got into a rut with God.  I was making it to church on Sundays but more out of a sense of guilt or obligation instead of a longing to worship and praise God.  I would go to check the box.  I read and studied less because my life wasn't evolving around God and kids, but was busy with my new work.  Fast forward to marriage and kids of my own and a new reliance on God took hold.  Even in that, I still find myself needing to do more in my efforts to BE WITH AND GET TO KNOW GOD.  I know I'm loved in that relationship and nothing can separate me from that love, but I still look for new ways to say I love you, too.  Wanting something new in an old relationship doesn't mean the relationship is dying.  It means you're growing, and out of that growth comes MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER THINK OR IMAGINE..(A PATHWAY IN THE WILDERNESS AND RIVERS IN THE WASTELAND!)  Sometimes it's hard to know what to do.  God meets us where we are.  He'll show us.  Just make sure we have eyes to see and a heart to understand what we're being called to do.