"Place"

Gracie lou is my labradoodle puppy. We go every saturday to doggie training classes and today we went and learned "place." For some dogs this is a bed but she gets hot easy so we chose a towel. The goal is that when i tell her to get in her place she won't be crated but she will have a place to be whenpeople come over or someone knocks on the door. it will take time to teach her but she eventually be attached to it like she is the crate. my hope is that one day I won't have to crate her. After one day she is doing pretty good. she can do it from about 5 feet away. the click you hear after she does it is a training method. Sadly finding a place for a dog is much easier than for us. 

For a long time I didn't have a place. There were times where I didn't have a place to live, times where I didn't know where to go. I don't know how to answer questions like "where are you from" or "wheres your family from" because I have two options. Lie or make it super ackward. Each time I'm asked these things I get this ackward look because truly it shocks me each time that I don't have an answer. People's easiest questions are some of my hardest.

But when I moved here was the first time I had "My place." It was the first time where I didn't have a roommate. It was the first time where I had my own dog that I didn't have to share and that no one could take away. It was the first time I owned real furniture. The first time I really could come and go as I please and had no one to offend, no one to answer to, no one that would be annoyed if I stayed up all night watching tv. It's the first place I have actually used the kitchen more than 3 times. It's the first place that I had my own bathroom. It's the first place I didn't have to clean up other people's messes. In a way I view my apartment like Gracielou views her crate. It's where I run when I'm scared, where I sleep, where I stay when I don't know where to be and it's been mine. I don't view it exactly like this anymore but I'm super thankful that God gave me this place.

Now He's given me so much more. He's given me a fiance that I am SO grateful for. He's given me great friends whom I'm blessed to know. He's given me things I never had before like health insurance, and taught me truly what it means to be saved. He's shown me that despite my past mistakes He has a plan for me. I truly am so blessed. But no matter what happens here I know that this world is not my home. The bible has a lot to say that this in not our home.

Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."

1 John 2:15 "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

And yet as believes we should have a place in the church together. When we read acts it talks about what it is to be a body of believers. I think its no coincidence my fiance and I are reading acts together currently.

Acts 2:42-47 says
⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I read these verses and wonder if churches like this really exist anymore. Where is the place like this where Christ is being glorified, where people are together where people are providing for one another where people are learning and growing and falling in love with Christ.

One of my favorite book is Galatians. It tells us to bear one anothers burders. Paul says in 1:24 "And they glorified God because of me" 
I wanna be that kind of christian. I want to be the type of person the bible tells us to be. I talked to my bible study this morning about things that are socially acceptable that are not acceptable by God. we talked about sex, abortion, drinking... and then other things like jealousy, gossip, lying, coveting. We talked about the idea that pick and choose parts of the bible but I don't want to do that. I want to be like Christ. I want to be a true follower and not a fan and each day I find there is so much to learn about that.

Sidewalk Prophets has a song "live like that" I love the lyrics. Read them over slowly.

Sometimes I think
What will people say of me
When I’m only just a memory
When I’m home where my soul belongs

Was I loved
Would no one else show up?
Was I Jesus to the least of us?
Was my worship more than just a song?

I wanna live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You
If love is who I am
Then this is where I’ll stand
Reckless abandoned
Never holding back
I wanna live like that
I wanna live like that

Am I proof that You are who You say You are
That grace can really change a heart
Do I live like Your love is true

I wanna live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You
If love is who I am
Then this is where I’ll stand
Reckless abandoned
Never holding back
I wanna live like that
I wanna live like that

I wanna show the world the love You gave for me
(I wanna live like that)
Longing for the world to know the glory of the King

I want to live like that. I want everything I say and do to point to Christ. and I'm that the church (not just mine specifically but all churches that call themselves christians) would adopt the desire to be like Christ. I pray that they stop being fans and start being followers. That they stop picking and choosing parts of the bible to believe. that they start actually being the hands and feet of Christ.

In some parts of my life I'm still figuring out my "place." I'm figuring out what it means to really be a servant in a relationship. I'll soon have patients to see and thats a new place. I'm a leader of a bible study and I'm figuring out that place. I'm attending a church that I don't really have a place in. But in all the places I could or should be in or maybe in the places I am in... the place i know about is that I am a child of God and a servant of Christ. and that place is the most important. Thats my permanent place and there is no where I'd rather be.

<3