For This ReasonSample

For this reason, I EXPLORE  

The second-degree burns were painful. I had just run through a pile of ashes that were burning in my front yard. A tree had fallen two weeks earlier during a tornado and the cleanup crew burned the once mighty oak in our yard. I was nine years old and my big sister dared me to run through the ashes, and so, thinking they had gone cold…I did!

My sister took advantage of my curious nature. I have always loved to do new things, and especially, to go new places. Exploration is a part of who I am! It doesn’t matter if its a new city, a new building, or even my own soul; I love to explore.

Exploration is in our souls; God put it there. He gave us free will to choose whatever we want, and as we come into a relationship with Jesus, He doesn’t remove the desire to look into new things, He doesn’t erase our curiosity. 

He just redirects it. 

He leads us explore things that He wants to show us. Jesus is our guide. Just like all stories that have a guide-whether it’s Yoda or Gandalf-Jesus guides us to new places, to new people, to new understandings of who He is, and we should follow Him into these spaces. We should lean into the desires that Jesus has for us and allow Him to lead us into those areas He wants us to go.

Following Jesus on a journey of exploration is nothing short of adventurous. The path of discovery helps us to discover who Jesus is, and as we explore who Jesus is, it changes who we are.

QUESTIONS:

1. REFLECT: What parts of your personality are unexplored frontiers? Maybe start with the pieces of your personality that people compliment you on and begin to allow God to speak to you about who he has created you to be.

2. APPLY: How has Jesus acted as a “guide” in your story? Where is He leading you that you have been reluctant to explore?

3. PRAY: God give me a willing spirit to be an explorer, going into the places of this world that need you and looking into who I am and whom you have created me to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.