Thinking.

I think sometimes I idolize thinking.

I always want to have deep thoughts, want to be one step ahead of the game, feeling superior to others because I've thought through things more than them. Sometimes when I'm explaining something to you my voice gets a little higher and more nasal-y, and I'll say something like, "well, you can think of it that way, but..."

And it's about time I start letting that go. Not to say that it's bad to think or that it's wrong to go "deeper" into things (mentally), but I think a lot of life, and in particular, being Jesus' disciple, is doing. Micah 6:8 goes, "He has shown you oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Actions. Jesus showed love by his actions, his words; how he lived his life. Maybe beyond understand what it means to do these things; that is, to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God, is there much more we need to think about? Other than understanding and knowing what God has commanded us to do, does anything else really, really matter? God desires obedience.

For awhile, I was struggling with considering myself being satisfied with the convictions that I had from Japan. I really thought there was a lot that I was missing, things that I had let pass me by. I think it was kind of like that feeling that you get when you're about to leave on a trip, and no matter how many times you double, triple, quadruple check, you always feel like you're forgetting something. It was, and still sort of is, like that.

And I guess it's a struggle I'll still be having, because I'm sure I haven't completely gotten everything "out of it" as I could've, and it will take a long time for me to. But even if I had completely failed on the missions trip, if I had come back and forgotten everything, if I hadn't pulled out everything that I can... God loves me the same. And He loves you the same too.

So if the biggest thing I come out from this trip is a drive to take action, I think I'm okay with that. For awhile, I've been doing too much thinking, too much second guessing, too much waiting. God calls us to action. The Great Commission itself, is a call to action; "go forth".

Action.


(Disclaimer: To further clarify, thinking in itself is no bad. However, I think (har har) that a lack of action is no good. Rather, to value thinking over simply obeying God's commands, such as loving God, loving our neighbor as ourself, laying our lives down for each other, is something to be weary of, and something that I probably do more often than not, or come dangerously close to.)

(and that was a really long, run-on sentence. But I'm okay with that.)