Surfing with a Purpose

I know what your thinking, “oh great, another person’s opinion on how
to figure out who I am” and your right. These are my thoughts on this
matter and the reality is you need to hear them. Even though you may
have figured out who you are yesterday, how is that you woke up today
with uncertainty?
(Man more often needs to be remind than taught -Somebody Important)
(2 Peter 1:12-13)

There seems to exist a certain amount of confusion in our generation. I can
hear it in the voice of my friends, I hear it in the voice of the
students and I hear it in the voice of our fathers.

There also seems to exist a few reasons for our lack of direction, I want to point out
three (and hopefully offend you enough to respond).  Fist of all Media,
but not in a way you think. Second our Culture, an easy target. Third
our lifestyle, different from our culture and relating back to Media.

Before I start let me pull out a quote from a Newsweek interview with Johnny
Depp to help me appear as an authority on this topic. “He’s always been
true to who he is,” says director Tim Burton, “He’s never been ruled by
money, or by what people think he should or shouldn’t do. Maybe it’s
just in America, but it seems that if your passionate about something,
it freaks people out. You’re considered bizarre or eccentric. To me, it
just means you know who you are.”

(Day 1)
From that let me Attack
our culture in an attempt to offend you, furthermore let me pull out
the word Apathy and then accuse you of it. Here is my definition of
Apathy, to make mention of feeding the hungry, you would immediately
stop reading this essay, just like you would flip the channel when you
see poverty on television. Apathy is the overwhelming generalization I
would apply to Western Culture in accordance to wasting food, water and
energy as well as not acknowledging those around us.
Examples of
waste and how it applies. Forgive my smugness, we drive a car that’s to
big, eat more than we need, and forget that 88% of the world does not
have running water. How this applies, lies within self-control. ( 2
Peter 1:5-7 )If we stop allowing the day to be driven by our desires
then we can begin to consider others. Acknowledging the needs of others
will break the veil of confusion placed over our lives. Another quote
to plea my case, Rick Warren on the finding the purpose of our lives
states “It’s not about you.” Let me repeat that so I can hear it too,
“It’s not about you” in other words YOU are not the purpose of YOUR
life, some one else is.

Spend every day finding that some one else and
you will know who you are.

2 Peter 1:5-8

5 So make every
effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your
faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral
excellence leads to knowing God better. 6 Knowing God leads to
self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient
endurance leads to godliness. 7 Godliness leads to love for other
Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for
everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more you will become
productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. NLT

2 Peter 1:12-14

12
I plan to keep on reminding you of these things--even though you
already know them and are standing firm in the truth. 13 Yes, I believe
I should keep on reminding you of these things as long as I live.  NLT

(Day 2)
Your veil of confusion is not from WHAT is in The Media.
It’s not even the fact that you watch, listen and read it. The lack of
direction in your life comes from answering the question WHEN and WHY
you do what you do.
There is a longing built into us, for the sake
of simplicity let’s call it the need to “check out”. It’s those moments
when we feel the need to take a break from reality. So we go to the
movies, turn on the TV, drink a beer, get on the internet, read a
magazine, take a drug, listen to our I-pod or spend time alone with God
in the scriptures.
Or spend time ALONE with God, TIME alone WITH
God, the God who created you with the built in need to ‘check out”.
(Acts 10:10) You see it’s one or the other.
But you’ve heard this
before, you shake your head and say “gee whiz, I could spend a few more
minutes in prayer” then for the next two days you do, wow, then it’s back to normal (busy, noise, busy, eat, busy, phone call, busy, sorry not now, busy, e-mail , busy, sleep).
Step 1) Admit you don’t take time to pray.
Step 2) Allow step 1 to sink in.
Lets
look at two questions and explore how the world caves in. When and
Why.  When did you last check out and why. When did you last watch TV
and why. When did you last Turn the music up loud and why.  When did
you last take a pain reliever and why.
More specifically now, look
at WHEN. Write it down on a piece of paper so you can look at your
trigger. There is only one wrong answer to this question. If your
answer was “I don’t know…” then you run the risk of becoming a machine.
You see “any man can become a machine, all he has to do is sacrifice
his heart.”(John Eldredge) It’s a hard question, it takes thought. So
think about it.
I have an agenda so I’ll get to the point, God is
the news, God is the pain reliever, God is the discovery channel, God
is your rest, God is your pick me up, God is your grande skim
macchiato, God is your Mango Orange passion Sherbet, God is the “check
out“.
You have triggers, if God were to tap you on the shoulder, you would turn to see who it was.
Next
time you go to pick up your remote God is tapping you on the shoulder,
next time you pick up the News Paper God is tapping you on the
shoulder, next time you go to take a pain reliever God is tapping you
on the shoulder and next time you read an article on discovering
yourself … God is tapping you on the shoulder. Are you going to turn
and see who it is?

Acts 10:9-11

9 The next day as Cornelius's messengers were nearing the city, Peter went up to the flat roof to pray. It was about noon, 10 and he was hungry. But while lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the sky open, and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners.  (emphasis added)

Acts 22:17-18

17 "One day after I returned to Jerusalem, I [Paul] was praying in the Temple, and I fell into a trance.
18 I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, 'Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for
the people here won't believe you when you give them your testimony
about me.'  NLT (emphasis added)

Matt 14:13-14

13 As soon as Jesus heard the news, he went off by himself in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed by land from many villages.

Matt 14:23-24
23 Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
Night fell while he was there alone. 24 Meanwhile, the disciples were
in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they
were fighting heavy waves.

Mark 1:35-36

35 The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.

Luke 9:18

18 One day as Jesus was alone, praying, he came over to his disciples and asked them, "Who do people say I am?" NLT