Another Nail

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin.

Above is pretty much my life verse.  I relate everything to being crucified, hence the blog name, Another Nail.  The visual seriously captures me every time I think about it.  The idea of seeing my desires, my way, my life being laid down and watching the nails being hammered through me into the cross, symbolizing I no longer live but I've given my rights to Christ, so that He can live in me and through me.

I hope that sinks in. 

So, here we are.  Now this public announcement truly isn't necessary, because it's not something to be publicly announcing foreal.  But I consistently desire to share my heart with you-----well, this is on my heart right now.

Its amazing how God is very thorough with what He does or what He's called you to do.  I've recently entered into a new season, called "Fasting Women".  Hahaha, I know what you're thinking.  What?  Well, let me explain how I reached this season. 

Sparing the heavy details, this started when it finally hit me that I'm the campus youth pastor at my church.  This is after like two weeks of it being official, Haha.  So, it hit me after one night at Switch (the name of the youth ministry I'm serving in), when my students were loving on me after one of the services. Its funny now, but then, I went straight into panic mode.

"Oh God! What?! No! I can't do this! Are you kidding me? Are you crazy!  You know I can't do this!" 

God, (shake my head), He's so patient and calm with us even when we're freaking out.  "Son, calm down.  You can do this.  I've placed you here. As long as you stay obedient and sensitive to my Holy Spirit, you'll be fine." 

And.... still in panic mode, got myself into trouble.  "Ok God! Ok! What can I do now!?"  And the first thing that popped up-----------women. 

"What!?  No, I'm good there.  I've been single since 2006."  Um, Claude.  What does being sensitive to the Holy Spirit means?  It means, if it got brought up, I might want to consider it.   

So, that led me to this season, fasting women.  What's funny, I have no idea what this looks like on a large scale, so I'm being obedient to God in the small things.  Less female friends, more male friends.  No texting late at night, less time on Facebook, etc.  Stuff like that that could encourage me to seek interest or become interested or tickle my heart with thoughts.  If this sounds extreme, well, its probably because it is.  ANOTHER NAIL.

I was asking God about the length of this fast, and I got led to Andy Stanley Love, Sex, and Dating series where He suggested men taking a year off from dating. He explain thoroughly which he suggests it.  Which, confirmed the length for me.  An entire year of not obsessing over women, hahaha, should be an interesting year.  ANOTHER NAIL.  And I'm very interested in seeing what happens as I replace the area in my heart designated as "Some Girl" and putting instead there "SWITCH, Church of the Highlands, the Word of God, Building relationships."  Well, I'll say it like this, instead of obsessing over women, I'll be obsessing over God and the things He's given me, which are SWITCH, Church of the Highlands, the Word of God, and relationships. 

ANOTHER NAIL.  It hurts right now.  But in the end, the reward will be greater than the lost.