It was right around July the 2nd that things began to change for me in a dynamic way that was quite unexpected. For over five years at IHOP I had been a drummer. What that means is that nearly all my time serving the missions base was centered around the prayer room. When I wasn’t in the prayer room I was on the stage, or at a conference, or on a ministry trip.
But when I put down drumming for a while to work for the IIHOP marketing team, it was not what I had expected at all.
For starters, a lot more happened than just the marketing team. Anna and I are also teaching at the Daniel Academy.
So as things changed it took me several weeks to discover that I was in a completely new context for encountering God. Although I am in the Prayer Room about 6 hours a day, I now have several more hours in my day that are not specifically centered around the Prayer Room.
Instead those hours are spent in meetings, making phone calls, emails, and working on graphic design from my home.
Now I am most certainly not complaining about the new this shift. In fact it is a gift from God.
What I have recently realized is that although I survived the transition from one season to another, I am not doing to well at navigating this new season. If you’re like me - and I imagine that you probably are - then you try to do the same things the same way when you move into a new season, only to find out that it doesn’t work that way. A new season in God often requires new disciplines and a new approach to encountering God.
Ultimately, as we navigate the ups and downs of life, we can come to a place where our inner man is in constant communion and fellowship with Christ within and the Holy Spirit. And that is precisely why this new season of mine is a gift from God. I have been massively challenged to encounter God in meetings and emails and isolated graphic designing.
The renowned Brother Laurence taught it best.
Our sanctification does not depend as much on changing our activities as it does on doing them for God rather than for ourselves.
He said that it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our prayers unite us with Him in our quiet devotions.
It is the same resolve that Paul had: to count all things as loss for the excellence of knowing Christ. Our relationship with God cannot be based on external circumstances. It must become an inward reality that supersedes pressures, responsibilities, blessings and trials.
I also feel it’s fair to address the silence on here as of late. The best way I can think to describe it is that I now have many more outlets for teaching and sharing on the subject of God.
For a long time The Fight Spot was my only outlet, and it was all I could do to not publish every single bit of teaching I had. But now I am not only creating my own study notes for the e12 I lead, but I am also developing and teaching an entire curriculum for a private Christian school’s high school track.
However, I am very unwilling to give up writing. I still hold very strong to the values of apostolic blogging, and do not see The Fight Spot going away any time soon. Although the posting schedule has most certainly changed, I look forward to this new season of my own life and how The Fight Spot will reflect it.
Additionally, it seems I have been asked quite a bit lately if I will ever write a book. I have always seen myself as an author. And although I have plenty of opinions to share, I don’t yet feel confidence that I have enough content on any given subject to produce something worthy of print.
In between TFS posts feel free to see what’s going on at Shawnblanc.net. My new outlet for design and technology (and an experiment in Apostolic Blogging through a non-Christian focused weblog).
And yes, I did get an iPhone.
