More to this Life, A Passionate Life

Going through the motions of life. What's your routine? Some people like routines because they value consistency. Some people dread routine because they see it as monotony.

When the things that you do become routine, we sometimes drift into the mode of going through the motions without intentionality or appreciation.

There is a great song by Steve Curtis Chapman called "More to this Life". It captures the feelings that many of us go through when we're going through that daily grind: wake-up, breakfast, commute, work, commute, dinner, catch up, time with God, sleep, etc.

There truly is more to this life. That "more" is found when we go back to the heart of discipleship. Mike Breen wrote a book titled, "A Passionate Life" that talks about getting back to the heart of discipleship, which is more about being a disciple and less about the activity of discipleship.

Mike Breen teaches discipleship principles by using LifeShapes (basic geometric shapes that remind us of key principles for walking with Jesus in our everyday lives).

The first shape is the Circle: Learning from Life. Life is an arrow where we sometimes focus our eyes on eternity and heaven. But is life just about trying to survive to make sure we get to heaven? Obviously not.

We all have Kairos moments? Key moments that are both good or bad that enable us to experience discipleship as we stop to enter the portal of the Kingdom to practice two activities: Repent and Believe.

Last Sunday, I experienced a Kairos moment. As I was driving on t\he 210 Freeway from Church, and headed to my son's 1st baseball game. The front tire tread came off and flew into the air and I had to pull to the side of the road. Out in the middle of Sun Valley, the Tow Truck wasn't coming for another hour. So, I tried to change the tire myself. Several difficulties arose. The wrench to unscrew the nut was small and thus it was difficult to remove the nut. So, I stepped on it to get some leverage. And guess what happened? The nut and stud broke off. "Oh great!" I said to myself. I should've said it outl oud since no one would've heard me in the midst of freeway noise. Then I successfully removed 3 more nuts from the studs without a glitch. Then as I got to the final one, it was an irregular size nut. It didn't fit my wrench. I couldn't get it off. So I had to wait until the Tow Truck came. The metro truck came first, but the guy didn't want to break off the stud so he left it alone. Another tow truck came, and this guy broke off the stud. I had a replacement tire, but that meant I could only put 3 nuts on 3 studs and of course, that's not very safe. But I had to risk it. It was Sunday, and all mechanics were closed that day. Somehow I safely made it to Kragen, got the replacements parts. I went to my father-in-law's place and we fixed the tired. I missed the game. I got home late. And all that ran through my mine was, "Lord why did that happen?" Then it struck me. The tire was my first shape: the Circle. The lesson I learned on the 210 freeway was a Kairos moment. I once again experienced my sermon before I preached it.

Thank you Jesus for that Kairos moment to stop and go through the stages of repentance and belief.

Pray for God to give you some Kairos moments this week. It's a scary prayer, but it's a great one to experience.