WAKING UP from a DAZE

Did you know that you are too blessed to be stressed?  And if you’re going to fill yourself up with anything, it might as well be purpose—not anxiety.  Personally, I desire to be a purpose driven man with a purpose filled mind that lives a purpose-centered life. Now that’s a lot of purpose.And all this talk about “purpose” has me thinking about how purposeless my life really was prior to my adversity. Basically, I was living in a daze--from Temple classes to professional soccer matches, and everywhere in between. Don’t get me wrong, I may have been involved with much activity, but not all activity is productive and purposeful.I went through days, weeks, and years, in a daze. And yes I was achieving all along. But it was all about me--and for me. I was building up a resume, not building to my character. I thought I was living out the definition of cool, but since the “living” lacked character, I realize now that I was only playing the fool. I can imagine God continually saying, “You are in a daze, My son. You are not going to like what it’s going to take to wake you up.”  And that’s when the tap would come. Gods gentle reminder to slow down.  And when you don’t heed His tap, He lovingly tries a slap. The slap is when something serious happens in your life, but instead of humbling yourself down, you puff yourself up. And failure to respond to the slap always makes way for the sledge. You see, I continued on my merry way after every tap and every slap, giving the Lord minimal thought. Until the daze breaker. Until the sledgehammer was lifted by my own pride and brought down by my own negligence to God’s providence.  The result of not giving God my undivided attention was a regrettable tragedy that flipped too many lives upside down. “Forgive me, Lord God, that I may cause no more pain”But daze or no daze, that is usually the end result of an individual who fills himself up with the world; cause then there is no room for God.  And what we fill ourselves up with will eventually come out. I cannot take those years of being in a daze back, but I can live now with purpose to claim those days back. The Bible calls it “redeeming the time”  (Ephesians 5:16).In a daze no more and I recognize how easy it is to go through the motions spiritually and physically. I am now hypersensitive to the taps and slaps that I may never have to experience the sledge. Thus, my mission as an instigator is to remind the people that God puts in my path how important it is to know your purpose and then to look to God for the passion to stay focused on your purpose.  Don’t let a daze keep you from maximizing your days. Wake up now and begin living on purpose. Take this blog as your tap. Please, I beg of you not to let it go farther than that.