Just as I am

      I was sitting this morning having my morning devotions and realized that I could not focus. Each word I read turned into another thought. I was listening to worship music and really wanted to get up and dance. And  I found myslef saying, "God help me to sit here and focus".
    I felt like in that moment God reminded me how each person is  individual, unique, and creative. It began to make me really question, "What is it then God that you really expect when I spend time with you? Do you expect a quiet pious sitting person?" Maybe sometimes. Maybe sometimes He expects the quieting of our souls , to be still in His presence. But not always.
    God is not the old librarian in between a pile of dusty books or the uptight profressor during a test telling you to "shush" all the time. Sadly, for so many people (including myself at one point) this is how they view God:sit down, read your Word,and shut up= happy God and successful spiritual walk. No wonder so many of us are bored with our relationship with God! Maybe what God really desires is for us to be who He has made us to be.
    I have some missionary friends whose son is ALWAYS outside. He rolls around in the dirt,talks to the animals, climbs trees, and cries when he has to come in to eat or take a bath. This is just how God made  him, an outdoor nature boy. So what about this boy? Is his encounter with God limited to how long he can sit and pray within the day? By no means! Maybe that boy was made to encounter his Heavenly Father the closest in nature exploring, discovering, and uncovering God's creation.
   Maybe God made you to dance or to bake or to swim or to do all the things He put a passion and a gifting in your heart to do because it brings Him the most worship and the most glory when you do it. And maybe all these things were meant to be done in tangent with Him. Some of my biggest moments of revelation and lessons from God didn't neccessarily come from sitting in my reading chair locked in my room (oh, though I do love spending time with Jesus in that spot!). Revelation and relationship can come from a place of continually abiding in Christ while having freedom to be who God has made you to be. A Christ filled life looks the way God wants it to, not what others expect you to look like or be.
  As Paul would instruct the early church, so do I do to you, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thes. 5:16-18). Do such things in a genuine manner that God has created you to do so in.