A Start

I've thought about starting a blog for awhile. I actually created it a month ago, but didn't write anything because I was struggling to find a theme. My friends have these awesome blogs with really cool themes, with headings that grab your attention like Diary of a Revivalist, Limitless Love, His Herald, and they make you want to find out if they have the words to back up a title that claims that kind of power and impact (they do). So I waited until some fantastic, perfect theme came to me so I could start writing.

Well, it hasn't. But I realized something important - who cares? I have an itch to write, and there are some things I want to say that fall in between a private prayer journal and a poem or song (although I do intend to post some of those), things that are best put in basic prose, and since I'm much better at writing than speaking, this format makes sense. 

So. The blog's called Catching Fire because that's what my spirit has been doing over the past 4+ months; I was raised a Christian and have had faith my whole life, but spent much of it as a mental believer. I went to church, I attended Lutheran schools from Pre-K until 12th grade, I went to sunday school, VBS, you name it. I knew the Bible. I knew the trivia. I knew what was right and wrong, and I knew that Jesus died for my sins to give me a shot at salvation. The problem was, that's where it stopped - God remained as nothing more than knowledge, held in a little box in the corner of my mind, and I didn't really incorporate Him into my daily life. I was a Christian, sure, but somehow I still needed to get born again.

God knew this, of course, and no matter how good I was at walling off areas of my life, God is WAY too big to fit in a box. He led me to Two Rivers while simultaneously opening my heart to accept that true belief is more than just knowledge. Belief is a bigger word, something that expands from knowledge into action. I learned what it really means to be a follower of Jesus by witnessing the lives of those who see themselves as children of God first, and everything else second. I learned the power of prayer. I learned that the gifts of the Spirit are real and here and available to us; I prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I received it. I opened my ears to listen to God and have received prophetic words, images, songs, and ideas. There's a line in an Owl City song (Angels) that says "I believe, so I'm not praying to the ceiling anymore." I feel like that's where I am. I've finally made the connection that God is not just in heaven but on earth, in ME, and this understanding cannot help but drastically change my life.

God reached out to me. He opened my eyes and my heart, and is preparing me for great things. Praise the Lord!