Potty time Faith

Right of the bat I want to say that some people might find this post offensive. The truth is however that I honestly am not trying to be offensive at all. I am being completely real here. This is my journey to a Faith lived out on the toilet.

In the past few months I have been excited to see my spiritual life grow in directions and ways I never thought it could. Part of this has to do with the Community group that my wife and I are currently enjoying. Another part of this has to do with literally getting rid of the crap that hovers in my life and holds on to my soul. I am by far not as clean, pure, honest, holy, and many other righteous things, but I believe I might be walking in the right direction.

So much of our lives are spent in darkness and earnestly trying to find the One True Light and then stay in its ever glowing beam. So much of our lives contain failure and rabbit trails. So much of our lives are spent on things that really shouldn't be consuming our time at all.

And recently I came to a realization that has been helpful in my ever persistent and often distracted walk towards the light. I have been teaching a sixth grade middle school small group on Wednesday nights. This has been refreshing and also helpful in honing my teaching/devotional skills. I enjoy preparing for each weeks lesson. I enjoy the research, the time, the effort, the conversation itself, and so much more of the process. I really enjoy it when a student gets the small picture of Christ that I am trying to share with them and the light bulb goes on in their head and they begin to understand a little fragment of this awesome God who created us. In the process over the past few weeks we have been looking at Worship, Accountability, Brotherhood, and other themes as well, but the ever present theme seems to be our time and what we are doing with it. Where is it going? How are we using it?

Most of the time, my time seems to slip by without me even noticing it. Of course I live my life by the seat of my pants and go with whatever comes up. This can be good or bad. Good if I am trying to follow the heart of God. Bad if I am distracted from God. You see, I have this wonderful personality of spontaneous compulsions. I pick up a hobby, TV show, sport, game, or whatever and I dive fully into it, only to be doing something else entirely a few weeks later.

I also am very much about what I am doing right now. I have certain things that are immovable in my life, things that will always be there and never change, or so I would hope. One of these immovable things is my Community group, another is my Middle School Church group, another is my wife, and then of course the Portland Trailblazers, and above all God. The question is however is where is this time going? What am I doing with it? Is what I am doing right now going to last?

So often we spend our days packing everything imaginable into the 24 hours we are given. In the end where was God in all of it? Was He at work? Did we allow Him to follow us to work? Oh sure He was there all along, but did we acknowledge Him and actually worship Him while we worked? How about the other activities during the day? Where is He? I wont list my entire day here or yours for that matter. But guess what! I have figured something out. Something pretty life changing for me.

I never used to be a devotional kind of guy. Never could make the time, let alone find it. Never found a devotional book that could capture my attention long enough to last. Oh I tried pretty hard sometimes. I have read the Bible through several times since my year in India (where I first read through the Bible in an entire year). This never seemed to work however. It was if all of that attention towards books, prayers, sayings, whatever was just being wasted, I was just trying to live and listen to God thinking that would suffice. Whatever happened, happened. Where ever He met me, that was enough. This is partially a good thing, but where was the work on my part? Oh sure I have a huge Faith, sometimes to a fault, but my words and thoughts will not be enough. My actions and steps will be what I am judged by. So now I am thinking more efficiently about how I am taking action in this Faith I have in Christ.

Efficiently meaning I am looking at where my time goes. One thing I noticed is that each day I have to use the toilet. And more accurately I have to use the toilet for number 2. Number two takes longer than number one, for most considerably longer. Three months ago I timed it. I used to think of myself as a fast number two-er. Now I am a little bit more productive while on the throne. Amazingly we all have been created to do this each day, or at least a couple times a week. So now each time I take care of business, I spend some time with God.

A year ago I purchased a One year Devotional by Eugene Peterson. It was written for students, I originally thought I might use it for a small group someday. The problem was I never found the time to pick it up. That is until three months ago, I started reading it every time I went to the boys room. I now find myself quite a few pages into the devotional. The amazing thing is, almost always what I am reading in the devotional is happening in my life or making more sense in my life. How many Ah Ha moments have I had recently? Way to many to count to tell you the truth. I am now urging my students and those around me to try this as well.

Honestly folks, God gave us the ability to need to get rid of our waste, why not fill up on His beauty while we are emptying ourselves of the ugly inside?

So the plea is this...next time you crap, fill up on a little bit of Him while he is giving you time to do it. See He knew exactly what He was doing when He created us to get rid of our waste..."I will give them a little bit of uninterrupted time to think about me!This will be great!" Okay maybe He didn't say those exact words, but I am sure He would be pleased by us giving Him our time in the Crappiest of times.