In Pursuit of Abundance
So, I’m assuming by this point you have read our very first blog post entitled, “The Adventure Begins Here” and you are back for more! If not, I encourage you to start your exploring there, by clicking here.
In that post, we shared the paradigm through which we examine the whole of our lives. God created and adopted us, and as His children He intends for us to live holistically healthy and abundant lives.
Today, we want to describe what it looked like for us to begin this journey to holistically healthy and abundant life.
We also want to introduce 12 practical disciplines that we have made a regular part of our lives. These disciplines help us pursue the abundant life God intends for us to live.
And it begins with Jesus.
As we have mentioned before, we believe that the search for truth leads us not to knowledge, but to a person. We know that person to be Jesus. This took place in my life (Raquel) back in 2010.
April 4th, 2010 (Easter Sunday, to be exact)
This Sunday morning would impact both Joshua and I in huge ways, but for different reasons. On this day, Joshua and I broke up. The break up took place in a church parking lot right before the service was about to begin. It was pretty mutual and the conversation consisted of:
“You happy?”
“Nah, you?”
“Nah.”
“Wanna break up?”
“Yea.”
“Alright.”
We hugged it out and that was that. However, on my drive home I could sense a shift in the atmosphere. I knew God was trying to get my attention, so I chose to engage with Him. Stopped at a red light, (longest red light ever) I began to tell the Lord how tired I was.
I was tired of messing around with guys.
I was tired of being fake.
I was tired of not doing “this” (a relationship with Jesus) for real.
I told Jesus I was done with living this way and that for a whole year He would have my undivided attention. That’s right, no more distractions, no messing around or talking to guys, it was just going to be me and Him. I was going to do it right this time.
And guys (and gals)… I did. For that whole year, 365 beautiful, hard, emotional and satisfying days, I learned how to enjoy Jesus. It’s interesting because I didn’t know at the time that I was practicing spiritual disciples, but I was. That is how Holy Spirit works. I didn’t need a how-to book, a theology class or seminary to tell me how to engage with Jesus, HE just started leading me.
I remember starting and ending my days with Him. I would weep for hours on the floor, in awe that I was truly learning what it meant to be satisfied by Jesus. From the age of 13, I had filled my life with distractions, always needing a guy to fill a void that no one ever could. BUT... here I was, about to turn 22 and finally learning to be satisfied by Jesus. I was longing for no one else, but Him. I couldn’t believe it.
I began fasting regularly and got into the best physical and spiritual health of my life. My mind was clearing up, as I learned to meditate on all that was good, lovely and pure. Everything was changing, my worship was sincere, my giving was from the heart, my study was transformative.
It is wild because I have been a journaler since elementary school and I recently found my journal from 2010 (“the golden year”). I remember telling Joshua, “Whoa...this year was so heavy and hard. I was going through so much. The Lord was setting me free and taking me through so much inner healing”.
What’s interesting is that even though a lot of it was heavy, I don’t remember it that way. I don’t remember it as hard or overwhelming or dark or scary… I remember it being the best year of my life. The year I learned to enjoy Jesus. The year I learned that nothing in this world could satisfy me the way He could. The year I was set free. The year I began to walk in wholeness, in abundant life.
As I write this, my vision is blurred by tears.
Why?
One, that year means something so profound to me. Words could never express what Jesus did for me that year.
Two, because I want all of this for you.
As you read this, I am praying that God would meet you the same way He met me in my red 2000 Subaru Impreza. I am praying that if you have never experienced the joy of enjoying Jesus, you would stop reading this blog post right now and go meet with Him. I am praying that if you have lost hope, these words would fill you with hope. I pray that if you know this joy you would share it with everyone you encounter.
Joshua is right. Jesus has holistically impacted our lives for the best. He is super real for us and we want Him to be so for all of our readers. A huge shift took place in our lives when we chose to implement and practice the disciplines He has given us.
Below we have listed for you the 12 disciplines we have made a regular part of our lives. For the next several weeks, we will be diving deeper into each one with you.
Our plan is to be real, raw and vulnerable with you as we share the ways we have put these disciplines into practice. We plan to share the highs and the lows, the how-tos, the failures and the successes. We pray the practice of these disciplines would spark change in you and never leave you the same.
The 12 disciplines include (but are not limited to):
Prayer
Confession
Meditation
Study
Fasting
Sabbath
Silence
Solitude
Simplicity
Giving
Worship
Service
Yes, these are disciplines, but they don’t start off that way. They start off as practices and as we grow and mature they become disciplines. They are the routines we add to our lives, not because someone is telling us we have to, but because they lead us to the gift of abundant living.
And who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want the fullness of life promised to us? We all want it. We all want lives filled with purpose, destiny, accomplishment and satisfaction.
Here is the good news...it is all available to us. It isn’t easy, in fact it is very costly, but man it is worth it. Will you join us as we explore these disciplines?
We sure hope so.
Until next time,
We Are Ecclesia
