Don’t let your envy consume you but recently I got to go to Kansas.
Now I know you might be really jealous of me, being that Kansas is such a magical land of wheat and flatness, but try not to let it bother you too much. Someday you might be able to go to Kansas too.
Actually, I don’t think I would wish that on anybody.
The reality is, and I mean no offense to the people of this state, but Kansas is really boring. I was driving to Wichita and it seemed like time slowed down once we crossed the state line and I was drowning in a never-ending sea of wheat and mind-melting nothingness.
As I was driving out of Kansas, to my great relief, a week later, I realized that my faith lately had been a whole lot like Kansas. I was ready to get out.
Here are some things I have noticed about Kansas faith.
Kansas is incredibly flat. I am pretty sure that if you lived in Kansas and your dog ran away you would have a good three days to find him before he was fully out of sight. There are no ups and there are no downs. Everything is constant. Sometimes I go through seasons where nothing could ever excite me. Everything is going right and just the way I want it to go but I still have trouble looking forward to the next day. I and the world around me are flat. Nothing cranks my tractor like it used to.
When I find myself in a season like this I usually start feeling guilty that I am not being as passionate as I need to be. I start critiquing myself on all the things I should be doing and forcing myself to pretend to be excited about life. I don’t generally fool anybody but myself for a little while until it all boils down to a fit of frustration. After breaking down in an apathetic temper tantrum, God reminds me of who He is and who I am and shifts my perspective to where I truly can be excited about life and all that God is doing. Then He reminds me that those seasons of flatness are OK, as long as they are just seasons and not lifestyles. God never wants us to live our lives with flat Kansas faith but sometimes He does drive us through them for awhile. These times of spiritual flatness only make us appreciate Him more on the other side. They offer a transition between where we were with God and where we are going with God. Until we become unsatisfied with where we are we will never want to go any further into God and what He wants for our lives.
While driving through Kansas I swear we passed the same truck stop five or six times. I checked the GPS to make sure that we weren’t going in circles and it turns out that Kansas just repeats itself over and over. It was almost like every ten miles or so looked exactly like the ten miles we had just driven through and I knew I could relate. Sometimes I feel like life is just a big déjà vu and that I have already gone through everything I am going through now. I feel like I should let God know that I already passed these tests and therefore shouldn’t have to go through them again but He puts them all on repeat and I discover that I still have more to learn. When life repeats itself, God is just reiterating Himself. What did I miss the last time I went through everything I am going through now?
Another thing I noticed about Kansas the second I stepped out of the vehicle was the intense heat. Now, being the native Floridian that I am, heat is something I am generally accustomed to but nothing could prepare me for the dry heat of Kansas. Down south we have this thing called humidity and we have a lot of it but Kansas apparently doesn’t have it at all. I stepped outside and instantly felt life all the fluids in my body were being evaporated through my skin. I imagined that my parents would receive a phone call telling about how their son had been found in raisin form.
The thermometer read 106 degrees and from the outside people could look at my faith and say the same thing. I was doing ministry. I was giving myself as a servant. My faith must have been hot.
There was one problem, though. I was completely dry.
I realized that it is possible to do all the right things and be “on fire” for God but still lack the wetness of His presence. Heat and intensity aren’t enough if we are not saturated with the presence of God in our lives. God never calls us to a dry heat, but and over flowing spring of life that fills the world around us. If we aren’t soaking ourselves in the presence of God than we are sucking life from the people we think we are ministering to.
The best thing about Kansas is that it doesn’t last forever. Toto, I am not in Kansas anymore!
The seasons of dryness that we all go through don’t always happen because we are doing something wrong, but often they happen because we are doing something right. God is calling us deeper into His presence than we ever imagined and there is nothing like a season of Kansas to drive us into that desperation we need to want to pursue God more. Don’t hate on Kansas when your life drive you through it, because the state you are about to go through will be worth it all.
Now I know you might be really jealous of me, being that Kansas is such a magical land of wheat and flatness, but try not to let it bother you too much. Someday you might be able to go to Kansas too.
Actually, I don’t think I would wish that on anybody.
The reality is, and I mean no offense to the people of this state, but Kansas is really boring. I was driving to Wichita and it seemed like time slowed down once we crossed the state line and I was drowning in a never-ending sea of wheat and mind-melting nothingness.
As I was driving out of Kansas, to my great relief, a week later, I realized that my faith lately had been a whole lot like Kansas. I was ready to get out.
Here are some things I have noticed about Kansas faith.
Kansas is incredibly flat. I am pretty sure that if you lived in Kansas and your dog ran away you would have a good three days to find him before he was fully out of sight. There are no ups and there are no downs. Everything is constant. Sometimes I go through seasons where nothing could ever excite me. Everything is going right and just the way I want it to go but I still have trouble looking forward to the next day. I and the world around me are flat. Nothing cranks my tractor like it used to.
When I find myself in a season like this I usually start feeling guilty that I am not being as passionate as I need to be. I start critiquing myself on all the things I should be doing and forcing myself to pretend to be excited about life. I don’t generally fool anybody but myself for a little while until it all boils down to a fit of frustration. After breaking down in an apathetic temper tantrum, God reminds me of who He is and who I am and shifts my perspective to where I truly can be excited about life and all that God is doing. Then He reminds me that those seasons of flatness are OK, as long as they are just seasons and not lifestyles. God never wants us to live our lives with flat Kansas faith but sometimes He does drive us through them for awhile. These times of spiritual flatness only make us appreciate Him more on the other side. They offer a transition between where we were with God and where we are going with God. Until we become unsatisfied with where we are we will never want to go any further into God and what He wants for our lives.
While driving through Kansas I swear we passed the same truck stop five or six times. I checked the GPS to make sure that we weren’t going in circles and it turns out that Kansas just repeats itself over and over. It was almost like every ten miles or so looked exactly like the ten miles we had just driven through and I knew I could relate. Sometimes I feel like life is just a big déjà vu and that I have already gone through everything I am going through now. I feel like I should let God know that I already passed these tests and therefore shouldn’t have to go through them again but He puts them all on repeat and I discover that I still have more to learn. When life repeats itself, God is just reiterating Himself. What did I miss the last time I went through everything I am going through now?
Another thing I noticed about Kansas the second I stepped out of the vehicle was the intense heat. Now, being the native Floridian that I am, heat is something I am generally accustomed to but nothing could prepare me for the dry heat of Kansas. Down south we have this thing called humidity and we have a lot of it but Kansas apparently doesn’t have it at all. I stepped outside and instantly felt life all the fluids in my body were being evaporated through my skin. I imagined that my parents would receive a phone call telling about how their son had been found in raisin form.
The thermometer read 106 degrees and from the outside people could look at my faith and say the same thing. I was doing ministry. I was giving myself as a servant. My faith must have been hot.
There was one problem, though. I was completely dry.
I realized that it is possible to do all the right things and be “on fire” for God but still lack the wetness of His presence. Heat and intensity aren’t enough if we are not saturated with the presence of God in our lives. God never calls us to a dry heat, but and over flowing spring of life that fills the world around us. If we aren’t soaking ourselves in the presence of God than we are sucking life from the people we think we are ministering to.
The best thing about Kansas is that it doesn’t last forever. Toto, I am not in Kansas anymore!
The seasons of dryness that we all go through don’t always happen because we are doing something wrong, but often they happen because we are doing something right. God is calling us deeper into His presence than we ever imagined and there is nothing like a season of Kansas to drive us into that desperation we need to want to pursue God more. Don’t hate on Kansas when your life drive you through it, because the state you are about to go through will be worth it all.
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