My Relationship With God

I think sometimes we lose sight of things we love, things we cherish, things that are important to us and who we are. But in this moment and every moment, I choose to acknowledge these things and keep them before all else. Sometimes we get distracted by life, and that’s okay, but at the end of the day I choose my priorities. I choose my values, my relationships, my outlook and I choose my relationship with God. I urge all of you to choose these things, too. Or choose other things. Choose something; something to keep you grounded, humble, centered, heart happy and in love with life.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about my relationship with God. Maybe this is a selfish article, so that I can see what my relationship with Him really is to me or how it could improve, but maybe it’s not. Maybe this can help you seek out a relationship with God. to reconnect with Him, or strengthen what’s already there. Or maybe you don’t believe in God, but will find some messages hidden that can apply to your life anyway. I hope this is for you as much as it is for me.

I’ll start by saying that I’m both consciously and subconsciously very in tune with my faith. I pray, I make thoughts and decisions based on my faith, and I do my best to live like a follower of God. I’ll continue by saying I’m most definitely not always good at it. I make more mistakes than many, I sin like crazy, and sometimes my thoughts and decisions don’t reflect God. However, that’s human nature. I know perfection doesn’t exist, but I can spend my days trying to improve myself in His image at the very least.

I think the strongest way to make these improvements is by strengthening my relationship with God. I do pray, I always say thank you, I look for reasoning and grace in places that seem to have none, and I do my very best to place my complete and utter trust in the Lord. But sometimes my faith gets shaky. Life tests us and when it does it’s easy to look around and ask God why things are happening, it’s easy to blame him for hurt and for heartaches, for a lack of love and for our losses. That’s so easy.

But I think maybe where we need to place our energy in this relationship is in building trust, trusting that when He takes away something or alters our lives in some way, it’s for bigger and better and much more beautiful things. It’s for new experiences, new relationships, new paths and outlooks, and it’s for growth, because this life is wild and constantly changing and challenging us. God knows what He is doing. He’s the master architect of our lives and of our universe. He loves us with a love that could power the sun and move oceans; a love that literally did calm the waves and part the sea. I know that trust is a foundation of all good relationships, not just one with God. If we can work on building our trust in Him, if we can loosen our grip ever so slightly so he can take control of the reins, we might just find ourselves at peace and at ease with our world as we take it on.

To expand on that, I also think we need to change our perspective on things. For example, let’s say good and evil. I’ve taken this example from the book “The Shack” (a wonderful, somewhat strange read). They discuss how we humans determine for ourselves what is good and evil, but that sometimes what we perceive to be evil might actually not be so evil. It’s an interesting and somewhat difficult concept to grasp, but it’s important. We don’t typically stop and think about it through a new lens. Maybe sometimes evil actually opens new doors for us or saves us from something we don’t even see coming, something we might not ever know was coming at all. So I guess the trick is to take a step back and change our perspective on all things. Maybe it’s a change in how you see the weirdo in your math class or the barista who flirts with you every time you need a cup of coffee. Maybe it’s about how you left your phone at home and were late to work. Maybe it’s how you lost your job and thought it was a tragedy, but really it gave you time to remember the things you love, or to spend more time with your family. Sometimes evil really is terrible and awful and all things tragic, but sometimes it’s not. God works in mysterious ways and there are so many blessings in disguise all around us. It’s time to work on perspective. I guarantee that when you change your perspective, your world will change with it.

Trust in God, because the things you see as evil or cannot understand might just be the very strange ways He’s saving you. That’s what God does; He saves you, and sometimes He does it before you even know you need saving.

When your faith is shaky, work on building that trust with the Lord and move forward by looking at things from a whole new angle. When you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom, remind yourself that the only way to look is up- a view maybe you didn’t quite see before. If He can heal the leper and cure the blind, he can figure out something as simple as you and me.

And always, always remember to say thank you.