Spiritual commutes

I love my commute.

It takes exactly 23 minutes for me to get to work each day. That's 23 minutes of quiet. I love driving. That helps too. But most of all, this is an extra 23 minutes of talking to God that I had to cram into the day.

23 extra minutes one way, 46 extra minutes total.

It's been wonderful.

A lot has gone on during these drives, and I wouldn't give up a single piece of it.
It was during last nights drive home that I finally "got" something that God had been pushing me towards for the last couple of days. The first push I had received was when I read a blog over at intheway - there was a post that had this one line that I had to squint at because I knew there was something more to it for me than just what I was reading. The blogger said: " It's funny, I've been praying more the past few weeks, but it's all about the ministry, not my connection with Jesus."

And then, over at Cerulean Sanctum during a post, Dan Elden quoted Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

And that too, I ended up squinting at as it jumped out at me.

Then it was on the drive home last night that the pieces came together and I realized something.

There's a difference between seeking God so that you can change the world
And seeking God because you desire to seek God, and as a result changing the world.

I have lofty goals. I want to change my city, my county, my state, my country, my world. Even if I only change it by reaching someone else that reaches someone else that reaches someone else that changes the world. I don't care how it gets changed, so long as it's changed. It may sound impossible to you, it sounds impossible to me too, but I know God can do it. I figure that if I try and change the world, I'll probably change more things about it than I would if I set my goal at trying to change a city.

But, I got distracted. I spent my time using God as a means to an end. When in reality, He should be my end. The end of my desires. In loving Him, His desires for my neighbors, city, county, state, country and world become my own. But loving Him still needs to be my first priority.

He gave me a check, to remind me who I love, who I serve, and whose desires I'm working towards. My goal isn't to change the world. My goal is to love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all the time.

And doing that, might very well change the world.

I can hope at least. But even if not one thing ever changes I will still be changed, because I will have spent my life profoundly loving my Saviour and Friend.