Led not Driven

"Your very driven" one of my friends just said to me. "Nah, I said, I'm just very led" 

 I responded almost immediately but after I said it I really realized how true that really is. I am one of the least motivated people to do anything really, I can stay in bed all day unless I have something pressing enough to get me out of bed. There are days where I will just not eat for hours because I'm too lazy to get up and get food, well until my stomach starts growling at me. But yet people look at my life and what I've accomplished as of late and say "man how did you manage to do all this" The thing is.. I didn't. I would be lying if I tried to take credit for something that is so evidently not mine to take. I couldn't do this, not even if I tried with every ounce of strength could I accomplish half of what I've seen happen in my life lately.

I mean, lets look at Love For The Streets for example ( www.loveforthestreets.org ) check it out if you don't have a clue about what I'm talking about. This is a movement that has continued to spread like rapid fire each week in a way I would have never expected. It started off with a simple vision, a simple wish that God put on my heart, to be friends with the homeless. So I stepped out into the streets of Hamilton with a couple friends, and we decided, Hey, this is something we could do, just come out here every other week with some gift bags. But MAN, it has grown so much bigger then that, and its not stopping. We bring a group of people up from Guelph and Hamilton, just university students with a desire to reach those on the streets, a desire to show them Love, the kind of love that we've been shown. I could go on to explain the lives changed through this movement, and I'm not talking about the lives of those on the streets, but the lives of us students as well! The friends we've made, the stories we've heard and shared, the support of the people in the community, people who pray for us every week and support us financially. Man this thing has grown far past anything me or my two friends ever envisioned it to. My point is this, When God puts something on my heart I follow, and so when the fruit of my obedience grows into something I could never have accomplished myself, I can't take credit for it. God leads me to paths I would never take myself and man am I thankful because there is no way that my life would be where it is without him. 

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9 

The Grace on Dirt

The thing about the Past is that we often never get passed it.

I recall talking to my friend and saying "Satan flings my past in my face like it was a sport" 
But truly I believe it's true. The enemy loves having dirt on you, its like he's running a smear campaign during your election, or posting in tabloids about celebrity gossip. He loves bringing you down, digging up dirt, making you question who you are now. He loves burying you in the faults of your past. But here's the thing about the past, its like compost, its made up of some stuff that's pretty rotten and stinks pretty bad, but put it on a plant and it grows faster and stronger. So our past can make us stronger individuals, it can make us grow and learn from our mistakes if we let it. The thing I always remember is this:  if you are still living in your past, if it's still weighing you down, you really haven't grasped the concept of Grace. Because the truth is I look at my past and to say it was a mess is possibly the understatement of the century, and although I know I'm a different person, I do still have moments that I mess up and I have come to realize
Christ's Grace is sufficient 
For Who I Was
For Who I Am
And For Who I Will Become

and if I remember that, no smear campaign or tabloid is ever going to bring me down, because the fact that the enemy has "dirt" on me proves my life has changed. It points to the growth, the strength that God has shown me everyday leading up until now and all I can do is point back to the Grace that made that change possible.

But he said to me. " My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."                     2 Corinthians 12:9