Colossians 3:1-4

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. 

One day I decided to get in my feelings and watch one of my all-time favorite movies. "Overcomer" by the Kendrick brothers. I feel like it touches me just right every time I watch it. There's a part when the coach in the movie gets asked who he is. He said he was a coach, a white male, a history teacher. So he was asked again "who are you?" The coach confused states, "I don't understand this game." The man questioning him says "it's not a game, who are you?" He replies, "I'm a husband and a father." The man responds with "Lord forbid that is ever taken from you, who are you? He said in a dull voice, "I'm a Christian." The man said, "why did it take you so long to say that? Your heart is tied to whatever you put first."

I'm crying as I'm writing this because I truly resonate with that. When the coach lost his team it wasn't just saddening, it crushed him. Similar to me, I lost my job and it devastated me. I became a shell of myself. I essentially wanted to disappear. I wanted no one to know a thing about me. I felt I let people down because every one expected me to land on my feet right away. It ate at me for longer than I like to admit. At one of Pastor Johnson church services, he used an illustration I had heard before. As he was telling it, I lifted my hand in the air because I knew where he was going. He told a story of how he got a pet hamster for the family. He brought the guinea pig all these toys, water, home for him to have. But when he reached down to pick up the guinea pig, he ran and hid behind the things that he had received from his father. Similar to me, I had the dream job, the material things I wanted, the income to support my lifestyle, and I was hiding behind it all. I distanced myself from God himself. Not intentionally by any means. But similar to the pet guinea pig, the home, the toys, the water had to be removed for his father to get to him. My heavenly Father had to remove those earthly things from me to reach me, to fully embrace Him. As Jonathan McReynolds would say, I had to Make Room.