By Nathan
I have been listening my entire life. In classes, to other people, in Sunday school and church, I have always been a listener. I have received numerous blessings from this skill and have learned many things. Without listening I wouldn't be who I am today, but for really the first time in my life, I want to do more than listen.
Listening to the speakers that have come into our class, all of them are making changes in their communities and slowly changing the way church has been practiced for decades, for the better. I see these people that are filled with the Holy Spirit both listening to the Lord and living out the way God intended us to. These pastors are living their faith and have shown the way of Jesus through their words AND their actions.
I have been thinking and praying about what God wants me to do vocationally with my life to honor him. One would think that I already have this planned out since I am going to college and getting my degree, and at one point I thought I knew what to do, but either I didn’t think I was listening to what God had in store for me to do or I wasn’t ready to do what he wanted me to do.
In class we got the opportunity to hear from Bryan Dormaier, a church planter in Portland. During the conversation we talked about the struggles of situations in which we communicate our faith and someone mentioned that they have grown the most in their faith through putting themselves in uncomfortable situations, such as talking with people that you might never talk with - something I would never do. That’s something I aim to change by LISTENING to God and ACTING on it.
