Another great and poignant message this past Sunday from my friend and pastor, Phil Pike. It was very timely too, because I’ve been feeling restless with my life here lately. I’m (probably to a fault) too open and honest at times, but I’ve got to be honest here… by nature, I am very lazy and I have to fight with everything in me to not be that person. Ever since Landon arrived, we’ve been forced into a new routine of sorts and I’ve let some things slip and have let my guard down in a lot of ways. As a result, I feel my relationship with God is nowhere close to where it needs to be. I also feel I’ve lost touch with the world around me in a lot of ways and have been too focused on myself to really do anything about it. That’s not a good place to be in.

Phil’s message this Sunday was all about having a “dislocated heart”… a heart that is more concerned with God’s agenda than with our own agenda. Not going to lie, my heart right now is very much “localized”. My first inclination is to think of what’s best, what’s easiest or most convenient for me, everyone and everything else is secondary. When you get a glimpse of what that really looks like in the mirror, it’s a sobering picture. In this series, Phil is using Chip Ingram’s book “Holy Ambition”. One of the quotes from the book really spoke to me, he says:

“Every great movement of God and every project that has brought about relief of human need and the fulfillment of God’s will has started with one man or one woman who cared deeply enough to hear God’s voice and stepped out to do something. It started with a dislocated heart. That person understood that he couldn’t change everything, but he was convinced he had to change something!” –Chip Ingram, Holy Ambition (pp. 45-46)

Wow! That’s the kind of man I want to be. In jest (and sometimes honest frustration), I self-deprecate on this blog from time to time, but the bottom line is, God isn’t looking for talent, he’s not looking for strength or beauty, He’s simply in search of “those whose hearts are fully committed to Him”. I’m someone who has always tried to find the easy way out of things… I’ve got a very, very defined comfort zone. But from past experience, I know that’s not how God works, and it’s definitely not how He shows Himself strong through someone wanting to see Him at work in their life.  Another quote Phil read from the book was this:

“Stepping outside your comfort zone often begins with something very, very small. It’s not about doing something great for God; it’s about letting God do something great in your heart! God never does something great through us until He has done something significant in us!” –Chip Ingram, Holy Ambition (p.49)

This week so far has been a week of self-evaluation. It’s humbling when God reveals things in your life that need changing, but it’s in these times that His love seems so overwhelming. I’m praying that God will show me how to live with a “dislocated heart”, that He’d help me see people as He sees them and begin to have a passion and heart for them, outside of the bounds of my clearly defined comfort zone.

Click here to listen to the sermon audio and find out for yourself what it means to live with a dislocated heart.