simple yet profund

My life is about to get crazy. This summer has flown by, but the next month is definitely going to be a blur. I was blessed to be able to travel to Nicaragua twice on AIA Soccer tours and to have my brother and mom out here to visit me. Brian and I also got to take a 10 day vacation to Maui at the end of the summer. From the middle of July until the end of August, I was living out of a suitcase! I realized while we were in Hawaii how crazy our lives had become. Everyone told us before we left to go see places and restaurants and do all this stuff that sounded so awesome... but then we got there and realized we had done that allllllll summer. All we wanted to do, and all we did, was sit on the beach all day and have a relaxing dinner at home. Our lifestyle is full of "excursions" so when we went to Hawaii, we realized we just wanted to take a break from that.

So what does all this mean? I'm realizing quickly how wasted my life has been. After going on a prayer walk on campus this week, preparing for the spiritual battle we will be facing this fall, I realized that the only way I can make a difference in this world is if I can reach people at a spiritual level. And that can only come by giving up control of my mind, heart, soul, and body. All those things act as a shell, trapping our spirit and the Holy Spirit deep down. The only time a pure spiritual interaction can take place is when we are rid of physical, emotional, and mental distractions.

How impossible does that sound!?

But it's what I want. I'm reading The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee. The book is not an intimidating size, only about 50 pages. But it is so chock full of rich, deep, simple, yet profound concepts. I love it because it gets right to the point, right to the issues, without big words or lots of personal stories to beef up the pages. Don't get me wrong, those stories can add a lot to a book. But I guess I'm just sick of books like Blue Like Jazz by Ronald Miller, most of the John Eldridge books, etc. I can look on our bookshelf now and list off lots more. There's so many out there now.

My spirit and my soul have been reached so profoundly by this simple book. I would just like to say thank you for writing it, Mr. Nee.