Sometimes I feel like the All-American guy. I attended a spendy private university and got a job right out of school, I’m engaged to marry a great girl named Allie, and now we’re buying a house in the Beaverdale neighborhood in Des Moines. It’s enough to make me pinch myself at times. But as great as these things are, they still don’t replace the deep desire to connect with God.

I was driving home a few nights ago and I was reminded that even if everything was taken away from me, I’d still have Jesus Christ. There simply is nothing that can separate us from the love of God if we have accepted his gift of salvation by faith. The curtain between God and us has been torn in two and Christ stands as our advocate despite our circumstances or shortcomings.

The next day I emailed Allie and told her that I want to always keep Jesus #1 in our lives. Soccer practice, home improvement projects, and 401Ks are fine and dandy—I just don’t want them to run our lives. It’s so easy to let the things that we own begin to own us.

The truth is that I don’t really want a pre-fabricated life. I’d rather stick my neck out for God and see what he has in store for our lives.  I refuse to block Jesus out with a white picket fence. Not this guy. Not this life.


Jeremiah 17:7-9 (New International Version)

 7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
       whose confidence is in him.

 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
       that sends out its roots by the stream.
       It does not fear when heat comes;
       its leaves are always green.
       It has no worries in a year of drought
       and never fails to bear fruit."