fear.

As a preface, it has been months since I have unveiled my heart VIA the mighty pen (or at least the mighty digital keyboard), so bear with me if I use far too many words.

In the past few months, God has been taking me on such a journey. I know, I know. Immediately you rolled your eyes and began stalking on Facebook again due to the stench of cliche in that statement. But listen to me; I did not want to go on this journey.

For years I have searched the depths of my soul to find peace. I had heard countless times that it could not be found apart from God, so I joined the K-LOVE bandwagon and filled my life with anything and everything with a JESUS branding. For some reason, it didn't work.

Alright. Next step: I began to avoid being a typical Christian like the plague. So I stepped foot in bars, smoked a few cigars and began being "myself." (which meant that cursing was now a very viable option.) I tried to butter Jesus in as topping in my life hoping that people would like the way their toast tasted better. Again, it did not work.

I was afraid. But fear is exactly what I needed.

God began taking me on a journey into the depths of my heart. The things that I found disgusted me. I began to see that the evil in my life preceded my birth. I was as creature of fear. A creature afraid of man.

I wrestled, kicked and screamed any which way I could refusing to believe that a loving God could expect me to love Him back when He instilled fear in me. But then He poked a thought in my brain two nights ago. "Remember that movie Taken?" I know. I'm crazy, but I think I finally see the heart behind fearing God.

I'm sure due the fact that it was a sweet movie, and that Liam Neeson is a bossman; many of you have seen the movie, so I will keep it short. Basically, an ex special forces spy finds out his daughter is kidnapped, and against all odds, with a reckless abandon, he pursued the life of his daughter until he had her resting safely in his arms.

God is that passionate about His glory. He is that passionate about us. He is that passionate about bringing life and slaying sin. Honestly, I would not want to find myself an enemy of Liam Neeson's character in the movie, so in perspective, if God is endlessly more powerful, why aren't we afraid of being His enemy? Colossians 1:21 tells us that "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." How much of that behavior do we still hold onto because we fear people instead of Him? Why do feel bad about sin but refuse to change? Maybe because we refuse to deal with sin as what it is: death.

I don't even need to end this with a clever punch line. Just do something for yourself and stop justifying the things that you do. Start dealing with the sin that you have.