The Basics

My freshman year of college I went to Missouri Valley College, in Marshall, MO. I decided to go there because I received a financial scholarship and a little bit of an academic one as well. Anyway, Marshall, MO., is a butt crack town that I wish on nobody. The school sucked too. The guy/girl ratio was 7/1, there was no A/C in the dorms or the classrooms (in the Midwest, 95 degrees, 93% humidity) and it was just really small, 1200 students. Not really my idea of college.

I did however, get to walk on the soccer team there and even got some starting time. They had a varsity squad that were the best guys there and then they had a JV squad where we were to be developed a little. That's where I played. It was still fun. I learned a lot about the game, got to see some awesome players from the Midwest, mostly, I got to play a game I love.

One of the things that was really weird to me when I got there was how simple they made the game. From day one, obviously, all we did was run. Then we ran some more. There was a little puking in there and we continued to run. But when we finally got to touch the ball, we did basic stuff (eg., trapping, heading, first touch, etc...) If you know anything about the game, if you can't do that, you can't win games. So that is pretty much all we emphasized. Obviously, we did other stuff but this played a major role.

Well, I have used this analogy in many of my life experiences. Just simply go back to the basics of what it is I'm doing or working on. I was reading this morning in Romans 4 about faith. It appears simple. Not so much for me. I began thinking about it and I needed to go back to the basics again. What is it that makes me a Christ follower? How would I explain this to someone wanting to know what that looks like?

I got to thinking about it for me and it was 4 words...
-Faith
-Love
-Acceptance
-Forgiveness

I think those four sum up for me how I try and live my life following Christ. I need faith just to believe this Christ guy is real. I need to work on loving others like I'm loved, I need to accept people where they are because I'm accepted where I'm at, and lastly, I need to forgive daily because I'm forgiven daily.

I go back to the basics because I think this is where it all starts for me. Actually walking in these is really hard for me because I question Christ's presence every day. I think to myself, "Is this even real? Others seem to be getting by okay without Christ. They seem to have it together."

This is just where I was at this morning. I like blogging and putting things into words. It helps me process.