A Covenant with God

Here is something that I have not done in a while. Goodness knows it's about time I do.

This week is our second of orientation. It's more personal this time though. This week we are in Hollywood, the five of us who will be here fore the year, doing everything we can to lay the groundwork for a successful year. Most importantly, we are working to grow the bonds with each other that will guide us through this year of intentionality and introspection. Among the list of activities, our house covenant will lay out the governing principles that we as a house aim to follow in the coming year; I want to go a step beyond that.

I struggle as much as anyone does to try to right myself with god, and while I know that by grace alone we are saved, I know also that this doesn't mean that I can continue in my sin repeatedly committing the same offense while still pretend that I am right with god. So This is it. This is where I will lay that sin down before God in all his glory and beg for his forgiveness.

God has said that before we come to the temple to worship and to take communion we should clear our own hearts of wrong doing against our brothers. That we both forgive them for those things that we have been holding against them, and that we seek their forgiveness. So first I will endeavor to seek forgiveness for those people whom I have wronged in my life.

That we should love our brother as ourselves is crucial to our faith. I have not only overlooked loving my brothers and sisters, but also have overlooked loving myself - not in the material sense, but the unconditional, and without that I am crippled; with out that I cannot be open and loving to those who surround me.

This year is about intentinality. This year I have to manage my time; this year I have to choose how I am spending it. This year I will call home and keep in touch with the friend I have left scattered across the country. I have been so disconnected these past few years; it's time I became a friend worth having.