The analogy for what we’re about to discover is endless.

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There was something that the Bible characters understood that we often fail to grasp.  

I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.  (2 Tim. 1:12)

Paul was finally convinced.  

After all the beatings, countless near-death experiences - he was finally convinced.  Convinced of what exactly?

That God guards what we trust Him with.  

What do you trust God with?

• Your money?
• Your career?
• Your family?
• Your future?
• Your life?

All that which we think is ours - isn’t ours to begin with.  But moving past that - when we trust God with all that He has entrusted us with  - God guards it!

With His omnipotence and His dear life.

When you commit to God your career, your girlfriend, and your saving’s account - God will guard them.  

And what God decides to guard - no one can take away.  

From our vantage point - it appears as though apostle Paul has lost many things.  His reputation, his health, his safety, his wealth, his career as one of the most promising disciples of Gamaliel, and his  opportunity to enter into Sanhedrin - the highest Jewish Councils in his day.  

But at the end of his life.  Paul was convinced.  In fact, he knew that he had lost nothing.  

Instead he had gained all things through Christ to whom he had entrusted all things!  

Again, what do you trust God with?  

Remember - everything you do not trust God with you’ll lose eventually.  

If you’re in college or are a twentysomething and you have attended a Korean-American church in America you know that there is this seemingly cool stance and distance you need to keep to make sure that you are viewed as somone who’s not all emotional about anything that’s going on.  You need to have the look of ‘aloofness’ & ‘detachment’ where you’re plugged into your ipod or look just plain tired to let everyone know that you’re someone that can be trusted to remain cool, indifferent, bored and tired. 

This of course applies to only church.  When you’re not at a church but at a football game or simply anywhere else but church, you’re granted the freedom to get all emotional and passionate with just about anything.  You no longer have to be objective.  You can get fanatical because people know & understand (and you need to make sure they know) how hard-core you are about your team or that game. 

Some collegiates and twentysomethings would purposely show up late for church or any type of gathering or event to just avoid being one of the first ones there.  You obviously don’t want be known as that someone with ‘no life but church’ and don’t want to be the awkward one to ask the no-brainer question ’where is everybody?‘ 

And when asked about something that’s been announced 5 minutes ago, you can’t be all eager about it and give a point-blank clear answer.  For example,

• Announcement:  On wednesday evening at 8 pm, there will be a small group bible study at pastor Kim’s house. 
• At this point in time, even if you heard that announcement loud & clear, if someone comes up to you and asks you if you can make it, there’s all of sudden this need to ask “what was that?  what’s happening?“ 
• And if the person that asked is kind enough to repeat what they’ve asked, even though you know you have all the time in the world to make it to that meeting, you know you just gotta say, ‘um, I don’t know.  maybe.  I got this project or this test …’ and the excuses can be endless. 
• And of course you gotta add in that punch line to make sure you’re not ruled out as someone that won’t be there (in case that girl you kinda like will be there or in case there will be good food) so you say, ”I’ll try to make it but I don’t know.“   

Where is this coming from? 

Why are so many collegiates & twentysomethings so unsure and almost guard themselves from becoming 100% emotional about God, church and the mission to save souls? 

Why do they run from churches and its problems when it’s them God’s calling to man-up and woman-up as leaders to transform the church from the inside-out? 

It’s easy to point fingers and run.  But it’s more honorable to stand up and stand your ground. 

The answer hasn’t been and won’t be running from your church.

The answer will always be found in staying and remaining passionately in love with your church and with your God!

How many of us have become drunks and drug addicts, developed tumors and neuroses, succumbed to painkillers, gossip, and compulsive cell-phone use, simply because we don’t do that thing that our hearts, our inner genius, is calling us to?

If tomorrow morning by some stroke of magic every dazed and benighted soul woke up with the power to take the first step toward pursuing his or her dreams, every shrink in the directory would be out of business.  

Prisons would stand empty.  

The alcohol and tobacco industries would collapse, along with the junk food, cosmetic surgery, and infotainment business, not to mention pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and the medical profession from top to bottom.

Domestic abuse would become extinct, as would addiction, obesity, migraine headaches, road rage, and dandruff.  

- from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

I’ve learned that to decide comes from the Latin word decidere and it literally means to “cut off”.  

To cut off.

I find that the older we get, the more we need to decide.  Which means we need to “cut off” ourselves from many more things then we’d like to.

But more often than not, most of us are simply “undecided”.  Which kinda means we’re still “hanging”.  

Hanging onto what exactly?  We have no idea.  We just don’t want to decide. Because if we decide, I mean, that’s it.  And we can’t have that.  That’s unacceptable.  So, we hang & chill.

And in the midst of this, we forget that by not deciding, we have decided.

Because indecision by nature is a decision.  

It’s a decision to not ever cut off ourselves from our adolescence, singleness, selfishness and irresponsibility.  It’s a firm resolution to not ever grow up or to mature into the person we’re created to be.  

Hard decisions are made by those who have decided that they’ll grow up and become who they were created & called to become.  Even if it means to “fail forward”, they decide.  They “cut themselves off” from their comfort zone and venture into the life they’re being called into.  

When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.  (Acts 7:23)  You gotta keep in mind that he was the prince of Egypt.  He was set for life.  But he decided to visit his brothers and sisters in bondage.  And the rest is history.  He became the deliverer of his own people and Exodus became a reality because of his decision.

When it was time (Gal 4:4), Jesus decided to leave heaven for earth.  Because of His decision to leave heaven, He was able to fulfill His mission to be the Savior of the world.  He could’ve stayed in heaven.  But He didn’t.  He decided to leave. And that made ALL the difference in the world.

We need to keep in mind that our “indecision” is not only killing our time & potential but killing the people we were called to save.

If there was ever a time for us to decide, it is now.