John said, eternal life was to know the one true living God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent (c.f. John 17:3). I had to get honest. I didn't know God intimately. I just tried to act like Him and that just seemed to annoy everybody around me. The only thing this did was burn me out in life.
This began a season I call, Soul Surgery. From 2004 to 2014 I asked God to draw everything out of me preventing me from knowing Christ's Life Overflowing in me. I was not willing to act like a Christian anymore without the power to do so. This season of losing, suffering, and convicting self-reflecting helped me get to a deeper level where I realized the only thing left standing after all had fallen (including me) was the God who is love. This love was at the core of who I am. It was no longer about trying to be like God and teaching others how to live like God. I wanted to live with the peace that comes when we know Christ within and offer that to others. I wanted to float on hope in a world that threatens consistently to overwhelm us with bad news! I wanted to live courageously amidst a culture of fear and offer the same courageous life of Christ within to others.
