Be Faithful, Be Passionate, Be Uncomfortable

For those who might not know, I am an intern at Karis Church in Columbia, Missouri. There have been a lot of twists and turns when it comes to who God is calling my wife and I to reach out to, but only as of late do we feel like we truly know where God is calling us to live and pour out our lives.

Ali and I started the internship just starting the transition to a group that focused on the center of the city, but after about 6 months we decided it was best to multiply into multiple Missional Communities (small groups), so Ali and I chose to go to a Missional Community called Ethnos, which translates to “For the Nations.” We have now been focusing our time and effort to making connections with Latino men and women at the University of Missouri. Things have been going well, and only as of late have we started seeing relationships forming. But – as it normally happens - we are now moving to an area of Columbia that we truly believe God is calling us: Douglass Park.

There might be some questions that are arising in your mind, and honestly we have had or still have all of those questions. But, Ali and I are called to follow God wherever He is calling us to live, and we are attempting to follow God as best as we can and that might include bouncing around in the same city. What we have learned in the past year comes to down to sticking to three principles:

Be Faithful

God has called Ali and I to follow Jesus Christ, our Savior, God, King, High Priest, and our Lord over all creation.

The most important responsibility that we have is not each other. Our highest calling is to love God with all of our hearts, our souls, and our might. I have found through trial after trail that what I am called to do is to follow Christ and seek to be faithful. When followers of Christ genuinely seek Him, He will reveal His grace and glory.

God has called Ali and I to be faithful to our calling as children of the living God.

Be Passionate

God has called Ali and I to be passionate about loving people in any area, any people group, and in any situation to show God’s love.

We are to be passionate about Jesus and in turn we are to be passionate about loving people. When Jesus was asked to tell the crowds what the most important commandment was He said to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that we are to love God and that in turn makes us passionate about loving everyone in our lives. Neighbor doesn’t always mean your direct neighbors, but that doesn’t excuse the people that live in your immediate neighborhood. Ali and I are intentionally living in a dangerous neighborhood in Columbia so that we can love broken families, drug addicts, single moms, wandering men, and anyone else that God puts in our lives.

God has called us to passionately love Him and passionately sacrifice our lives so that men, women, and children may come to know our loving, holy, and beautiful Savior.

Be Uncomfortable

God has called Ali and I to be comfortable being uncomfortable so that Jesus may be known deeply in the hearts of who God is calling us to share the gospel with.

Honestly, we have struggled with comfort and complacency. We would rather stay in our house and keep to ourselves, but we are called to be lights to the world. We can’t help but go around and share the hope that is only found in Christ. We can’t help but go and sacrifice our comfort so that we can build relationships, disciple men and women, and boldly preach the gospel in any context. If we are comfortable, we are not being faithful and we are not being passionate – at least that’s what I have noticed in our lives. Being uncomfortable should be so normal that we become comfortable being uncomfortable. Sacrificing our preferences, our habits, and our norms so that people may love Jesus is worth it.

God has called us to be uncomfortable so that our friends, families, and neighbors might come to know the One True God.

These findings go for you all too. God has called you.

Go. Preach. Disciple. Love. Believe.

Be faithful. Be passionate. Be uncomfortable.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

True Lies, Water, and Ice Cream

Good morning!

This morning I woke up with very little pain in my mouth. They are still sore, but I have been taking medicine regularly, drinking cold water, and eating ice cream. The pain seems to come and go surrounding the times I am taking the medicine.

Ali has been taking such good care of me that she deserve a hug and tons of love from family, friends, and everything in between. Next time you see her give her a huge hug for her amazing attitude through all of this. I know it is not easy to be constantly serving someone else, but she has been a grace given by God the past 24 hours.

Your support has meant a lot so much to Ali and I that it can not be expressed. I am very grateful for the comments, tweets, and texts telling me that you are praying for us. These verses have given me great  comfort this morning.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7, ESV)

 This verse talks about suffering as being persecuted for having faith in Jesus, but I love that it calls God "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort." God is continually giving me mercy, grace, and comfort through all of the pain.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales