Being Far From God

It's been over two months since I posted, but I'm back! You might have been wondering where I have been and why I haven't been posting, and the truth is that I have no reasonable excuse for my absence. Back in April, I began to struggle with inspiration for posts. I became discouraged and decided that taking a leave of absence would be the best thing. I thought taking a break from my blog would somehow improve my relationship with God.

In all honesty, I was beginning to feel dry. In the month of May, I posted only one post; normally I post eight to twelve per month. I also stopped reading my Bible faithfully; I still read it every day, but I read it with the purpose of checking it off my checklist. And one thing I've learned is that when you stop studying and reading and memorizing the Bible, everything else in your life will start to come apart. And I simply got out of that habit of really reading my Bible each day. When that happened, I began to lose touch with God. I felt very far from Him. And that scared me. I'm not used to feeling dry or far from God. When I prayed, I didn't feel Him talking back. It felt like my prayers were just bouncing off the ceiling. I felt distant from the One I was used to being very close with.

But I didn't really know what to do about it. I didn't know how to get close to God again. The problem was that I could tell something in my life was wrong, and I knew it had something to do with my relationship with God, but I couldn't quite pinpoint the problem.

But thankfully, things didn't stay that way. In July, I went to Life Action Camp (a Christian family camp) in Michigan for four weeks. I spent a week there with my family, and when my family went home, I stayed behind with my brother to work three weeks of volunteer work there at the camp. This was my fourth summer working at this camp, and our seventh camping as a family. Each year, Life Action has not failed to both challenge and encourage me spiritually. I have grown so much over the years at Life Action, and can point to several life changing moments that have happened to me there.

And 2012 was no different. God used the speakers, the sermons, the devotionals, and my friends and authorities to speak to me. God reminded me of many truths that I had forgotten. He revealed to me some sin in my life and challenged me to deal with it. He reminded me how great and powerful and almighty He is, and how human and weak and frail I am. He reminded me how important it is to keep Him on my heart's throne, and how disastrous it is when I let the things of this world rule my heart instead of the One who created this world. He told me that to ignore my spiritual gifts was to ignore the One who had given me my gifts and talents. And He showed me that the things I love about this life pale in comparison to how glorious and wondrous the world to come will be.

I hope you will return here to Letters From Logan over the next several weeks and months to see what God has been teaching me and how He has been growing me. I have much to write about and much to share, and I look forward to sharing it! It's my hope and prayer that you'll read my posts and get at least one thing out of each one. I'm super excited and can't wait to see what God has in store!