I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday. He’s actually more of a mentor and he’s moving away in a couple of weeks. We’d been talking for a while and I could sense that the conversation was winding down. So I asked him if he had any advice for me. I wanted to know what thought would be important for me to know. I mean he’s leaving so I won’t get to have conversations with him a lot. So whatever he says, it needs to be good. He told me two things…

“Follow Jesus…no matter where he takes you.”

“Take care of yourself, spiritually.”

Good advice right? But how do you do that? I’ve been thinking about those two things…and I don’t think there is an easy answer. Sure, I could put together a slick and creative 20 minute sermon on the topic(ok…probably closer to 35 minute). But even a great sermon with cool illustrations and 3 rhyming bullet points would leave the work to the individual. I don’t know what following Jesus looks like for you. I also can’t say where you are spiritually and where God might be growing or healing you at the moment. These things are hard.

But they’re true aren’t they? So I should try to do what he said. Even if it is a long and hard journey. And I think the place to start is prayer. I think we have to really slow down and seek these things out. We can’t just buy a book and do what some other guy says to do…we have to be willing to do the work ourselves. And then we have to be open to whatever we find. You know, both of these pieces of advice can involve some really hard and uncomfortable journeys. What if Christ is leading you towards a really difficult friendship? Or a dangerous situation? What if taking care of myself spiritually means that I have to look into my heart and own up to some of my brokenness? What if I have to let go of some of my secrets?

I think real prayer is about truth. Seeking truth and being honest. Connecting with God in a way that His truth is undeniable and knowing that His truth is the best thing for us. As believers, we have a responsibility to deal with truth. We can’t placate, ignore or avoid deception. We can’t deny that your broken and I’m broken and until we deal with our junk with truth and grace…we will never know healing.

And I think prayer is a great place to start.