Have you ever obsessed about something in your life?  I think it’s safe to say that in one way or another we all have.  A definition of obsession is shown as “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”  There can any number of things in life that we can become to get obsessed about.  Many times that obsession can be very unhealthy if it preoccupies your mind and life so greatly and can have negative consequences for you and those around you.  I’ve seen it in kids sports, the work place, and all around.  You name it, it’s there.

There’s one particular kind of obsession that I will definitely say a healthy obsession.  One that once it occurs you can’t help but be obsessed.  That obsession comes with encountering God in such a way that you can’t help but to be changed and continue to want and desire more of that encounter.  I began a deeper dive into the Gospel of John this week.  Right out of the gate in chapter 1, we see the first disciples who began to follow Jesus.  Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael all encounter Jesus and once they realize who he is as the Son of God, they follow.  They were in and followed Jesus.

I look to Paul following his encounter on the road to Damascus.  Paul was filled with such zeal for Jewish law and was looking to crush this new movement of Christianity.  He encounters Jesus, who then declares that Saul, now Paul, will take the Good News to the Gentiles.  Paul is in.  His eyes our open, and his encounter with God opens him up in a way that despite who he was, despite the hardships he endured, Paul filled the rest of his life following Jesus and fulfilling the purpose Jesus set before him.

There are many of us that have encountered God in many different ways in our life.  Different places, different situations.  What I can say, because I have had my own encounter is that once this occurs, things are never the same.  It becomes an obsession.  You want more.  My encounter with God in the mountains of Colorado was nothing like I could have ever expected.  I immediately became obsessed.  I wanted more of God.  I wanted to encounter Him more and follow Him like never before.

Like I said, we all encounter God in various ways.  I’m not saying you have to be up in the mountains or something on those lines.  I will say that truly getting to encounter God will often come in those moments when you are able to shut out and disconnect from the rest of the world, even in those quite moments you may have in your own prayer time and Bible study.  Either way, when you’ve truly had those moments, you’re forever changed and you can’t help but be obsessed about it.  Repeating the obsession definition, which is “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”  That’s essentially what it becomes when you’ve encountered God and He’s transformed and restored you.

Before this happened, God used to be an after thought or I would think about Him in ways that would guilt me in my actions or even question my own destiny.  My pastor has shared that there are 4 key questions of life that we wrestle with.  Questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.  I used to have questions in all of these areas and when I would think about them in different contexts, it would be a thought and then move on.  Nothing ever captured me.  The veil was still pulled over.  The scales were still over my eyes.

When that veil and those scales were removed, it became clear.  The answers to those questions became clearer.  I knew my purpose and now try my best to live life in away that I seek more of God out every day.  I’m still learning, still growing, and still discovering more each day.  I don’t always get it right and there are days when I feel like I’m so far gone from where I need to be, but the obsession of trying to draw closer to God and bring in more of Him now consumes my life in a way never thought possible.  He’s more than an afterthought.  He’s on my heart and thoughts when the day begins and all the way till it ends.

If there is anything worth obsessing over in this life.  God would be it.  He is the one thing I would say that is worth obsessing about.  If you don’t have Him, what else matters?