This summer, we are doing a lot of talking. We do a weekly book study, we go to church on Sunday nights, we do devotionals every morning, we do a Bible study once a week, and we talk about plans. If I'm being honest, a lot of times this bothers me.

It's not that these things are bad - they're great. I just usually have many things I need to get done, and I would rather be out doing rather than talking. I would much rather finish everything that needs doing before waiting around and talking about it.

This past weekend, I joined my family on vacation to the mountains. At one point, we went fishing, and I started thinking. Fishing is pretty much just waiting. You cast your line, and then you wait. You don't do anything except pay attention until a fish bites and you reel him in. That waiting is even more important than the reeling in. If you don't ever wait, you won't every catch anything.

That's when it hit me: maybe waiting is doing.


Maybe all of the talking we do is the waiting and being attentive part that's essential.

Every morning during the week, we hear someone's testimony. It's been really awesome and moving in many ways, but the thing that keeps hitting me is how incomplete some of these stories are. And I don't mean that in the sense of they aren't telling us everything (everyone has been very honest and open), I mean that they are still in the midst of change. They are in the midst of God working and transforming their lives. People have talked about how there was significant change in their lives just a month or two ago that they're continuing to wrestle with now.

It's funny to me, because I like to think that I've got it all together. I keep thinking about how I'll tell my story; I keep thinking about how I can weave in themes and wrap it all up nicely. But the truth is that, unaware of it as I may be, I'm in the middle of God transforming my life in some new way. I have a story that is just as incomplete as anyone's.

We are all works in progress, and we won't ever be complete in this life. God is always teaching us something new.

The other night, I ate dinner with my host family, and the pre-meal prayer was pretty much the title of this post.

Growing up, my family stopped praying before each meal because it became more habit than it was gratitude.

I don't know why it caught me off guard to be thanking God for salvation. It is sort of the ultimate point to be reconciled with God. But it did.

Even when I do prayer before meals now, it's usually just a "Thank you for the food and [insert small prayer about current pressing issue such as needing to finish a paper or study for a test]."

Being thankful for salvation is something that I often fail to do. Growing up, we did communion once a month,  so I'd think about it then, but not many other times.

Somehow I simply lose sight of the most significant part of Christianity. Somehow I turn it into a vessel for social justice or a good set of morals to live by or something to hope in. But that's not it.

God sent his son to his death, so the we could be redeemed. And I need to be more grateful than I am.

Do you ever struggle with missing the point?