Esse Quam Videri

This week the Kingdom Bloggers will be reflecting on a conference that was life changing.  We'd love to hear from you how a conference might have affected your life as well!

I've been to lots and lots of conferences over the years.  I've even spoke at some.  I love them!  I love to get away with fellow believers.  For me the fellowship is always the best part.  Sometimes the teaching or speaking gets a little long...  I have a hard time sitting still in hard chairs (or benches) squeezed in together with people - that's the part of the fellowship I don't care for.

As I reflected on our topic for this week, I have been stuck.  It was the life changing part that has me stuck.  That's a pretty high benchmark.

If you've been reading Kingdom Bloggers for a while, you remember I headed off to graduate school to get my doctoral degree three-years ago.  That first summer, I was required to spend 10 days in a dorm room and go to class day and night - literally!  Okay, I know that's not a conference, but it was a bit like an extended conference/seminar.  AND IT WAS LIFE-CHANGING!  And God was there.  At least I found Him there.

During that summer, I learned that I could survive and keep up with people half my age and less.  I was up for the mental and physical challenge.  Okay, I was probably more exhausted than the others, but I made it through.

But what was life changing?  Two things - one, I re-learned the message of being response-ABLE.  That I was actually in control.  I didn't have to be victimized by stimulus around me.  I had the ability to choose my response.  That was huge!  I've often been subject to the whims of others and allowed them to effect my mood, feelings about myself, and choices - rather than choosing for myself.

The second thing was that all I have to do is be... being me is enough!  It's okay! It's okay to be.  Esse Quam Videre means to be rather than to seem.  Being authentic AND knowing it is okay to be authentic, to be me is all I am required to be!

It is hard to put into words how much internalizing and moving forward in this messages has changed me.  Know I teach some of these messages to my students - and every time I teach it something happens that forces me to once again stop and choose - to practice being rather than performing.

Sometimes, we think we need to run to a conference for a life changing experience.  That's true - but it is also true that God uses all sorts of things to transform us into His image.  Right now, I'd love to get away with Jesus at a conference, but I also know He is right here in my living room and His power to transform is always there.