Are you bold enough to ask this question?

It could change everything.

God asked me a question this morning that I wasn’t quite prepared for. I asked him one back, and I wasn’t prepared for his response.

First, his question.

“Jon, if I told you to give this all up—the writing, the publishing, the emails—would you do it? Could you do it?”

That’s a very specific question, isn’t it? And yet, it’s in line with what I believe he’s been doing inside of me lately. I told you before that I’ve sensed a shift. I’ve sensed that the future is going to look different. I’ve sensde that the next season will be driven by the seminary training I’m wrapping up this year. What exactly will that look like? I have no clue.

But I think the Lord is continuing to prepare me for it. That’s why he asked me what he asked me today. See, I love this. “This” is you and me and him and our time together every morning. I love writing, I love teaching, I love being open and honest. Radically vulnerable. But I can’t love it more than I love God. To do so would be to miss the point. And so, periodically, God and I have these Abraham-and-Isaac moments where he asks: “Would you give it all up if I asked you to?”

And every time I say, “yes.”

That’s not to say I’m some sort of holy monk. I still wrestle with that answer at times, not because this is lucrative (I actually lose money on this endeavor), but because it can be comfortable. I like expectations to be clear, I like to know how I can meet and exceed them, and I like routine. I get all of that by waking up every morning, spending time with God, and then writing what he tells me to write.

I dread discomfort, though. I dread change. I dread the unknown. And yet, over the last two years it’s become clear: like Elsa, God is leading me “into the unknown.” This blog was an unknown just over a year ago, after all. And I sense there’s another “blog”—that is, another endeavor or opportunity—that’s coming.

Don't worry, though. I’m still here. And will be for as long as God has me here. And that’s not to say that this is an “either/or” endeavor. Meaning, it doesn’t necessarily have to be either “this writing” or whatever he has next. It can be both. And if that’s what he wants, that’s what I’ll do.

And that’s where we are. For now.

Friend, I wonder if that’s where you are, though. What I mean is: Are you in a place where you are holding loosely to whatever it is you’re doing? I was driving near downtown Dallas today while dropping my wife and daughter off at the airport and the route took us through one of the richest parts of the city. As I passed those homes and cars, I couldn’t help but wonder: If these people lost their things, would they still call God good?

And then it hit me: We like to ask that question of the “rich,” but shouldn’t we be asking it of ourselves just as much?

We like to pick on the wealthy and assume that they are all materialistic. But in making villains out of them, we miss the villains inside of us. We have the same problem. We have things we look to to fulfill us. Maybe they don’t cost as much, but we still have them.

I wonder, then: If God told you to give this up—whatever your “this” is—would you do it? Could you do it?

That was the first part of my time with God this morning. The second part was all about a question I asked him. And the response was a little… scary. Like I do so many days, I asked, “God, what do you want me to do today?” Some days it’s very specific, other days it’s general. Today was somewhere in-between. I think it has implications for you, too. Here’s what he said: