MistakeMaker.com

How many times have you learned something new about yourself when you were placed in an unfamiliar environment outside of your everyday routine? A change in our surroundings forces us to think, feel, & react outside of our standard issue, default, thinking, feeling, & reacting. The unfamiliarity of the environment awakens the discovery potential within us. Sometimes the discovery is a glaring weakness inside of us that we hadn’t seen before. Sometimes it’s a hidden gift or talent that we didn’t know that we had. Other times the discovery is simply a re-discovery of what’s important that you had lost in the familiarity of life.

I want to discover all that God has for me. To do that, I need unfamiliarity, routinely. We can either wait until we find ourselves in the unfamiliar, or we can place ourselves there on purpose. I’m working hard on being more intentional about placing myself in unfamiliar situations where discovery happens.

Here are some intentional unfamiliarity ideas for you to chew on…

• Plan a personal retreat. Just you & God, your Bible and a pen & paper. Go to an unfamiliar place and ask God to speak to you. No agenda, other than hearing from God.

• Plan a local or global mission trip. Few things shake you out of complacency like serving in a very different culture than what you are used to. Try it…it will change you.

• Plan a party with a purpose. I like this idea that a few twitter friends @rick_smith & @benjordan came up with called Train Friday. It all started when Rick decided to step out of the familiar one day and ride the train from one city to another to think, study, & pray. This spawned into the idea of Train Friday. It’s a party with a purpose designed to discover new friends, new thoughts, and new passions. Sounds like fun guys…maybe we need to start a Train Friday – Northeast edition!

• Plan a fast. Make a decision to fast from food for one or more days. If you’re like me, maybe fast from technology would really launch you into the unfamiliar where God can help you discover and re-discover what He has for you.

What do you do & where do you go for intentional unfamiliarity?