As I prepared to cross the stage to receive my doctorate degree, I caught a glimpse of my family and their smiles of complete joy. They traveled 12 hours to be a part of what I thought was the pinnacle moment of my life. I had practiced writing those three prestigious letters, P – h – D, and dreamt of that day for several years. I remember anticipating the feeling of completeness I would have upon crossing the stage. My name was called and I knelt to have the doctoral hood draped on me, and that was it. Where was the complete feeling, the parade of bubbling joy that was supposed to overwhelm the moment?

By Steve Countryman

There are lots of Christians who say that they are hungry for more of Jesus. That they will do whatever it takes to experience more of Jesus in their lives. Then Jesus answers their prayer with a requirement or a demand on their life. Then the question becomes are they truly hungry for more of Jesus or is that just a thing that Christians are supposed to pray for? The Lord shared with me the different types of Christians that say that they are hungry for more of Jesus.

He showed me an open pit mine. The mine was not huge but about 100' across. There was a big dirty grinding machine that was used by the workers to help dig the hole deeper. It is the type of pit mine that once you get in it you will most definitely get dirty! There were people standing around the edge of the pit shoulder to shoulder. No one was in the pit working. The pit mine needs workers. They were all looking at the mine trying to figure out what is needed to be done, who would go into the mine, what would they find and how long would it take. All they knew is that there are treasures awaiting for those who will search for it in the pit mine if they were willing to get dirty.

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