 I moved out. But here we are, the new studio. This is one of the backgrounds that I'll be using and there's a few more that I'm really excited about. This is definitely one of my favorites. The studio also doubles as my apartment, so that's kind of cool. In today's video, I'm going to share with you something that I've been thinking about for months and if I'm honest, it's something that I've really wrestled with, especially as I was thinking about moving out of my parents' place. I think you're going to be able to relate with this, so stay tuned. But first, this ministry and channel is supported by The Club on Patreon. Thank you to all you guys who are on there that enable the work that I do. To support the work that I do in equipping people to follow Jesus daily and to get access to our Discord, I don't know how to say Discord, Discord, exclusive videos and all sorts of other fun stuff, you can head on over to Link in my bio and sign up for Patreon today. Now, on to the video. Okay, let me just tell it to you straight. I'm not going to hold anything back here. I think for a large group of Christians, we group Christians into two kind of groups, or young Christians more specifically, young adult teen, you know, yet later teens, that kind of thing, into two groups. There's a group that finds that person early on, whether that's a youth group or high school or whatever that may be, and maybe they don't get married right away, but pretty soon after, you know, they've had this long relationship, friendship, whatever they get married in their late teens, early 20s, and they are set, you know, they have their life figured out at least in some ways, at least it looks that way on the outside, at least in terms of the marriage aspect, relationship aspect, and that's a big portion, that's a big section of life, like that's a big category to get checked off, like this is my person, okay. And then there's this whole swath, I don't know if that's a word, swath of people that just doesn't work out for them that way. It's more complicated than that. And if you're like me, you find yourself in that category. If you don't, you know, that's cool, you find your person still watch this video, I think it's going to be helpful for you. But that's where I find myself. And this is challenging because God designed the vast majority of us to desire that relationship and in fact, need that kind of relationship, at least in some sense, you know, God said it is not good for man to be alone. I think that goes both ways. But my question is, and I've had this question for a long time, is why then are so many solid young Christian guys and girls still single, especially when they desire it, and they're kind of doing all the right things. But it's just not working out for them the way they hoped or wanted. Now maybe you're new to this channel. And if so, I really want you to watch this video up here, wherever it's going to appear. It's a video I did recently on my experience being a single Christian. And there's lots of stuff in that video that I'm not going to cover here. But it is going to be very, very helpful for you. So head to that video. But anyway, these questions and thoughts have really been building up in my mind as of late. You see, I'm a fairly structured goal oriented guy. I'm one of those guys who has just scheduled in time to be spontaneous. I know I know don't hate me. Now that personality tethered with also the desire to be married and be in a relationship and have a family, those things together kind of produce very lofty expectations of how this whole thing was going to go. Maybe you like me have thoughts of going to college at 18 and then maybe meeting your person at 19 and then graduating college at 22 and shortly after that getting married and starting your career and starting your family. Now my expectations probably weren't this rigid, but at the same time, I wouldn't have complained if it went this way at all, but it didn't. And now more recently, I've experienced something that I never thought I'd experience moving out alone. I recognize for some people, this isn't really a big deal at all. After all, like a lot of people, you know, move out and go to college and get roommates and then afterwards they get their own apartment and start their career and all this kind of stuff and they're doing that on their own. But for me, I only really went to college for like a year and I commuted. So that wasn't really a factor in my life at all. Now having moved out and the whole process that that was, I came to realize that I always have pictured that moment with somebody buying stuff for your new place, picking out a location with them, living with them, you know, going to the grocery store, your first grocery trip together and having them remind you that you got to make sure you get eggs at the store. Maybe I'm being dramatic here or maybe I'm being just a little bit too like sentimental or something. Now maybe for you, you can't relate with me at all about the whole living alone thing and you actually like it. And I mean, look, there's good aspects of it as well. I'm not saying it's all bad. Absolutely not. I'm just saying that there's an element of it that, you know, was kind of missing for me or something that I expected, that an expectation that wasn't met or a dream that wasn't satisfied. And so maybe you don't relate with me in that way and that's okay. But what is it for you? What are those dreams, those desires that you've held on to for a long time? Maybe it's a specific college program that you want to get into or having kids by a certain time or getting married at a certain time or a certain career or field that you want to be able to get into or maybe it's growing a successful ministry. Now it might be a helpful practice to write down some of these thoughts and dreams that are going through your mind right now. And here are just some of the ones that I've jotted down. Some of my dreams are getting married, having kids relatively early, having a successful ministry that impacts people's lives, being respected and admired. And some of these can be good desires and some of them can be somewhat disoriented desires that we are just becoming aware of in our own heart. It's like that whole respected and admired thing. Is that coming from a good place or is it a desire to, you know, people please or, you know, up here is better than I am or gain people's love and affection. Like these are things that we need to evaluate. Like what are these dreams that we're actually having? So write down the good dreams and maybe the dreams that are a little bit disoriented, but just get them down. Now as you're looking at that list of dreams and affections and desires or you're just thinking about them in your head, have they come to pass? Have they been successful or have they failed? Have you, you know, put them off for a while because of circumstances? What's happened with those dreams? As you're thinking about that, I want to share something with you that I don't exaggerate when I say has changed my life. Let me just read this. The highest dream we could ever dream, the wish that if granted would make us happier than any other blessing is to know God, to actually experience him. The problem is, is that we don't believe this idea is true. We are sent to it in our heads, but we don't feel it in our hearts. So what does this mean for you? You must surrender your dream to God and believe God when he says that your best and most fulfilling dream is found in relationship with him and a destiny with him. The big problem is, like Larry Crabb said, is that we don't feel it in our hearts. We actually don't believe that a relationship with God is the most glorious dream. Our hearts and affections are pulled towards so many other things. These secondary dreams could be good, like getting married or having kids or being successful in a career or growing a ministry for God, for in service and mission to him. That's all good when it's properly oriented and properly placed. But when those second thing affections become number one, we get into huge problems because those things not only cannot satisfy, but they will decay. And when we experience those shattered dreams, that's God's mercy, drawing us back in focus to him, that he is the most glorious dream. And for me, it's like, okay, God, am I going to believe that your plans are better in this, that I'm going to look into what you were doing in my life right now and trying to understand it as best that I can and continue to pursue the purposes that you have for me, which right now is, you know, okay, I'm going to continue on with this ministry. I'm going to use this time that I have this bonus extra time because I don't have a family. I don't have a spouse. I'm just going to pour this into ministry work for you that that is good. And that is the season of life that you want me to be in right now. And even though I'd like to be experiencing all these different things, and sometimes I can experience FOMO on Instagram and stuff like that with everybody's relationships. I'm like, you know what, God, I trust you. And if we can just begin to build on that a little bit like that mustard seed faith type thing where we're like, Hey, God, I'm just going to today. I'm just going to try to trust you a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. You don't have to, you know, feel like you have it all together. And you don't have to feel like, man, I got so strong faith today and everything makes sense. And I know exactly what God's doing because often we do not. And I don't know what God's doing, you know, and that's scary sometimes. But, man, our God is good. And he is gracious and he is present with us and his power and his presence is in our lives. Like that's enough. Thanks so much for watching this video, guys. I hope you enjoyed it and got something from it. I hope by sharing my story, you were able to relate with it and be encouraged in your own story. I'd love to hear your stories down below about how God's moving in your life and maybe the unrecognized, unfulfilled dreams that you've had and where God has taken you since then or how you're processing that with faith in him and working through those doubts and questions and discouragement. I'd love to hear from you down there. Thanks so much for watching again. I'll see you next time. God bless.