In this moment, I am both really excited and slightly embarrassed.

Really excited because I love writing and really believe in this blog and am glad to be back.

Slightly embarrassed because I love writing and believe in this blog and still let two whole calendar months slide by without writing anything.

So let’s jump back into it. Since the launch of this blog, two months posts ago, one of the most mentioned aspects has been the title: Getting More God before I Get Got. So what does it mean?

First, the origin

When you create a new WordPress blog, the tagline auto populates to “Just Another WordPress blog.” Okay, rude. I knew this is going to be anything but, so if I was going to proclaim that with my first post, I was going to have to change it really quickly in order to beat my deadline.

So I flew to OneNote to brainstorm and eventually emerged with seven words: Getting More God before I Get Got.

Okay, but what does it mean?

People will eventually learn these two things about me:

1. I love God.
2. I don’t want to get got.

The first is monumental, foundational; it’s the core of who I am and what I do. The second isn’t that serious, but it can be. I always say that I’m not trying to get got and it’s true. I don’t want to be in trouble, bamboozled, caught lackin’, nothing. Not if I can help it.  Most people find it funny because I’m always saying that I don’t want to get got in things that are relatively trivial, but sometimes they aren’t. I’m not trying to be implicated in your foolishness at all.  I’m eluding it all.

Putting it all together

I need and want more of God. I want more of His love, His power, and His presence. I know that I need God in my life more than anything. I need His presence, His protection, and, most of all, His salvation, which is free but also literally priceless.

What’s worse is that for as strongly as I desire to not get got, the spiritual world is where I can get tripped up so easily. There is a constant pull to not live a life that is honoring to Christ. It is much easier to not serve God than to live for Him, but He says, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) And that’s why I need God more and more: because I know I can’t do it alone. That need and its real life implications (and solutions!) is what this blog explores.

His grace and power keep me from getting deep into where I shouldn’t be, deep into the person the Devil wants me to be. I have had glimpses of who I could be without Christ and it’s shockingly contrary to who I am now. But even more potent than that, I’ve had radiant glimpses of my future in Christ and it blows my mind.

For those of you who don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ and some of these terms are foreign, it’s all to say that I know a better life exists for me—and for everyone—and that it is a life connected to Jesus Christ. That is where I find my love, my sense of identity, my confidence, my talent, my purpose, my future, my hope, my peace, my joy, my protection and so much more.

And that’s why I need more God before I get got. Because there I don’t have to worry about getting got, because God’s got me.

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” —Isaiah 41:10