"How Far, is too Far?"- Tasha Lyton

I heard a song on K-Love this morning by Tasha Layton called "How Far". This song stopped me right in my tracks. Tears filled my eyes and I couldn't help but praise God on my way to work this morning!

I was saved as a little girl. Honestly, I couldn't even tell you how old I was, 10 maybe? I grew up very active in my church. I was in Awana, Bible Drill, and the children's choir when I was in elementary school. I was the leader of an interpretive dance group called SALT from middle school through high school. I was at church anytime the doors opened. I attended MANY Disciple Now's and church trips. The list goes on and on. I knew my faith was rooted enough to continue into college and adult life.

When I first started at Ole Miss during my freshman year I was heavily involved in the BSU and First Baptist of Oxford. This lasted for about a month. Then football season got cranked up. I started going to bars and partying on the weekends and sleeping in instead of going to church. It became a habit and then a way of life for me. It ended up where I not only went out on the weekends but I also went out during the week. Needless to say, I flunked out of college and had to go back home. Going home saved my life.

When I got back home, I started attending the community college there which brought my GPA up extremely high. I was able to focus on school and I even became involved in a new church. I surrounded myself with Godly friends. I was back to where I was in high school with my walk with Christ.

When my husband and I started dating he lived in Starkville. It was about 2.5 hours from where I lived. I would go visit him on the weekends or vice versa. For the most part, we went to church on Sundays and tried to live our lives right. But the more comfortable we got sleeping in, the more we started missing church.

We allowed a lot to get in our way, but we don't have time for all of that right now. Fast forward to the past year. Our son started asking a lot to go to church. So we did. We started going to a little church where we were renting. He had a few friends that went there and that made things comfortable for him. While we were attending church most Sundays most Saturday nights I was still out drinking and living it up. The more I got into "partying" on Saturdays, the less we went to church.

Fast forward again to August of this year. We moved into our house in a small community. We decided we needed to get back to the church so we went one Sunday to the church about a mile from our house. That was it. I was hooked. Not only did it only take up to 4 minutes to get to church (I'm a very last minuter) but the people were AMAZING! We noticed right away how many couples were our age and had kids. That was a big selling point for us. Since then we have become involved and I have watched my life change completely. I am able to go hang out with my friends and not even touch alcohol, and my language is so much cleaner. I'm more conscious of what I say because I know I am a representation of Jesus and I don't want to mislead anyone.

"I kept running and running and running. You kept chasing and chasing and chasing."- Tasha Layton. This verse explains all of the above so much. I kept running away from God but it was NEVER too far for his love to reach me. He was patient with me and never stopped pursuing me, no matter how much I messed up. And man, I am SO GLAD HE NEVER DID.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." - Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV

Check out the song here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nBjOz-EpuA