Simply Life

I’m sure I missed something today.  Perhaps someone needed a smile and I brushed by them in a hurry.  Maybe there was someone who could have used my help and I overlooked their need.  Life has a way of getting in the way of other people. 

My friend gave me a $15 iTunes gift card for my birthday.  I bought the new Francesca Battistelli cd ‘Hundred More Years’.  I am officially happy with my purchase, it is soooo good!!  There is one song called “Don’t Miss It”.  It is a lovely song about slowing down and paying attention to the things going on around you.  The basic idea of the song is “This is life, don’t miss it.” 

Slow down, that’s what I did today at least for one person.  His name was Jimmy.  He had just lost his job a week ago and needed some money.  I was pretty low in that area and initially said I had nothing.  As I got in my car with my sister we were both feeling pretty bad that there was so little we could do.  I backed my car up while being reminded by the Holy Spirit that I am blessed to be a blessing.  I really did not have much, but stopped the car and grabbed what I did have.  I didn’t feel overly joyful about my helping him, actually I became very sad.  Not for myself, but for so many who are missing life.

Life for me is not just waking up and doing what needs to be done.  No life instead is a purpose.  God is the reason I wake up and the reason I sleep.  Never have I been more aware of that then in these last few weeks. 

My friend and I took a trip to Minnesota to visit her friends and family and God really did a work in both of us.  I realized there that I had fought for so long to be strong myself.  Now I see that I am so weak and am only strong in Him.  And it ha taught me how real it is that I can do nothing without Christ.  Life is a privilege and we often miss it.  We fill our schedules and don’t stop to spend time with those who mean the most to us.  We can’t take the time to get to know people because we are constantly doing things!  I am so guilty of this myself, but I have noticed a huge contrast between being at home and being at school.  At school the people I know, we have taken time out of many days to be with each other.  We have worked to build relationships and it has paid off in every way.  I hope that even here I can take life as slow as I do at school.  I hope I notice others and am willing to be for them.  I hope I do not become so busy or stuck in my own business that others become less important. 

Be blessed today!  May the Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you peace!

I Give Him Glory

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”  Romans 8:28

It has been a while.  I have to confess that a lot of my time has been wasted recently.  I am currently taking steps to change that now that God has revealed the problem!

A week ago today I was enjoying a wonderful weekend at my friend’s home.  Spring Break was coming to a close and me and two of my friends were ending it in style, complete with staying up into all hours of the night like good college students!  Me and my other friend got home pretty late Saturday night.  I was pretty much on top of the world after such a wonderful time hanging out with people I love.  But my mood fell to the floor after receiving a message on my apartment phone.  My mom had been trying to get a hold of me and since I currently do not have a cell phone she had to deal with leaving a message.  I could tell she was upset, possibly had even been crying so I immediately called back.  I got the news then that the man who had been my team leader in Colombia and my ABF (or Sunday School) teacher had passed away that day.

I was shocked.  I was very close to physically getting sick, it took everything out of me.  I went to my home church the next day and tried to help comfort others who were grieving as well.  The rest of the week at school was fine until Thursday, the day of the funeral.  It suddenly hit me that this had really happened.  I spent a one hour chapel crying for 45 minutes of it.  My amazing friends supported me and allowed me to be sad.  I cried even more at the funeral and came home feeling overwhelmed.

The next day I began to rethink my life.  I have been so selfish and have not really loved God or people.  Maybe that seems a little harsh because I do love God and I do love people, but not the way God has commanded me to.  Then today I was overwhelmed by the understanding that only by God’s grace am I even still alive.  I have ten fingers and ten toes because that is what will allow me to do what He has called me to.  While He was speaking light into a void and formless world, I was in His mind as well as everyone else.  As He hung on the cross taking sin upon Himself, I was on in His mind as well as everyone else.  He accused Jesus of my sins and transgressions because it pleased Him.  It pleased Him because He knew that if He did it He would be able to have a relationship with me.  He was longing for me from the very beginning.  So many days I withhold the relationship from Him.  I rush through my day hardly giving Him a glance or a prayer.  I may be holy and blameless in His sight, but I often challenge that gift He has given me.  He deserves me, I was bought with a price.  I long for Him, because He is good enough to me to keep me breathing and to have a plan and a purpose for my life.  I long for my King!

Today I am thankful that God took David Shaver.  I am thankful that I have been to five funerals in the last two years.  I am thankful that I have gone through a very difficult time recently.  See because God gets the glory, and when God gets the glory everyone benefits.  That’s the beauty of Romans 8:28.  God works everything for good because He is glorified when He does.  When God is glorified I benefit, everyone benefits.  Do not exalt yourself above the Lord, for He must humble the proud.  Remain humble and exalt the Lord and everything will work out in the end.

Trials, Tribulations, and…Joy?

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds”  James 1:2

Sometimes life gets hard.  In fact Jesus Himself said that “in this world you will have trouble.”  Sometimes something is thrown at us and we have no idea how to deal with it.  It is a struggle to get out of bed, to go places,  or to simply smile.  You know what though, we do not have to walk around defeated when life gets hard!

Oh how easy that can be.  We feel bad so God must not be near.  We forget God’s promise in Hebrews 13:5 that He will never leave us.  Why would God allow us to go through such a terrible thing?  Would He put this on me Himself?  The questions that can trouble your mind and keep you from walking in the victory you have already been given, are nothing but lies to keep you busy!

I am not saying that you have to be happy when life gets hard.  I know there is a time to cry things out, to talk out the way you feel about things, and to process what is happening.  That is fine and is very necessary too.  But we are told to consider it joy when we face trials.  How?  Lets look at the lyrics of an old song “Trading My Sorrows.”

“I am pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.  I am blessed beyond the curse for His promise will endure and His joy will be my strength.”

Do you know God’s promises?  The Bible is full of them!  Learn them and stand on them so that when trials come His joy will truly be your strength!  Notice also that you are not relying on yourself to make happy feelings overshadow the bad ones.  His joy is your strength.  As you rest in Him and let His peace rule your heart trials become something you gladly submit to.  It is almost as if you are so secure in who God is and who you are in Christ that you laugh at the enemy trying to come between the two of you!!  Your relationship with God is special.  Do not let a mindset of defeat take away any moment of that relationship.  Keep moving forward in the victory God has sealed!  His joy will be our strength, everyday!