Oh, it certainly HAS been a while. 2013 has been an utter failure for me thus far with writing! 3 1/2 months without a new post?! For shame! But here I am with plenty of updates, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure what I want to write about. But God will do as God always does...He will use what is written here to bring glory to His Kingdom. So frankly it doesn't even matter what I write. My purpose is to glorify God with whatever is written, so it will be what God wills it to be. So here I am with nothing but the Spirit and a glass of chamomile tea at my disposal. Thanks to all who read...be blessed, friend!
Well it certainly seems strange that almost 1/3 of 2013 has flown by already. Highlighted by God leading me to my wonderful and amazing girlfriend Sarah, I've officially become a member of a church for the first time in my life, have gone to Kansas on a business trip, magically contracted mono (and have beaten it, thank God), and started assistant coaching for baseball at my high school. It's already been a whirlwind...awake at 5:45 on most days to either go to the gym or start work now that baseball season started, active until 5, generally have plans after that, and I'm home sometime after 8:00 at night. Then I go to bed and do it all over again! It's been exhausting but rewarding.
I guess all this busy schedule has had me exhausted to the point where I would have a cool theological thought earlier in the day, but would either be too busy or too exhausted to write about it later. Which is strange since most of my writings occur at dark o'clock in the morning anyway. But I guess I'm getting old or something...I normally can't stay up past 12 without my eyelids snapping shut. You definitely get old after college, that's for sure.
But enough about my updates...that's not why I keep this blog. I generally just spill my guts in hopes that someone can learn from either my good decisions or my mistakes, and I certainly have plenty of mistakes to learn from. I was thinking about one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books, The Disciplined Life. It goes like this: "It is reported that when a professional author said to Sir Winston Churchill that he couldn't write unless the "mood" cam on him, the great statesman replied: 'No! Shut yourself in your study from nine to one and make yourself write. Prod yourself!-kick yourself!-it's the only way.'" This quote comes in a section entitled "Priorities", and in a chapter entitled "Discipline the Mark of Maturity". See, I was thinking tonight of why I haven't written in so long. Why haven't I sat down just to write what God was laying on my mind? Why am I even writing now that I don't have a specific thought to write about? I wrote a blogpost about 2 years ago entitled "Avoiding Mediocrity". I find it profound just for myself, because I can look back on my own life and get a better understanding of what I'm going through now. In it, I said the quote "...I know what happens when I become mediocre. I fall into old sins that consume me and often seem impossible to beat." And this is true. I look back and think, "Well I generally struggle with sexual sins and anger. Um...I THINK I'm doing okay? I mean I don't see any issues." This is common when dealing with mediocrity and apathy. "Eh, everything looks fine. No big deal. I mean yeah I mess up now and then, but nobody's perfect. Oh well." But then I took another look. I have quite a few people that can attest to this, but work has been getting to me lately. I've been getting frustrated with callers, talking short to them, muting the phone and saying what I want before unmuting the phone. C'mon...that's not me. But it is when I become mediocre and just stop caring. Something's wrong here...
My "life verse", if you will, is Proverbs 15:9, "The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness." I've talked about this before...but my favorite word in this verse is the word "pursue". What happens when you're in pursuit of something? Do you not go headlong into trying to get what you're pursuing? Do you not develop some kind of strategy and proceed step-by-step until you have what you want? Men, think about pursuing a girl you like. The proper way, mind you...if you're just trying to get into someone's pants then you're a shell of a man and need help. But when you want a relationship with a girl, you figure out "Ok, how can I get her? I need to find out what she likes, come up with a few icebreakers, work up some courage to actually ask her out..." And so on. Fun fact, I wanted to pursue a relationship with Sarah, but I almost didn't. She lives in Maryland and I live in Pennsylvania...I just didn't see it working. But then my friends convinced me to break the ice anyway, and at the risk of sounding fruity, it's been nothing but magical ever since that. The point being, I wanted her, so I pursued her. It would've been easy for me to just try to forget about her and move along, wading through my pool of mediocrity. I wanted her...but I was going to give up? That's not a pursuit! No, I invested my time, effort, and prayer time, and wouldn't stop until I had her. That doesn't sound like mediocrity. And hopefully I'm not leading you too off-course...this isn't Chris's "How to get a girlfriend 101" seminar. The objective is defining what pursuit looks like. Now go back to Proverbs 15:9. Who does the Lord love? Those that PURSUE RIGHTEOUSNESS! If we believe in God and in Jesus Christ, we want the Lord's love. The way to get to this is to pursue righteousness. What is righteousness? I'll leave that up to you to figure out...I would need a whole library of blogposts to give a proper biblical definition.
But I think the problem with many of us stuck in this is desensitization. Meaning, we don't even realize what we're stuck in, and we're fine with just coasting along. One of my current favorite songs matches this perfectly, and especially the music video for it. The song is The Proof of Your Love by For King & Country. The music video combined with the words of the song...if it doesn't hit your heart in some way, start praying for yourself. This song is incredibly powerful. But in the music video, they start off in a weird dungeon-like prison where they're gagged and earmuffed, and even have weird scales over their eyes so they're basically just walking zombies (like many people in the corporate environment or in bars, no?). In short, they're desensitized. It isn't until one boy sings, "So let my life be the proof, the proof of Your love" that the lead singer has the scales removed from his eyes and he begins singing as well. By singing, people are hearing and slowly coming to their senses again. At the end of the video, the two lead singers are in the middle of a circle of the "bad guys", but they continue to sing as all of the desensitized prisoners break out of the prison/dungeon. It is beyond powerful. The dungeon and the modes of desensitizing represent the bond that Satan tries, and sometimes succeeds, to force on us. When we're faced with times of mediocrity or apathy, we're under attack. Satan wants all Christians down for the count and will do anything to stop us. He'll make us lose hope, stop caring for others, get tired of it all, and just sit back and veg out. The bombing at the Boston Marathon just happened today, and I saw a friend's status about being desensitized to the depravity and tragedy all around us. He's right. We've stopped caring about tragedy. This event will cause many Christians to lose hope and put on a "why bother?" attitude. And look at the heroes of the day, those that put themselves in harm's way to respond quickly and tend to as many people as they could. Whether this event becomes media-blown or not, I don't care...it's a tragedy regardless and needs its due attention. Thinking about the singers in the video...they opened their mouths to spread Christ's love. They got hurt, beaten, and continued to sing.
But one of the most profound parts of the song is the spoken word part, where he quotes 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 from The Message: "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." How many of us become mediocre and desensitized, and still try to play the Christian game? I know I do. I get tired, and then stop caring, but I'll still sing hymns in church without a second thought to how the prior week went. That's not how this works...and I can barely even look at myself in the mirror after writing that last sentence. I'm disgusted by it. Now what do we do about it? Proverbs 15:9. If you need to start loving again, PURSUE it. If you need to find God again, PURSUE Him. Do you have a broken relationship to repair? PURSUE it! Don't stop...pursue it. And when you think you're getting exhausted from pursuing, pray and BEG God for His Spirit to keep you going. Satan will attack, that's a guarantee. And we are positively foolish when we try to take demons on by ourselves. For (most) men, there's nothing manly or wise about trying to take a demon on alone. For (most) women, you're not troubling God with your request...He longs for your voice and your request and just wants to see you come to Him. And vice versa applies too...I'm sure women prefer to not let anyone in and try to take things on alone, and I'm sure some men feel guilty coming to God with such a request. God wants us. And when Satan attacks, we need to start screaming and run to God. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 (emphasis added). He'll give us rest. "Don't worry, I got it," He says. When we take a demon on alone, we have every reason to be absolutely terrified. But when God is fighting on our behalf, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39. Nothing can stop us with God.
I said this in my previous post 2 years ago, "Mediocrity is a vicious devil, my friends. It isn't just a ho-hum life...it's fully embracing Satan's will for your life." 2 years later and that hasn't changed. We have to be on constant watch and have constant support from fellow Christians to make sure that we aren't being desensitized to this world. We have to endure tragedies, love passionately, serve faithfully, and pursue always. Pursuit isn't something you take a break from. Thank God for that. How else would we have a chance to be so close to God if we weren't violently pursuing righteousness? Pursue and don't stop. When you drop the scales from your eyes and take off the earmuffs, you'll realize your life depends on it.
I pray that what was written in the past 2 hours of my time is impactful. As I said before, God will use this how God intends, and I praise Him for that. He can do with this far more than I ever could on my own. And here's the music video I talked about. For your own sake, please open your heart for 4 1/2 minutes and watch it. This song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. God bless you, friend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2dKOfbC9c
Well it certainly seems strange that almost 1/3 of 2013 has flown by already. Highlighted by God leading me to my wonderful and amazing girlfriend Sarah, I've officially become a member of a church for the first time in my life, have gone to Kansas on a business trip, magically contracted mono (and have beaten it, thank God), and started assistant coaching for baseball at my high school. It's already been a whirlwind...awake at 5:45 on most days to either go to the gym or start work now that baseball season started, active until 5, generally have plans after that, and I'm home sometime after 8:00 at night. Then I go to bed and do it all over again! It's been exhausting but rewarding.
I guess all this busy schedule has had me exhausted to the point where I would have a cool theological thought earlier in the day, but would either be too busy or too exhausted to write about it later. Which is strange since most of my writings occur at dark o'clock in the morning anyway. But I guess I'm getting old or something...I normally can't stay up past 12 without my eyelids snapping shut. You definitely get old after college, that's for sure.
But enough about my updates...that's not why I keep this blog. I generally just spill my guts in hopes that someone can learn from either my good decisions or my mistakes, and I certainly have plenty of mistakes to learn from. I was thinking about one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books, The Disciplined Life. It goes like this: "It is reported that when a professional author said to Sir Winston Churchill that he couldn't write unless the "mood" cam on him, the great statesman replied: 'No! Shut yourself in your study from nine to one and make yourself write. Prod yourself!-kick yourself!-it's the only way.'" This quote comes in a section entitled "Priorities", and in a chapter entitled "Discipline the Mark of Maturity". See, I was thinking tonight of why I haven't written in so long. Why haven't I sat down just to write what God was laying on my mind? Why am I even writing now that I don't have a specific thought to write about? I wrote a blogpost about 2 years ago entitled "Avoiding Mediocrity". I find it profound just for myself, because I can look back on my own life and get a better understanding of what I'm going through now. In it, I said the quote "...I know what happens when I become mediocre. I fall into old sins that consume me and often seem impossible to beat." And this is true. I look back and think, "Well I generally struggle with sexual sins and anger. Um...I THINK I'm doing okay? I mean I don't see any issues." This is common when dealing with mediocrity and apathy. "Eh, everything looks fine. No big deal. I mean yeah I mess up now and then, but nobody's perfect. Oh well." But then I took another look. I have quite a few people that can attest to this, but work has been getting to me lately. I've been getting frustrated with callers, talking short to them, muting the phone and saying what I want before unmuting the phone. C'mon...that's not me. But it is when I become mediocre and just stop caring. Something's wrong here...
My "life verse", if you will, is Proverbs 15:9, "The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness." I've talked about this before...but my favorite word in this verse is the word "pursue". What happens when you're in pursuit of something? Do you not go headlong into trying to get what you're pursuing? Do you not develop some kind of strategy and proceed step-by-step until you have what you want? Men, think about pursuing a girl you like. The proper way, mind you...if you're just trying to get into someone's pants then you're a shell of a man and need help. But when you want a relationship with a girl, you figure out "Ok, how can I get her? I need to find out what she likes, come up with a few icebreakers, work up some courage to actually ask her out..." And so on. Fun fact, I wanted to pursue a relationship with Sarah, but I almost didn't. She lives in Maryland and I live in Pennsylvania...I just didn't see it working. But then my friends convinced me to break the ice anyway, and at the risk of sounding fruity, it's been nothing but magical ever since that. The point being, I wanted her, so I pursued her. It would've been easy for me to just try to forget about her and move along, wading through my pool of mediocrity. I wanted her...but I was going to give up? That's not a pursuit! No, I invested my time, effort, and prayer time, and wouldn't stop until I had her. That doesn't sound like mediocrity. And hopefully I'm not leading you too off-course...this isn't Chris's "How to get a girlfriend 101" seminar. The objective is defining what pursuit looks like. Now go back to Proverbs 15:9. Who does the Lord love? Those that PURSUE RIGHTEOUSNESS! If we believe in God and in Jesus Christ, we want the Lord's love. The way to get to this is to pursue righteousness. What is righteousness? I'll leave that up to you to figure out...I would need a whole library of blogposts to give a proper biblical definition.
But I think the problem with many of us stuck in this is desensitization. Meaning, we don't even realize what we're stuck in, and we're fine with just coasting along. One of my current favorite songs matches this perfectly, and especially the music video for it. The song is The Proof of Your Love by For King & Country. The music video combined with the words of the song...if it doesn't hit your heart in some way, start praying for yourself. This song is incredibly powerful. But in the music video, they start off in a weird dungeon-like prison where they're gagged and earmuffed, and even have weird scales over their eyes so they're basically just walking zombies (like many people in the corporate environment or in bars, no?). In short, they're desensitized. It isn't until one boy sings, "So let my life be the proof, the proof of Your love" that the lead singer has the scales removed from his eyes and he begins singing as well. By singing, people are hearing and slowly coming to their senses again. At the end of the video, the two lead singers are in the middle of a circle of the "bad guys", but they continue to sing as all of the desensitized prisoners break out of the prison/dungeon. It is beyond powerful. The dungeon and the modes of desensitizing represent the bond that Satan tries, and sometimes succeeds, to force on us. When we're faced with times of mediocrity or apathy, we're under attack. Satan wants all Christians down for the count and will do anything to stop us. He'll make us lose hope, stop caring for others, get tired of it all, and just sit back and veg out. The bombing at the Boston Marathon just happened today, and I saw a friend's status about being desensitized to the depravity and tragedy all around us. He's right. We've stopped caring about tragedy. This event will cause many Christians to lose hope and put on a "why bother?" attitude. And look at the heroes of the day, those that put themselves in harm's way to respond quickly and tend to as many people as they could. Whether this event becomes media-blown or not, I don't care...it's a tragedy regardless and needs its due attention. Thinking about the singers in the video...they opened their mouths to spread Christ's love. They got hurt, beaten, and continued to sing.
But one of the most profound parts of the song is the spoken word part, where he quotes 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 from The Message: "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." How many of us become mediocre and desensitized, and still try to play the Christian game? I know I do. I get tired, and then stop caring, but I'll still sing hymns in church without a second thought to how the prior week went. That's not how this works...and I can barely even look at myself in the mirror after writing that last sentence. I'm disgusted by it. Now what do we do about it? Proverbs 15:9. If you need to start loving again, PURSUE it. If you need to find God again, PURSUE Him. Do you have a broken relationship to repair? PURSUE it! Don't stop...pursue it. And when you think you're getting exhausted from pursuing, pray and BEG God for His Spirit to keep you going. Satan will attack, that's a guarantee. And we are positively foolish when we try to take demons on by ourselves. For (most) men, there's nothing manly or wise about trying to take a demon on alone. For (most) women, you're not troubling God with your request...He longs for your voice and your request and just wants to see you come to Him. And vice versa applies too...I'm sure women prefer to not let anyone in and try to take things on alone, and I'm sure some men feel guilty coming to God with such a request. God wants us. And when Satan attacks, we need to start screaming and run to God. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 (emphasis added). He'll give us rest. "Don't worry, I got it," He says. When we take a demon on alone, we have every reason to be absolutely terrified. But when God is fighting on our behalf, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39. Nothing can stop us with God.
I said this in my previous post 2 years ago, "Mediocrity is a vicious devil, my friends. It isn't just a ho-hum life...it's fully embracing Satan's will for your life." 2 years later and that hasn't changed. We have to be on constant watch and have constant support from fellow Christians to make sure that we aren't being desensitized to this world. We have to endure tragedies, love passionately, serve faithfully, and pursue always. Pursuit isn't something you take a break from. Thank God for that. How else would we have a chance to be so close to God if we weren't violently pursuing righteousness? Pursue and don't stop. When you drop the scales from your eyes and take off the earmuffs, you'll realize your life depends on it.
I pray that what was written in the past 2 hours of my time is impactful. As I said before, God will use this how God intends, and I praise Him for that. He can do with this far more than I ever could on my own. And here's the music video I talked about. For your own sake, please open your heart for 4 1/2 minutes and watch it. This song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. God bless you, friend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2dKOfbC9c
