Soooo....I know, I know....its been a while. Ive been busy.. Give me a break already! Is it weird that I have conversations with myself? Maybe. You know what else is weird...? The word "weird." I spell it wrong EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. and then that little evil red dotted line pops up under it and basically reminds me that my 5th grade teacher should have never passed me on to middle school but I was too much of a prick to keep around for another year...yeah..its been one of those days. Oh and if you were wondering about my spelling of weird, I always put the "i" in front of the"e"...I think there is a song someone made about that...but I didn't pay attention in those early years..clearly.
Last night I might have found the biggest spider EVER. It might have been making a web. I might have seen a moth on the ground, and I might have picked it up and I might have thrown it into the web and I might have stood there and watched Mr. Spider wrap that thing up in a sweet web ball to save and eat for later. I might have done all of that last night. It MIGHT have been really cool.. ok, clearly this is going to be really hard for me to stay on topic today so I will keep it short.
This summer has been a very interesting one to say the least. My slogan or motto of the summer and maybe even soon to be applied to my life has been "The heck with it." Ive realized that I am young, in shape, and able to do things that are crazy and spontaneous simply because of the fact that I am young and not in the "adult" world yet. Now I don't mean things like partying and what not, stuff like going on adventures, not worrying about staying out late with friends just because I have to get up early the next morning. Just taking advantage of every opportunity I have to make an awesome memory that someday I will look back and say...man i'm glad I did that.
As I was reflecting on my summer this morning, I realized one thing in common with every random spontaneous decision I made: I was thinking long term. If I wanted to go on an adventure (which only happens under the cover of night..usually really late) but I had to get up early and go to work the next morning, I would think to myself, "you're only young once Russ, who cares if you are going to be tired tomorrow..20 years from now you will be telling the story of what you did tonight to your children.." I was thinking long term. Trying not to dwell on what is to come the next day, living in the moment, knowing that God does not even promise me tomorrow. Living like this allows you to take advantage and make the most of the time you have here on earth.
But it got me thinking about my spiritual life and it dawned on me..what if I started living spiritually like I do physically? By that I mean, what if I kept in mind an eternal perspective of things, but still lived in the moment taking advantage of every opportunity I have to bring glory to God knowing that it will have an eternal impact? Can you imagine what that would look like? Does that make sense? I am young, I am healthy, I am ABLE to do so many things to reach out to others and bring glory to God. Much like I live physically, going on a late night adventure, not caring about if I have to wake up early the next morning..sacrifice a little sleep for an awesome memory.. spiritually, why not do the same? For example, how about serving a brother or sister in Christ who is deeply longing to be heard by somebody, and going to get coffee and just listening to them? How about waking up early before work to get in the word and be fed the truth of the Gospel despite losing an hour of sleep..all knowing that it will have an eternal impact on either you, or the people around you? Think about the impact we could have with not only our lives, but the peoples lives around us if we as Christians lived with an eternal perspective!
You see friends, living with an eternal perspective makes you realize that you don't have much time on this earth. It makes us realize that every second counts and every second is a second devoted to Christ or a second given to the world. Sounds cheesy but when you really think about it...I believe it to be true..and scary at the same time. If you could find phrases in the "cheesy" Christian dictionary, I think the definition of "The heck with it," would be something like this: "Thinking with an eternal perspective, living and loving others as if today were your last, knowing that tomorrow is never promised."
Time is so short friends. Every second counts. Am I perfect? By no means. Am I striving every day to live by this motto? Yes. Do I fail miserably at taking advantage of every opportunity I have to bring Glory to Christ because of stupid things like wanting more sleep or doing what I want..? Yes. But that's not stopping me from trying, and it shouldn't stop you either. So my question for you...spiritually, are you living by the motto "the heck with it?"
A BIG thanks for stopping by today!! Hope the heat hasn't gotten to you..I will leave you with a piece of advice that my football coaches constantly reminded us of in heat like this..."Clear pee is happy pee." I wont charge you for that one. ok Byyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
-R
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
We Are All Big Babies Longing to be Held.
YO! What is up my home slices?!? Hope things are going magical for you right now! You should be out of school by now which means hot summer days in the sun and infamous relaxed summer nights under the stars with good company. Well, like most people, as I continue to go about life, I learn things.. mostly by trial and error...here are some of the things i've learned this month.
1. If you ever score an epic goal in soccer on an astro-turf field, don't celebrate by running and sliding on your knees like they do in the FIFA world cup...you will not slide, instead you will face plant and rip your knees to shreds. Even if you are playing against an almost professional Nicaraguan team.
2. Don't stay out in a zip line course in the middle of the Nicaraguan Jungle into the early morning hours or you might get shot at.
3. You know you are an American when you are on an international flight and they start handing out customs cards and the first thing you do is assume they are handing out menu's to serve you lunch.
These are some of the things I have learned this month, some awkward, some scary, and some just epic. But there was something I pulled away from this month that God revealed to me that I must share with all of you awesome people, and that is our simple need to be loved. I had the privilege of spending a week in Nicaragua serving at an orphanage in the mountains of Managua. This experience was unlike any other mission trip I had ever been on. Most mission trips consist of an unhealthy amount of labor and vacation bible school's and a schedule that would seem impossible to fit into one day, but somehow you do, and then you repeat it the next day. This trip was very different though, it was focused on simply loving the kids. Sure we had a schedule and we helped replace a roof, but what we were doing for the majority of the day was being there for the children, building relationships with them, loving on them the way Jesus loved on us.
As orphans, these children don't get the privilege of being loved on by their parents or growing up around people to look up to; people to set an example. The kids soaked up every bit of time we had together with them. For them, they were just happy to be in someones arms, or to be the center of someones attention for once in their life, to feel important and most of all, to feel loved. You see, as humans, we long to be loved. I think our deepest desire is to be loved. To feel like we belong somewhere and to be accepted. For one week out of the entire year, we got to give love, show love, and live love to these orphans, and the result was beautiful.
There was one moment that topped every other moment I had down there, and that was when we put on a last minute vacation bible school for a group of children at a small church about an hour outside of the orphanage that I stayed at. In between the madness of beach balls, giving piggy back rides, and being a human jungle gym, we had story time. We gathered in a circle and and began to read the story of Jonah and the whale. As the story began, and little boy hopped into my lap and just sat there in my arms. He didn't know my name and I didn't know his, but that didn't matter, for once he was being loved, and that was all that mattered in the moment. He was so content in my arms that we could have sat there for hours taking in the moment. When it was time to leave, he handed me a friendship bracelet right off of his own wrist.
As Christians, and just people in General, we long to be loved. Sometimes we look for that love in the wrong places though. We look for them in things of this world like people, money, men, women, blah blah blah...as I reflected on this experience, I asked myself how does this apply to my walk with God? God longs to have a relationship with us and it not only hurts us, but hurts him more when we run away from him in an attempt to find love and contentedness in other things. We are like the orphan in this picture...we long to be held and loved, but we are never going to find that contentedness until we find it in God alone. Can you imagine the smile on God's face when we finally turn to him for joy and contentedness? I bet he is the happiest dude ever when he gets to hold his son or his daughter in his arms and just say "Rest child, you don't have to search any longer. I am all you will ever need and I will lever let you down or leave you." Man that is a beautiful picture!
Alright dudes and dudettes, im sure you're tired of me babbling..although if you made it to this it means you have read everything above which either means you enjoyed it, or you were really just bored to death and had nothing to do...either way, thanks for stopping by The Better Half of Me, and I cant wait until we meet again! Cheers!
-R
1. If you ever score an epic goal in soccer on an astro-turf field, don't celebrate by running and sliding on your knees like they do in the FIFA world cup...you will not slide, instead you will face plant and rip your knees to shreds. Even if you are playing against an almost professional Nicaraguan team.
2. Don't stay out in a zip line course in the middle of the Nicaraguan Jungle into the early morning hours or you might get shot at.
3. You know you are an American when you are on an international flight and they start handing out customs cards and the first thing you do is assume they are handing out menu's to serve you lunch.
These are some of the things I have learned this month, some awkward, some scary, and some just epic. But there was something I pulled away from this month that God revealed to me that I must share with all of you awesome people, and that is our simple need to be loved. I had the privilege of spending a week in Nicaragua serving at an orphanage in the mountains of Managua. This experience was unlike any other mission trip I had ever been on. Most mission trips consist of an unhealthy amount of labor and vacation bible school's and a schedule that would seem impossible to fit into one day, but somehow you do, and then you repeat it the next day. This trip was very different though, it was focused on simply loving the kids. Sure we had a schedule and we helped replace a roof, but what we were doing for the majority of the day was being there for the children, building relationships with them, loving on them the way Jesus loved on us.
As orphans, these children don't get the privilege of being loved on by their parents or growing up around people to look up to; people to set an example. The kids soaked up every bit of time we had together with them. For them, they were just happy to be in someones arms, or to be the center of someones attention for once in their life, to feel important and most of all, to feel loved. You see, as humans, we long to be loved. I think our deepest desire is to be loved. To feel like we belong somewhere and to be accepted. For one week out of the entire year, we got to give love, show love, and live love to these orphans, and the result was beautiful.
There was one moment that topped every other moment I had down there, and that was when we put on a last minute vacation bible school for a group of children at a small church about an hour outside of the orphanage that I stayed at. In between the madness of beach balls, giving piggy back rides, and being a human jungle gym, we had story time. We gathered in a circle and and began to read the story of Jonah and the whale. As the story began, and little boy hopped into my lap and just sat there in my arms. He didn't know my name and I didn't know his, but that didn't matter, for once he was being loved, and that was all that mattered in the moment. He was so content in my arms that we could have sat there for hours taking in the moment. When it was time to leave, he handed me a friendship bracelet right off of his own wrist.
As Christians, and just people in General, we long to be loved. Sometimes we look for that love in the wrong places though. We look for them in things of this world like people, money, men, women, blah blah blah...as I reflected on this experience, I asked myself how does this apply to my walk with God? God longs to have a relationship with us and it not only hurts us, but hurts him more when we run away from him in an attempt to find love and contentedness in other things. We are like the orphan in this picture...we long to be held and loved, but we are never going to find that contentedness until we find it in God alone. Can you imagine the smile on God's face when we finally turn to him for joy and contentedness? I bet he is the happiest dude ever when he gets to hold his son or his daughter in his arms and just say "Rest child, you don't have to search any longer. I am all you will ever need and I will lever let you down or leave you." Man that is a beautiful picture!
Alright dudes and dudettes, im sure you're tired of me babbling..although if you made it to this it means you have read everything above which either means you enjoyed it, or you were really just bored to death and had nothing to do...either way, thanks for stopping by The Better Half of Me, and I cant wait until we meet again! Cheers!
-R
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Stealing From the Cookie Jar = No Beuno.
**yahumm..cough cough...(insert clearing of the throat sound effects)** Dudes and dudettes of the United States of The Better Half of Me, it is my honor and privilege to bestow upon you the heartiest welcome a man can give to YOU! Thanks for checking out The Better Half of Me, and for those of you extra special people who are my followers..I go beyond the heartiest welcome I just gave and welcome you back to this wonderful place of blog..world..fantasy..land. If you're jealous that you're not in that extra special super duper spectacular cool group, then that can easily be fixed by subscribing if you like reading the thoughts of a poor college kid. Ok, moving on, Gummy bears rock.
I hope this past month has treated you all magically because I know it has certainly treated me in some pretty magical ways. God has been out and about and working in my life and hopefully in yours as well. The past couple weeks i've really been thinking and observing something over and over in my head and have finally came to a conclusion that I would love to share with you savvy friends of mine. It is the seriousness of sin, and how not-so serious some of us take it.
Now, before you decide to stop reading, just hear me out. I was throwing some thoughts around in the ole dome piece of mine about the seriousness of sin. I started thinking about different types of sin such as stealing, murder, lying, lust...the list goes on. Then I started to think about how society views sin and how God views sin. Let me explain. Our society views sin in different degrees. For example, we see murder as being worse than lying, or lusting, or even stealing. That is just the way our minds work. We even give out different punishments for different levels of these crimes. For example, a man who steals a car usually receives more time in prison than a man who steals a lolly pop from a grocery store; nonetheless, the man who stole the lolly pop is just as guilty as the man who stole the car.
On the other hand, unlike us, God sees all sin as the same; bad. A sin is a sin in his eyes no matter what you or someone has done. I don't believe God looks down more on Jimmy (sorry for you Jimmy's out there...just look at it as you are at the "cool" level to be used as an example) who has just lied to his best friend than Jill (All you Jill's out there...refer to what I said about Jimmy) who has just stolen a sweet pair of 9 inch hot red stilettos from the mall. It is all the same to God; sin is sin, and sin is bad. So, then the question is really how serious is sin? By using the logic that I just described, that means that stealing a cookie from the cookie jar is just as bad as murdering somebody, or that murdering someone is just as bad as stealing a cookie from the cookie jar (I know that is an extreme example..most of you i'm sure do not kill people in your spare time).
In our earthly mindset, we would agree that stealing a cookie from the cookie jar is way less harmless and not as bad as killing a person...yet they are both sins. Now listen closely, if you are a follower of Christ, then you have inherited salvation and you are saved by grace, which means no matter what you do, you will always be forgiven. However, Paul says, "who are you to keep sinning that grace may abound?" The way I see it, you can look at sin in two ways: 1. Sin is not a very serious thing and I can keep on indulging in it even though God commands me to not to (I can keep stealing from the cookie jar), or 2. Sin is very serious and I need to not continue sinning so freely (holy crap, I should stop stealing from the cookie jar because God says "you shall not steal"). You have the option to choose which road to take, however, when you steal that cookie from the cookie jar, you are sinning, and although we see it as a itsy bitsy little harmless sin, it only took one little sin in the Garden of Eden to separate us from God for ETERNITY. Luckily Jesus (being THE man) saved us from that sin by putting it on himself on the cross. However, just think..if there were no Jesus in the picture to save us..it would only take one sin, no matter the degree of it, to separate us from God forever, and THAT is pretty serious to me.
Dudes, thank you for stopping by and listening to my thoughts! Feel free to comment or subscribe, I hope this encouraged you a bit and DON'T STEAL FROM THE COOKIE JAR! Don't you know mom's know everything..you're only fooling yourself! Peace.
- R
I hope this past month has treated you all magically because I know it has certainly treated me in some pretty magical ways. God has been out and about and working in my life and hopefully in yours as well. The past couple weeks i've really been thinking and observing something over and over in my head and have finally came to a conclusion that I would love to share with you savvy friends of mine. It is the seriousness of sin, and how not-so serious some of us take it.
Now, before you decide to stop reading, just hear me out. I was throwing some thoughts around in the ole dome piece of mine about the seriousness of sin. I started thinking about different types of sin such as stealing, murder, lying, lust...the list goes on. Then I started to think about how society views sin and how God views sin. Let me explain. Our society views sin in different degrees. For example, we see murder as being worse than lying, or lusting, or even stealing. That is just the way our minds work. We even give out different punishments for different levels of these crimes. For example, a man who steals a car usually receives more time in prison than a man who steals a lolly pop from a grocery store; nonetheless, the man who stole the lolly pop is just as guilty as the man who stole the car.
On the other hand, unlike us, God sees all sin as the same; bad. A sin is a sin in his eyes no matter what you or someone has done. I don't believe God looks down more on Jimmy (sorry for you Jimmy's out there...just look at it as you are at the "cool" level to be used as an example) who has just lied to his best friend than Jill (All you Jill's out there...refer to what I said about Jimmy) who has just stolen a sweet pair of 9 inch hot red stilettos from the mall. It is all the same to God; sin is sin, and sin is bad. So, then the question is really how serious is sin? By using the logic that I just described, that means that stealing a cookie from the cookie jar is just as bad as murdering somebody, or that murdering someone is just as bad as stealing a cookie from the cookie jar (I know that is an extreme example..most of you i'm sure do not kill people in your spare time).
In our earthly mindset, we would agree that stealing a cookie from the cookie jar is way less harmless and not as bad as killing a person...yet they are both sins. Now listen closely, if you are a follower of Christ, then you have inherited salvation and you are saved by grace, which means no matter what you do, you will always be forgiven. However, Paul says, "who are you to keep sinning that grace may abound?" The way I see it, you can look at sin in two ways: 1. Sin is not a very serious thing and I can keep on indulging in it even though God commands me to not to (I can keep stealing from the cookie jar), or 2. Sin is very serious and I need to not continue sinning so freely (holy crap, I should stop stealing from the cookie jar because God says "you shall not steal"). You have the option to choose which road to take, however, when you steal that cookie from the cookie jar, you are sinning, and although we see it as a itsy bitsy little harmless sin, it only took one little sin in the Garden of Eden to separate us from God for ETERNITY. Luckily Jesus (being THE man) saved us from that sin by putting it on himself on the cross. However, just think..if there were no Jesus in the picture to save us..it would only take one sin, no matter the degree of it, to separate us from God forever, and THAT is pretty serious to me.
Dudes, thank you for stopping by and listening to my thoughts! Feel free to comment or subscribe, I hope this encouraged you a bit and DON'T STEAL FROM THE COOKIE JAR! Don't you know mom's know everything..you're only fooling yourself! Peace.
- R
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Don't Be A Butthead.
Hello hello! Ok so think about this...has there ever been something that you have wanted so bad but you just cant get it? Yea? No way, me too! Facial hair. Its the best. I wish I could have it. I mean I have it, I just wish it came in like the stinking 6 inches of snow that came in on the first day of my spring break. Ok, enough about that, although if you know any tricks about how to get your facial hair to come in thicker besides shaving every morning, i'm all ears.
Hi. I am delighted that you have decided to stumble upon The Better Half of Me! Whether it was by accident or not, I welcome you to the thoughts of a poor college student. Maybe you can relate, who knows..actually you know because you are you and...yea. You understand. So I want to keep this short because I tend to carry on and I cant stay on topic. Lately, God has been revealing a lot to me as usual and I would love to share it with you!
It seems there are a lot of Christians who ask for God to reveal himself to them so they can be obedient and serve God and serve others. However, I have become aware lately that when God reveals himself to some Christians who ask and plead for God to reveal himself, they hear what he has to say and instead of being obedient and saying yes Lord, they say Yes Lord, BUT....(here lies the excuse). You see, people say yes because they know what God is revealing to them is what needs to happen. For example, stop looking at porn, your boyfriend or girlfriend is an idol before me and you know how to fix that, so do what needs to be done, you have been starving yourself of my word for too long now...etc.
When God reveals himself to Christians, sometimes we know what needs to change, but we are holding on to that one thing that is keeping us from being completely obedient to God. That is when we say yes, BUT I can't give that up, or yes BUT I will change that on my own time and soon enough you're in a deeper hole than when you started. Whatever it is that needs to change, its not going to be easy. If you're looking for easy then Christianity is not the thing for you. Now I said I was going to keep this short, so here is the point I am making. Don't be a yes BUT Christian. If you wonder why you keep asking God to reveal himself to you and nothing happens, maybe its because he already has revealed to you what needs to be done and what needs to change in your life, but you continue to make up an excuse not to change your habits. Being obedient to God is one of the biggest measures of your love for him. 99% obedience is 100% disobedience to God. He deserves our best, our all, and if you are not striving to give him 100% obedience, what is it that has the other percentage of your obedience? I think you will find that if you cut out that other percent of obedience that is not to God from your life, God will reveal himself to you in a way like you have never experienced before and your heart will be softened. Don't be a yes BUT Christian.
Thanks for stopping by to The Better half of Me, hope this encouraged you a bit! This is your Captain speaking, thanks for listening, over and out!
-R
-P.S If you are a yes BUT Christian (which I have been in the past) you have the right to call yourself a butthead. Ha i thought that was funny, sorry if that is insulting in any way, shape or form.
Hi. I am delighted that you have decided to stumble upon The Better Half of Me! Whether it was by accident or not, I welcome you to the thoughts of a poor college student. Maybe you can relate, who knows..actually you know because you are you and...yea. You understand. So I want to keep this short because I tend to carry on and I cant stay on topic. Lately, God has been revealing a lot to me as usual and I would love to share it with you!
It seems there are a lot of Christians who ask for God to reveal himself to them so they can be obedient and serve God and serve others. However, I have become aware lately that when God reveals himself to some Christians who ask and plead for God to reveal himself, they hear what he has to say and instead of being obedient and saying yes Lord, they say Yes Lord, BUT....(here lies the excuse). You see, people say yes because they know what God is revealing to them is what needs to happen. For example, stop looking at porn, your boyfriend or girlfriend is an idol before me and you know how to fix that, so do what needs to be done, you have been starving yourself of my word for too long now...etc.
When God reveals himself to Christians, sometimes we know what needs to change, but we are holding on to that one thing that is keeping us from being completely obedient to God. That is when we say yes, BUT I can't give that up, or yes BUT I will change that on my own time and soon enough you're in a deeper hole than when you started. Whatever it is that needs to change, its not going to be easy. If you're looking for easy then Christianity is not the thing for you. Now I said I was going to keep this short, so here is the point I am making. Don't be a yes BUT Christian. If you wonder why you keep asking God to reveal himself to you and nothing happens, maybe its because he already has revealed to you what needs to be done and what needs to change in your life, but you continue to make up an excuse not to change your habits. Being obedient to God is one of the biggest measures of your love for him. 99% obedience is 100% disobedience to God. He deserves our best, our all, and if you are not striving to give him 100% obedience, what is it that has the other percentage of your obedience? I think you will find that if you cut out that other percent of obedience that is not to God from your life, God will reveal himself to you in a way like you have never experienced before and your heart will be softened. Don't be a yes BUT Christian.
Thanks for stopping by to The Better half of Me, hope this encouraged you a bit! This is your Captain speaking, thanks for listening, over and out!
-R
-P.S If you are a yes BUT Christian (which I have been in the past) you have the right to call yourself a butthead. Ha i thought that was funny, sorry if that is insulting in any way, shape or form.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
I Am HELPLESS Without the Lord
Hello friends and fellow guests! I hope you are all finding ways to stay warm in this Eskimo like weather. If you are an Eskimo then this is probably something close to spring for you...do us a favor and please don't rub it in that you don't get cold. It is now February, which means next month is march, which means there will be no more snow and it will be warm, which means I can ride my Longboard at night...in a T-shirt, and shorts, and not have to worry about frostbite and/or black ice.
Anywho, God has certainly been working in my life this past month and I would love to share what the big man up top has been up to! This Month has been a challenging one in many areas. To fill you in, (because you guys are like family to me), my older brother found out he had a tumor on his brain a few months ago. This led to many doctor visits and many late nights for the rents. Side note: when I say the "rents," I mean my parents. Get it? paRENTS....ok so late nights for my rents, especially my mom as you can imagine how a mom's mind may wander when her son is going through something like this. The doctors said that it needed to be removed. So this past weekend, my older brother Brett went in for brain surgery! SO CRAZY! Its hard to think how far technology has come. The surgery took 5 hours and it was successful! Praise God! I remember walking into the ICU room after the surgery to see my bro for the first time and he was so out of it! Kind of like the YouTube hit "David After Dentist" ha.
So the story gets better when my bro tries to eat blue jello after not eating for like 36 hours and he barfs it back up a totally different color! Any guesses which color?....Anybody? Try neon-green! It was magical. Yes I am a dude and barfing is gnarly(when you're watching someone barf..) . It really started to kick in how helpless Brett really was when the nurses came to change him, because he could not even change himself. It Got me thinking about how truly helpless he was the whole weekend. When you go into detail and think about everything that happened. The whole 5 hour procedure (anything could have gone wrong in those 5 hours...the doctors were cracking open his dome piece and wiggling their fingers around his brain!), the recovery...him just waking up after surgery is a miracle in itself. Point being that everything happened the way it did because God was in control of the situation. Brett truly was helpless, my family and myself, we could not do anything besides turn to God and pray for protection and Gods hand over the doctors and Brett's recovery. There was nothing we could physically do to help Brett. It was ALL in God's hands.
This got me thinking about my own life and the lives of people in general. For the most part, we are helpless. We try and be in control of our own lives by making our schedules, surrounding ourselves around the people we want to be around, doing what feels good rather than doing what we know is right...we try to control our lives. The result of this usually ends up somewhere way more south than when we began. I hate to break this to you friends, but we were not made to be in control of our lives because we are dumb, and make decisions that only end up hurting us. We were made to have a relationship with Jesus and let him control our lives. Sure we can still make decisions on our own, but those decisions should be based off of what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do, versus what YOU want to do. The more I see life through that lens, the more I begin to see that I am not in control of things even when I want to be. The end result of this is realizing that I really do need God in my life, because without him, I AM helpless.
How many of you guys are tired of trying to control every aspect of your life? How many of you, no matter how hard you try to get your life back on track, just keep falling short? How many of you are discouraged because you don't ever seem to find peace or rest in your life? I know this sounds so cliche, but its so true; surrender your problems to God because you cannot fix them yourself. Bottom line, when you are in control, you are going to fail. When God is in control, things are going to work out in the way God wanted them to work out. You were not meant to be in control of your life, but the minute you cast your fears and problems on the Lord and trust that He is in control, that is the minute that you will realize how much you have been missing out on the beauty of life because you have been obsessed with controlling your future when it is not yours to control. The Bible says in Psalm 55:22, "Cast your burdens on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." Stop trying to control your life, there is so much more to live for!
Thanks for stopping by friends! Its always great to have you!
-R
Anywho, God has certainly been working in my life this past month and I would love to share what the big man up top has been up to! This Month has been a challenging one in many areas. To fill you in, (because you guys are like family to me), my older brother found out he had a tumor on his brain a few months ago. This led to many doctor visits and many late nights for the rents. Side note: when I say the "rents," I mean my parents. Get it? paRENTS....ok so late nights for my rents, especially my mom as you can imagine how a mom's mind may wander when her son is going through something like this. The doctors said that it needed to be removed. So this past weekend, my older brother Brett went in for brain surgery! SO CRAZY! Its hard to think how far technology has come. The surgery took 5 hours and it was successful! Praise God! I remember walking into the ICU room after the surgery to see my bro for the first time and he was so out of it! Kind of like the YouTube hit "David After Dentist" ha.
So the story gets better when my bro tries to eat blue jello after not eating for like 36 hours and he barfs it back up a totally different color! Any guesses which color?....Anybody? Try neon-green! It was magical. Yes I am a dude and barfing is gnarly(when you're watching someone barf..) . It really started to kick in how helpless Brett really was when the nurses came to change him, because he could not even change himself. It Got me thinking about how truly helpless he was the whole weekend. When you go into detail and think about everything that happened. The whole 5 hour procedure (anything could have gone wrong in those 5 hours...the doctors were cracking open his dome piece and wiggling their fingers around his brain!), the recovery...him just waking up after surgery is a miracle in itself. Point being that everything happened the way it did because God was in control of the situation. Brett truly was helpless, my family and myself, we could not do anything besides turn to God and pray for protection and Gods hand over the doctors and Brett's recovery. There was nothing we could physically do to help Brett. It was ALL in God's hands.
This got me thinking about my own life and the lives of people in general. For the most part, we are helpless. We try and be in control of our own lives by making our schedules, surrounding ourselves around the people we want to be around, doing what feels good rather than doing what we know is right...we try to control our lives. The result of this usually ends up somewhere way more south than when we began. I hate to break this to you friends, but we were not made to be in control of our lives because we are dumb, and make decisions that only end up hurting us. We were made to have a relationship with Jesus and let him control our lives. Sure we can still make decisions on our own, but those decisions should be based off of what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do, versus what YOU want to do. The more I see life through that lens, the more I begin to see that I am not in control of things even when I want to be. The end result of this is realizing that I really do need God in my life, because without him, I AM helpless.
How many of you guys are tired of trying to control every aspect of your life? How many of you, no matter how hard you try to get your life back on track, just keep falling short? How many of you are discouraged because you don't ever seem to find peace or rest in your life? I know this sounds so cliche, but its so true; surrender your problems to God because you cannot fix them yourself. Bottom line, when you are in control, you are going to fail. When God is in control, things are going to work out in the way God wanted them to work out. You were not meant to be in control of your life, but the minute you cast your fears and problems on the Lord and trust that He is in control, that is the minute that you will realize how much you have been missing out on the beauty of life because you have been obsessed with controlling your future when it is not yours to control. The Bible says in Psalm 55:22, "Cast your burdens on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." Stop trying to control your life, there is so much more to live for!
Thanks for stopping by friends! Its always great to have you!
-R
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Prayer Journal
Good evening ladies and gentlemen! It has certainly been some time since we last talked. I apologize for being a stranger but believe it or not, the end of my Christmas break actually turned out to be hectic! The spring semester is about to start up again and I am already at school strategizing as to how im going to successfully pass this semester. Thankfully, I have the privilege of serving a God who has already decided the outcome of this coming semester. All I have to do is stay faithful to my creator and work on all my homework as if I were personally turning it into God himself.
Out of the things God showed me over this Christmas break, the biggest and I think most important lesson He showed me was to have open ears and an open heart to what
He has to tell me. BUT, not just listening to what He has to say, but also ACTING upon what is said. I find that I am surrounded by apathetic Christians. Listen ladies and gentlemen, Christians should be the LEAST apathetic people in the world. Anywho...the story goes like this:
It was around 2am and I was nice and comfy in my bed under my sleeping bag..yes sleeping bag because I use a sleeping bag as a comforter...its complicated, but I love sleeping bags. So I was all comfy in my bed when I felt God telling me to get up and start journaling. I was hesitant at first, but God reassured me to get up, find an empty journal and just write down my prayers to Him. I found a half empty journal and began praying. As I was praying, God began to reveal to me bitterness that I had towards people, people I have lost touch with, what areas I can improve my walk in, and multiple other things. It was amazing!! God was so tangible in that room with me that night. My encouragement to you guys and gals is to start up a prayer journal if you don't already have one. If you don't know what what a prayer journal is, it is simply a journal that you write your prayers down in. Not only does it keep you focused (because I have a hard time with that), but you can look back at certain prayer requests that God has clearly answered. Its great all around! If you don't have a journal, you can find them cheap at any bookstore! I prefer Barnes and Noble..just saying. They have a good selection. Ok well thats it folks, stay awesome!
-R
Out of the things God showed me over this Christmas break, the biggest and I think most important lesson He showed me was to have open ears and an open heart to what
He has to tell me. BUT, not just listening to what He has to say, but also ACTING upon what is said. I find that I am surrounded by apathetic Christians. Listen ladies and gentlemen, Christians should be the LEAST apathetic people in the world. Anywho...the story goes like this:
It was around 2am and I was nice and comfy in my bed under my sleeping bag..yes sleeping bag because I use a sleeping bag as a comforter...its complicated, but I love sleeping bags. So I was all comfy in my bed when I felt God telling me to get up and start journaling. I was hesitant at first, but God reassured me to get up, find an empty journal and just write down my prayers to Him. I found a half empty journal and began praying. As I was praying, God began to reveal to me bitterness that I had towards people, people I have lost touch with, what areas I can improve my walk in, and multiple other things. It was amazing!! God was so tangible in that room with me that night. My encouragement to you guys and gals is to start up a prayer journal if you don't already have one. If you don't know what what a prayer journal is, it is simply a journal that you write your prayers down in. Not only does it keep you focused (because I have a hard time with that), but you can look back at certain prayer requests that God has clearly answered. Its great all around! If you don't have a journal, you can find them cheap at any bookstore! I prefer Barnes and Noble..just saying. They have a good selection. Ok well thats it folks, stay awesome!
-R
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Our God Is Everywhere!
Good evening fine ladies and handsome gentlemen, it is great to have you here at The Better Half of Me! I hope this post finds you well. Over my extensive Christmas break from which I created this very blog, I have re-indulged in the well known book series called The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I started reading the seven book series over the summer and then stopped about three quarters into the third book when this past semester picked up. Well I picked the books back up over this break and I haven't been able to put them down.
C.S. Lewis as some of you who know me, know he is a man crush of mine. He comes second to Jon Foreman (Shame on you if you don't know who he is..look him up!). The dude has an amazing story and God greatly gifted him with brains, and a way to connect with people through writing. Lewis actually wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as bed time stories to try and describe the character of God to his children. I love reading these books not only because they are entertaining, but there are so many parallel's with scripture. It is super neat to be reading and realize as you're reading that Lewis is actually retelling a story from the Bible through the characters and circumstances in the book. As I was finishing the third book in the series called The Horse and His Boy, there was a parallel with the Bible that really spoke to me.
To catch you up with this book so my point will be clear, there is a boy in the beginning who washes up to shore in a boat. A mean man takes him in and makes him his servant boy. Years later a higher official rides in on a horse late one night and talks to the boys master. The boy, curious of this officials visit, listens in on the meeting and discovers the official wants to buy the boy off his master. The boy, not knowing whether or not the official is good or evil, decides to run away. He decides to run to the stable first. When he gets there, he finds the officials horse. To his amazement the horse can talk, and also to the boys amazement the horse want's to run away from his master, the official. Together they make their journey to Narnia. Along the way, they meet a girl who is also running away..she too is heading for Narnia. Her horse can speak as well. Hang in there my friends, I promise this is leading somewhere... Throughout their journey to Narnia, they have three encounters with lions. One encounter was with a pack, and the other were individual encounters. On one of these encounters, the girl is clawed on her back in an attempt to get away from the lion. Another encounter includes the boy and girl and their horses being chased through the forest by a pack of lions.
OK OK....Now that I have kind of caught you up, I can finally make my point..here we go, buckle your seat belt. (SPOILER ALERT) The gang eventually makes it to Narnia, but right before they do, Aslan confronts them for the first time(Aslan is the big lion that is in charge of Narnia. His character parallels with Jesus). When the boy and the girl begin to tell Aslan about their encounters with the other lions he stops them. He says to them, "There was only one lion, and that lion was me. All of the encounters you had were with me. I was there to protect you in your journey home." Ok, so these weren't word for word because I returned the book to the library, but that is the gist of what Aslan said. This dialogue that Lewis portrays through Aslan and the boy and girl is a beautiful parallel to remind us that God is all around us. He is guiding and watching over us as we go about our life here on earth. It is a reminder that he is for us and not against us! So many times when things don't go the way we have planned them, we start to believe the lie that Satan throws at us that God is against us and enjoys to see us in pain, or not succeeding. THAT IS FALSE! Our God is for us! He has a plan and a future for us, as well as hope as it says in Jeremiah 29:11. Sometimes things don't go as planned, or sometimes we are in pain like the girl who was clawed by Aslan, but sometimes that is what it takes for us realize that we have gone astray from our creator and God that loves us more than we can imagine. If being hurt is what it takes to get my eyes back on God, then that is a small price to pay to be in an unfailing relationship with the very being that created me and everything around me...the very being that I will have the privilege of spending the rest of eternity getting to know. Pain in temporary, God and his plans are eternal. Just like Aslan led the gang to Narnia, God leads us whether or not we are aware of that at the time. HE IS FOR US AND NOT AGAINST US!
Thanks for stopping by guys, I know it was long this time. I apologize if you needed to take a nap halfway through to rest your eyes, but hopefully this encouraged you in some way. Stay tuned for more posts from The Better Half of Me and make sure to follow me if you like what you hear. Ok im leaving now for real.
-R
C.S. Lewis as some of you who know me, know he is a man crush of mine. He comes second to Jon Foreman (Shame on you if you don't know who he is..look him up!). The dude has an amazing story and God greatly gifted him with brains, and a way to connect with people through writing. Lewis actually wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as bed time stories to try and describe the character of God to his children. I love reading these books not only because they are entertaining, but there are so many parallel's with scripture. It is super neat to be reading and realize as you're reading that Lewis is actually retelling a story from the Bible through the characters and circumstances in the book. As I was finishing the third book in the series called The Horse and His Boy, there was a parallel with the Bible that really spoke to me.
To catch you up with this book so my point will be clear, there is a boy in the beginning who washes up to shore in a boat. A mean man takes him in and makes him his servant boy. Years later a higher official rides in on a horse late one night and talks to the boys master. The boy, curious of this officials visit, listens in on the meeting and discovers the official wants to buy the boy off his master. The boy, not knowing whether or not the official is good or evil, decides to run away. He decides to run to the stable first. When he gets there, he finds the officials horse. To his amazement the horse can talk, and also to the boys amazement the horse want's to run away from his master, the official. Together they make their journey to Narnia. Along the way, they meet a girl who is also running away..she too is heading for Narnia. Her horse can speak as well. Hang in there my friends, I promise this is leading somewhere... Throughout their journey to Narnia, they have three encounters with lions. One encounter was with a pack, and the other were individual encounters. On one of these encounters, the girl is clawed on her back in an attempt to get away from the lion. Another encounter includes the boy and girl and their horses being chased through the forest by a pack of lions.
OK OK....Now that I have kind of caught you up, I can finally make my point..here we go, buckle your seat belt. (SPOILER ALERT) The gang eventually makes it to Narnia, but right before they do, Aslan confronts them for the first time(Aslan is the big lion that is in charge of Narnia. His character parallels with Jesus). When the boy and the girl begin to tell Aslan about their encounters with the other lions he stops them. He says to them, "There was only one lion, and that lion was me. All of the encounters you had were with me. I was there to protect you in your journey home." Ok, so these weren't word for word because I returned the book to the library, but that is the gist of what Aslan said. This dialogue that Lewis portrays through Aslan and the boy and girl is a beautiful parallel to remind us that God is all around us. He is guiding and watching over us as we go about our life here on earth. It is a reminder that he is for us and not against us! So many times when things don't go the way we have planned them, we start to believe the lie that Satan throws at us that God is against us and enjoys to see us in pain, or not succeeding. THAT IS FALSE! Our God is for us! He has a plan and a future for us, as well as hope as it says in Jeremiah 29:11. Sometimes things don't go as planned, or sometimes we are in pain like the girl who was clawed by Aslan, but sometimes that is what it takes for us realize that we have gone astray from our creator and God that loves us more than we can imagine. If being hurt is what it takes to get my eyes back on God, then that is a small price to pay to be in an unfailing relationship with the very being that created me and everything around me...the very being that I will have the privilege of spending the rest of eternity getting to know. Pain in temporary, God and his plans are eternal. Just like Aslan led the gang to Narnia, God leads us whether or not we are aware of that at the time. HE IS FOR US AND NOT AGAINST US!
Thanks for stopping by guys, I know it was long this time. I apologize if you needed to take a nap halfway through to rest your eyes, but hopefully this encouraged you in some way. Stay tuned for more posts from The Better Half of Me and make sure to follow me if you like what you hear. Ok im leaving now for real.
-R
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