| Be Alive!! |
|---|
| Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, because the world needs people who have come alive. |
|
| I’m watching a trailer for Annapolis. There is one line in the trailer that hit me, and I want to write about it. The story, as far as I can tell from the trailer is about a kid going into the army who gives it his all despite the fact that everything seems to be against him. One of the officers says to another officer, “Why are you so hard on him?” The officer replies; “because I believe in him.” Sometimes I wonder if that’s the way God looks at us...
God, why does life have to be so freaking hard?? Maybe God is up in heaven saying, because I believe in you… I believe that you have the ability to trust me fully through the hurt and the pain… I believe that you can take a leap of faith into my arms. I believe in you, and I’m giving you a chance to prove me right... | | |
| I was reading John 11 last night, and a couple things came to mind... First off, John 11 is about Lazarus being raised from the dead... 14So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." 16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Thomas was totally ready to die with Jesus and for Jesus, BUT that's not even what Jesus was talking about!! I sometimes wonder how often we do the exact same thing... We misread what Jesus is saying... Sure we might be whole-heartedly for Him, but we're barking up the wrong tree. The second thing I thought about this passage was that, well, Jesus ALLOWED Lazarus to die, He so could have kept that from happening, but if he did, there would have been no resurrection, and with no resurrection, no glorifying of the Father. Jesus said that He was glad He was not there i.e. to keep Lazarus from dying... WHY?? Mary and Martha, didn't Jesus care about them? Didn't He want to lessen the grief they had to go through? When will we get it through our heads that life is ALL about glorifying the Father. Jesus understood that, and knew that the best way for the Father to be glorified would be for resurrection to take place, the only way for resurrection to take place is for death to take place first... I think a lot of the time in our own lives, we want things are way, and we forget that it's all about God's glory, and thus we forget that sometimes death needs to come before resurrection. I'm not talking about physical death necessarily. Death of a dream, death of a mission, death of everything we hold close... And we ask why God!!!?? But the reason is simple, and God simply answers back, "why? for My glory, that's why. But I still care about you, JUST wait till you see what I have around the corner." Jesus does want what's best for us, but His number one job, as is ours is to glorify the Father. We're not on earth to be happy, we're on earth to glorify Him... Just a thought I had... Lastly, last night I was watching; "The Recruit" Lots of interesting thoughts came from this movie... First, the recruiter asked them why they were there, not money, not girls, not fame. Belief was the reason he stated that they were there. I couldn’t help but think… We have something so much bigger to believe in than what they did. And the belief of what’s right is ALL that should be needed to motivate us. The other thing from that movie is the statement; “You can never trust anyone. Your dearest friend could be your worst enemy. The only voice you can trust is that little voice inside you, and sometimes you can’t even trust that.” This was the CIA, so the statement was simi-true, but STILL it is truly impossible. Trust is something they did anyhow though… They were carful about it, but they still trusted… The truth of the matter is that we ALL trust someone or something. The point in the movie was that, you trust, you get burned… But the crazy thing was that people took missions, which took trust in the person assigning the mission, and if you think about it, when someone distrusted a fellow CIA member it was because he was trusting another member. That’s why movies like that are so confusing… You can’t trust anyone but it’s impossible to live a life without trust. The important thing is that it IS possible to live without is complete and total trust… Total trust is so awesome and wonderful. We can have total trust in God, and it’s great if we can allow ourselves to have total trust in our best friends, but this is where you’ve got to ask yourself, is complete trust worth the risk of possibly getting burned? In my opinion, it is, but you’re going to have to make that call for yourself… So is it? In my opinion, trusting God allows you to trust others… What do you think? --Daniel | | |
| So, last night I watched a movie called, "The Mayor of Hell" It was a nice old black and white movie from 1933. There were a few things in it that struck me. Frist off the movie was about a correctional camp for boys. I found that the boys had dads that were not involved, OR no dads at all... I so want to be involved with my family when I have one. Think about it, if we don't stay involved with our heavenly father we run into the same problem... Also, the boys were a mess at the camp till they were given responisbilty, and REALLY shown that they were trusted... Had they shown themselves trust worthy in the past? no, but even so, they were given a chance, and with that chance, they became trust worthy. I'm not saying that it was prob the smartest idea on the part of the manager, BUT the kids did react well to it, and it made me think, "is this really the way it would have played out?" once the kids didn't feel trapped anymore, they reacted so much better. I think we as christains need to learn how the human mind thinks, and then we will be able to touch people's lives even better.... --Daniel | | |
| Ok, it's been a long time since my last thoughtful post, so I thought that I should a post something. I'm working the late shift today, and because of this, I'm required to park a ways off, since the other spots are taken. I walk by the smoking area, and see all of these people out there smoking, and then one person around a different corner of the building smoking. I had not thought twice about the smokers till I saw the lone smoker... This caught my eye... Wierd how that works, the group, the majority didn't make me stop and look, the solo smoker however, did... We can't be a light if we're standing all alone in the world, right?? I mean one person in the midst of thousands... I beg to differ... The one christain standing alone, in the midst of others doing the very thing that he is obstaining from has a huge influence... Ok, that's my little thought for the day. By the way, the reason the solo person draws attetion is because it causes other people to wonder and ask, "But Why?" | | |
| So, sunday was my first sunday back at hope, and my first time in a long time on my motorcycle. The church I had been going to "New Life" was great, the worship was great. I came back to hope, and remembered the worship. Not bad, but not profesional... I love it, it was a change from a put on show back the the intimate, God, we're not perfect, but we're going to worship you with everything we have anyway. I don't know why I like it better, it just seems more real, or maybe it's that I feel more at home in that group... Really, I'm not sure of the exact reason why, but I'm greatful for it. Greatful to be back at hope, greatful to be part of a great group of poeple, and greatful that I had an experince to develop new friends outside of hope that will hopfully keep developing. God knows what He's doing even when life is a mess, which is great, cause if he didn't, I'd be done for. Thank you all for being my friends, I hope to see you all again this coming sunday!!! I got to see Dan in real life on sunday with the Kolbs, and I really liked it. Sometime this summer I think I'll buy it, and have a movie night with it, and intive you all. It should be fun. Summer is now my fun time since winter is so busy... | | |
|
Lifetime
