Eclipse

I've been watching some Louie Giglio videos lately.  So what I'm trying to say is this:  The universe is fascinating and reflects the glory of God.  Anyhow, now that I have that off my chest, I feel free to talk about what's on my mind.

Did you know that the sun is 400 times bigger than the moon in diameter?  It's a fact, and the earth is also smaller than the sun, by about 100 times.  So the moon is the smallest of the three, the sun is the biggest, and the earth is right there in between. 

The moon is constantly orbiting the earth, constantly circling the earth with the same side facing us at all times.  It circles us about once a month, or every 27 days to be exact.  Stay with me, I swear I'm getting to a point pretty soon.

Every once in a while, there is what we call an eclipse.  I tried to think of another word to say this, to try and steer away from Twilight connotations, but I couldn't find a good substitution.  Any how, an eclipse is when the moon passes in front of the sun, and then everyone goes out and looks at it with 3D goggles or something that looks similar to that.

So here's my point.  I feel like we have all experienced eclipses in our lives.  I don't mean that an actual solar eclipse has happened in each of our lifetimes, even though I'm pretty sure that it has.  I'm talking about the point in our lives when we're frustrated, when we're worried, when we are down, and it seems like we can focus on nothing but the pain. 

Hope, Jesus, and life are blotted out from our views, and all that we can see is despair, and we are paralyzed from action, wondering why Jesus is gone, and wondering why He would leave us.

"Where are you God?"  we ask.  "Why can't you be with us even in our hardships?  Why have you departed us?"

In our own minds, God becomes small, and our obstacles seem daunting and insurmountable.  The Bible says to fix our eyes upon Jesus, but we are convinced that Jesus is no where to be found, that He was quick to desert us. 

But God does not abandon His children, and He certainly is not unable and helpless to reach out and pull us out of our misery.

Listen:  The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon, yet sometimes, the moon completely covers the sun from our perspective.  The moon is pressing, close, and demanding our attention, and we as humans cannot get past the moon and see the sun.  Same goes with our lives.  Our issues, our shortcomings, our obstacles get so close to us and stress us out so much, we feel like we have no hope.  I suddenly find that I can't focus on Jesus, because I'm worried about what people think about me, or the school project that's due soon, or wondering if I'm ever going to actually hold a girls hand, and if my hands will stop being so sweaty by that stage in my life.  But you really didn't need to know that, I suppose.

But the thing is, God is so much greater than anything that we're struggling with, or going through right now.  It's funny to me when people talk about the "fight" that satan and God are going to have someday.  To be honest, it's not going to be a fight.  It's the infinite against the finite, the perfect against the blemished, and statistically speaking, there is absolutely no chance or odds that satan will win.  Absolutely none.

You see, Jesus is there.  I know sometimes you can't see Him.  He's there.  Sometimes you can't feel Him.  He's there.  I know that so many times, we have a storm rocking our boat, and death seems certain, but Jesus is the one who will calm the seas.  Jesus will not be overshadowed by something infinitely lesser than Him.  Like a speck of dirt on a telescope, troubles seem to be so large and looming, but there is a truth far greater than that.  The truth is that Jesus will shine through our storms.  Jesus will shine through our troubles.  Despite what you're feeling now, there is not only hope that Jesus will break through, but there is assurance that He will. 

So I don't know where you are in life.  Right now it could seem like darkness reigns or you could be living in light of the light of Christ.  But I just want to say this.  God is there, and he is omnipotent.  He is far stronger than darkness, and He is shining through the pain.  So live in light of the knowledge that Jesus reigns, and He will never depart us and that He is bigger than any eclipse in your life, or any struggle in your life, or any darkness that you're in and His greatness will be known throughout the universe, that He is Lord.

Man-hood

I'm watching football with my dad right now.  Meaning, I'm watching the game, and my dad is working hard on his computer.  So this is a mix of adrenaline/testosterone and male role models like my dad, but I've decided that I want to be a man. 

I don't mean that I want to be allowed to smoke pipes, or drink Miller Genuine Draft 64.  I'm not even talking about having a wife someday.  In fact, my future wife will not be mentioned after this.  It's that serious.  Just know that I'll be thinking about her.

But really, the topic of man-hood and being an adult has been controlling my mind a lot lately.  I feel like God really wants me to grow up and take responsibility.  Here's what I've decided that man-hood is to me:

Responsibility.  I really want to be responsible.  I want more weight on me, so that I HAVE to grow, and I HAVE to learn, and lead, and I feel like the best way to do that is to have responsibility put on me so I can learn to take that successfully. 

Work ethic.  I don't want to ever be known as lazy.  God's given me so many opportunities to succeed so that I can be the best I possibly can be in my future job, my future school, my future marriage (oops, I lied at the beginning.  Shout out to the wifey) and everything I do.  I don't want to ever take the easy way out of anything if it could possibly be detrimental to me.  So I'm working on that.

I'm really working on that.  Those are the big two that I'm majorly working hard on, because I want to be a man, and a good man.  I'm working on my work.  I'm learning how to put effort into things.  I don't close the door to my room anymore, because I want to work out my faith (Phillipians 2:12), and there is plenty of stuff that I could be doing behind closed doors that is not beneficial to me at all.  I have learned that things aren't going to change in my life until I actually change. 

It sounds super elementary, but so many people think that they'll change at some point, without doing anything about it.  We turn into lazy people who refuse to work because they want life to be easy and have all their troubles go away by wishful thinking.  We take grace for granted, and sometimes never get our act together, and spend our lives in the rut of wishful thinking.  The only way you can change, is if you change.  So change.  Put in work, so that you can become better.  Jesus came to save us from our sin, not to give us a free pass to do it. 

So that's what I've been thinking about.  We need to do work, son.

But grace still freaking rocks.

Jesus is for Losers

Last week, I went to City Church on a Saturday night with some friends.  This was because it was man-night, and my pastor was involved.  I had been to City Church once before, and all I remember of it is that they served root-beer floats.  Thus, I was pretty excited to go to the City Church again.

I was also kind of nervous for some reason.  Something deep down inside me was telling me that someone would judge me for what I was wearing, not speaking in tongues, or not wearing skinny-jeans like the lead pastor.  I wanted to be able to go in there without any one looking at me, because I felt like the minute that they looked at me, was the minute that they would start judging me.

I feel like this is how a lot of people think when they go to an unfamiliar church.  "They're going to judge me, they aren't going to like me, I've never sacrificed a goat before."  And in all honesty, except for the last one, maybe we as Christians have brought that on.  Maybe we are constantly trying to hide in a shell of self-righteous works, pretending that we're perfect even though we're screwed up inside.

I thought about how people who come to Overlake must feel, and how thinking that we're going to judge them at all is so off base of what we actually try to do. 

You see, the whole point of Jesus is not that He came for the good little boys and girls who never have problems, and never struggle with anything, and do everything that they're supposed to.  Jesus didn't die for perfect people, because that would be pointless. 

Jesus died for the broken, and the sinful.  He Himself says that He didn't come for the healthy, but for the sick.  He came for the people who can't do it by themselves.  He came for the sick.  Jesus came for the losers like me who can't seem to do what is right very often. 

So why then do people think of Christians as judgmental people who look down on other people because of all the bad stuff that they do?  If anything, Christians should be the most humble people on the face of the earth, because the description of a Christian is someone who knows they aren't good enough, and therefore let Jesus save them.

And yet we still get a reputation as being the good boys and girls of society who never have issues and look down on the kids that do.  That is completely and utterly wrong, and not what we're supposed to be doing. 

So for all the people who are reading this and think that Christians are judgmental, I say sorry on behalf of all of them, including myself.  I'm sorry that we've been a poor representation of truth.  I'm sorry that we've looked down on you even though we're just as bad off as you.  I'm sorry.

And to all the Christians reading this, I say let's step up our game a little bit.  It's our job to represent Jesus, the one who ate dinner with the tax collectors and prostitutes and the fallen and the sinners.  Let's show people who see us what our Lord is really like, rather than a twisted version of what He came to do.  Jesus died for the losers, so let's not be prideful, judgy, or arrogant.  Deal?   

My future wife!

Right now I'm listening to Marvin Gaye.  Thus, this blog post is going to be about my future wife.  Duh.

I think a lot about my future wife, probably due to never having had a girfriend.  I'm actually kind of stoked. 

Here's what I've decided about her:
1. She is going to love Jesus more than she loves me.
2. She's still going to love me a ton though.
3.  She's going to be beautiful, and when I say beautiful, I mean "If she's walking around in a garbage bag with holes cut in it for legs and arms, she's gonna be a stunner.''
4.  She's going to actually laugh at my jokes.  Boy, one-in-a-million, huh?
5. She'll be hilarious. 
6.  She has to balance out my social awkwardness, so that our overall average will be at least 7.5 on the Acone scale of awkwardness.  This means that she'll have to have at least 14 Acone points.
7.  She's going to be super cute. 
8.  Gorgeous.
9.  She has to be appreciative of 80s R&B Soul.  I won't know how to woo her otherwise.
10.  She'll watch sports with me, and we'll snuggle. 

But having said all that, I need to work on stuff myself, because I'm not ready at all for anything like marriage.  You can call me "15", but I just call myself "AHHH, I still don't have a job."  Here's the list of stuff that I want to be for my wife.

1.  I want to be a leader that she can trust to lead her in the right way. 
2.  I want to be able to bench press her body weight.  Is that too much to ask?
3.  I want to be a provider for her.  So that we can, like, eat.
4.  I want to be able to be a bit better of a hugger for her.  Ah well, we'll practice that in the context of marriage.
5.  I want to be totally Christ centered.  As in, "too busy being centered around Jesus to write a long blog post about her."
6.  I want to be able to know which colors match with what.  Because that could be important, I feel like.
7.  I want to be able to ask to see a wine-list without the waiter laughing at me.
8.  I want to rely on Christ everyday, so that the relationship isn't about us, but it's about Jesus.
9.  I want to know the Bible.  Really well.
10.  I want to resemble Bruce Wayne at least a little bit.

So there you go, that's what you get when listening to Marvin Gaye.  Until I get married, I'm going to become what I want to be so I'm ready.  And also, I'm going to be so pure, it'll be awesome.  Super hot abstinence.