Through your eyes: a blessing or a burden

I try to be an observational fellow, and to notice the things around me. This could be anything from people, to cars, to anything you can think of.

Today, while at work, I observed a couple come in with their child. They were a normal family, with one minor exception; their child was mentally retarded. I personally don't have any children, so I don't really know what it's like to raise a child, so I can't personally reflect on it, but I observed the two parents, reacting to their child.

The father was very short, angry, and unforgiving with his son. He treated him like dirt, and showed him no respect. No father should treat a son like that. Never. He wasn’t grateful for that son, and he showed it in a big way.

The boy's mother, adversely, showed him love, care, kindness, and was truly grateful for her son. I was amazed at how much she showed love for her son. Not because I don't think it's possible to love a mentally retarded child, but because she was almost overbearing with it. She made her son know she loved him, and she will be able to fall asleep tonight knowing she did everything she could to love her son as much as possible.

The reason I described this story to you is to illustrate one simple point: it's not what you have that matters, but it's how you look at it that matters. The father saw a boy who couldn't run as fast as other boys, or jump as high as most children. He saw a burden and a failure. He hates it.
The mother, on the other hand, saw a boy who could love and be love, one who can laugh, and make others laugh. She loves it.

What you see depends on what you want to see. You might see a trial and a test, but someone else might decide to see a chance to watch God work in his or her life. An annoying person in line behind you might be a chance to tell someone about the gospel. That pastor who keeps asking for donations might be a chance to help further God's kingdom.

And think of it like this: God, rather than see us for the sinners we are, sees us covered by Christ's blood (assuming you've accepted Him as Saviour.)

If you don't like what you see, try looking at it from a different point of view.

It's totally insane. It's not normal....

I was lying on a mattress on the ground in Mark Coffey’s basement, looking at the wooden ceiling. I was thinking about God. As I lied there, not more than 6 inches off of the ground, I realized one amazing truth: A true, God fearing, God empowered, active Christian is insane.
I don’t mean insane in the sense of mentally disturbed, or not in good mental health. I mean insane in the sense that sometimes, a Christian makes no sense.

Does it make sense that a man was thrown into a lion’s den, yet came out completely fine? Does it make sense for a small boy to kill a man over nine feet tall? Does it makes sense for an entire sea to part to allow a whole group of people to go through it? Does it make sense for water to be turned into wine? No! None of this makes sense.

It makes no sense for a man, living in America, to forsake his worldly pleasures (that would include a television, a car, indoor plumbing, heat, air conditioning, a roof and almost anything else.) and go serve God in a small, remote, desert village filled with savages. It makes no sense for Keith Shumaker to say "Praise the Lord; I have Malaria again!" as he sits in a sweltering heat in the country of Burkino Faso.

I then began to think about myself and my own life. I realized that I wasn’t insane enough. I would be insane to think that the God who created the heaven and earth would care about a sinful, pitiful, disgusting creature like myself. I would be insane to say that He would take time out of His schedule to attend to my need. I daresay that I would be a madman if I expected God almighty to clean and bandage me when I fall and get hurt. But maybe most powerful to me, at least at that time, would be the fact that any “normal” man or woman would tell me that I was fooled and confused if I thought God would answer my prayers.

The Bible tells us that, assuming we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us as born again Christians, we have an audience with the Father. That’s when I realized that I was just as “normal” and boring as any other normal guy. I was afraid to ask God for mighty things. I was afraid to ask for the things that would make normal people say, “You think God is going to do THAT for you? Child, you are insane.”

I was only asking God to provide the minimum. I was asking for just a little. I wasn’t daring to take big steps because I was afraid. I was normal.

Then I realized something. God won’t do mighty works in my life if I’m normal. Nowhere in the Bible were normal men used to further the Kingdom of Christ. Sure, shepherds and carpenters fill the sweet pages of our Lord’s word, but they were far from normal men and women. These blessed people, my friends, were filled with the power of God. They were vastly different from any :normal" human being. They had big goals and dreams involving God. They weren’t afraid to look stupid or be laughed at.

I realized something that night, as I lie there on my back. I realized that if I want God to use me, I have to be insane, out of my skull, or just plain crazy. I have to ask for things that are just plain ludicrous. And I MUST die to my own pride, desires and flesh if I wish to see the Lord use me. I’m going to start asking things of God that a ”normal” person would call foolish or stupid. I’m going to start asking things that seem too farfetched to be true. I’m going to start trusting God to do what he said he could do, and that He will do it in an able and exceeding manner.

The first "real" day.

(For the record, I wrote an amazing blog before this, but managed to delete it all at once on accident while I was trying to spell check it. I'm to lazy to rewrite it, so you're stuck with this trash that I wrote in about 53 seconds. Enjoy.)

The honeymoon is over. The gifts are all unwrapped. The party is cleaned up. The shiny veneer of leaving home to follow God is gone. Not that I wasn't being serious before, but it's time to sober up. I have no idea what I'm doing.

The honeymoon is over. It's time to realize that bad things are going to happen. I'm going to spill mustard on my favourite shirt. I'm going to get sick and not be able to breathe. I'm going to watch plans and ideas blow up in my face. I'm going to actually go through trials and all that stuff. This isn't a game anymore.

The honeymoon is over. It's time to get serious and realize that this isn't easy. It's going to take some serious dedication and devotion. More than I can give using just my own strength. I'm going to actually have to depend on God for everythinggggg at this point.

The honeymoon is over. I have a horrible cold. My nose is full of cement. I'm exhausted. Micah seems to be really bothered by something, and I can't help. I wish I could. Anyway.

The honeymoon is over. This is when things start to become real. Until now, I've been on a joyride. A honeymoon. I've been on the high of leaving home and becoming a man and all that.

The honeymoon is over. It's time to start being a man, and dealing with things. Time to start following God 100% with my life. Time to get serious. Time to do what it takes, even if it means getting 3 hours of sleep a night. Time to sacrifice my own desires for God's will. Time to be a man.

The honeymoon is over.

I REALLY THINK I AM...

Am I an underachiever?

That which is around you.

There's an old saying that goes a little something like, "If one runs with dogs, one will have fleas." Of course, the same thing goes for the other end of the spectrum. The person who is associated with Godly people will be drawn, or sometimes pushed, closer to God.

One of the things that I love about the people down here is that they encourage me to draw near to God. "Religion" (for lack of a better word) isn't a game. People aren't in church on Sunday and in a pub on Monday. Men seem to love their wives, and the wives seem to love their husbands. People are backing their words up with their actions, and devoting their whole lives to Christ and His glorious cause.

I'm not trying to take a dig at any other churches, but I'm really grateful to be in a church like this. The power of God is evident all throughout Vision Baptist. I'm so grateful for the people here and just how supportive they really are. It's very, refreshing (though that word is not strong enough) to be surrounded by people who all love God after coming from the type of home that I did (and I seriously mean no disrespect by that. I promise).

(For the record, I mean no disrespect at all to anyone at all.) My whole life, I've wanted to follow God with my whole life instead of just a part of it, or some of it. I've always felt like something has been holding me back until recently. Maybe it's because I'm lazy, and just never decided to take "religion" (for lack of a better word) seriously until now, or maybe it's because everyone here has the same desire. I really feel like the people here are going to help me do just that, follow God with my entire being.

I'm finally at the point where I realize that I am going to be a man of God with my whole life. I can't say that I'll ever have a big house, lots of money, a fancy car, work a 9-5 type job, or anything "normal people" do in life. Instead, I've given my life to Christ to help further His cause in the country of Spain (and anywhere else I may be.)

I don't know if this makes sense to anyone else, but to me, I'm so very grateful to be surrounded by people who love the Lord, from the oldest to the youngest, and everyone in between, I'm so glad to be surrounded by such amazing Christians.

Also, I got to hold a newborn baby today. He was cute. I wanna have one of my own one day, but not too soon. Anyway, I’m way off topic, and way ahead of myself thinking about children. It was cool to see a newborn and everything. It was a really awesome experience.
I work tomorrow. God’s good and gave me a job with a pretty decent pay rate.
I’m just so thankful for everything God is doing in my life, and I’m grateful He’ll keep it up!

An amazing Sunday

I'm trying to think up some witty, or clever, first line to this post, but it's not going so well. I want to come up with brilliant analogies, compelling metaphors, astounding juxtapositions and a myriad of other well described literary terms. Instead, I think I'll just talk in rather simple terms.

God is good. No, God is great. To be honest, there aren't enough adjectives in any language to do justice to how amazing God truly is. Even if you took the most amazing and potent adjectives from every language under the sun, and were to combine them into one adjective, dripping with description, it still would fall short of God's glory.

Pastor Gardener preached an amazing message tonight from Ephesians 3 20-21. Long story short, God will do not only what we ask, but He'll do it above and beyond what we ask. It's disrespectful to ask God for small things because it's a doubt of His ability to do big things. I think I quoted Pastor Gardener correctly there. (I’m sorry if I didn’t)

I felt embarrassed for only asking small things from God. I felt that I've been holding Him back from doing even mightier things than He already has in my life.

I didn't do a good job with this post. I don't think it's possible for me to explain how amazing today really way. I'm out of word, adjectives, nouns, and all that fancy fluff. I'm going to bed. I start work tomorrow.

At least I'll always smell nice...

Yesterday was Saturday. I woke up and went to church to work on the skit/play for Sunday morning service. I'm really excited about the skit, and think that the Lord is really going to bless through it. I hope so, anyway.

After doing a few other things around the church, I went with the Velke family to a cookout, and had a really good time. On the drive there, Bed Bath & Beyond called me to offer me a job. I start work for them Monday. It pays better than Kroger would, and I'll be getting more hours. A lot of people were laughing at me for working there, but at least I'll always smell nice, right? Plus, my bathroom will look really cool. Praise the Lord that He continues to bless me with job offers again, and again.

After the cookout, I came back home, and was studying something, when all of a sudden, I found myself taking a nap. I woke up later, only to find that Phil was fanally, and officially moving out. So now there are only two of us living here...Micah and myself. Phil moved out, Micah took over the master bedroom, and that was that.

I'm still working to renovate/clean up my bedroom. (Which is mostly dirty because of Josh's stuff, even though no one has seen him recently) Not really too much to say for Saturday, church, cookout, nap, Phil left, dinner, bed. A pretty good day all in all.