A Long Time

Hey there! Wow, it has been so long since I posted. So here is an update for the New Year...

A year gone by so fast…
A year of failures and triumphs; of beginnings and endings; of incredible sorrow and overwhelming joy; of sickness and health; of closed doors and opened windows; the sad ending of friendships and the glorious beginning of new ones; of the inexplicable loss of a life and the majesty of new lives beginning; of wonderful times with friends and family; of the unexpected taking place; of the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles, odds, and doubts, when everything and everyone was saying, “Impossible!”; of revolutionary winds of change, then calmed by His soothing peace; of taking risks in every aspect of life; of learning what matters most; of the joyous moments when life is at it’s best, and of the most desperate situations when it all seems lost and hopeless; of the moments when He seems the most silent, then finding out He was always there, just listening; of those times of absolute surrender, when you can’t go a step further and you’ve fallen for what seems the last time, and yet He is there wrapping us in His loving arms, picking us up, brushing us off, giving us the courage and strength to carry on; of discovering new things about Him that strengthen our relationship; of learning to call Him Father; of life’s direction being totally transformed; of learning to trust, utterly and completely; of learning to love and care for; of learning to hope and dream without limitations; of learning to have faith, amidst the good and the bad; of yet one more chapter in this great story we call life coming to an end. A chapter that has taken away and added, brought down, just to be strengthened once again, has taught love, friendship, joy, faith, hope, and on and on. Just another chapter in the story of the brief sojourn we are a part of in this world. So, as we stand on the precipice of a new year, we look to yet another tale unfolding and whatever it may hold. Whether it takes place in this world or the next, we may be certain of one fact – that G-d is G-d, He alone is Sovereign, He sits on the throne and rules in the affairs of men and nations, He has put us here and so we may take joy in the fact that He knows the end result and will be with us every step of the way. As you close of this year, may you be filled with joy, hope, and resolve for the next.

When you go through the valley...

"If you are going through hell, keep going."
-Winston Churchill

Trials, tribulations, burdens, adversity, hard times, "seasons", "valleys", etc.- all these words essentially denote the same time or feeling that everyone encounters at some point in life. Have you ever stopped to think about why we go through these periods? Oh, we all immediately respond with deep, philosophical replies, turned cliche of- "it's character building, because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" or "we all have to go through valleys to get to the mountains" and on the cycle goes. However, these remarks have seemed to turn into an excuse rather than an answer, a denial of reality that trials hurt, that when we go through hard times in our lives that we are mad, frustrated, and just plain hurting inside. In this day and age we are called to deny our emotions and press on! However, have we ever stopped to think that, because God is a purposeful God, that He really does put trials in our lives for a REAL reason? Every part of our body is there for a purpose - our eyes to see, our ears to hear- He even has a put an innate sense of a need for a relationship with another human being deep within us, and the list goes on. If He had a reason for all the things He gave us and placed in us, would you not think that things we go through are also for a purpose? I believe one of God's main purposes for these seasons is trust. Especially nowadays, but always, man has had a tendency to attempt to be self-sufficient. However, we cannot depend on ourselves, because we are nothing without Him. In these trials, and always, there is only one true and steadfast place, God. During trials we are totally disarmed. During trials we have but one choice - to run to the mercy seat with broken hearts and open arms. During trials God's all-sufficient grace, love, joy, and peace are the only things that will bring us along and carry us through to victory in Christ Jesus. The prospect seems a little better, doesn't it? To fling oneself into the loving arms of Christ with no inhibitions, because we have nowhere else to turn. It's seems better to me. TRUST - it is all in one word. If we would but trust Him - is He not the One who made us? Could we not but place our lives back into His hands and trust Him wholeheartedly? We have to have a firm grasp of this - to really know that He does have a purpose for everything. We have to know this, not just in our heads, but deep in our hearts, otherwise, life loses purpose altogether. He does have a plan, a great and glorious plan for our lives, if we would but trust Him with the life that He gives. May we trust Him when it is the hardest and when it hurts the most, so that we may grow and come to know his character more and more. What a loving, merciful, caring, all-sufficient Father we have.

Purpose

Why is it the ship beats the waves when the waves are so many and the ship is one?  The reason is the ship has a purpose.
-Winston Churchill

In our day and age we are constantly baraged with conflicting opinions, that which one person believes to be true and another believes false and vice versa.  There is a constant antithesis in our culture on every issue, whether your left or right, wrong or right, and on and on.  Some people may see this as a negative force in this world, yet to me at least those people believe in a cause, believe that what they are saying is right and they have some purpose behind what they do.  Sadly, there exists a passive majority of the population of the world, who don't care because they don't believe it affects them personally.  Who daily cry out, "Why should I care, I'll never have to deal with that?"  As people, I believe, that we were created to stand for something, we were created to have a purpose, to believe in something, because we were created with a destiny and calling on each of your lives.  God created us with a sense of purpose, because He himself is a purposeful God.  We do not wander aimlessly without direction, we are guided by the One who created us.  God created us to have a specific purpose in life, even those who do not know God enact that drive that He placed within us, whether we use it to bring us closer to Him or not is our decision.  May we seek God for our purpose, our destiny, and our calling, that we may live a life, a noble sacrifice of praise to the One who is worthy of our praise. 

A Thought...

    Verbally, we seem to be committed to the idea that man is created in the likeness of God.  But are we committed to it intellectually?  If the divine likeness is our premise, then the question arises: How should a being created in the image of God act, think, feel?  How should we live in a way which is compatible with our being a likeness of God?
-Abraham Heschel
 
    A mind-provoking thought...Do we truly live our lives in the way that we should?  Do we fully comprehend the fact that we are created in the image of our Creator?  Do we understand that the Creator of the Universe, the One who put the stars in the sky, the One who filled the oceans, who molded the land, who created the living creatures that roam the earth, who breathed life into our beings is on our side and will give us all that we seek if we merely surrender our being to His will?  Considering we are only here because He chose to give us life, giving our life back would be a small price to pay, don't you think?  May we surrender all that we are and all that we have to the One who is worthy, since all that we have was given by Him alone. 

Advice...

I thought that I might post one of my favorite poems...A poem that has words of advice that span all time, age, and situation...

If - by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

The Beginning....

And so I begin...This is my first venture in the "blogging" world and will thus be an experiment, in the beginning, but I hope will develop into much more. This will be a place purely for thoughts, musings, quotes, news, anything that I might be thinking about at the present moment. I hope that anyone who views this (if anyone does) that they enjoy it!