Anchored

Trust is a touchy subject for a lot of people. Some have absolutely no problem with the concept until they have a reason to no longer have hope in trust. May it be in relationships, friendships, or even God, trust is something that can be hard to get back once it is lost.

When relationships go wrong, some people blame God. When you lose your job, some people blame God. When someone close to you dies, some people blame God. When something goes wrong...some people blame God. Why is it that we blame God when we know how much he loves us?

God has proven himself in situation after situation that we can fully put our trust in him. Examples lie in Noah and the Flood, and Abraham with Isaac. We are even reminded that God has made a promise to us...that we may spend eternity with him in heaven because he sent his One and Only Son to die for us. Everything happens for a reason, and no matter what happens, the final destination remains the same if we keep our trust in him. No matter how dangerous the storm may seem, if our trust stays with him, our souls, our hearts, will stay anchored to him. 

Life is full of storms. Some may be light, but others can really break down someone's soul. Hebrews 6:19 says:

"This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary."

Way back when, a curtain hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, which in reference to this verse is "God's inner sanctuary." Only the high priest was allowed to enter once a year and every other person was not permitted to enter...ever. Believers had no direct relationship with God until Christ came along. Christ is with us and with God in heaven always, interceding for us always. Through Christ, God's promise of eternal life and salvation is evident. Because of Christ, God's promises should bring hope to all believers, that he has anchored our souls and hearts to that salvation.

That's enough for me. 

Remember?

Today is Memorial Day. It's the day that we are to remember all of our troops who have served and are continuing to serve our country. Sons, daughters, dads, moms, friends, brothers, and sisters who all have dedicated their lives to protecting a country full of people that they don't even know. I am so thankful to these people who have sacrificed themselves for us. 

Doesn't this sound awfully familiar though? I woke up earlier than normal this morning to spend time with God. I watched the sunrise out my window and thought of how beautiful God's creation is. What a gift...he has given me another beautiful day. Why is it that God feels like he should bless me with such a perfect gift?

What is the perfect gift? Memorial Day always makes me think...why is it that we don't take to heart the precious gift that God has given us every single day? Not only does he give us a brand new day every morning when he tells the sun to rise, but he has given us something even more precious. Eternal life. He sent his One and Only Son to die on the cross for you. For me. He went through hell, a hell far worse than anything on earth could never even compare to, so that we don't have to. He sacrificed himself so save people that he didn't even know. People who he knew would betray him, hate him, crucify him. That's love. Remember that. 

Thank you to all the troops who are serving our country. Those who have fallen. Those who have given their lives for us.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving yourself so that we can live forever. Thank you for our second chance at life.

Thank you.

"Don't Be Ugly"

When I was around six (I really don't know how old I was, but for the sake of the story, I was six), I was playing with my older sister, seven and a half at the time, and her best friend, Kelley. I guess I was displaying my attitude to the world at this very moment, being a bossy little six year old. I really had no right to be bossy, especially since I was the youngest of the three of us. I didn't care. Kelley I guess had gotten fed up with little miss me and told me angrily, "YOU'RE BOSSY!" This comment would have most likely made the average little girl cry...but oh no. I came back with, "I'M NOT BOSSY...I'M BEAUTIFUL!" I had ruined Kelley's day because of my attitude. And in the end, my day was ruined as well because I got in trouble for my actions.

My mom always reminds me of this story. My attitude definitely isn't how it used to be, even though it could always use some help. I feel bad for Kelley because I showed her an attitude that didn't reflect who I was. Yes, I realize I was just a little girl and this is actually a very cute story. But think about it...how many people do you affect simply by your attitude?

Every time I have attitude around my mom, she always tells me, "Don't be ugly." She's not meaning physically, but she means internally. We live in a world where physical appearance is everything, or so the media says. But what about who we are? What about our personalities, our actions, or our attitudes? Shouldn't we try to make those things beautiful as well? Shouldn't that be more important that physical beauty? It seems to me that the world today is belittling the human, making appearance and materialism more important than the heart and soul of the person.

God doesn't care about what we look like or what we have. If he did, don't you think he would've sent Jesus as some high roller with the big bucks? Well let me tell you...he didn't. And I don't know what Jesus looked like, but he didn't even have an actual home during his earthly ministry. He was here and there and everywhere. He didn't have fancy clothes or nice things. All he had was the clothing on his back and the hospitality of people around him. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says:

"Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God."

Even though physical beauty attracts people's attention, it's the inner beauty that holds onto it. The most beautiful and wealthiest people in the world could be the loneliest if they have a bad attitude. It kills me when non-Christians refuse to go to church because they don't respect people around them who call themselves Christians. They say that they are hypocrites who don't live a Christian lifestyle. They don't have "the attitude that a Christian should have." You know why this kills me? Because in many cases, it's one hundred percent true. 

God didn't put us on this earth to turn people away from him. He put us here to draw people in, to draw people closer to him. How are we supposed to do this if we have a bad attitude. God isn't appealing if his followers don't reflect him. He didn't send us to be ugly. Not physically ugly, but like my mom said, I'm talking about the heart. We, as sons and daughters of God, are meant to have hearts for God. With these hearts, we are supposed to reflect the love of God to those around us. It's not a difficult thing to do. A simple smile. A friendly note. A wave. A phone call. Anything to let people know you care. 1 Peter 3:8 says: 

"Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted and keep a humble attitude."

Be who God meant for you to be. Have a heart for him and show that heart to others. Have a good attitude. Don't be ugly.

Scars

My past. Yuck. Hate it. It's funny how your life can make a one-eighty so quickly. I was thinking...why does God let you be stupid? Why does he let you make the worst possible decisions ever and sometimes even let you get away with them. This is part of a song called "Take Me As I Am" by the Sugarland. Sorry if country isn't your genre of choice, but I love it:

"They keep starin' at my tattoos.
We all live with the scars we choose.
They might hurt like hell
but they all make us stronger."

Do you ever feel like, even though you may be a different person than you were in the past, that people can see right through you? Like there's a huge tattoo on your forehead saying, "Sinner." In reality, your past is sort of like a tattoo. Like the song says, its something you choose to get, it may hurt really badly, but in the end you're a stronger person because of it. 

We all have a past. Good. Bad. Happy. Sad. There's no losing it. Sad to say, every bad thing that's ever happened, you most likely are going to remember it throughout your life. God has a reason for everything. We may not see it in the heat of a crapy situation, but God does.

There's a church called Ethos that I went to for the first time this past Sunday. Dave Clayton was speaking and he read from Genesis. He talked about the first four words of Genesis..."In the beginning God." Yeah we know that this is not the full sentence, but just think about these four words. In the beginning God. What does this mean? It means that when something horrible happens, like a loved one dying, or you flunked out of college, or you went bankrupt, God is the only one who understands you at that very moment. You may be surprised, but God isn't. He knew it would happen all along. 

I'm not saying that God wants us to suffer, because that is not the case. But He lets these kinds of things happen for a reason. He lets us choose to make stupid decisions so that we can live with them. We may not want to live with them, but maybe God wants us to do something with our scars. Maybe your scars can bring someone who just went through the same thing to God. Use your bad past for good. Rock the scars. Let your past make you stronger. 

Example

While I was getting ready for bed, my roommate, Kayla, and I were talking about growing up in the youth group. I totally forgot how we got on the topic of looking up to certain people when we were young, but somehow we did. When you were young, did you ever look at an upper classman in high school and want to be just like them? I'll admit that I did. I always thought, no one is ever going to look up to me like that.

During the week of graduation, we had a time in the youth group for graduating seniors to receive notes from the younger teens. It was sort of like an "I'm gonna miss you" session. One of the sophomore girls that I had recently become really close to decided to write me a letter. She told me how she had always looked up to me and said that I was her role model. Role Model? Me? Immediately I went back to the time when I was her age and looked at certain people like that, and now that person was me. Wow. 

I'm not perfect. No one is perfect. Being told that you are someone's role model is one of the best honors that you can get in my opinion, but it's so undeserved. I know, then especially, I should never had been labeled as a role model for anyone. I guess you could say it taught me a huge lesson...

Living your life as an example is Biblical. Christ did it. Everything He did was meant to teach His followers how to live a Christian life. No one else can teach us that. He is perfection. No one can hold a flame to Christ, but the least we can do is to live a life as Jesus-like as possible. Be an example. Live your life as honorably as you can. You never know who's watching you. 

Rescued

Psalm 13

 ¹ How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? 
       How long will you hide your face from me?

 ² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts 
       and every day have sorrow in my heart? 
       How long will my enemy triumph over me?

 ³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. 
       Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

 ⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," 
       and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

 ⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love; 
       my heart rejoices in your salvation.

 ⁶ I will sing to the LORD, 
       for he has been good to me.

This chapter from Psalms is actually a song that we sing in Sanctuary. I love it...along with everyone else who knows it. It's one of the most powerful songs that we sing there because everyone sings it as loud a physically possible. Know one cares what they sound like, and that's what makes it amazing. 

I love this chapter because it's so relatable. Everyone goes through the valleys and the peaks of life. Everyone feels alone sometimes. Life isn't perfect. You're gonna go through crap in life and we all know it. If you haven't gone through anything bad yet, then I'm jealous. But it's in those valleys where most people go to God. It's kind of a bittersweet thing, but people really do draw closer to God when they're in despair. Even though that's great, I hate it that that's the way it has to be. Why is it that we feel the sudden urge to lean on God when are in desperation, but don't give him as much of our time to him as we should when times are good? 

God has rescued me. He has rescued me from a bitter fate, he rescues me from the valleys, and he reminds me every day that I'm never alone. God has been good to me. He loves me no matter what. His love is unconditional. I just need to remember, even in the good times, that I should lean on him. I should praise him in any and every circumstance. My life should be a living praise.

He has been good to me. 

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to make choices. I mean, I guess it wouldn't be very good if someone else made all of my decisions for me, but still. Sometimes I feel like it would just be so much easier to just nod my head and do what I'm told. But that would get old, wouldn't it?

For example, I  just got offered a job at a restaurant as a waitress. It would be easy to just take it, but something doesn't feel right about it. My plan was to go get applications from a million different places, and the first place I went to was J. Alexanders. They offered me that job on the spot and I took it. I was so excited, but you know that little feeling you get in your chest when something doesn't feel right? I have that feeling.

So this really isn't about whether or not I take the job. Tomorrow I'm going to get more applications so it's no big deal. I guess it's more about how God's got my back. He gave me the choice of whether or not I want to follow him, and I did. I am his and it's nice. I love the comfort of knowing that he will provide for me. So I guess the choices I make aren't that big of a deal. Yes, they are, but as long as I include God in my decisions, it's gonna be alright. 

It's gonna be alright.