Cool.

Cool.
When we say, 'man, that's cool...'... what are we really saying? Other things aren't? When a person's "cool" isn't that saying that the others are not? 

When what's "cool" are your clothes, your car, your style or your 'look'... what about the people who can't afford that stuff? What does that make them? 

What do we judge people on? I mean, I was told I am 'above' working at McDonald's or Wal-mart. What does that say of our opinion of the people who work their Mc-jobs? 

We're all broken. We all mess up, alot. We all need redemption. We all need love. You, with your $500 handbag are no better than my homeless friend with her publix grocery bag... 

I want to just throw this out there... 
And understand that I am an advocate for college, for learning, and most of all for knowledge... BUT... this is something that's been on my heart...

Why do we go to college? Could we not go to the library and spend 50000 dollars less, and learn the same thing, if not more? Yes, we could. So why do we concern ourselves? For other people. For labels. For money. "No one will take you seriously if you don't finish college"... "You'll never get a 'real' job if you don't finish school."... Continue this in your mind... what's the stigma that goes along with people who don't go to college? "I'm working towards a degree that can really help people..." Really? That's what's going to help people? Only because other people will then take you seriously... 

What labels are we creating with our pursuits? What stigmas are we creating with our actions? 

What kind of world would it be if we stopped caring about "cool"? 
What kind of world would it be if we stopped worrying all about our 'selves' and cared for others? 
What kind of world would it be if we weren't filled with greed and self-interest, but LIVED 1 John 3:16-18? If we were willing to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters? 

Forget that... what if we actually treated people as if they were our brothers and sisters?

Captivated

Prayer makes things happen, because He makes things happen.

People will joke that you ought to be careful what you pray for, because it might just happen...

If you pray for patience, you will be put in situations that will teach you that. If you pray for God's heart to love people, be prepared to be broken. If you memorize and pray over that passage in James that says "Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds, because the testing of your faith produces steadfastness..."... be prepared to face trials where you will have to strive to see the joy... 

I say these things because that's what He's brought me through. 

He is so good, and everything that's good in and around me is Him. It's just Jesus. He's grace and mercy and hope and love. 

He's my precious Redeemer, and He's ransomed me. 

He's set me free, and captivated me in doing so.

When I don't have the strength to carry on, when I am run down, worn out, messed up, sick, He carries me.

I'm weak, but He's strong. I'm down, but He's up. I'm discouraged, but He is courage. I'm broken, but He's the healer. I'm hurt, but He's love. I'm lost, but He rescues me. I'm nothing, but He's everything. 
He's truth, love, courage, grace, mercy, compassion, strength, good, wise, mighty, so much more.


Song of Songs 4:7. Matthew 5:14-16. James 1:2-7. 1 John 3:16-18. 1 John 4:18. Captivated - Shawn Mcdonald

All is Vanity & the Pursuit of Nothingness.

In Ecclesiastes, it says that all is vanity and the pursuit of nothingness.

It made me question myself. 

What are you pursuing? 
Is it for myself? This world? Other people?
Or is it for my Saviour?

The pursuit of money, this world, your Self, 'Cool'...
That's all fleeting, it's like chasing the wind. 

Kill your 'Self'. You must in order to really find yourself, in order to really seek after Him.

Love is here. Love is now. Love is pouring from His hands and His brow. Love is near, it satisfies. Streams of mercy flowing from His side.

Live It Out.

Shane Claiborne tells a story about a woman who knew that he and his comrades were Christians because they 'shine'... and when they met again, she wasn't recognized because she was shining... 

In Matthew, it says, "You are the light of the world... let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."...

Smiling is so much greater than not smiling... letting love shine through our actions instead of just preaching to people is what I am convinced we are called to do.

In 1 John, we are told "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

Live it out.

Don't just talk about it.

St Francis of Assisi said...
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
and...
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

Live it out.
Live the love.
Make love an action.
Make Jesus real to those around you.
Seek first to love and not to be loved.

Forget about trying to be cool. Forget about what people think. Just love. Love like there's no tomorrow... 

When you're in love, you smile alot... you hear a love song on the radio, and it makes you all warm and fuzzy. You smile at the sight of couples, and everything is brighter... like the world went from black and white into color... 

Shouldn't it be that way with Jesus? Are we so in love with Him that it just overflows into everything... that a simple love song makes us think of Him? That we smile at the bag lady at walmart, because we're happy, and in love?

Shouldn't our HEARTS be OPEN to receiving, (and then pouring out) Jesus & His Love?

Kill My Self.

Learning, growing, seeing, touching, doing, speaking, listening, 
LOVING.

I walked with a friend down Paramore last night, with pizzas from Little Ceasars, at 9 oclock. 

I saw at least a hundred men sleeping in boxes, covered with cardboard, asking me if they could buy a slice of pizza. 

I traded them for hugs. 

I wasn't welcome to sleep at the coalition for the homeless. Nor was I welcome to give pizza. 

After all the pizza was gone, and I half-smoked a cigarette - to make a point about Jesus, addiction, growth, witness, and example - we walked on. We ended up on a roof overlooking downtown. 

My friend threw the cigarette pack off of the roof. No words were spoken... It was my friend's last struggle of SELF. 

And before the cigarettes were thrown, I had been thinking that I would like to throw my SELF off of that building. 

That I need to die in order to really live. In order to really be free, I must kill all of that SELF inside me that screams to be the center of my life.

There are so many more words to be spoken, written. (and typed.)

But I know not how to form them, because they are too many. 

Luke 9:23