Pens

I used to think that people can be compared to a pencil, but a pen makes much more sense now. I say that because pens can be used to create things, and what they do is permanent, it can't be undone. They can be used to make something beautiful of their own, they can combine with other pens to make something even more stellar, or they can cross out others people's work. What they do cannot be undone. They can't erase, but they can make another pen not want to write, or draw. There can even be different colors of ink in the pen, but they're all pens. They all can be used to make something beautiful. And what they do can't be undone. 

Fearing Change

Disclaimer: My example may seem kinda lame but I think it portrays a bigger picture, on that everyone struggles with at some point in their life.

Tonight I shut off my Xbox for the last time, deleted everything from it and unhooked all the cords. The reason for this is because I'm selling it tomorrow to get some money to save up for the new Xbox coming out this November. But for some reason I got really depressed while thinking about it because its a mirror of what is happening in my life right now. It's not that I really care that I won't get to play Xbox for awhile, because I frankly don't care anymore. Despite me not caring all that much, it's hard not to remember all the good times I had on my old Xbox and I see this as the end of an era.

The reason I say that this mirrors my life, is because I'll be moving in to college in a few weeks and my whole life will be flipped upside down in the matter of days. It's change. It's a trade-in. But more than that, it's an upgrade... hopefully. I couldn't care less about leaving high school, but it's hard not to remember all the good times I had during high school, and I see this as the end of an era.

With this new Xbox coming out, I've seen previews of it and it looks really awesome, but for all I know it could be a complete flop. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to get it and play it and more than likely enjoy it.

With college coming up, I've heard stories about it and it looks really awesome, but for all I know it could be a complete flop. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to go and participate and more than likely enjoy it.

I'm done with repeating myself now, but that's the point I'm trying to make. I'm trying to prove this more to myself than anybody else, but I figure some of you are also going through times of change. Wait, let me restate that, I know all of you reading this are going through some sort of change in your life. No matter how many times things change though, I know that I am still afraid of it. It's something I will probably never fully get used to, because by the time I find myself getting comfortable I'm getting swept away somewhere else. The change that's on my mind right now is obviously college, but there's been so much change in my life with family members dying, people coming in and out of my life, changing churches, and other smaller things. But I still hate change at first, even if it is for the better.

Story Time! Have you ever read the beginning of Joshua in the bible and see that God tells Joshua and the Israelites to "Be strong and courageous" multiple times? I think that God is telling us to "Be strong and courageous" during these times of change in our lives. The Israelites had been roaming aimlessly in the desert for 40 years waiting for all the old farts to die off so they could get into the promised land. And when they all finally died and they went in the land God had said he'd given them, they didn't find the land unoccupied with palaces for everyone. They found other people, with strong armies, living in the place God told them was theirs.
When you look at this in regards to life now, I say this from experience that I feel like so many people act like when God tells them to do something, or has "promised" them something, it won't get them out of their comfort zone or require them to do anything. That's far from true though, when God has promised us something, he doesn't hand us it, he wants us to fight for it so we can appreciate it more (which we still don't always do).
What ends up happening in Joshua? Well, they do what the Lord says and they drive the Canaanites out of the promised land and the Israelites take possession.
So what ends up happening in your life?

I know that despite all of this I will still hate and fear change, maybe not as much as I used to, but I actually want to fight for what God's promised me now instead of just being spoon fed.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:9

World Lenses

I've often wondered about how unsaved people view the world. And by that I mean what sort of lens do they see? A moral one? A "Do what you want" type of lens? I'm beginning to realize there are only two ways to view the world: Christian, or non-Christian.
I know that seems really simple, so let me put it this way.
When it is completely dark around you, you don't know what sort of dangers are near you, or what your surroundings are. You have the basic knowledge of what is up, down, left or right, but you have no clue what direction is north, south, east or west. You can have all of your opinions about which way is north, but there is no certainty, or any way you can prove that the way you are looking is in fact north. To me, this is why the world believes in relative truth. In the mind of the world, if we are all in the dark, truth (Or to continue the example, direction) can be anything you want. Eventually some of the those relative truths will get close, but it will never be the absolute truth.
When you accept Jesus into your life, the bible tells us we are then filled with the Holy Spirit. And our mind becomes free and we began to see the world in the light rather than in the darkness. Now that we can see everything in the light, we begin to see all of the dangers, traps, cliffs and other things harmful to us. Because we see, we avoid these things, but those in the dark blindly stumble into those traps because they don't know any better.
Now, to continue the use of directions as an example. Since we as Christians are in the light, we can see our compass clearly and thus we understand north is north because our compass says so and not just because we feel a certain way or we say so. In a Christian's life, their compass should be the bible, has to be the bible. Now that we can see that murder is a sin and bad, not just because we feel that way and think it's bad, but because the Bible says so.
As a Christian myself, I have noticed when someone is going to attack Christianity or a certain thing Christians believe, they most often go after the Bible first. This is because if a man in the dark, and a man in the light are debating about which way is north, the man in the dark will obviously try to say that the man's compass is off kilter, that it is pointing in the wrong direction. Once the man in the light is without his compass, he loses any sort of advantage he has and is then trying to use logic and reasoning to find out which way is north, which is infinitely harder than using a compass.
There are those as well, who try to pick and choose from the Bible. To them I say, do you pick and choose from a compass? If you agree north is north, and south south, all is fine and well, but if you think that east is west and west east, you will be all twisted up and not able to go the direction you intend and you will end up lost.
It is either all of the Bible, or none of it. There is no in between. And hopefully now you see it is good to study the Bible, because a Christian without their Bible is like a hiker without a compass. You can stay on the path for so long, but when a fork in the road comes, how will you know which way to choose?

A Poem. Although I Couldn't Think of a Title.

You wear your scars on your wrist.
I hide mine in my heart.
You've embraced your mistakes,
While I only deny, deny, deny...
I've been told the scars which show,
Are worse than those that don't.
But at the end of the day,
Scars are still scars,
No matter where they are.
And people are still people,
no matter what they've done.
So don your scars,
Wear them with pride.
They're apart of you now,
And they will be til you die.