Fulfillment in The Significant Other

Currently, I am reading "The Reason for God," by Tim Keller. The book is simply amazing for anyone questioning or doubting about the existence of God. BUT today as I was reading I came across a quote from the famous Danish philopher Soren Kierkegaard. In his book, The Sickness Unto Death, he writes this: 

No human relationship can bear [this] burden of godhood....If your partner is you "All" then any shortcoming in him becomes a major threat to you....What is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of...our feeling of nothingness...to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption-nothing less. Needless to say, humans cannot give this.

I've found this to be true. As humans, we are all sinful, no matter which ways we sometimes try to justify ourselves. Because all humans are sinful, each one will end up not meeting a "100% Satisfaction Guarantee." Just like in an earlier post, We must not let our "tarps" or "roofs" be anything but God, or we will ultimately come to a point where those "tarps" will just rip right in our hands. Our "roof" must always be God, and never in sins and definitely not ever in the people we love most. 

Reap Them Fields

This morning, while I was having my devotions I was led to John 4:27-38. This passage was one that I have heard at least more than once while I was at Liberty University this year, but this morning I received an added viewpoint to it.
     In the passage there are a few references to "food." The first mention of it is in v. 31 when the disciples urge Jesus to eat something. The second is when Jesus tells them in v. 32, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." The Disciples then begin to talk amongst themselves and asked the question, "Could someone have brought him food?" The last mention of "food" is in v. 34 when Jesus tells the disciples that his "food" is not physical food, but that his "food" is to do the work of his father.
     The next part of the passage, Jesus talks about the Harvest, but not a physical harvest. In v. 35 Jesus says, "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest." Jesus is urging us to not wait for the "perfect time when Fireworks go off and the people go nut" kinda time. He wants us to "open our eyes" and look around and see the "ripe harvest." How often do we try and wait for that time? I know for me, I've tried to wait for that "fireworks moment" and many times that "fireworks moment" doesn't even come around.
     Another thing that Jesus talks about is the topic of the Reaping and the Sowing. Many times we are somewhat crippled at a "failed" attempt at sharing the gospel. I think one of the things he was saying was that we need to not worry so much about the end result. Many times, our job is to "sow." We  need to tell people about Jesus's Birth, Life, resurrection, and the opportunity for grace and salvation, and then after that they can make the decision of whether or not to follow Jesus.

eHarmony Video Bio

I had to show this. There is nothing more desirable than women who love cats. hahaha

Slow Down

     My Saturday has been packed full of stuff to do. First, I went to an internship meeting at my church, then played violin for a wedding there with my worship leader, next I went back for worship practice, after that just got some good conversation, and finally ended the night with a dip in my friend's pool.
     I think the one thing I was reminded of was how God created beauty. At the wedding, I began to think of how beautiful the wedding and the bride were. I also began to think of how God made marriage to be a "combining two people into one flesh" and that too struck me as an amazing, yet beautiful thing.
     Later in the day, while I was going back to church, I had a big chunk of time to get to church, so I decided to slow things down a little bit and actually go the speed limit. As i looked out my windows, I saw the lush green's and browns throughout the landscape I was going through. Again, it was absolutely beautiful.
    If I had just decided to rush through the roads and just focus on getting there as fast I could, I definitely would have missed it, like all the thousand other times that I've been down the road. I am going to challenge myself in the next coming days to slow down and just try to capture the beauty that God created in less than nano seconds.

Encourage

Today I was reminded by a friend that encouragement really is an important thing to do. Often time we get bogged down by things here and there. It might be commitments, it might be failures, but bottom line is that we all get to a point where we really need encouragement from a friend.  

Hebrews 3:13 says this, "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." 

Hebrews 10:25 also says this, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

The encouragement I got from my friend was uplifting. It reminded me that I'm never alone in life and it's battle's that face us daily. While the words of encouragement may not seem all that meaningful or important to us, they can absolutely mean the world to our fellow brother's and sisters. Lets try to get into a habit of encouraging those that are around us.

PEOPLE ARE AWESOME

One of the coolest compilations of awesome people doing awesome things. go big or go home right?

Home Isn't Under a Tarp

While I was in Peru, there was a very peculiar event that happened to me and 4 other people. We were trying to buy lumber for different projects that we were going to carry out while we were working in Belen, a very poor section of Iquitos, Peru. The 5 of us were in a rented boat that had a cheap blue tarp right over the middle of it. Two of us were part of the mission team that had come down, another two, the missionary and his son, and the final was Raul, a man who lived and worked with the local church in Belen. As Raul was sorting out which place had the best wood at the cheapest price, a began to roll in overhead. The four of us looked up and began to want Raul to hurry up so we could rush down the river back to his house. While on the banks of the lumber mill, a man to our left in a much larger, lumber-hauling boat called out to us and asked if we wanted to take shelter on his boat until the storm had calmed. Robert, the missionary, told him that it wasn't too far of a ride and that we would just take our chances before the downpour. Raul came back onto the boat moments later and we set sail on the rush back to his house. Not even a minute or so later, the impending "doom" had decided to unleash itself. We immediately tried our best to take shelter under the cheap blue tarp and almost immediately the storm ripped the tarp right in half. We then tried to grasp the tarp in our hands and cover ourself with the remains of the tarp but it ultimately ripped in our hands and were left with no other choice but face the downpour. Raul and Robert eventually found shelter in a nearby floating house and we waded out the storm for another few minutes till it decided to die down so he could boat back to Raul's place.

A few months ago I was reminded of this event that happened to me just last summer on my trip to Peru. I began to connect this event to what we often try to do today, which is fill the void that is inside us. Often, as human beings, we try to fill the void with something that we think and believe will make us happy or content. We often try to fill it with relationships, intimacy, drugs, legalism, physical strength or size, but basically anything that ISN'T Jesus. I know from experience that trying to make yourself content with these various different things we fill our lives with will just not be able to help us through life. Just with the tarp, when the storms come, these various different things will just fail us and not be able to last through the storms that life will bring us. The only thing, or person, that can fill the void and help us get through the storms is Jesus. In Philippians, Paul writes to the Christians at Philippi, while he is in prison. In the letter he rejoices, not because he is in chains, but because his faith is firm and secure in Jesus Christ. In Chapter 4 of the book, Paul says in v. 11 "...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." In verses 12-13 he says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
Just as Paul did in his rough situation, We should take shelter under the only roof that will shelter us through the storm, his quote on quote "secret", Jesus. In v. 13, Paul said he could get through any hardship that came his way because of Christ, the one that gave him strength. We should do the same exact thing.  Don't have the World as your Tarp, but have God as your House.