More about blogs

I constantly find myself in pursuit. This evening I have been in pursuit of keeping my self from being bored. I happened to stumble across this show called Quarterlife. You can see it on youtube or go to www.quarterlife.com. This show is about this group of people in their early 20's, and one girl blogs about their happenings. What she blogs about is true, though her insights into her friends life are revealing about the private actions they think nobody knows.

These people find out and at first they are upset, but then once the truth is known and out in the open they are liberated. The ironic thing is that she is unable to be honest about her feelings on her blog, where she reveals her friends' secrets. She is finally about to tell the truth, then something happens and turns her world upside down and she can't be honest to the world.

Isn't this completely true in our own lives? We can see the truth in others so easily but our own truth is so vulnerable that it takes a heroically strong person to share it. When it is revealed we are shocked, hurt, upset, and confused. Why? Because somebody figured out what we dare not tell anybody.

We constantly forget that God has given us people to lean on, God even says, "It is not good for man to be alone." (Genesis 2:18) Why then do we isolate ourselves. There is relief in leaning on others, we break so easily on our own but "a cord of three strands is not easily broken." (Ecclesiastes 4:12) I'm at fault here as much as anybody but we have grace and I am ever thankful for that.

I think that blogs are a way for people to reach out and share the truth in an impersonal way. We reach out but we don't want to get hurt. We take solice in knowing that we aren't the only ones who know our deepest and darkest secrets, we just don't want anybody to know that those secrets are ours. The thing is though is that God has given us this amazing ability to help each other and fix each other, but when we don't let people know what is going on we can't help. I can't count the amount of times that I have told a person, if you had told me something would have changed or happened or soemthing... but I'm not a mind reader.

Talk. Talk to your friends, talk to your parents, talk to your siblings. Do not be afraid to share your secrets, your problems, and your troubles because you may just find out that you are not alone in your strife but that there are others standing right next to you on the battle field willing to fight along side you. All you have to do is let them know you are there.

You dont have to live like this

I saw Rob Bell speak last night in San Antonio. It was a really good speech. Rob Bell talked about the sacrifices we make. False Gods demand our sacrifices to keep them happy, or is it that we as humans only understand a broken system of sacrifice in a feeble attempt to control the elements around us and draw favor from the Gods. Ultimately we have to keep sacrificing to these Gods because we never know where we stand with them.

Jesus is different, Jesus says, "you don't have to live like this." Jesus says, "I don't remember the last sin you committed." Jesus says, "I'm not ashamed of you." Jesus says, "I love you no matter what." Jesus gives us something new, complete forgiveness. He could keep track of our sins, have a big long list that we have to atone for when we die, but who wants to be in a relationship where every time you mess up it is written down and remembered. I don't, instead I want a relationship where I'm forgiven no matter what I do because my God wants a relationship with my that badly. That is my God. My God says stop killing yourself for me and live for me.

That is Jesus, he tells us to come to him broken and burdened and he will take those burdens away, all we have to do is let go. Stop sacrificing your life to your burdens and let your life, the way you live, and the joy in your heart be your celebration that you know where you stand in your relationship to God, you are special and loved and blessed. Not because of our own actions but because Christ said, "You don't have to live like this."

Amen

Why it is so hard for me to blog

Ok so as we all know blogging puts a person's life into the public domain where everybody can read it. Public things are common knowledge however it is the tendency to write about private things, things that should only be known by a few become known by many. For some this is fine, for others like myself this can spell catastrophe. Going into full time church work my life will be examined by countless numbers of people, everything I do will be weighed and judged by others. Some looking for ways to praise and others looking to destroy.

For me I must keep my private life private at all costs. There are those who expect me to be perfect in light of me being a sinner just like everybody else because I will be a leader in the church. Therefore it is important for me to not share the entirety of my life with the world. It's a sad truth but the private portion of my life is much more interesting than the public part of my life. And that will be something that is between me and one or two trusted individuals.