Faith

I wrote this back when I had just become a Christian, a baby Christian if you will. At this point though I really felt my vision was clearer than it is now sometimes. I still love going back and looking at these writings.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Faith

I often think that those that struggle with a strong relationship with the Lord and Jesus do so because of the element of control. Many cannot give up control to another, they want to hold onto it, not relinquish it, so that they hold the power and make the decisions. A large (and perhaps the largest) component of being a Christian is giving up control of your life and what happens to and in the lives around you to God., believing that He has a plan and that we can never understand it. It is difficult. As children we always wanted to know "why?", gaining our bearing on the world around us, and as children of God we grapple with the same thing. We want to be in the know. But this is the essence of faith itself, believing in the unknown, trusting in a power outside of ourselves. It is scary, it is hard, it is challenging, but if you truly believe it, it just feels right, you know it is truth. But to most in our society this is crazy talk. It is illogical. It also goes completely against all of our societal norms of Secularism, Humanism, Materialism, etc. Live for today! You're worth it! Carpe Diem! Most hardly ever if not NEVER look into an eternal implication of these lifestyles. We believe in a heaven when it is convenient. We only consider Hell when we want to condemn another to it. We weigh one sin to be much worse than another when God views all sin as sin equally. We are also always so quick to judge, and the audacity of people in this world thinking they have the right to choose/decide/comment on the eternal fate of another astounds me. That they think they know what God would choose. Most that do this are completely ignorant of God's grace. One cannot understand true forgiveness and grace without being able to forgive all others who have trespassed against us ourselves. This is what brings us true inner peace.

Faced with the nationwide tragedy at Virginia Tech it is especially difficult to trust that there is a plan for this world in place. It feels like such a senseless tragedy and what God would wish such pain on the world? In times like these though I am often stunned by the outpouring of love and support us members of the human race can offer one another. Perhaps God uses a tragedy like this to reinforce such points like life is precious, love your neighbor, do unto others what you would want done to you. If we ALL lived by these standards such senseless tragedies would never occur and the Devil would not be allowed to work his evil in our hearts, harden our souls, and take 32 innocent lives along with us. I pray that the entire world will come to understand God's grace and the amazing saving forgiveness that comes with it, before it is too late.

White Bridge Road Target Mugging TODAY

This is from a good friend of my boss. See below.


Everyone,

Lucile, my sister, got mugged today in the Target parking lot on White Bridge Rd. She is thankfully ok. It happened at 11:36 am. A car pulled up quickly as she was opening the door of her car. I got to see the surveillance video and I’ve attached a picture of what the car looked like (the color might have been a darker brown/gold). There were two men and two women in vehicle, all in their mid to late twenties, all black. The guy who jumped out and jumped Lucile was tall and had corn rows. Lucile kicked and screamed and laid on the horn as the guy was wrestling to get her purse. The SOB smiled at her as he got back in the car. They used her credit card at the new Harris Teeter at 11:50. Two women shoplifters were chased out of Green Hills mall into a car of the same description, driven by two men, at around 12:10 pm. The car had a temporary tag on the rear driver’s side window…of course.

As brazen as these folks are, I assume they will be caught. However, it is important to be aware of during the next couple of days. Feel free to forward on to friends and family in the area.

Johnny Rich

Happy International Justice Day!

International Justice Day is a day of awareness. It is an opportunity for us to take stock in what we have, thank God for our blessings, and SHARE them with others that are not lucky like you and I are. It is a time for others to stand up for those less fortunate. Please join me in respecting this day. View this amazing video at www.mochaclub.org.

"A woman's heart should be so close to God that a man should have to chase Him to find her" - C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis is brilliant. Previously to recently diving into Screwtape Letters I had only read the first in the series of Narnia books. I need to finish the rest soon. Screwtape is very different though. Each chapter speaks this truth to me and explains things in such a way that I am left wrapping my brain around revelations previously hidden from me. I'm about 2/3rds through and am ready to finish the book. The strange thing is you find yourself rooting for "the patient" of course since he is a representation of us, but also rooting for Wormwood. He is pathetic at how much he sucks at his job of converting "the patient" into a non-beleiving lump only suitible for food to the demons. How C.S. Lewis chooses to describe the world is amazing. It never ceases to give me a new perspective.

The longing of younger days

Ruth and I were reminiscing about our youth tonight. I think you know you are getting older then you start to be very nostalgic about the past. When the years of younger days start to take on that hazy glow of the hopes you had once in visions of the future. We talked about loves lost and tried to make plans for days to come, that we might be able to run off and enjoy experiences as close to the ones we have lived through now that we are older and want to pretend that we are not wiser. Remember when the look of a cute boy across the room you didn't know allowed you the freedom to uninhibitedly dream? That you had yet to be pained, poisoned, tainted, let down, broken....that this boy's stare at your sweet innocent and self confident body was nothing more than a source of excitement, hope, and fluttering in your young heart. Oh how I long for those days again. For the memories of the beach, of the windows down, in his old Chevy, of the snowcones, and first flirtations. Of the innocence, will I ever feel that free gain!

"Epic"

"Epic", my latest John Eldredge quick read, was a nice visit back to Eldredge land. I always share his vision, especially here, that the stories we are most drawn to are because of the desires and the grand plan God has laid out for us. The reason we love the the story is because the formula is our own.

Act 1: Eternal Love
Act 2: The Entrance of Evil
Act 3: The Battle of the Heart
Act 4: The Kingdom Restored
Act 5: The Road Before Us

There are a few sections of this book I would like to discuss. The parts that stood out to me the most. I may only get to my first point today though, so check back for more in the near future.

One of the points he made was this:

"It came as a great surprise to me as a counselor when I first discovered that children would much rather know that their parents loved each other than that they loved them. But, of course, we need to know that love is real, that it endures, that a world of love is planned for us and waits for us, and that we can count on it."

This struck quite a cord with me. I wholeheartedly agree and I think this is one of the major reasons our society is so plagued by divorce. That many children, like myself, of divorced families find it hard to believe in lasting life-long love and commitment. We have a view that it will all end at some point because, in our experience, it always has.

Although many people have faith in marriage because their parents were able to give them that incredible example, a large majority of us have lost that, have even lost placing value on such a thing. The only reason I have faith in marriage is because I have faith in God. This is why I believe a faithless marriage is destined to fail, or at the very least is not going to be as beautiful a picture as God intended. For me that faith is rooted in God and, although I think this is the best course, others find seeming success in rooting the faith of their relationship lasting in love, in goodness, in trust, in truth. These marriages may last the test of time, but to me God encompasses all these things, making Him the focus of not only my future (hopefully) marriage, but of my life.

Spooning

What's your take on spooning? Are you the type that likes to sleep all tangled up, touching, holding, being held...Or are you the type that has to be separate in order to get some shut-eye? The past has brought me all types but I must admit I am a tangled up fan. There is something about the security of it, the closeness. It makes me feel safe and protected. Call me a crazy traditional girl but that's just what I prefer. It's not a deal breaker though, just a preference. So, what's your take?