Blogging... it's become this "thing" that people do. For once this is something I am doing not because I tend to be one of those people to follow the crowd but because I actually want to. I want to because I feel the desire to throw some thoughts to the people that know me. This will allow me to be real with people about who I am and what is going on in my life.
Well, the reality of my situation right now is that I just got back from spending my summer in Wildwood, New Jersey on a Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ. It wasn't my normal summer of working at the GM plant in Wisconsin as an intern, but instead I spent a full and stretching summer serving Jesus and allowing Him to speak and change my heart. He did exactly that.
Ok, some of you might not know much about this area of my life.... and the truth is that I have been hiding it from some of you. I have been running around in classes, at home, around friends and family acting like somebody that I am not. The fact that I've been "acting" to be somebody that I know I am not has been slowly tearing my heart apart.
I've come to realize some things over the past year, most importantly is that Jesus desires me to know Him. He doesn't want me to know Him like I would say I know Tom Cruise. I know Tom Cruise only by what the world tells me about him. I'm not sitting next to him eating Taco Bell talking to him about what makes him laugh or worries him at night. Instead I have to deal with knowning Tom Cruise by how our culture wants to portray Tom. Jesus... in all His glory, is a totally different animal... He is loving, kind, patient, gracious, persistant... well He's perfect, because He is God. Our culture says something different about who God is and giving a false image of Him. It says that God is there only to help you in need, He helps the good and He punishes the Bad... blah blah blah... God is ALWAYS there, and if you look at what Jesus taught you'd discover that God desires that you come to KNOW Him. Know the Jesus that was crucified and is now alive. Knowning Jesus and truly walking with Him means sacrifice. Seeking to know His heart, and in turn allowing Him to transform yours to resemble His. It means love. What's the best part.... His love isn't anything we earn. He just stinking loves us, unconditionally. That means that His love is limitless and has no conditions (hence the word un-conditional). It has no conditions, it is unearned. How jawesome is that?! All we have to do is except this gift that he has given us... through FAITH, FAITH, FAITH in Jesus. Keyword: faith. God desires faith in Him. He wants us to trust, desire, seek, be patient, endure, and listen to Him even though we may not understand His will for us. He's already paid that penalty for our sins on the Cross, so stop trying to add to the perfect sacrifice. It can't happen, that's why it was perfect. That's why it was Jesus.
"For it is by Grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast." ~Ephesians 2:8,9
1 comment:
I hope that you haven't been acting like anything different to me... I like to think that I actually know who you are, just like you know who and what I am. You've been there ever since the beginning of me figuring out who that is, and I can guarantee that you'll be there through the whole trip until the end of it (as long as you want to be). I knew that this summer would be good for you in the area of your faith and practicing just that, and that's why I wasn't particularly upset that you were leaving on what was supposed to be a free summer for you. You know that I'm always here whenever you wanna talk about something, and I'm going to listen, no matter what it is you want to talk about. I'm just glad that you've taken me along for part of that ride and at least put me in my own driver's seat...
G
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