Monday, November 29, 2010

God's Answers

Last night, I was talking to a dear friend, getting advice. It was a very small, insignificant problem of mine, or at least that’s how it seemed to me. Despite that, she gave me advice. There was one piece of her advice that I remember most clearly. She said: “Pray on it. He doesn’t care how small [your problem] is. If we ask for help, He’ll give it…”
I realized that I don’t really pray on my decisions. I usually take the weight of whatever problem I have on my own shoulders. Very rarely do I pray to the LORD, lifting up my problems. I realized how hypocritical that is. I’m sure you have noticed how often I preach about the LORD always being there, but here I find myself not listening to my own advice. Life would be so much easier, less stressful, if I just lifted my problems to the LORD. He always answers our prayers. The second piece of advice I remember is this: “…Be prepared to not like the answer, though.” As I said, the LORD always hears and answers our prayers. That doesn’t mean his answer is our favorite. I know I’ve written about this many times before, but I just find it one of the most important things we need to know about the ever-mysterious ways of our LORD. We must remember that He has a plan for us, and He has had that plan since before we were born. If you ever find yourself wondering why you are going through a hard time, remember this: it is the LORD’s doing. That is not to say that our God is trying to bring us pain. There’s just times in which one must go through an amount of pain to reach something great. Consider these two examples:

For out first example, let’s think of a sport. We’ll use football, as it is a physically demanding sport. As a former football player, I can testify that practices weren’t always a blast. There were days that were very tough. Why would one put up with that? Well, the answer, in this example, is game day. A player puts themselves through the tough practices to reach the thrill and rush of game day.

For our second example, let’s look to the Bible. Alas, I cannot give a specific verse or chapter, but I know that Jesus said somewhere that, in order to follow him, one must drop everything in order to follow him. That must have been really hard, but, in the words of a Relient K song: “The ends justify the pain it took to get us there.”

Though it may be hard to see this, we must remember that the light of the LORD shines at the end of every dark tunnel. Everything, even the bad things, happens as part of a greater plan. We must trust God by lifting up our problems, letting Him answer them, but remember: we must also be prepared for an answer that we may not like. Just trust that it is for the best, because it most certainly is, for the LORD our God is loving and merciful. Amen.

Keep the Peace,
Kyle

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Separation

Spanish is my second language. I'm in Spanish IV in school, and I'm semi-fluent. There's a curse that comes with being fluent. I quite often find myself translating english to spanish in my mind during everyday conversation. I was doing just that the other day while talking to Alyssa on facebook. I mentioned it to her, and she offered to help. She said she would pull up a translator and I would talk in spanish, and she would turn that into english. I happily accepted her offer, so we talked like that for just over half an hour.

Once I spoke all the spanish I could take, we switched back to english. My mind, however, was still in what i called "spanish mode". It was, believe it or not, a tad bit difficult to think and type in english. I began to wonder if that must be the curse that comes with fluency, or if, once one is more fluent than I, they can "turn off" whichever "mode" they're on, kind of like what some artists do. They sometimes have to turn off their "artist's eye", otherwise they will see even the smallest things as beautiful, and marvel at the simplest of objects.

That brought my mind to religion, and I realized I, and many more Christians, have separate "modes" in our lives. We go to church and enter "God mode". For that hour we are true Christians. We focus on God; give him all of our attention. Once we leave that church, though, like an artist leaving her painting, or a linguist changing languages, we go into what one may call "life mode". We all too often separate God from out everyday lives. I e-mailed my Pastor a few weeks ago. I was having trouble with the fact that my relationship with the LORD was melting away. Between work, school, and other obligations, I didn't have time to read my Bible or write a new article (as I'm sure you know). I asked him how I'm really expected to juggle all of that, and add God on top of everything else. His reply was this:
it can be helpful to see and live in a way that school, work, and musical are your witness and your service to God. Not to separate our God life from our everyday life.
Truer words have never been spoken. Amen.

In Christ,
Kyle

Saturday, November 20, 2010

He Knows

The other day, I was sitting on my bed and looking out the window. I looked up and saw the stars, and it amazed me. To think that God knows exactly how many stars are in the sky. Then I thought of the verse that says God knows the exact number of hairs on your head. That just amazes me so much, I try to count the hairs on my head and get lost at like 50, and it is not even 1/26 of all my hair! Wow, God knows everything, how many stars are in the sky and how many hairs are on your head. If He knows that, how would He not know how you are feeling, or the answer to a problem you have? Ask Him your questions, He WILL know the answer.

Love,
Elise