Giving Him my tomorrow

God tends to talk to us in ways and at times where we don't expect it. I am currently sitting at a table with my notes in front of me getting ready to take a test. While I am studying for that test I have my earphones in, nothing out of the ordinary, I like to have simple background music to drown out the outside noise. One of my favorite artists to listen to while I study is Shane & Shane. I have listened to all of their songs probably 100 times each, but for some reason today, their song "crucify Him" stuck out to me like it never had before. Here are some of their lyrics: 


I sing, "Hosanna!" when I want it all.
Then I crucify the Son of God.
Cause He isn't who I always thought.
Not what I want, but what I needed.
I sing, "How great and mighty is the King!"  
Just as long as He considers me
High above every other thing.
Even His glory.

It's packaged differently than Pharisees.
Wrapped in sing-a-longs and Christianese.
Empty hallelujahs to the King.
When my heart is loving idols.
A man of sorrows acquainted with grief,
He had no form; He had no majesty.
How could He have the audacity
To ask me to give Him my tomorrow?


 I think these lyrics are hitting me so hard today because I have come to the reality that this is exactly what I do to Jesus. 
Too many times than not, I put my own desires, my own plans and my own self before His glory. If I'm being completely honest, I do it ALL the time. It's a battle that I have within myself, to keep doing this. My heart longs to pursue Jesus and let Him have my life, but the moment it turns into something that makes me uncomfortable, I run for the hills. 

For some reason I forget the part that sometimes, things are going to hurt, and in that hurt we might not always understand why we are walking through it, but that shouldn't change our pursuit of Jesus. If anything it should make it stronger, knowing that He is the only one that can get us to the other side. 

So you can see my problem, I have a heart to follow Jesus but my human nature kicks in and sometimes my longing to have my own plan seems to overshadow my surrender to The King. Jesus is really sweet with his conviction, I am starting to see that why I have such a hard time surrendering, even when it brings Him glory is because I have turned my desires, plans and pursuits of my life into my idols.

My heart can't cling to Jesus when it is so heavily clung to these idols. 

In my head I know what is right, I know that surrendering my life to Jesus is what I am supposed to do, no matter the cost, because ultimately it will bring ME good and HIM glory 
(What a great deal right?!) 
When you read that you're probably thinking "why would I not want that?" 
I do, I so desperately do, but I have to get my heart along for the ride in order for this deal to go down. 

 If you are like me, and this is a problem in your life these are some things that I am finding make it easier to surrender...

You have to figure out what the idol (or idols) in your life is. This is not a fun process because it's an idol for a reason. You are going to have to ask Jesus to reveal this to you, and help you to release it to Him. I have found the most surrender comes when you are completely honest with the Lord. 
What I have learned with idols is that you can't just "place" them before Him, sometimes you have to ask him rip them from you.

In my personal life, I have seen that I have to be honest with Him in the fact that I don't want to surrender, some things are easier than others but ultimately it's scary, knowing that releasing things to Him doesn't come without a cost. Jesus has done a lot of ripping lately and my heart is beginning to see the beauty of it.

Right now Jesus is teaching me that while it is uncomfortable to release my life to Him, it's the only way I can know true freedom. He is showing me that He is a faithful father that loves me, because of this I know that while it may not be easy, it is more than worth it to give Him my tomorrow.

Purity of mind

If you have read any of my blogs before this you can see there is a trend with singleness. Not only is it a trend within my blogs, it seems to be a trend with blogs all over the internet. They range from all different kinds:

"10 things 20 something singles should know"
"purposeful singleness"
"25 things that happen when you're single"

I really could go on but you get my point.

I'm not hating on these articles (I mean I really can't considering i'm sitting here writing one about the same topic) But if you are about to quit reading because you are tired of the same old singleness post I urge you, KEEP READING.

Yes, this is about singleness but this article is also going to be about so much more, so please take the time and let's look into what it means to be pure in your singleness

Now, some of you might want to stop reading because you read the word "pure" and you think i'm going to go through a blog on why you shouldn't have sex or go too far with a guy (while I do agree in not doing that I'm not going to bore you with that right now)

I think there are aspects of purity that we are missing.
Why is it that when you hear "purity in singleness" you automatically assume it's going to be about sex? Our brains are wired to connect purity with our bodies, and while that is so very true, it's not where purity stops.

Personally, my downfall in my singleness has not been sexually. My downfall with staying pure while single has been purity in mind.

**DISCLAIMER
I don't struggle with thinking impure or sexual things, what I mean when I say I struggle with purity of mind I mean that I have let boys control my thoughts.

Some examples would be ---->

"I wonder why he isn't texting me back..."
"wait should I have said that"
"Do you think he's flirting with me or no..."

(i'm sure there is some laughter going on right now because while you are sitting here reading those examples you can put a time, place and boy with all of them)

What I want to address is why these situations are toxic

Purity:
the condition or quality of being pure; freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc.:

When we let those thoughts run wild we are letting a chain reaction occur in our head. Before you know it we have left no room for the thoughts that bring us joy

How could we even think about joy when we are too busy being unhappy because we saw a boy read our text and didn't text us back.

Our minds are being contaminated and before we know it we will look back and realize we have pushed ourselves away from God.

Why are these thoughts toxic?
Not only do they steal our joy and push us further from the truth of God, they leave room for bad decisions.
When we don't have purity of mind, we let satan take hold of our thoughts, we let him lie to us, we let him make us feel empty and broken.
Those feelings will only lead us further down the path of destruction.

So how do we fight it?
Well first is realizing that there is no form of purity that can happen if you are separated from the Lord because he is the only one that makes us pure.
We have to come to him and pray that he transforms our thoughts, but the only way that he can do that is if we GIVE them to Him.

What I want you to see is that these thoughts are normal, but that isn't an excuse.
It's too easy to play them off as "just things girls think about" or "just being a girl"

I beg you to see that thinking these things is damaging to your heart.

Jesus wants to speak TRUTH into you, His unfailing love, mercy and grace are far better things to meditate on than if a boy is going to text you.

Get into His word, pray to Him, surround yourself with a community that is going to speak life into you and affirm that you are a child of the one true KING, who loves and pursues you daily. Who has turned your heart of stone into a heart of flesh and He doesn't want that heart hurting.

Don't be your own cause of heartache because you are letting your own mind tell you lies.

I hope this blog was helpful, and I pray that if you are single right now or even if you are in a relationship you see that there is so much more to staying pure than just by your body. I pray you see that it starts with your mind.

Speak Life

If you were to talk to me about an hour ago, you would have probably heard an ear full of everything that was going wrong with my day. I'll spare you the details because they are irrelevant but
as my head was spinning of all the reason today just really sucked I quickly became convicted of a simple truth that I think we all so easily fall into...

First, too often I let my circumstances change my outlook on my day
and secondly, I am too quick to share my bad days and too slow to share my good

I think if you are honest with yourself you can admit that you fall into those things, or similar ones.

Here's a test just incase you aren't sure:
When someone asks you how your day was, what is your immediate response?
Mine usually sounds something like this.... "there was traffic after class, my professor let us out late, I failed my quiz, it was so hot outside, I'm so stressed out"

Seriously the list could go on.
We have to think, How do those responses shed any glory on God?

I'm not trying to be harsh, and i'm not saying that you can't talk about your days if they are rough, what I am saying is that if our minds are so entangled in what is going WRONG in our day, we are having a selfish perspective and we aren't leaving God any room to show us the GOOD in our day.

There is a difference in talking about your day, in hopes that those listening can pray over you or give you advice and then just straight up complaining. And that Is what I want us all to see.

When we complain about our day we are being selfish.
Yup, I said it and I'm not going to sugar coat it. We have GOT to remember that this life is not about us, it's about HIM and if this life isn't about us then each day isn't either.

Ask yourself, what are you really complaining about? And more importantly what is it doing?
You may be thinking this is extreme, what's that bad about a little complaining?
But when we complain, we are letting our minds continue down a path of negativity

"Set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth." Colossians 3:2

When we complain we are literally doing the opposite of this.



What I mean by all of this, and the point I want to make is this,

Jesus was not crucified on the cross for us to bicker about every little thing that goes wrong in this world. Jesus died so that we could live a life of JOY, a life that points other people to HIM, that is literally the only reason you are still on this earth.

What a difference it would be if we spoke of our good instead of our bad, if we didn't let our circumstances run our day, if we clung so tightly to the cross that we could remember every single day on this earth is a gift, and every encounter we have with another person matters.

Don't miss out on a chance to share God's love because you are too consumed in your problems.

I'll leave you with this:
If any person had the right to complain it would have been Paul.
Instead of complaining what did he say?

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound." Philippians 4:11

I am not perfect, and that is my heart behind writing this. Because of my imperfections I am going to fail at this, I am asking us all to take action in keeping each other accountable and remember that our actions and words matter.

A call to action

I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic my sophomore year of high school. I can still remember almost every detail. The people I encountered, the food I ate, the conversations I had, but what I remember more than anything is the feeling I felt about a week after the trip. You could compare it to the drop you feel after your "camp high" is over. It's a feeling that I now realize I had after almost every trip I went on.

While I was there I felt so on fire for the Lord, preaching His word, sharing the gospel with people and then what? I come back home to my same old routine, I fall back into my same old slump and that "GO JESUS" feeling I had seems to fade away. 

If you have been on a mission trip, whether in the states or abroad, you can probably relate to those feelings. 

But why do we get those feelings? 

I can remember telling my parents a week after my trip that I was going back. I didn't know when or how but I was. Looking back now I see exactly why I wanted to go back. It wasn't really for the trip itself, as much as I loved it. I wanted to go back to get out of my funk. I wanted to go back to feel the way I did when I was there. I wanted to feel like I was making a difference in His kingdom. 

This brings me back to my question. Why do we get these feelings of discontentment once we return home? 

The answer is rather simple. We are called to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19) that is a command from Jesus. We are to go and tell everyone the good news. 

Maybe someone's thinking, well I did that! So why do I still feel this way?

Here is one of the issues I have found, when we go on these mission trips, we feel so good about the work we are doing, and then we come home and feel "off" as we enter back into our daily routines..

Guess what, IT'S BECAUSE WE ENTER BACK INTO OUR DAILY ROUTINES!


Romans 1:5 (MSG) puts it pretty clearly 
"Through Him we have received BOTH the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on the others." 

We feel a discomfort because we see the JOY that comes from following Jesus's command of "going and making disciples" and then all of a sudden we stop. Why? Because we are home. 
Going to the nations is an urgent need, please don't get me wrong, BUT please don't forget that this nation, the one you live your daily life in, is also a mission field. 

It was once put to me like this, If you had the cure for cancer, would you keep it to yourself knowing someone next door to you is dying? We have the CURE. 

Don't let your fear, doubt or selfishness keep you from telling people about the cure. 

Jesus didn't call us to be comfortable. He called us to live a life of obedient faith. Sometimes that means we are called into situations that we don't like and I'm sorry but I'm going to be blunt.

GET OVER IT

We have a mission field right in front of us and we are too distracted from our own lives to see that we are MISSING IT! You can do work for His kingdom every single day of your life, and you should be, you just have to step AWAY from your self in order to see it sometimes.

Don't live mission trip to mission trip. We have a call to action that is to be lived out every day of our lives. 

A life of lingering

I want you to examine your life. REALLY look into it.
Think about how you spend your time, what you think about, the decisions you make, ect.

Now, ask yourself, Is Jesus the center or is He an add on? 

My heart behind this post is to share with y'all that I struggle with treating Him as an add on, like i've said before, A lot of times I don't even want to let Jesus in the car much less be the driver. 
Knowing this about myself I really have two options, to be okay with it or change it.

I think a lot of my "treating Jesus as an add on" comes from me treating Him as a feeling. When I "feel" Him, it's easy to acknowledge Him and let Him be the driver but on the flip side, when the feelings don't come I begin to get in a rut. From that rut starts a snowball of effects, like me trying to drive my car on my own, and only thinking of Jesus as someone who's their sometimes.

I can not stress this enough, so please if this is all you get from my post listen up:
JESUS IS NOT A FEELING

He's not some "camp high" God that is going to make you feel butterflies every day of your life.

I'm timid to get honest, but here it goes,

Receiving salvation takes no work on your part. Jesus did ALL the work 2000 years ago on a cross, now it's a free gift for anyone to take it. 
BUT A relationship with Jesus takes work. (notice how I didn't say workS)
Just like an earthly relationship, you'll have your high and your low points, sometimes you'll feel so on fire for God and other days you just can't even open your bible. Why? Because we are human.
I don't like that excuse though.

So, we are human, yes. But don't use that as an excuse to stay distant from God.
We are as close to Him as we choose to be. 

In this life we have choices, He has given us free will, So choose to make Him the center.
It's going to be work, you aren't always going to "feel" like it, but let me encourage you with how I find it easy to seek God, and that's to stay near to Him...


There's a word that has been mentioned at different events that has stuck in my head and I believe it's how we escape from keeping Jesus as an add on, how we get out of our ruts, and how we get fullness of life.


"linger"

I was really curious as to why Jesus was laying this word on my heart so I decided to find out why. 

From Dictionary.com

1. to stay in a place longer than is usual or expected, reluctant to leave
2. To remain alive, although gradually dying
3. to dwell in contemplation, though or enjoyment

Do we linger in His presence?
Lingering for Jesus is the opposite of treating Him as an add-on, it's clinging to him,"reluctant to leave"

I found it interesting that the 2nd definition is "To remain alive" because that's what Jesus does for us, He gives us life.

We are all going to die, if you didn't agree with anything else on this post you have to agree with that. So while you are here on earth let Him give you life, He is the only one that can.
 My challenge for you is to linger in the presence of God,  ENJOY His goodness, find LIFE in Him,
Don't treat Him as an add-on, He doesn't belong there.

Pursued by a KING

Growing up I was one of those typical little girls, my day consisted of dress up, barbies and of course, princesses. I can't tell you how many times I have watched Cinderella. Still to this day it is my all time favorite Disney movie.

I had a desire from a young age to be like Cinderella, to have a prince come into my life and save me (not from an evil step mother) but you get my point. I just felt this longing to be wanted, not just wanted but pursued after.

I mean lets be real, who doesn't want a prince to ride around on his horse for days trying to find you?

Not only did he find Cinderella but he saved her. He took her out of her ugly situation and turned her rags into riches.

When we watch this movie it tugs at our heart, why? Because we were designed to want this. These aren't bad feeling, I actually believe that the Lord placed them within us. Where we go wrong is when we don't realize that WE ARE LIVING THIS LOVE STORY

Not only are we living this love story, we are living it BETTER.

Cinderella was pursued by a prince, WE are pursued by a KING
Cinderella was a slave to her step mother, WE are a slave to SIN
Cinderella was saved by a prince, OUR KING CONQUERED SIN AND OVERCAME DEATH
Cinderella was given a castle, WE inherit a KINGDOM


I plead with every girl out there that is like me, you have grown up hearing about fairy tales, you long for this day, and as each day passes, and no prince comes, you become more discouraged. I plead that you see that you are looking for the wrong fairy tale.

Jesus longs to have an intimate relationship with you, to give you the fairy tale of all fairy tales, but he can't do that if you have a death grip on your desire for a fairy tale that will never come.

Having a desire for a man to pursue you is not wrong, here me again IT'S NOT WRONG, but please, don't fall into the trap that that's what's going to satisfy you. Because the truth is, you will never be satisfied with an earthly relationship until you have one with The Lord.


Now, some of you might be confused when I say the Lord wants to pursue you, and even romance you. I know this is a concept I didn't get until my senior year, I just couldn't really see God in that way. If you are like that I beg you to stop right now and cry out to the Lord, let him change your heart, let Him show you what it means to surrender and fall in love with Him. 

I promise, when you see what it's like to be romanced by A KING, it puts every other fairy tale to shame.

Seeking the whole truth

"Guard your heart" is a term I have heard for as long as I can remember, and since coming to college it's become one of the christian things you hear almost everyday.

When we are told to guard are hearts, it's mostly referring to a guy. 
We take it from Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
The more I heard the term, the more I became curious on what exactly it meant. Not only what it means, but how to actually do it.

"Sure, guard my heart, got it."
But what does that look like really?


Personally I think this is a verse that we are belittling. I say that because the only time I have ever really heard this verse used is when it is followed by relationship advice.
We aren't necessarily taking the verse out of context but we are taking it out and applying it to a certain area of our life and calling it a day. That is still a dangerous zone to play in.

Don't get me wrong, we do need to guard our hearts when it comes to the opposite sex but when we leave it to just that we are missing the point.

This verse isn't telling us to guard our hearts from the opposite sex, this verse is telling us to guard are hearts from our own thoughts.

What we spend our time meditating on runs our lives, whether you believe it or not.
 That is what the warning is here.

"for everything you do flows from it." 

What is in your heart?
guilt? pride? lust? the list can go on and on
what we think about, what we allow in our hearts, then flows into how we live our lives.

This is why we are told to guard our hearts, not just from boys, but from real evil that is lurking in the shadows.

For me, I read this and I think okay okay, I see but i'm still left with HOW. Luckily, this isn't where the verse stops.

"Keep your mouth free of perversity;
    keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
    fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
    and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
    keep your foot from evil."

To guard our hearts, we must turn from things of this world. 

When we read the rest of chapter 4 we see Colossians 3:2 played out

"Set your mind on things above and not on earthly things" 

That is how we ultimately guard our heart, we can't let the things of this world sway us right and left, we must stand firm in our faith and trust in our Jesus. Seeking Him fully will only happen when we rid ourselves of this world.

That is why we must guard our hearts, so that we can let Jesus fully use us for His glory. 

I hope you don't think any of this means I don't think guarding your heart when it comes to boys isn't important, because I believe it is. My heart behind this is that we would ultimately see that that's not where the verse stops. We have to stop using bible verses for our own personal pick me ups and remember that Jesus wants us to see the truth, and the whole truth. 

Think of things above so Jesus can flow from you and people can see His grace through you. 

All the single ladies

As I sit down to right this I am finding myself overwhelmed with nerves. This isn't my first blog, writing is something I enjoy, so why am I nervous?

You see, this blog might be one of the most honest blogs I've written. What you are about to read is my heart and my struggle, so please, understand that I am a broken person that yearns for more Jesus but recently I have seen my brokenness more than I like to admit. 

I am someone that hates to admit their wrong. Conviction is something that literally makes me hurt. I'm unsure if it's my desire to always do the right thing, or my stubbornness that takes over during conviction but either way I tend to shove it out of my mind. If you are honest with yourself, you have done this at least once in your life. 

My mechanism for this is that I come up with a huge list of why it's okay. Literally, a list. That's how stubborn I can be, it's like God and I sit down and I try and draw out why I'm right. (please just picture that) 

The fact that I even think to consider that I know better than my King is ridiculous. 

My most recent experience with this is, is when I told myself this lie- 

"I am not one of those girls that tries to complete her life with a guy." 

Actually, that's what I've always told myself. And I wasn't just telling it to myself I was actually believing it. 

Now, that statement is all truth, and you shouldn't EVER let a guy complete your life, because he can't. Where my conviction comes in is that I was lying to myself. 

My words were not matching up with my actions.

I like to put up a "I am a strong independent woman who don't need no man" front, that's just my personality. I have this need for people to see that I am single, and okay with it. So I continued to feed myself these lies, while I pursued other things with my actions. 

Recently, I was in a situation that was not my smartest move. A guy had come into my life and I literally jumped at the chance for it. Not only that but in a way I pursued Him.

My lies then shifted. Instead of telling myself I was fine without a guy, I was telling myself this one was fine for me. I was beginning to make exceptions in what I wanted out of a guy because he was a guy and he was giving me attention. I threw out my list and was ready to settle. 

I mean, He claimed to love Jesus and that's really all that matters right?

WRONG.

Please hear what I am saying, DO NOT SETTLE.

You are worthy of being pursued in the right way, by a man who fears the Lord, not a boy who is just playing with your heart.

Remember their is a difference in a man after God's own heart and a boy that wears a cross necklace. 

Don't be so quick to dive into a relationship because he has "a few of the qualities you want"

So you are 20, single, and have not prospects..guess what... THAT'S OKAY! 

I am writing this blog to admit that this is something I struggle with on a daily basis. 

I can't flip a switch and make myself not and that's something I am having to realize, but what I can do is change my focus.

Instead of telling myself I am fine being single, I tell myself how much my Jesus loves me. When you sit and meditate on how amazing that truly is, everything else fades away. It's not easy, but it is possible. 

After having this conviction and realizing how wrong I have been, Jesus is changing my heart. He is showing me all of the opportunities that await me, opportunities to further His kingdom. 

My prayer for each girl that is in my same boat is to see her true worth, to see that Jesus has BIG plans for each of us. We were made for so much more than we think.

Focus on His true promises, not the ones we make up in our head. 

He is constant

We are promised numerous amounts of times in the bible that God will never leave us, nor forsake us.
But do we really grasp that? 
Never. He will NEVER leave you.

Recently I have come to the harsh reality that too often I make God too much like the people around me. I will say things like "oh I just don't feel God in this right now" or "Is he even here?"

Looking back on those instances I seriously laugh at myself.....really Sara?
Do you not see that you have a loving, constant, faithful God who is pursing you daily? 

God isn't a father that walked out on you.
He's not a husband that has turned his back.
He's not a friend that became a backstabber.

Whatever your situation is, that has left you feeling abandoned, don't let that ruin your view of who God truly is. Your circumstances don't change God.

 It's while you are in the midst of those circumstances that you need to allow God to change your view of them.
Now understand-- I'm not saying that he will change your circumstances because a lot of times He won't. But we have to see that our view of what is happening is half the battle. 

In my personal situation I have come to the realization that it was nothing that I did, nothing I could have prevented. Just because someone walks out of your life, or leaves you beaten down, it doesn't mean that you are unworthy of love, and we have GOT to stop giving God the same characteristics as these people that have hurt us.

He is our healer. 
It is only by Him that we will be able to finally pick up the pieces and walk on.
It is only by Him that we will find forgiveness- realizing that forgiving someone is usually more so for us than for them.

If you believe in the healer, then why are you still holding onto the hurt?

We weren't meant to. 
Lay your burdens down at His feet, whether it's joyfully tossing them or painfully still grasping on as you weep, release them to Him.

My challenge for you, if you are dealing with a hard situation, or if you are feeling abandoned,

Run to Jesus.  Full force, sprint into His arms because He's waiting.

He will never leave nor forsake you.
Cling to that sweet promise and know that He is the only constant you will ever need.

Staying with the light

Lately, The Lord has really been convicting me of something:

My trust in Him is limited. 

That hurts to write, and even more so to really admit, but I feel like I need to get this out on the table because I'm probably not the only one struggling with it.

My whole life I've been told to trust in the Lord,  but it wasn't until recently that I really figured out what true trusts means. It's easy to trust the Lord when you can see whats up ahead, and for me, for the most part I've always been able to see, or at least i've had some sort of idea.

As I look at my future right now I can honestly say I don't know whats up ahead.
But what i'm learning is that's okay!

It's okay to not have a set plan, it's okay to be unsure in what the future holds but whats not okay is loosing trust in The Lord because all of a sudden the tunnel goes dark and you can't see what's in front of your foot.

Look at it like this,

You're in a tunnel of complete darkness, you have no idea whats up ahead, you don't even want to put your foot out because you can't tell where it will lead you. If you try and walk that path alone, you will either stand still out of fear or end up running yourself into a wall. But luckily for us, we have Jesus.

"Your word is the lamb to my feet and a light to my path" Psalm 119:105

We weren't meant to be able to see the full tunnel, we were meant to follow His light, one step at a time.
When we rush ahead, or even stay behind, panic and fear will crawl in, we won't know what to do, but when we stay with the light, the answers will unfold along the way. Trusting that His plan is good, digging into His word and reading of His promises, we will gain wisdom. With that wisdom we will find the true beauty of surrendering everything to Him.



Our purpose in this life is not to have the next 5, 10, 15 years figured out, we aren't promised those years, and when we focus to much on planning them out, we miss the right now. Jesus has new and exciting things to reveal to us everyday, we just have to be present.
We are called to be a disciple for Him RIGHT NOW, not just 5 years down the road when you have your life "figured out", because lets face it, getting the perfect job, getting married, none of those things will leave you satisfied or make you feel as if you've "figured life out" 


So instead of worrying about what the next five years might look like I am walking day by day through the tunnel with the light that will never go dark. I don't need all the answers to trust Him because I have Him, and that's all the answer I will ever need.

Diving into the unknown

Over the break I've been reading a book called "Letters from a skeptic" which is a book of letters where the father and son "debate" Christianity. It's been an interesting journey to read these letters and it's brought me to a conclusion, As Christians we have two choices when faced with questions we don't understand - 

We can run from them,  or we can dive into them, head first.

God loved us enough to send His son who died on a cross and saved us from our sins.
I don't want to label this simple, but in a way that's what we, as Christians, see it as. We don't think much into it, it's the foundation of our faith; black and white.

But the deeper you dive into a relationship with the Creator, the deeper you dive into questions of this world, there are not simple answers, it's not always black and white and I believe that's how God intended it to be. 

Accepting the first simple statement about Gods love for you, you must also accept that there are going to be questions that knock you on our butt. That leave you confused, that leave you uncomfortable. AND THAT'S OKAY! 

I think one of the biggest issues people run into is, they dig until they get uncomfortable. The moment they can no longer tie a little bow around it, they jump back.

I have to admit, a lot of things Letters from a skeptic have brought up makes me extremely uncomfortable. I want to close my book, take my bible and run to psalms and put Jesus back in my nice, neat little box

 "Jesus loves me this I know"

 ...BUT HE DOESN'T BELONG THERE. 


We have to face the facts that no one knows everything about God, and the moment you think you do, He's going to show you how very wrong you are. 

But how cool is it that we are all on different adventures with the creator? He is revealing new things to each of us if we will accept his offer of the journey He wants to take us on.

 We are going to come to questions that make us confused, Jesus is going to come out of the little box we have put him in but instead of fleeing from that and trying to force Him back in it, take it as an adventure, literally jump into unknown and let Him rock your world. 


The deeper you dive into your walk with God you come to see that it's not about a list of rules, it's not a black and white "to do list" but it's something so much better than that. He takes us on a journey WITH Him, that's how much He loves us. He wants to reveal His beauty to us in the sweetest way. So the next time you don't understand, or you come across a hard concept, take it as a compliment, that Jesus wants to walk you through it, and show you His love within it.