To Everyone

It. Does. Not. Matter. That's probably not what you wanted to hear. Forgive me for being blunt, but it's true. Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your job, your feelings, your opinions, your reputation, your thoughts, my internet ramblings, none of them are eternal. Let the synapses fire, let pleasure be your guide, but it really will get you nowhere. The drama of your teenage years is mind-numbingly useless, the deadlines of adulthood aren't important.  Have you ever thought about what we worry about? What will they THINK about ME? We constantly fret about what another person quietly thinks. About us. Not even about things that matter. A correct time to worry about a persons thoughts: When they are wielding a weapon. A more adequate question would be: Do I care about what this person thinks about me and why? Or more appropriately: Does God care about what this person thinks about me? Fun fact of the day. I do crazy, borderline insane, things. As far as I know, I still have friends. Good godly friends. They encourage me and sharpen me and I would like to think I do the same for them, but what if I didn't have them? Would I be willing to walk the halls everyday by myself? I should be, because I have one friend I can't lose.One that Proverbs 18:24 tells me sticks closer than a brother. So with Him, why should I need anything else? I don't although I have been blessed with so much more. Ok, there's point one down. The opinion of another should not phase us and drama is simply the opinion of others embodied into a pitiful pile of Kleenex in a corner. Point two. Political correctness. Get rid of it. That is, if we have to live in a world of extreme political correctness or a world with no political correctness, I choose the one with none. Fire refines better then ice, even if ice lets you keep your cozy form. It's been addressed here before, that we are called to be people who take judgement, not people who sit, wrapped in our fleece blankets with a tight jaw and wagging head. This world would be a better place if someone told our children that they can't "want to be a boy" and told our teens that this goopy feeling their getting that they think is "love" is actually a hormone and will statistically lead to divorce.

Alright, I'm done with the negative, it's really off tone for me, but it needed to be said. Now, for the hope. Christ came to make the opinions benign. Without Him, people thinking highly of us would be an evolutionary advantage, but with Him, we have a new destination. David Bowden wrote in his poem: I Am that:

"Mankind stopped living, that it might just survive."

This brings a new meaning to Christ being the life. Christ came to turn survival into living. So now, as my favorite character ever invented by culture said:

"I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's It's taken me so many years.....but at last I know where I'm going, where I've always been going. Home. The long way around." -The Doctor

With our destination set, why should obstacles determine the ending of our story? Our stories don't end with our friends, boyfriend, girlfriends or feelings, our stories end with One in the sky on a white horse, to whom every knee will bow. And that will be simply a step on our road Home.

2015

2015. It's seemed far away didn't it? Well, it's here and we already only have 364 days left in it. What will you do with them? I've never made a habit of making New Years resolutions, but what if we made a New Years dedication? What if we opened up our 2015 with something like this:

Father, I have a year ahead of me. It's new, it's uncertain and it's Yours. I don't know what will happen today, tomorrow, next month or next winter, but I know that You do. As I take on what You have for me this year, let me use that to become more like You. Let guilt bring redemption, let criticism bring improvement, let sorrow bring dependence, let brokenness bring peace, let evil bring Your glory, let sin bring salvation and most of all, bring glory to Your name through Christ in me. May it be made clear to those around me that You are my focus, my goal and my life.

That's my goal for this year. That's my goal for my life. What's the point of being around unbelievers or anyone if we aren't constantly pointing back to Christ? In day, in night, in health, in sickness, in joy and in pain, and in 2015, God must always be glorified. 

That's not easy though. Tomorrow I leave for a weekend at Districts Youth Conference in Green Bay. It will be easy there. I will have spiritual education around the clock for 3 days. There will be thousands of teens praising God and giving there lives to Him, I will simply sit back and watch to see what God has to tell me and give Him the glory for it. However, I'm going home on Sunday and school comes back Monday. What about then? How does Christ become my focus in the middle of a week where I am running from event to event to homework to friends to family and to myself? There needs to be a consistent effort from me and those around me. So I ask for your prayer. Ask God to work in me this weekend and to make Himself obvious in me throughout 2015.