New

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" - 2 Corinthians 5:17

A new year is a beautiful thing because it's one of the few blessings that can be measured; we tend to see it as a fresh start. There is an opportunity we are given every single day to change, to transform, to improve. It all starts with God. God can always be new to us, we are never new to him. Remember that God knows and loves you no matter what you change or don't change, but the potential we have to grow through a relationship with Him is an immeasurable blessing.

I am new because I accepted Christ. I am new because I left the old behind. I am new because God made me new.

You are new, too.

- sam

Trial

Try being me.

Try going through this without any friends. Try being there for people who don’t care about you at all. Try telling someone you’re hurting when they just get annoyed. Try trusting someone when they won’t even talk to you. Try making new friends. Try understanding why you can’t.

Try keeping it all inside because no one wants to hear you complain. Try pleasing everyone else because you think it’ll distract you from your own problems. Try giving more love and faith to someone than you give to God because your heart tells you it’ll work out. Try having your heart broken. Try coming back from that.

Try depending on anyone else, and being let down over and over. Try imagining how you can do it all on your own. Try remembering that you’re already on your own.

Try getting out of bed when every day is a disappointment. Try convincing yourself it’ll be okay, even though you know it won’t. Try searching for an easy way out even though your whole life has taught you that there isn’t one. Try finding a reason to keep going.

Try feeling like a failure, every time you try to do something. Try building up courage. Try reaching out, one last time. Try praying for days, weeks, months or even YEARS, and never getting a response. Try listening to God. Try hearing nothing. Try believing anyway.

Try quitting. Try starting over. Try anything. Try again.

Just don’t stop trying.

-sam

Home

I have heard the voice of God once in my life. I was seventeen years old, I think only a few months after I had given my life to Jesus. I was struggling particularly hard at the time. Not that I'm doing any better now.

I was lying in bed, praying harder than I can ever remember. I just wanted an answer. I just wanted to know I wasn't alone. I kept asking God, "What do you want me to do?"

"Come Home." A voice in my heart.

Immediately, everything that was hurting me just... stopped. I felt warm, safe, and happy. I fell asleep smiling, saying, "Thank you, God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

I haven't felt that way in a long, long time.

I can't say I totally understand what God meant. "Come Home." Does He want me to stop being so attached to the world? Is he trying to show me the right way to get to Him? Or was it just a reminder in a moment of weakness, that in the end, there is a place with no more hurting?

I wish I could focus on these questions, but since then, I've been looking for a much bigger answer. Why won't God answer my prayers anymore?

I just don't understand. At first I thought, "Maybe I'm praying for the wrong things." I had been asking Jesus for such specific things, "Jesus, please let me have this," or "Put that in my life." I searched my heart and considered these wants might be too selfish. I want to want what God wants.

So I changed my prayers. "Jesus, if I can't have this, if I'm not supposed to have that in my life, please help me understand." Still, no answer. No feeling. Nothing. I must have been asking Jesus for too much. I know now that I can't possibly come close to understanding God's plan for me, what He gives me, what He takes away. I want to understand God, but I know I never will.

Again, I changed my prayers. "Jesus, if I can't have this in my life, if I can't understand why, then please just let me be okay. Let me be happy." Every day. Weeks. Months. More than a year, and my prayer is unanswered. I'm not okay. I'm not happy. I'm not any closer to coming Home. I just want to Come Home, God.

Tonight, I will pray the same prayer. Tomorrow, the same prayer. I will not stop praying until God answers my heart again. I have lost so many things important to me, and there are so many people I've failed, so much I've had to quit. I don't know why, but for some reason, God made me too strong to quit Him.

I have faith in the Promise. Life will keep getting harder, and my hurt might not go away. It might keep getting worse until I don't have anything left. As far as I'm concerned, God can take away everything in my life, because it's for my life that He gave everything.

I don't know if I'll ever hear that voice again. But I haven't forgotten. I haven't given up. I may not know how to get there, but I know where I'm going to end up. One way or another, I will Come Home.

-sam

Courage

“Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.” – Ezra 10:4

Is there something in your life that you really love but you’re not, strictly speaking, “good at it”? I’m not going to lie, that goes for... just about everything I enjoy (see; rock climbing, playing guitar, sculpting thirteenth-century marble statues.)

It seems like all my favorite hobbies should be restricted to people who don’t totally suck at them. Unfortunately for those people, and unfortunately for my own safety, I’m not giving up rock climbing anytime soon.

I've seen better days.

Maybe it’s something a little more serious. Maybe you feel like you can’t get past a failure or a shortcoming. Maybe you’ve been through times when you’ve actually had yourself convinced you can’t do anything right. Maybe you're afraid.

No more fear. I want to encourage you, because without encouragement there is no courage.

Encouragement

The word ‘encourage’ literally means to bestow courage upon. I don’t know about you, but I’m not big on the idea of anything being ‘bestowed upon’ me, so I’ll rephrase.

The word ‘encourage’ means to give someone the motivation they need to accomplish what they thought they weren’t capable of doing. Simplify it even more? Okay.

The word ‘encourage’ means to give someone help.

This might seem a little weird seeing as generally we associate courage with being able to do something difficult not only without fear, but also without anyone's assistance. Well, this is just one of those cases in which the general association is wrong.

It seems like I’ve strayed off topic somewhat, but I haven’t! Not completely. Earlier I admitted that some of my favorite hobbies require a certain level of skill that I haven’t quite reached yet (putting it gently.) So why do I keep doing them? Well, partly because of my own courage, but mostly it’s due to the encouragement that I receive.

You Are Courageous!

I’d like to devote the rest of this post to giving you support, even if you don’t want it, because in at least some small way, I’m here for you!

Be brave! Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something! Absolutely anything is possible, as long as you have the heart to make it happen!

“Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” – Psalm 31:24

When you feel weak, know that you are strong! You are so much stronger than you think! Whatever mountains you’re facing, I promise you that you can move them!

“I can do all things through him who gives me strength!” – Philippians 4:13

Finally, and most importantly, you are not alone! No matter how tough it gets, remember that we are all in this together! Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

“Do all that you have in mind… Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” – 1 Samuel 14:7

P.S. I never go rock climbing alone. I’m incredibly blessed to have amazing friends that I know I can count on. They give me more courage than they will ever know. I think this is one of the most important parts of life and our walk with Christ. Find the right people, and even when you feel like you’re going to fall, you can trust that they’ll be there to belay you. Or laugh when you land on your butt.

-sam

Obligation

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation - but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” - Romans 8:12-14

I never want to feel obligated to write about God. When you feel obligated to do something, you usually end up doing it without any sense of inspiration or originality, and God is all about being inspirational.

When I write, I want it to be because God is using me to get His message out and share the Word. That’s honestly where all my creativity comes from. Well, that and my borderline-dangerous level of energy drink consumption. WOO!

It’s the same with gettin’ dat Bible open and readin’ dem pages. If you only read your Bible because you feel like you have to, then you’re not going to get anything worthwhile out of it. Sometimes when I’m doing a reading plan, I skim those pages like a warning label on a box of fireworks (boring.)

I don't have time to read, I'm trying to blow myself up!

What I suggest is finding enough time in your schedule to not only read your Bible, but also takes notes, or at least pause and reflect after each chapter or a particularly striking verse. Personally, I want to get to the point that if there were an AR test over the New Testament, I’d get at least a 92%. That’s quite a bit of ambition, I know, but God is all about being ambitious, too.

To summarize, don’t feel obligated be more involved with the God who loves you; feel blessed for the opportunity.

And this post is... DONE!

Well, I'm gonna go hang out inside of a tree. Wait, you guys don’t do that too? Awkward.

P.S. There is no P.S., that was the end. Go read your Bible.

-sam

Regret

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” - 2 Corinthians 7:10

Very often when you hear someone say the phrase, “No regrets!” they’re about to do something that’s not very safe, and even more often something that’s not very smart.

“No regrets,” makes me think to myself, “Well that’s dumb. If you have no regrets, then you haven’t learned anything from your past mistakes. You have to be able to look back and recognize what you did wrong so in the future you’ll know how to do it right.”

Let’s say you’re moving. I don’t know why you’d ever want to move away from Texas, but for the sake of this story, you’re some crazy person and you’re leaving for some crazy reason. You’ve got all your most valuable possessions in the trunk of your car. So much of your stuff is jammed in there that it’s all sticking out and isn’t exactly what you would call “secure.”

Keep in mind, that’s all of your worldly possessions. All of your most favorite things could fall out of the trunk and get destroyed at any moment. So you keep checking the rearview mirror as you’re driving.

Consider this; If you keep looking back at what’s behind you, you will almost certainly crash, because you won’t be able to see what’s right in front of you.

Like a canoe.

Originally I believed that carrying no regrets entailed a lifetime of mistakes without a single lesson learned. Now after meditating on this, and after making quite a few more mistakes myself, I’ve come to a sort of revelation. To live life with no regrets means completely, absolutely trusting in God’s plan for you, so much that you don’t regret a single moment. A single hardship. A single trial. Can you imagine the kind of faith something like that would require?

Come to think of it, I heard a story once about a guy who was like that. Absolutely filled with unwavering faith. Right up until his painful, demeaning, torturous end, he never had a single regret about the life he lived and the path he followed, even though he knew it would eventually cause his death. And that man was Jesus. Bam! Bible Surprise!

All joking aside, there’s a whole lot about my life that given the opportunity, I would go back and do differently. But I know that’s just my selfish heart talking. God’s plan is perfect; even a few bumps in the road don’t change where it leads.

“Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.” - Psalm 119:35

P.S. No regrets.
 
-sam

Perspective

“Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” - Luke 12:56

Read, read, read. That’s all we ever do these days. Read. You’re reading right now in fact. I caught you in the act, my friends. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing. According to every show I grew up watching on PBS, reading is the best thing ever, and it’s sponsored by fruit juice, the second best thing ever.

Much like everything else in this crazy world, however, a little can go a long way, and reading can get old, fast. Especially if the material is old to begin with. Like, hundreds or thousands of years old.

So let me ask this, and then consequently answer it (this is a blog, not a guessing game); Why has the Bible been the world’s most popular book since before books were even invented if it hasn’t really changed from the time it was written? It’s no secret. The Word is living. Living things adapt according to their surroundings. I know, science and faith in the same paragraph. What is going on in here?

There’s a reason we’re not all still using the King James version. Thou shalt not be forced to readeth confusing, boring words. Interesting fact, on the YouVersion Bible application for most smart phones, there are many, many alternatives to the KJV. Seriously, there’s like a million (131 versions in 43 languages.)

Still, whether it’s the OJB or the MSG, the essential story never changes. God never goes back on His Word, and the gospel refuses to go untold and remains the unchanging truth. Here’s the really cool part, though; even if you only own one version of the Bible, each time you read it, it’s never quite the same.

It’s all about interpretation. Let me give you an example with my favorite verse;

“For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.” - Romans 14:7

Now, the first time I read this, I was hurting and feeling particularly alone in life. This verse seemed to just jump right off the page. It reminded me that no matter how lonely I feel, God is with me. I carried the comfort that verse gave me for a long time.

The second time I read this, months and months later, I was feeling particularly selfish. When I read the verse, I recognized it, but it just seemed different, like it had a new haircut or something. It reminded me not to live for myself, but for God.

Same verse, same chapter, same book, same translation, same Bible, even the same guy reading it, but not the same meaning. Only possible with God’s gift of interpretation of His Word. When your eyes, your mind, and your heart belong to God, He will show you what you need to see.

“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” - Romans 14:8-9

P.S. Interpretation doesn’t always go smoothly. For instance, one of the most hilarious and frustrating situations in everyday life is when people take things too literally. A friend of mine once baked cupcakes for me on my birthday, and when I later told my brother, “Hey, my friend made me cupcakes,” he responded, “...Your friend turned you into cupcakes?”

Yes. I was turned into cupcakes.

Jesus spoke in parables so that the people’s eyes would be opened as they interpreted the meaning of the words God was speaking through him. If everyone had taken Jesus literally, people would be walking around spreading seeds everywhere instead of spreading the Word.

-sam