You struck the match - why not be utterly changed by fire?
To sacrifice the shadow and the mist
Of a brief life you never much liked - So if you'd care to come along we're gonna curb all our never-ending,
clever complaining (as who's ever heard of a singer criticized by his song?)
We hunger, but though all that we eat brings us little relief we don't know quite what else to do,
We have all our beliefs but we don't want our beliefs,
God of peace, we want you.
"four word letter" mewithoutYou

I don't want to live my life blindly following trends, believing what I believe because it's "cool" or matches a certain image I feel I need to live up to. Rather, I want to base my life around one Person, that is, Christ Jesus. I want to believe what He teaches regardless of whether it's "cool" and "trendy" or not. I don't want to feel like I need to project a certain image, fit into a certain demographic. The only image I want to reflect is that of Christ's.

Because, if you think about it, trying to fit a certain lifestyle or believe things because they're popular is simply selfishness. We want to feel good about ourselves, so we want to believe the things that will make people like us. And I'm tired of living like that. I want to live like I believe things whether or not people will like me because of them.

Is it possible to be so separated from your flesh to believe in something because you know that it's true, and not care whether people like you or agree with you or think you're cool and trendy because of it?

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

1 corinthians 13, emphasis added

Love is not a feeling.

Pardon the cliche, but love is a verb.

Love hurts. Love is esteeming someone else better than yourself. Love is giving yourself fully to someone else.

And Christians are called to love everyone.

Our enemies, in our homes and overseas. On a personal level and on a national scale.

Love endures all things, even terrorist attacks.........

What I'm trying to say is, maybe we need to start loving like Christ. The social outcasts, the people who are hated. The greedy rich people, the guy who cut you off in traffic. Misguided Arab soldiers fighting for what they believe in, the bratty kids next door. Can we learn to look these people in the eyes and esteem them higher than ourselves?

If we did that, it would be.... Revolutionary.

What does living like Christ look like?

Isn't it a tragedy that people who claim to follow Jesus look so much like the rest of the world?

We are trapped in the same consumerism, we follow the same sporting events, we waste as much money on excessive material things.

I'm tired of following the world's system. Because I believe in a better system.

I believe in The Way of Jesus.

A Way in which millions of dollars aren't wasted on "games", but people give their money freely to those who need it.

A Way in which no one takes more than he needs. It reminds me of how when God sent manna to provide for His people in the wilderness. Whoever tried to stock up, to get ahead, to take more than was necessary found that his excess would spoil by the next day.

A Way in which people don't measure their worth by their gains and losses materially, but remember that they are members of the Kingdom of Heaven in which whoever loses their life will find it.

"It's an inside, outside, upside down kingdom
Where you lose to gain and you die to win"
-misty edwards

Are you more worried about who's going to win the game than about that your neighbors are dying from lack of clean water?

Are you more concerned about getting that "right" job than your neighbors are engaging in genocides and can't even feed their families properly?

Let's take a look at our hearts and try to line up our priorities with the Prince of Peace.

Sometimes I feel like I have no business writing. I have seen so little, my experiences are few. There seems to be little within me worth inscribing. But, I must write, so write I do . Most of my writing is private, but when I go to write a blog, I feel different. I am writing for an audience, a small audience, maybe, but I feel I need to make these words worth reading. So without further ado...


I am tired of living life so fakely.

I want to hold beliefs, fight for causes, make my fragile existence worth something. But, I don't know what, or how, or anything. There is so much messed up with this world.

I was listening to some ladies talk the other day about the wedding they were planning. Frankly, their talk disgusted me. Not that I have anything against marriage, but the flamboyancy of a modern wedding is appalling. People spend thousands, tens of thousands of dollars on a ceremony. You might say "Well, getting married is a special occasion and I spend so much because it's so important." But did you ever think that surviving just one more day is a special occasion to the starving and the homeless who could be helped with just a fraction of the money you are spending on that RIDICULOUS gown that you will wear ONCE?

I am such a hypocrite. I wish I could just pour out my life and resources on those who need it more. But, no, I spend my money and my time on doing whatever makes me comfortable. I don't know how to help, I don't know where to start. But I do know one thing, I will not accumulate an excess of material things. I don't believe in hoarding treasures on earth, I don't believe in having "nice things" for the sake of having "nice things". I can't believe that, not when the homeless of America are actually a good deal better off than most of Africa.

Can we not see our absurd excess? We are fat, obese on consumerism. It is such a tragedy that I can walk through a supermarket and be affronted by several different brands of bottled water to buy when people are DYING from lack of ANY drinkable water.

We are so sheltered, so blind. But I'm tired of looking the other way. My heart aches for the world, and it aches for the numbness of this Western culture. God, please show me how to be a beacon of hope and give me the chance to use the blessing of being in a prosperous nation to pour out on those less fortunate.