Faith

God is really on top of things. Go figure! The past few weeks, I've been struggling with the season I'm in (physically and spiritually), and have been faced with a lot of "unknowns". Being somewhat of a control freak and a "planner" personality, I've been struggling with the fact that I can't see a whole lot into my future right now.

And, cue God. What does He keep reminding me of through His word, through songs I hear on the radio, and through sermons? Faith. Because, after all, faith is "the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." (Hebrews 11:1) Things we cannot see. You're pretty clever, Lord.

Before this morning, I'm not sure if I had ever read Hebrews 11 all the way through. Chapters 10 and 12? Totally. But for some reason, I just had never gotten to 11. So it's interesting that today was the day I read it, maybe for the first time, considering that it's all about faith. Most of the chapter is spent recalling a lot of Old Testament events and showing that they happened because of faith. Verses 33-38 are a good sum-up: "By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of a sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death."

So these verses show all the awesome things that happened when people had faith. I guess faith is pretty great! It is. But I find the next few verses really interesting, too: "But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed by the sword."

Wait, so...what happened to faith? Why didn't these people get saved because of their faith like the others?

I believe they still did. Though the ones who were tortured and killed for Christ didn't see earthly reward for their faith, their faith in heaven was solid and was rewarded, because "they placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection." Even when things looked bad, and it didn't look like they were going to make it, these people still had faith. Perhaps not faith in getting physically rescued from their predicaments, but even stronger faith in eternal life.

There is always a reason to have faith, and His name is the Lord. Whether He chooses to reward your faith by physically rescuing you or letting you enter Paradise is up to Him.

I think the point of the entire passage from Hebrews 11 is that faith in God is never in vain. No matter the circumstances, if you have faith in your present trouble, you will be rewarded.

9/11

Every time September 11th comes, social media is flooded with prayers, photos, and statuses related to the terrorist attack in 2001. Things like freedom and sacrifice are mentioned a lot. Usually I contribute to it all with the same theme. But as the 11th rolls around again this year, I'm not thinking about taking a stand against terrorists, or fighting for freedom.

I'm thinking about love.

Why did we get attacked on September 11th, 2001? There, of course, are a lot of reasons...but to me, it comes down to the fact that the people who carried out the attacks on that day didn't know about the value of human life, or about equality; to sum it all up, they didn't know about love. Would they have attacked our country if they truly believed that every person is valuable? That every person has a life just like them? Would they have killed all those innocent people if they believed that those people were loved? Would they have done this if they knew that they were loved? I don't think so.

I'm not trying to be flowery here. This is a real-world issue, I get it, and just saying, "love is all you need" isn't going to cut it. Honestly, most of the politics that swirl around these issues confuse me; they're over my head. I'm sure the people who carried out the attacks that day had several reasons for their actions, and the reasons were probably very complex. I'm sure they were intelligent people. But in spite of all their intelligence and complexity, they totally missed something extremely important: the people they were attacking were people just like them. Regardless of who they were and what they believed. What a person believes and what nationality they are has absolutely no bearing on their value...or their relation to you. The bottom line is, everyone has value. The Americans that got attacked on the 11th hurt for a very long time, and are still hurting. And the people who attacked them would have hurt in the same way if it had happened to them. Because despite differing beliefs, we are all human. We know what it feels like to hurt. None of us want to. So why do we insist on inflicting that hurt on others?

Do we want peace? Truly? Then we need to start to love. It isn't a question of who's right. It's a question of who is loved, and who has value, and the answer to that is: everyone. To me, 9/11 represents what happens when love is not put first. It represents what happens when selfish ambition, pride, and hate are prioritized. The result is chaos, and pain, and more hate. It makes me very sad to think about the families who lost loved ones on that day, but it makes me even sadder to think of the blindness that started this in the first place. The people who launched the attack on September 11th may have wanted chaos and pain for our country, and they got it. But no one wants pain for themselves. If they had only realized before that these people were just like them, that these people deserve to be loved (because they are loved by a much higher power), then I don't believe those attacks would have taken place.

There's nothing we can do about what happened in 2001. But today, we can do something to overcome the mindset that started it. We can refuse to view people as just citizens, or just beliefs. We can begin to view them as living, breathing, talking, walking, thinking, hurting people who have amazing value, no matter what they believe or who they are. We can't change everyone's perspective, but we can change ours. It starts with us,  it starts with you, it starts with me.

And I choose to love.

Summer 2013

Happy September!

Looking back on my last few posts, I realized that I really only posted one or two posts the whole summer..I usually don't like to use busyness as an excuse because it's usually not true for me, but I guess I was sort of busy the past few months? All I know is, they went by really quickly!

I really want to post more now that summer is done! I truly love this blog and I love writing out things that God is teaching me and hopefully encouraging you. As I've said before, I don't know who reads this, or if anyone does, but that's not the point. I do this because I love it. (Although if you do happen to read a post and are encouraged by it, do tell me. ;)

Anyway, I found my post last summer where I made a list of all the things that made me smile in those few months. I don't like to post "personal" things too much, because honestly I'm afraid you might be bored, but I decided to do it again this year, if nothing else just to express my thankfulness for the things that happened this summer and to celebrate them. I encourage you to do this too, even if you don't post it anywhere.

Things That Made Me Smile in Summer 2013:
-beautiful blue skies
-our ridiculously adorable new dog
-my parents
-the Lord's presence (so many times!)
-time to rest
-the precision of God's word to my life
-awesome photography opportunities
-engaged people
-time with best friends
-deep conversations
-Lucky Charms
-being part of a team
-kids and their unrestrained personalities
-the Lord giving me super-sensitivity to His presence
-getting my license (fi.na.lly.)
-happy music
-making new friends of all ages
-going to Brazil and all that went with it
-God's grace
-birthday fun
-friends (all of them.)
And so much more!!

Wow. Well, I feel better already. Really..if you're ever doubting your blessings, make a list like this. It helps. This summer went by really quickly, but it was absolutely wonderful. Thank you Lord, for summer 2013!