Don't Be A Hippo.

No, I'm not going to dedicate an entire post to talking about hippos. Sorry.

"Hippo", however, is sometimes short for "hypocrite", and that's a much more interesting topic.

I was reading John Calvin's book, The Institutes of Christian Religion, and this caught my attention: (Which is rare because in general, I don't find this book extremely interesting..)

"...to speak of those who want to be called Christians, although they have nothing of Christ's but his name and sign. How dare they claim his sacred name?...They are guilty of falsely pretending a knowledge of Christ, despite the eloquence with which they talk of the Gospel. Doctrine is not a matter of talk but life."

I think sometimes we forget that being a Christian is more than praying everyday and going to church. If we do that, and talk about Christianity..but then live for ourselves the rest of the time, what kind of Christians are we? What kind of name are we giving Christ?...Not a good one.

You know "All talk and no game"? It's like...let's say there's a person who talks and talks about water-skiing. They talk about how much they love to water ski, they buy all the equipment for it, and they talk about how great they are at it. But when they go out and actually do it, they really stink. It's sort of like that for Christians. No matter how much I talk about Christ, or how many Bibles I buy, or whatever, if I'm not actually living a Christian life, then there's no impact.

I know it's hard, and everyone messes up, but I think it would be really cool if more Christians actually lived...Christian. Let's try not to contradict our talk and our claims of Christianity by living for ourselves, because that's hypocritical.

...Let's not be hippos.

What-everrr.

Life has its ups, life has its dips, good thing we have potato chips!

...Okay, maybe not. But it's true. Life has both ups and downs. And the downs have a tendency to get me really down.

It happened again. Something in my day didn't go my way, and because of that, I'm grumpy all day.

Is that a good habit?

No.

So what is?

I think we should have a "whatever" mindset, particularly for the small things. If one of my plans falls through, should I get all mad about it and let it completely ruin my day? No. That's where the "whatever" comes in...Okay, so that happened. Whatever. I have more time to do other things now. See? Whatever! I think if I, especially, learned to accept things as they come..I would be all-around happier, and probably more productive.

The other day, I was thinking about the phrase, "Go with the flow." I like that phrase. Not for any particularly deep philosophical reason, I've just always liked it..probably because it rhymes. But I have a habit of putting things into pictures, or relating things to experiences I've had. So, with that in mind, "going with the flow" makes me think of one time, when my family went to Hawaii, and my dad and I were pretty far out in the water, just floating, and rolling with the waves. When a wave rolled through, it was fun, and easy to roll with it until it faded out. If I tried to fight it, I would end up getting water up my nose, and would usually end up getting carried with it anyways. The point is, obviously...that it's kind of easier to go with the flow.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said "Some people say to God, 'Let Your will be done.' and others say 'Oh alright, have it Your way.'" Either way, we're going to end up rolling with the wave. So when bad things come our way, it may be easier to accept them with a little grace.. "Whatever You want, God. Let Your will be done."

The Beauty of Him

God is really beautiful. And he's so good. Psalm 104 just really sticks out to me...he is so good. :)

Psalm 104

¹ Let all that I am praise the Lord.

O Lord my God, how great you are!
You are robed with honor and majesty.
² You are dressed in a robe of light.
You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
³ you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
You make the clouds your chariot;
you ride upon the wings of the wind.
⁴ The winds are your messengers;
flames of fire are your servants.

⁵ You placed the world on its foundation
so it would never be moved.
⁶ You clothed the earth with floods of water,
water that covered even the mountains.
⁷ At your command, the water fled;
at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.
⁸ Mountains rose and valleys sank
to the levels you decreed.
⁹ Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,
so they would never again cover the earth.

¹⁰ You make springs pour water into the ravines,
so streams gush down from the mountains.
¹¹ They provide water for all the animals,
and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds nest beside the streams
and sing among the branches of the trees.
¹³ You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,
and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
¹⁴ You cause grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for people to use.
You allow them to produce food from the earth—
¹⁵ wine to make them glad,
olive oil to soothe their skin,
and bread to give them strength.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are well cared for—
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests,
and the storks make their homes in the cypresses.
¹⁸ High in the mountains live the wild goats,
and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes.

¹⁹ You made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to set.
²⁰ You send the darkness, and it becomes night,
when all the forest animals prowl about.
²¹ Then the young lions roar for their prey,
stalking the food provided by God.
²² At dawn they slink back
into their dens to rest.
²³ Then people go off to their work,
where they labor until evening.

²⁴ O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ Here is the ocean, vast and wide,
teeming with life of every kind,
both large and small.
²⁶ See the ships sailing along,
and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.

²⁷ They all depend on you
to give them food as they need it.
²⁸ When you supply it, they gather it.
You open your hand to feed them,
and they are richly satisfied.
²⁹ But if you turn away from them, they panic.
When you take away their breath,
they die and turn again to dust.
³⁰ When you give them your breath, life is created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord continue forever!
The Lord takes pleasure in all he has made!
³² The earth trembles at his glance;
the mountains smoke at his touch.

³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!
³⁴ May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵ Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth;
let the wicked disappear forever.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!

Fresh From the Fight

God gets my attention in the most unlikely places.

Tonight, as I watching a movie and trying not to fall asleep, I heard the phrase (from a line in the movie) "fresh from the fight". And I was like...Woah..what does that mean?

I immediately applied it to Christianity. As Christians, we're in a war...everyone knows that, right? But sometimes, we forget. And we also forget how that exactly relates to our lives. I mean, if I'm not fighting for my life in some Communist country, faithfully preaching the gospel...it doesn't apply to me, right?

Ehhh, wrong.

I think fighting in the "war of good and evil" is just as present in your normal, everyday life as it is anywhere else. We fight the war by making choices that honor God, by choosing to say (or not say) certain words, do (or not do) certain things, and treat people maybe a little nicer than how they actually deserve to be treated.

A while back, my friend explained her own interpretation of sin to me: Our sins are forgiven, of course, by Jesus, but when we sin, it still grieves God's heart. But, when we purposely choose not to sin, it's showing our allegiance to God. It's saying, "I'm in God's army, so I'm going to choose to obey Him."

So basically all I'm saying is, everyday is a battle. Everyday, I can choose to say I'm on God's side. I want to be fervently fighting for Him.

...I want to be fresh from the fight.

Keep Your Knife to Yourself

Backstabbing...it's not just for murder mysteries. Lately, I've found it within my own life - in my conversations, my thoughts, my words. My friend Jacalyn was talking with me about it...how can we call people our friends, and then turn around and say how they're so annoying. They're so immature. They're such a flirt. I can't stand them.

Uh. What was that?

Yeah. We have to remember in all that, that God is always watching. And like...seriously? I've done that so many times, and then feel awful about it. How, in good conscience, can we be claim to be "friends" with someone then backstab them like this? It's just wrong.

So, what to do about it...Jacalyn and I came up with three main points to think about when talking about people...(or just..talking in general.)

1. Am I honoring God with my words?
2. If the person I'm talking about was standing right here, would I want them to hear what I was saying?
3. Would I want the same thing to be said about me?

So, I for one, am really going to try to hold to these 3 things, because I want good things coming from my mouth, and not bad. I don't want to backstab anymore, and I don't want you to do that to me either, so, for all our sakes..let's keep our knives to ourselves.

Sorry, I'm bad with names.

Actually, I'm not. But I know a lot of people who are.

Recently, a new friend invited me to her birthday party. We had been friends for about two months, and so I was like, okay, cool. I get to her party and I walk in, and she couldn't remember my name. I had to remind her. *Awkward.*

Another example: My mom had been friends with this lady for like 3 years, and I knew her too...so I see her one day and she couldn't remember my name and so I had to remind her she was friends with my mom and I was her daughter....*Also awkward.*

So, it's kind of awkward and embarrassing when someone can't remember your name. You feel like they didn't care enough about you to remember it in the first place, and then the next time they see you, they suddenly remember you. And so then that made me think..

I'm glad God is good with names.

I don't think you'll ever hear Him say, "Oh my gosh, I completely blanked out. What's your name again?" That's just not...Him. He cares more about you than that. It's crazy when you think about it. The Creator of the atom, and the flower, and the human eye, the God who planned out all of history, the One who came up with the idea of gravity...also came up with you. And not only that, but He thinks about us? He knows my name? It's crazy, and it's amazing.

So, just a reminder for today...God knows your name.


"My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand. "
-Psalm 139: 15-18

Things That Don't Matter

Hey. So last Sunday at church, our pastor spoke about being Christ-like and I was like..."Whoa. I totally forgot all about that. I should think about that more in my week." So I did. Fast forward to this evening...I was at a party and my friend was being rather mean to me all night and then the opportunity came to be "mean" to her back and I figured since everyone else was doing it, what the heck?

Ha. Fail.

Yeah, so that wasn't a great decision. So much for being Christ-like, huh? However, in that, I did get something out of it...something that I've always known, but don't always remember:

It doesn't matter what other people are doing.


I like lists. So let's make a list, shall we?

Things That Don't Matter:
-What other people are saying
-What other people are doing
-How other people look
-What other people think of you

Things That Do Matter:
-What God thinks of you

I know, I'm sounding Sunday-schoolish..but it's true. Just because other people are being mean, or saying bad things, or whatever - doing anything that wouldn't glorify God - that doesn't mean it's acceptable for me to do it. We have to constantly remember that God sees everything, and when He judges us, He doesn't see anyone else. When looking at our own actions, we have to use Jesus as the standard, and not anyone or anything else. Just because you're "better than most people", doesn't necessarily mean you're glorifying God, you know?

So just this once, stop thinking about others and start thinking about yourself. Regardless of what other people are doing, what am I doing? Would it be acceptable to God?

Because that's what really matters.