living to love: I see people making an idol of their future spouse and being...
I see people making an idol of their future spouse and being completely consumed with getting married it literally just irks me.
Why waste all my time daydreaming and setting my heart on tomorrow, when God’s desire for me is to simply be faithful and obedient to where He has me and what He’s calling me to today?
Yes, I want to get married someday; that would be beautiful and such a gift. But if God is more glorified in my singleness, then yay! I’m all for it. For real.
I don’t want to be distracted; I want to be devoted. I feel like sometimes we sing, “Bind my wandering heart to Thee” but when we wander, it’s like… well, I thought they were amazing but it turns out You are more so and now I realize it. Sorry. But to bind our hearts to His means it’s joined, fused, interlocked. One and the same, together. Think of what would happen if God’s desires to become one with ours. How often do our desires conflict with His? Isn’t this our struggle often times?
This is not a choice you make: “I’m going to be content in being single!” Haha. Yeah, you go ahead and try that and see how that works out. No, this only happens by God working in you. It’s when you surrender your heart to God and spend your time searching out His. It’s when He takes your heart and engages it, exchanges it with His heart.
And then you will be so full of joy and peace you won’t know what to do with yourself!! Instead of investing all your time thinking about one day loving one special person, think of all the people God already has placed around you that you can love and love the heck out of them. Let His love overflow out of you. Be filled up daily by simply fixing your eyes on Jesus and abiding in His love.
What about preparing for getting married? What about praying for my future spouse? What about… Stop. No matter how prepared you try to be, you always are going to need to depend on God in your relationships. It’s not going to be perfect. You should pray for them, but also trust God is taking care of them. He is able. And the best preparation happens by letting God do it. He knows how to ready a bride.
Everyone wants to hear about how God has someone special for them and to wait for that day and spend this time preparing for your future spouse. I want to encourage you to pour out your whole life to Christ right now and just watch what He makes of it.
Amen!
I wonder what other countries think about us. “Oh, cool, your biggest issue is two people loving each other, same sex or not. Our biggest issue is everyone killing each other, same sex or not.”
Seriously first world problems.
“He volunteered as tribute to die for our sins on the cross! He will forever be willing to take the place for our wrong doings! Oh how amazing He is!!”
*This was on my newsfeed.
This cannot even compare to how gruesome the actual crucifixion was. Read this and begin to understand how desperately and radically God loves you.
After the trial, Jesus was stripped of His clothing beaten with a flagrum, a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with dozens of pieces of broken glass, metal, and bone attached to the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with fill force 39 times across Jesus’ shoulders, back and legs.
As the blows continue, they cut deeper into subcutaneous tissues and produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue.
Wet with His own blood, they throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a sceptre. A small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns is pressed into His scalp. The soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp.
When they tire of their sadistic game, the heavy beam of the cross is then tied across His shoulders, but the weight, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He falls and the rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance.
Finally, the legionnaire drives a large iron nail through the wrist and pulling his arms an extra 6 inches, in order to dislocate them, nails the other wrist to the beam. The cross is then lifted in place at the top of the posts and the titulus reading “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” is nailed in place. With both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each. As he pushes Himself upward to avoid the stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail through His feet.
As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber.
The compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues and the markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps, “I thirst.” While it is often depicted that Jesus was brought a sponge of water to drink, it is more than likely that they provided him with a soiled sponge, used to wipe Roman excrement at the local bath house.
As he passed away, he cursed no one, he loved fully, and he stayed committed to this wretched, yet necessary blood shed, so that our undeserving souls could meet Him in eternity. This is how much our God loves us.
Perspective
You look around when something tragic happens, and you wonder how people can get so caught up in things that don’t matter in the big picture. You see people worried about things like photoshoots, and homework and sports..and it all seems so trivial. Do they not see how turned around everything is? How it just took one second. One phone call and while my heart stopped, my world shifted upside down. What am I doing with my life that even really matters in the end?
May 29, 2006
June 18, 2006
Dec. 20, 2006
March 18, 2007
April 26, 2007
June 28, 2007
Aug. 13, 2007
Jan. 3, 2008
Aug. 6, 2008
Nov. 20, 2008
These dates all have something in common. They’re etched on tombstones, marking the end of a life simply because another driver decided that one text message or phone call couldn’t wait.
I’m writing this because I don’t think that we’re getting it. I don’t think that teenager and adults who text and drive are aware of what is going on…what is at stake. I’ve asked people why they text and drive, and here are the typical responses.
“I’m a really good texter. I don’t even have to look at my phone.”
“I’ve been driving for a long time, I can handle talking on a cell phone.”
“Five seconds is not going to matter, especially if there’s no one else on the road.”
But say those five seconds do matter. Say you crash and hit a two-year-old girl and her mother. Killing the two year old. What if you had to live with knowing that this little girl was lying lifeless in the middle of the street with her mother watching her take her last breaths and the only reason is because you just had to send that text message? Are you willing to carry that with you the rest of your life?
Maybe you’re really stubborn and still don’t think it matters. What if that two year old was your little brother or sister and they lay in a casket right now because of someone who couldn’t put down the cell phone? And you just keep thinking to yourself..’He’d still be with me if only they would have put the phone down. None of this pain would of happened if they wouldn’t have sent that text.’ Is that text still worth it now?
The misconception with people who text and drive is that they think they’re invincible. You’re not invincible; you’re delusional to think that you can send text messages while driving and it not matter. 19 year old, Kaitlyn Dunaway thought she’d be okay to send one text message. And then she killed that two year old girl.
Texting and driving is selfish. There is nothing important enough to risk stealing someone else’s life. Pull over if you have to send a text. If for no one else, have the decency to put the phone away for the little girl in the next car. For the mother in the next lane. For the best friend in your passenger seat. For your little brother. For the man walking down the street. For my sister. By texting and driving you endanger everyone, not just yourslef. Learn from Kaitlyn’s mistake.
It takes about 5 seconds to send a text message, but only takes one second to change your life forever. For Kaitlyn it took those five seconds with her eyes down to open her eyes forever to the dangers of texting and driving. And her life along with the family of the little girls’ life will never be the same because of it. All I can do is hope that the 30 seconds you spent reading this article will open your eyes to the dangers of texting and driving, so that five seconds sending a text message won’t have to.
