What I learned in College: Sophomore Year

If you missed the last blog post about freshman year, here it is:

http://remyeaton.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-i-learned-in-college-freshman-year.html

What I learned in College: Sophomore Year

No community, no ease of growth

After freshman year, I transitioned from a community chock-full of deep friendships and life-giving activities to good ol’ Goshen where I was born and raised. It’s a case of “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” As most college students have learned, summer presents you with two options: slip back into old habits or forge a new summer lifestyle. Summers can become spiritual black holes for many. You don’t pursue God as hard. You don’t pray as much. You don’t hang out with as wholesome friends as you used to. Yes, for a college kid, the summer can be like a journey through the spiritual desert. I learned that community is important and seeking God in the desert is even more so.

God isn’t tied to location

I went from college life to interning at General Electric. It was my first real job. I had no idea what I was doing. But I impressed the interviewers enough to get a 16 dollar an hour job at a well respected company. I loved working there—and the money was nice too. But it felt strange because it seemed as if the Jesus inside couldn’t get out. It’s like the workplace felt spiritually stale, dark, and cold. Was it me? Would I always have to suffocate the Holy Spirit to fit into the work place? Was God just not as prevalent in Louisville as he was at CSF and UK? Fortunately, all of these questions were answered when God burst through my stale religion and taught me that He isn’t confined to location anymore. Rather, He is hidden inside of people. This was the first of many lessons about who God was, not where God was. A friend of mine always said: “If you feel farther away from God, who moved? It wasn’t God. It was you.”

Lust enslaves, Jesus Frees

If you are a female, you might want to read this to know what men struggle with—or you might not. If you are a man, you might be all too familiar with this lesson. Sadly, you’ll hear an armada of men admit one common struggle: lust. For 7 years of my life, I struggled with lust. I was enslaved to lustful thoughts, pornography, masturbation, and the like. No one knew about it. There was no way I would admit that to my parents. There was no way I would admit that to my shift group at CSF. It was my little secret. The thing was, I thought every man was enslaved to it, but nobody ever talked about it. I just figured that everyone was like me. The idea of someone living free of pornography and masturbation seemed ludicrous to me at the time. That’s how deceived I was. For 7 years, I tried every method I could to stop. I wrote on my wrists. I kept a calendar of how often I did it to see if I could go longer and longer without it. I went to extreme lengths to stop, but all of my efforts failed. To everyone else, I was just a well-groomed, well-fed, good Christian boy. But to myself, I was a sniveling little hypocrite living a lie. The summer before sophomore year came around, and it was the same old, same old. I would ‘trip,’ pick myself up, go a little farther, and trip again. It was exhausting. Fortunately, God had a different plan for my life. One day, a friend of mine gave me a WWJD bracelet. I figured, “maybe I can keep this on my wrist to stop this destructive cycle.” I wasn’t very hopeful since every similar attempt up to this point had failed. But I went with it. That night, I cried out to God and asked Him to free me once and for all. I was done. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted this thing called “The Holy Spirit” to take over my life. I knew I couldn’t fix my life. I needed Him to. I wish I could tell you that fire came out of the ceiling fan and zapped me, but it didn’t. I went to bed tired and helpless. But a funny thing happened in the ensuing days. I was no longer regularly consumed with lustful thoughts. I no longer had unquenchable urges to look at pornography. It was like I had a confidence and power over it. Finally, I had come in full contact with the Holy Spirit. I was living and breathing anew. What I finally learned was that I couldn’t just incorporate Jesus into my life and hope it fixed me. I had to die and be born again. The old ‘me’ was no longer and the new had come. It was incredible.  I am not ashamed to talk about it now, because it is a testament to the power of God. I have never known anyone with sexual sin who had a thriving spiritual life. To the men out there, you have two options. Option A: Become a slave to the idea of a girl who will do anything you want to satisfy you sexually. Or, Option B: Become a slave to The Holy Spirit and, in some cases, find a girl who wants to make you more like Christ. People are betting millions of dollars that you pick Option A. I hope you’ll go with Option B. The Holy Spirit is a much kinder master. You can’t just wean yourself off sexual sin. You have to kill it. Use the sharp double-edged sword of the Spirit.

God uses relationships, even if they don’t end in marriage

Going into sophomore year, I was in a relationship with a very nice Christian girl. We had a fun time together but we had a lot to learn. Long story short, it didn’t work out. But even though it didn’t end in marriage like we thought it would, God still used the relationship to cultivate and grow us both. And because God was the center of it, there were no hard feelings or bad blood when it ended. Sure there was awkwardness and pain, but I was never angry at her for it not working out and I’m confident she could say the same. In fact, the break-up led into an even more growth. My best friend told me: “You know, that was a good relationship and all, but that was an even better break-up.” It just goes to show that God uses relationships, even unsuccessful romantic ones, to grow us and lead us closer to Him. At any point in time, you are either growing closer to God and getting farther away. There is no in between. Relationships—both joyful ones and painful ones—are one method God uses to get our attention. Another piece of wisdom: Date as if your girlfriend/boyfriend could end up marrying your best friend. You want to be respectful enough that if you were the best man in a wedding between that girlfriend and your best friend, it wouldn’t be (too) awkward.

Recreational reading

Growing up, I hated reading and writing. I was the math whiz. The thought of writing a blog post just for fun made me want to puke (ironic, I know). But something happened to me as I began to grow in Christ that year. I had a sudden urge to read Christian books. I churned through book after book, week after week. Video games? No thanks, I’ll be over there reading. I don’t know what changed, but I can say with confidence that reading books about both Jesus and great Jesus followers elevated my life to a whole new level. It started with Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Next thing I know I’m reading Tozer, Max Lucado, Chip Ingram, Spurgeon, Brennan Manning, Henri Nouwen, and so on and so forth. The truth is, reading Christian books reminds you of deep truths and puts you in fellowship with Christ. Books challenge the intellect and soften the heart. God wants us to have the faith of a child, but a mind that’s in its fittest, fighting form. If you want to grow in Christ, pick up a book. It can help you a lot more than trudging through the book of Deuteronomy. That said, don’t let your books supersede reading the Bible. That’s like trading the steak for the steak knife.

You don’t have to wait for permission to do something big

My sophomore year, God told me to do a campus wide clothes drive. I said, “Okay, but You have to help me.” Needless to say, we packed 25 huge home depot boxes and completely flooded the Lexington Refuge Office. I learned sophomore year that if I was bold enough, God was generous enough. We have this idea that we have to have permission to do something big for Christ, but that’s simply not true. Sophomore year, my friends and I used the resources at hand to organize a shoe drive (450 pairs of shoes collected), a clothes drive, Operation Christmas Child (35 boxes collected), Feed My Starving Children Bake Sale (2000 meals provided), led 50-100 people to Passion Conference (Michael Rundell more so than me) each year, and much more. Not only that, but we used the amazing house God gave us to hold huge potlucks (60-90 people everytime), weekly movie nights (15-30 people weekly), weekly prayer nights (10-30 people), and so on. Am I saying all of this to brag? Absolutely not! God has taught me (after many lessons) not to care what others think and that I am nothing without Him. I am recording all of this just to show what God does with those who are seeking to serve Him with boldness. God taught me that being a poor college kid does not exempt me from doing big things for the Kingdom of God. Don’t wait for someone else to ask you to do something big. Do it yourself. If you succeed, you get to see God rightfully glorified. If it fails, you learn and God is still glorified.

A post on leadership: http://remyeaton.blogspot.com/2012/09/leadership.html

Pride is a spiritual cancer

Because God was using me to do some pretty cool things—and I was single and not lusting for the first time in my life—I allowed some toxic pride to grow in my heart. Suddenly, I was all about how many people liked my Facebook status, how many people attended parties that I threw, how many girls liked me (if any), and any other measure by which a man could be proud of. I let my heart get away from me. I got lost in trying to woo girls and make as many friends as possible. Sure I was doing good things, but my heart was beginning to shrivel. Fortunately, God does what God does best: take me down a few notches so I stop looking down at other people and have to look up at Him. Pride is the beginning of every sin. When we start making things about ME, and not about HIM, our life quickly falls apart. It’s not until we can give up our self—the very thing that has made us tired and miserable for all these years—that we can truly find joy in Him. God brought me low so He could build me up right again. He sat me down and told me “Stop doing things for me and start seeking me. You can’t do anything to make me love you more and you can’t do anything to make me love you less. You could sit at the edge of a dock and drink sweet tea all day and I would be okay with that. Stop measuring yourself by what you accomplish. Measure yourself by how close you are to Me.”

We have to come to the point where we can be just as happy for someone who achieved something great as if we had done it our self. We should boast in Christ alone. When we truly give up our pride and become humble, we will bear the fruits of the spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control.

People are people, and they all respond to love

God taught me how to love people for who they are and not what they can do for me. Suddenly, I found myself writing letters to old high school friends to apologize for my past behavior and to tell them about Christ. Suddenly, I began seeking freshman from my high school so I could introduce them to life in a Christian community and not let them get lost in worldly obsession. Suddenly, I began serving in downtown communities and seeing needy people as friends, not projects. Suddenly, I began loving people regardless of whether they were thankful or not. Suddenly, I stopped talking about people behind their back and started encouraging them to their face (or Facebook). God taught me that we are all wired to respond to love. Regardless of whether someone is my coworker, my annoying neighbor, my local homeless man, my best friend, my teacher, or my nemesis, they are all people and they all respond to love.

The American Dream is lame

God opened my eyes to see that the American Dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. One method was Radical by David Platt. Another was seeing Haiti with my own two eyes. I no longer saw the world in opportunity and selfish gain, but instead, opportunity to give and selfless sacrifice. American Christians aren’t normal. We’re the weird ones. Most Christians around the world give all they have for the sake of the gospel. We complain when we don’t like the carpet color in our church. God started moving my heart to see the helpless, the lost, the hurt, the broken, the downtrodden, the widows, and the orphans. Suddenly, living a luxurious lifestyle wasn’t justified when millions of people struggle just to make it another day. Sometimes I’d like to ask God why there is so much brokenness when He can do something about it. But, I am afraid He would ask me the same question. We are the method God chose to heal this world. When we ignore the cry of the helpless, we mock the heart of Jesus. The Kingdom of God belongs to the lowest in this world. So this idea that we are supposed to be happy and to bless ourselves is a big and well advertised lie. We are supposed to be His and bless others.

Singleness isn’t a sickness

My second semester of sophomore year, I took a vow of singleness for the whole semester. I was serious about pursuing God and I didn’t want my fickle heart to get in the way. It’s amazing how you don’t realize how much you think about girls until you are not allowed to. Suddenly, I had nothing to think about. I never paid attention in class and I couldn’t think about girls, so now I had nothing worthwhile to think about except for God. I strongly recommend that every person who isn’t married to wrestle with the idea of singleness. In our culture today, we idolize romantic relationships. But Jesus flips everything on its head and tells us that our greatest romance is with Him, not each other. God taught me that I didn’t need a girl to be whole. In fact, it wasn’t until a relationship with a girl would help me glorify God more than singleness that one should come. Don’t let society convince you that you need another person to be satisfied. God is the one who satisfies. Your relationship status does not determine your worth. For about 1500 years, marriage was considered a cop-out to serving God. The strong were single. Let that challenge your idea of what serving God looks like. You don’t need to be married to serve God more.

More on that here: http://remyeaton.blogspot.com/2011/10/marriage-vs-singleness.html

Living the fasting life

Sophomore year, I learned how to fast. Not many Christians fast. It’s sort of a confusing topic for most Christians. But I found that when you take Jesus’ words that “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” seriously, He comes through. When I literally hunger for righteousness in my life and others, the Holy Spirit seems to move in power. Regardless of whether it’s because I am humbling myself or because of something I simply don’t understand, it creates results. If you’ve never fasted, give it a try. It will bless your life (and others) more than you think.

That’s all for my sophomore year. Check out my post on junior year: Coming Soon

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What I learned in College: Freshman Year

So I just graduated college. It’s glamorous and all, but now I am just sitting at home with nothing to do, so what better than to reminisce over the past four years of my life? College was an incredible time that shaped who I am today. I can guarantee you that I am not the same person I was four years ago. So grab a seat and some hot cocoa, because I am going to spend the next four blogs posts remembering all the lessons that God hammered into my head. I hope you can learn from what I learned (and didn’t learn). With that mediocre introduction, let’s start off with freshman year.

What I learned in College: Freshman Year

High school is silly

In high school, I thought I knew everything. I felt like a big boy. I could drive. I could socialize. I knew right from wrong. But it wasn’t till I left the enigmatic culture that plagues the halls of my high school that I realized that life in high school isn’t everything. Quite frankly, high school was silly, and I was even sillier. In high school, I cared all about what other people thought of me. In high school, pretty girls held me in the palm of their hand; they were like goddesses demanding my attention. In high school, I had this pseudo-confidence that I knew who I was and where I was going. In high school, I judged people who weren’t like me. I scoffed at people who weren’t Christian. I pointed the finger at people who weren’t making good life choices while I snuck out at 3 AM to TeePee my Youth Minister’s house. It didn’t take long after I left that drama-plagued palace to realize how childish and immature I was. If you are a high schooler and you are reading this, just know that life outside of high school is so much greater than you can imagine. If you are past high school and you are reading this, perhaps you can relate, or perhaps you still miss high school. Regardless, all I know is that who I am hates who I’ve been.

Everyone is just as insecure as you are

So the typical freshman comes into college with eyes wide open and a giddy excitement (or fear) for the prospect of finally being on their own. Move in day comes around, you say “TTFN: Ta Ta For Now!” to your parents, and boom, you are a freshman in college. It’s time for K-Week and you skip that silly K-crew meeting to get some free food sponsored by Alpha Beta Kappa Kappa Deltacron. Everywhere you go, there are “kids” (dawning blue lanyards and confused faces) scurrying around in this new college atmosphere. If you look closely, you can see a senior rolling their eyes in the background. But now almost everyone around you is a new face—minus the high school friends you manage to cling to.

When I was a freshman, it felt like everyone around me knew what they were doing; they were walking tall. I did my best to play the confident college kid, but quite frankly, I had no idea what I was doing. No one did. And here lies the lesson: While it seems like everyone else has it all together, they don’t. They are just as insecure as you are. And once you figure this out, making friends becomes less of a performance. Life becomes less of a performance. No matter how confident someone looks, they are full of either false confidence or crippling insecurity. Once you learn that everyone is dealing with crap just like you, you can begin to love them as they are, and not who they are pretending to be. God’s children are the light of the world because they see people how God’s see people and they treat them as such.

Don’t isolate yourself

We’ve all seen it before: the invisible college student. There are some students who come to college but never branch out and talk to anyone. Many of them resort to driving home every weekend. Others stick with high school friends because they are comfortable. While some people get along just fine with these antics, one of the wisest things to do in college is to get outside of your comfort zone and surround yourself with people who aren’t carbon copies of you. We all get comfortable in our little bubbles, but as I learned later in college, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. If you are stuck in a pit of isolation or a stale friend group, you will not grow.

On a more spiritual side, isolation leads to a Christian’s downfall. If you study demonology and the antics of the enemy, you’ll discover that isolation is the first tool that keeps us from God. When we don’t join the spiritual fellowship with others, our soul grows hard. Don’t isolate yourself. Please. If you don’t know anyone or need someone new to hang out with, Facebook me. I’ll come hang out with you myself.

First semester: horizontal social expansion, Second semester: vertical social expansion

Your first semester of college, you meet a bajillion people. You could say you expand your social horizons horizontally: you get to know a little about a lot of people. However, second semester, you expand your social horizons vertically: you get to know a little people a lot. While a college student typically meets a wide array of people their first semester, they really narrow down their social group and get to know a few people really well. Both of these times are important. First semester, you get to survey that social landscape and see where you could fit in. Second semester, you typically find that group of somebodys and really watch your friendships grow. Enjoy both periods of your life. Don’t yearn for one while you’re in the other. God will change you social circles more than once while you are in college, I guarantee it.

A pretty face is not a pretty heart

As a guy, coming to UK is the promise land. Babes…everywhere. There are beautiful girls wherever you walk. I remember I was such a goober that I bought a pair of sunglasses just so I could look at the pretty girls walk by without them noticing. I was a maniacal son of a gun. As a high school boy who had never dated anyone, this was my chance. The odds were in my favor. If you can’t tell at this point, I didn’t think “walking in the flesh” was necessarily a bad thing.

Fortunately, God kept me from harm. What I quickly learned was physical beauty was worth little in the grand scheme of things. Just because she has pretty face does not mean she has a pretty heart. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. I remember numerous times where I would admire a girl from a distance and then one day I would actually interact with them to find out that they are sinful just like me. Quite disappointing really. Fortunately, God taught me that a proverbs 31 woman will bless you more than a Victoria Secret Model.

For you gals reading this post, the opposite is true as well. I’ve noticed that some of the most worthy guys are quiet, shy, and unassuming. Don’t judge a man by their appearance, but by their character, their community, and their heart.

Parties are just a mirage

All through college I saw all these awesome depictions of college parties and how wild they were. So I went with some guys to traipse about State Street to find an experience like the ones in the movies. We were clueless and people could tell we were freshman in an instant.

After a few experiences with parties, I quickly realized that while on the outside it appeared like everyone was having a fun time, on the inside everyone was just looking for something that would fill them up. People would find themselves “going out” every night to indulge in all sorts of earthly pleasures only to find that they needed to go bigger and harder the next time. It was all really quite shallow. What I had thought was the pinnacle of social interaction turned out to be a hollow sham of hungry people searching for something they couldn’t find.

Christian brotherhood is worth more than gold

I came into college knowing a fellow named Zach Motes from High School. He was a really nice guy—and quite popular—so I figured getting to know him couldn’t hurt. We chilled a little bit over the summer and it was a blessing to have a familiar face around campus. Zach invited me to a thing called Wildcats at Worship. I grew up in the church. I was comfortable at church. Why not continue the trend? We went and met a guy named Matt Ledford. Long story short, Matt got us plugged into a growth group (called shift groups now) at the Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) with another guy named Reid Wahlbrink (REIDDDDD). I started going to this little shindig and I found myself oddly attracted to the fellowship I shared with this group of guys. Every week, we studied a book called Crazy Love and grew together in laughter and wisdom. My participation continued on to meet a few other guys—Michael Rundell, Joseph Thacker, CJ Carter—who I really enjoyed hanging out with. We all rallied round each other and began finding a friendship that was deeper than anything in high school.

Through fellowship with other Christian men, I experienced so much of the fellowship that the bible depicts. As iron sharpens iron, we sharpened one another. We all got involved at CSF and quickly found that community, specifically community amongst the same gender, is something that gives life. There is something about the Holy Spirit that connects believers together in unity. We are all part of one body. When you meet someone who shares the love for God and the love of God, a beautiful friendship arises.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” 
― C.S. Lewis

“What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.” 
― C.S. Lewis

Again, for my female readers, the same applies. They say “You are the company you keep,” so keep good company.

You can actually be friends with girls

In high school, I was “friends” with plenty of girls, but I would never call them up and say let’s hang out for the sole purpose of enjoying each other’s friendship. Once I got to college, I learned that you can actually be friends with a girl without romantic interests involved. Now some romantic interests may arise over time, or spring about here or there, but a guy and girl can actually enjoy each other’s friendship without sexual attraction. Crazy, right?

Freshman year I found myself sitting at Commons at a table full of girls… and actually enjoying the conversation. I know, I am as surprised by that as you are, but it happened. In fact, being friends with a girl is really rewarding. Never in my life had I ever looked forward to hanging out with a girl I wasn’t interested in romantically. It challenged me. It taught me a whole bunch about people who are different than me. It made me thankful that I could have sisters in Christ, not dating prospect, but actual sisters. But I have to admit, I felt pretty macho being the only guy at a table of girl. It got to my head. Fortunately for me, God has a way of knocking me off my high horse onto a soft bedding of humility.

There is no GPA in heaven

Finals week is the scourge of the college freshman’s life. All their life, freshmen have been taught to fear it. We are told that if you don’t do well on finals, you won’t get good grades, then you won’t have a good GPA, then you won’t get a job, and then you’re screwed. But life is more than a GPA and God is greater than academic standing. Francis Chan taught me that worry and stress aren’t in God’s plan for our life. When I am consumed by my problems – stressed out by my life, my family, my GPA – I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice.  In other words, that I have a “right” to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.

Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what is happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it’s ok to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional.  Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.  They declare our tendency to forget that we’ve been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won’t be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God’s strength, our problems are small, indeed.

Don’t let school get in the way of your education

An old friend of mine gave me this advice. It is certainly true. You may go to college for the technical purpose of getting a degree so you can get a job. But there is a more worthy purpose at hand. At college, you are placed in an incubator of thought, feelings, ideas, challenges, people, and changes. You will grow in college. Do your best not to let your studies inhibit your personal growth. In fact, for most of my college career, I forgot that I was even there to study computer science because I was so busy learning about God, people, and how to live a worthy  and joy filled life.

You don’t have to find a spouse in college

I came into college with the idea that you have 4 years to find a mate in college then you’re screwed. Where I got this idea, I don’t know. Fortunately, God dismantled this lie in my heart, because for the first year of my academic career I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off looking for a girl that could actually tolerate me. Now, the older and wiser me advises the stupid freshman me to not even date freshman year. There is so much learning to be done in the first year of college; dating someone is not one of those learning experiences. Besides, even if you did find your “soul mate”, you would have to wait 3 stinkin’ years to marry them. As a man in the middle of an engagement, I can tell you that will be torture. Don’t do it. Please. Your older and wiser self will thank me later.

That’s it for freshman year. Stay tuned for the next three posts. I’m sure they will be out shortly considering I have no job and no school to fiddle with.

Sophomore Year: remyeaton.blogspot.com/2012/12/sophomore-year.html

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Child's Play

Daddy

I call God “daddy”. For the longest time, when I heard people call Him that, I was a little freaked out. I mean, what kind of person has the guts to belittle God like that? He’s not your daddy, He’s GOD. But, fortunately for me, GOD taught me a little lesson about who He is. I used to think that if I didn’t treat God with respect—if I didn’t “fear the LORD”—then I wouldn’t be pleasing in God’s sight. Now I know that while God is scary to those who don’t know Him, He is delightful to those who do. I used to think that if I didn’t read my bible, and pray, and serve the poor, and be a good little boy, then God wouldn’t bless me as much. Now I know God just wants me to draw closer to Him. I used to think the reason I was on this planet was to be His servant. Now I know the reason I am on this earth is to be His son. You see, I told God: “I don’t want to call you daddy because I don’t want to bring you down to my pitiful level.” God told me: “I already came down to your level so I could bring you up to mine.” … Thanks Daddy.

A Father’s Love

When has a father ever needed anything from his child? Why do we think we HAVE TO do something for God? I am not a slave of God; I am a son. I am not serving the Lord; I am in love with the Lord. You are His beloved child by the blood of Christ! His love must flow into you before it can flow through you. "Love others as you love yourself." If you want to love others like God loves them, you need to love yourself as God loves you. God does not see you as dirty, unworthy, evil, or foolish. It’s the enemy who wants us to believe that God does not love us unconditionally. The truth is: Not believing that God loves you because you don't feel loved is like not believing the sun is hot because you don't feel the sunshine. He is our Father and He loves to love His Children. When we can finally start seeing God as our daddy and not our boss, we'll be delighted to worship Him always.

It brings God pleasure to bless us. Have you ever thought of God looking at you and your life with all your baggage, your junk, and your ups and downs, and then saying, "I want to be generous to you. I long to give to you just what would make you joyous—not because you deserve it, but because there's something about who I am that would bring me infinite joy to express that kind of generosity to you." God is good! While it's true that God's plans do not always work out in the ways we would prefer, it is amazing how often we focus on the relatively few difficult circumstances of our lives and tend to forget his repeated, loving acts of deliverance that occur so regularly. Sometimes life will squeeze you. GOOD. Let what’s inside come out. If you are filled with God's love, it will come out. If not, whatever it is needs to be removed. We get the love that Jesus gets; take some time to reflect on what that means.

A Kid’s Kingdom

There are no experts in the Kingdom of God, only children. We aren’t all students of a theological topic. We are children of adoring Father. We aren’t servants of a glory-hungry king. We are children of the throne. Sometimes I feel like there are SUPER-CHRISTIANS. Sometimes I look at others and wish I could do miracles like him or know the scriptures like her or be a godly as them. In fact, some people probably thing I am a super Christian because I post every possible thought I have about Him. But the truth is, I am not a super-Christian—they are not super-Christians—God is an Amazing God! It’s the love of the father that empowers his children. We are all on the same playing field. Some children of God may be older and wiser, but they are still your brothers and sisters nonetheless. So don’t look at others and wish you were like them. God doesn’t want you to be like Jon Weece or Francis Chan or John Piper or Holy McPreacherton. God wants you to be who He made you to be. A lie the enemy gets us to believe is this: “I won’t ever be as spiritual as them. I am just not a spiritual person. That gift of the Spirit isn’t for me. I’m just a normal Christian, I can’t heal or prophecy or love that person.” You don’t have to do ministry to feel affirmed. You are affirmed through Jesus.

A Child’s Will

As Christians we are continually asking God to do as He wishes in our life. But Christ also promises that if we ask according to His will, we will receive. So it seems we are striving to get our desires and requests to match up with God’s desires and requests. Once our will (for ourselves, for other people, for the world) and God’s will come together, it shouts the loudest praise and creates the most powerful life. An interesting image struck me the other day. Whenever I am praying “Father give me this or give me that” it is always so I can give it back to Him in the form of glory, praise, sacrifice and offering. It is as if I am asking God for twenty dollars to buy him a gift. I have nothing and I can give God nothing that He has not already given to me. It’s another image of child-like faith. The Father says: “Son, I love you. What would you like me to give you?” and we respond “Father, I love you. Give me some resources or some opportunities to bless you.” It’s a crazy thought and it really struck me. God is an amazing Father and He gives us so many gifts to enjoy. Indeed, the best gift is the gift of loving Him back.

How do I know if I am doing this right?

Many times we begin to panic, wondering if our actions are according to his will. Am I supposed to go there? Am I supposed to work here? Am I supposed to date this person? Am I supposed to be a part of this church? Am I supposed to eat this ham sandwich? Are my curtains supposed to be green or red? Too often we feel like we need confirmation for every single action we take. There is a difference between listening to God and trying to fill in the silence with His voice.

The Father’s Drawing Board

Perhaps an analogy will help. With any analogy, it will break down in parts, but I think this idea makes a good point:

            The Father gives his child a piece of paper and some drawing utensils. He wants his child to draw him something. The child responds “What should I draw? What colors should I use? Can I use this shape? Are there certain colors you like better than others? Can I ask someone else how to do it?  How much time do I have to draw?” But the thing is, the Father is not nearly as concerned as what the child draws, but instead his motivation behind drawing it. No matter what the child draws, the Father is going to slap that thing on the fridge and say it is the best picture He has ever seen. As long as the child does not start drawing on the walls or drawing on other people, or stabbing the dog with the pencil, the Father will be pleased. As long as the child draws for the Father and not to become the next big artist or impress the kid across the room, the Father will be delighted. Maybe we need to stop worrying about exactly what we are doing and start making something beautiful for our Father with the materials He has given us.

I Wanna Be Like Daddy

You've always heard that your sin put Christ on the Cross. But the cross wasn't met to expose our sin but remove it. He paid the price to get His children back. We are becoming the image of God again. The very reason you are on this earth is to look more and more like Him. Who is He? Love. I tend to have all sorts of issues because I don't have love. God doesn't have issues. He is love.

I paid the price I did for the car I'm driving because I thought it was worth it. I wanted it. I felt like I was getting a good deal. God wouldn't pay the price for you if He didn't think it was worth it. He wanted you. He likes you. You are loved. All you have to be is His beloved. All you have to do is become more like Him. If that means failure, then let it be so. God will complete His work in you.

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