9.11 : The Day Things Changed

When you think about 9.11 what comes to mind first? All the lives that were lost? Where you were when you found out? How you felt? The things you saw on the news? How America reacted?

That day was a day like any other for me. I was still in elementary school, and I remember my dad coming to pick me up, and I remember we were listening to everything on the radio. The rest of the day I don’t recall, until that night when my mom, dad and I were watching everything on the news. I didn’t completely understand, but I remember very vividly sitting next to my dad as tears rolled down his face as footage was shown of people jumping out of the building.

Over the next few days, through the pain of the faces on TV, through the beginning of the clean up and the search and rescue of everyone who was in the building, there was a coming together. As Americans we bonded together and we became ONE NATION.

Where has that gone? Not the wreckage and the disaster, but our hope, our one nation.

We have become so divided of political agenda’s, over racial tensions, over gun control, over Starbucks or not, over PC or Mac, over sugar or Splenda, over everything.  What has happened to us? What has happened to our country?

We have become ill-informed, we have become more and more naive to the outside world, we have lost our pride, we have lost our heart.

But there is hope. Never forget 9.11

To Touch, And Be Touched

 

We don’t like to get to close to people. We like our little bubble and get upset when people creep their way into OUR bubble.

Guess what, that’s when we lose our connection with people. We make it about us, instead of making it about them.

We forget how important it is for people to feel our presence, and especially to feel God’s presence. There are people in this world who have never been touched by that presence. There are people who society has deemed as untouchable.

When Jesus healed the leper in Matthew 8, JESUS TOUCHED HIM. He made an effort to touch the man who had not been touched by the world. He made an effort to connect with the man who no one would even go near. He made an effort to break down His personal bubble and reach out for the one in need. He knew what the man was looking for.

So where do we fit in with that? There isn’t anybody walking down the street with leprosy, but there are people everywhere who are hurting, and sick, and beaten down, and who the world has thrown away, who are longing to be touched by God, who are longing to be touched by His spirit, who are longing for acceptance from another person. That is where we fit in.

I challenge you, as you go through your week, touch someone’s life who is hurting, who doesn’t have it all together, who doesn’t feel like they are important or needed.

relentless

 

Why does the church become so divided, when we want the same thing? Why do we become selfish, when we have the same desires?

I believe at the root of ourselves, we all want at least a little good. I believe we want to grow the Kingdom of Heaven, we just don’t always know how.

We become selfish and think we know everything. When will we get tired of that? Not tired of that with others, but with ourselves.

Selfishness is definitely not found in only the church, it is everywhere. It is human nature to be selfish, and it starts as early as when we were babies, when we wouldn’t share a toy.

Guess what, IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU, AND ITS NOT ABOUT ME. It is about every person out there that is looking for something more.

We all, especially myself, tend to think we know everything about everything, but let me assure you, none of us do, none of us.

Lately I have been one to complain, to get aggravated because I have had to work more, agitated because something wasn’t done the way I wanted it done, fed up because I was tired. It has come to a point to where I didn’t even realize it until I took a step back, and saw what I was doing, without even meaning to.

We have to make our lives a relentless pursuit after what God has for us. We have to surrender ourselves for His purpose.  We have to abandon our selfishness, and abandon our own desires, and make it more about people.

“Be relentless and then you’ll break through.” – Julie Brown

Famous Last Words (9/5/13)

Babel

The Sky Is Never Grey

Genesis 11 tells the story Babel. The people of the city decided to build a tower, the tower of Babel. This tower was intended to reach Heaven. On the outside it seemed to honor God. But the people of Babylon didn’t build this tower as a form of praise, they built it to make a name for themselves. God came to see what they had built and quickly saw past their performance. 

He saw that their hearts weren’t in the right place and took away what they had wanted so desperately to keep. God changed their languages and scattered the people across the earth. They no longer could understand each other and the world no longer had only one language. If they tried to communicate with each other it sounded like “babble”. 

Our God is all-knowing. He sees past all acts that you put on. We all fall guilty…

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