Hmm

Starting to catch on to something.  With everything that has happened in the past few months, I'm learning not to find meaning in life, but to enjoy everything life has to offer.  I think that is what it means to truly live.  Sure, people go through difficult times, but that isn't to say that life has no meaning and that one is not living.  Living is learning and learning is living.  Everyday, you learn something new about yourself and about others.  If we seek out what God is trying to teach us everyday, then that is living.  Learning the day's teachings takes a day and if we stop there, one would think you would run out of things to learn.  But learning the day's teachings as well as applying them to life and following God's plans for your life is a lifelong process.  It appears that if you want to truly live, you have to follow your hearts inner desires.  For me, as a christian, thankfully that desire is for God and his wisdom and guidance.  Also, the desire to never become stagnant dwells deep within me.  With a little help from God and the friends he's provided to me, that desire is possible.  Never let go of what you believe in and your life will always be lived to its fullest.
Jp

What in the world is going on?

Well, I withdrew from Bridgewater and have started searching for a job.  Not going terribly well but I have some promising venues.  So now the choice comes...what to do with my life now that I'm not in school.

1. Go Backpacking - I can now get outside more often and explore in Virginia once I get an apartment.  I'll be able to sit down with different maps and plan hikes and eventually plan my thru-hike of the AT.

2. Spend Leisure Time - I can hang out with friends that I haven't been able to talk to, read good books, cook!, prepare meal lists, and really just spend time with myself and God.

3. Work - I can finally hold a full-time job when I get one.  I'll be able to have a stable income and not worry about if I have to be at class.

4. Work On Personal Stuff - I'll be able to really find who I am and what I truly enjoy and therefore be more driven in all of my relationships with various people.

I'll be excited to move into an apartment of my own with a job of my own and eventually have a dog and a good computer, but it all comes in steps.  One step at a time.  Now to find a job!

Back at last

Well, I'm back at Bridgewater for the next year at the moment.  Not completely excited about it but it'll just have to do for now.  God has His ways of placing you where He wants you for just the right time and just the right reasons.  Looking at the things that I enjoy doing, I'm looking to really go get some of the adventures that my life desires this year.  Should be good fun.  Never know what is in store when you just step blindly on to the paths of adventure.

Living is...?

It's been a little while since my last post.  Not only that but it has been an interesting while.  My most recent revelation into what living involves is risk.  Maybe there are some moments that are just telling you to take a risk.  Risk everything and anything you've worked for and take a step into the unknown future.  Step into something that God says is okay to do but all reason speaks against.  So what are we to do in those instances?  What CAN we do?  Maybe if we feel God pushing us, then we should just do it.  Maybe, we should just shut up, stop asking questions, and step...

Thoughts about God and Jesus

I'm intrigued by the scriptures I've read.  Romans 8 being the passage targeted in my thoughts, I think I may understand the trinity ever so slightly more.  Let me paint the background and then fill in the highlights.

"The Lord brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up.  The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.  He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.  For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them He has set the world." 1 Samuel 2:6-8

So God is in complete control.  How many times I have heard this and understood that God is in control.  Or did I?  Did I really understand and comprehend?  Or did I get arrogant and say, "I already know this stuff.  Why do I have to read this again?"  Deep down, I assumed that I knew all that this verse had to say.  Oh how wrong I was.  Now let's fill in the highlights of the elaborate painting set before us shall we?

Jesus was born of a virgin.  He was raised as an apprentice to his father, a carpenter.  He then was baptized and called by his Father in heaven.  He went out and preached to the poor and hungry.  Healed the sick and the blind.  Fed His people both physically and spiritually.  Then the pharisees got upset, condemned him to death, and had him crucified.  A story that most are familiar with.  Now the hardest part of a painting, making the highlights match the background.

God makes alive, right?  So every time a child is born, it is only thanks to God for doing it.  Not allowing it, but Himself doing it.  Jesus was born of a virgin.  This is God's decision to come to earth Himself.  He birthed himself without sinning against himself (virgin birth), then God showed patience in His own creation by allowing Himself to grow up as an apprentice.  Now, it's important to notice that God is capable of being everywhere at once here, because if you don't understand all powerful, then you humanize Him and say that He can't be in the heavens taking care of the earth AND fully in human form because you couldn't do it, which is absurd.  So God is still fully in heaven and fully on earth.  Again, He practices patience with his own creation, then he speaks to himself in his own creation saying "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17.  So He is pleased with the way He has constructed His earthly body.  He is still a son on earth because He birthed himself through Mary.  If we think back, he was also pleased with our creation at one point.  That was when He made Adam.  Continuing, He exalts His bodily incarnation through the baptism and then humbles Himself immediately by sharing with the poor and needy.  No surprise what Jesus (God) does when "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap."  It's nothing new!  God basically just gave himself another name and revealed Himself in human form while continuing to do what He has always done.  No wonder people were astonished when Jesus did things.  It's because they were witnessing God himself do things.

People say you have to see it to believe it.  Well, keeping Jesus' crucifiction in mind, most people still don't believe it when they see it.  How do we not see the things that are right in front of our faces:  And when we do see things, why do we question it beyond all reason?  What stupid sheep we are.  I'm glad God is my shepherd.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.  Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23

God's weird...

It's been an interesting week.  Started off with committing to reading God's word on a regular basis with one of the guys from Bible Study.  So glad for that friendship by the way.  Then went to church and talked to a few people.  One family that I was hoping to be staying with for the next month.  One person that I'm trying to meet up with.  Then a couple others from Bible Study.  Spent Monday AND Tuesday job searching and applying at ton's of places.  Monday started out with me checking on applications I'd turned in the prior week.  I ended up running out of gas in the middle of town.  Had someone from church (of all the people to be driving past) stop and help me get gas in my car.  Then finished checking on applications.  I then continued to submit many other applications in town.  Also found out I wasn't homeless later that day.  God really provided for me there.  Then Tuesday I checked on one application from the previous day and found out they had already hired people for all the open positions.  Moving on, I applied to several other places around.  Went to help my Bible Study leader pack up his moving van to get ready to leave for Florida.  Ended up getting food for the rest of the week from him.  Then God gave me a group of guys to chill with for the night.  Then Wednesday, I had company over, had a great conversation with the girlfriend, and made a late night dinner.  Thursday, wow.  What to say.  Got up early, read scripture, got online, moved out and moved into earlier mentioned family's house (aka the awesome Oates'), got an interview with Pennybacker's for tomorrow/today, went bowling, came back and hung with the awesome Oates', and now I can't sleep.

God is weird.  He gives and he takes.  I didn't go to a concert but gained a great conversation about God with the sig other, moved out and moved into new temp place, ran out of gas only to get a full tank, and God threw in a job interview for me after being essentially turned down at quite a few other places.  What a week for experiencing God's grace and seeing God's plans and timing revealed in a way that can only bring glory to him.  My lesson for the week might just be that living spontaneously with God in the lead is close to what it is to truly live to your full potential.  Now if I can just do that more often and figure out specifics of life.

P.S. The apostle Paul is awesome!  You should read about him.  :)

What To Do With The Time That Is Given To Us

After having a Lord of the Rings Extended Movie Marathon yesterday, I'm back to my average everyday life.  Not much is going on.  Just having lots and lots of time to think.  Right now I'm in the middle of some big decisions for what this year will look like for me.  The question I have to continually ask myself during these decisions is, "What do I want to do with the time that has been given to me?"  This being said, do I want to live a life that others will be happy with for me, a life where others may be confused but I will be content, or a life that is risky and full of excitement that will keep me alive for the rest of my life?  I would like to think that I'd take the life that will let me truly live and be alive for all of my days here on earth.  But right now, I must discern which decision will take me down that path.  As the Lord showed Paul and Silas the way to Macedonia, I pray that he shows me the path that my life shall pursue.