Keeping Christ

It will be another 11 months before the phrase "Keep CHRIST in Christmas" becomes a daily occurrence, and the fb pages, bumper stickers, tshirts, and billboards are going to be plastered with it. Articles about the "War on Christmas" will be shared, facebook pages will call for a "Rally", your friends and family will discuss just how crucial it is to refrain from saying "X-mas" even though X is the symbol of the Christ. We will all get up in airs over the day December 25th and what the old church chose to have it represent. 

Now, hear me out: That's great and all, but allow me to challenge you to do something better that debate the origins of the tree, the materialistic nature, the lack of charity. You see, Jesus didn't ask for Christmas. He didn't ask that we do all this, all He wanted done as remembrance among ourselves was communion. His outreach to the world, the showing of His grace to the masses, was supposed to be our daily lives. It was meant to be an every day occurrence, for those who loved Him to show His love to others, with their prayers, gifts, time, and above all, the way we treat people. He didn't say "Do all this around Easter and maybe at Thanksgiving and definitely at Christmas time."  He didn't ask for any of the hype we endure each winter. He asked for every day. Keeping Christ in Christmas is awesome, but the reality is that the true battle we are up against is keeping Him in our every day life. Outreach doesn't end Dec. 26. Charity doesn't. Giving love doesn't. The church made it, the world commercialized it, we falsely fight for it, but the truth is that it isn't as big a deal to God as what we think it is. He doesn't want a birthday party. He wants us to live in a constant state of joy, thanksgiving, and love. Christmas is nothing compared to what Jesus really asked of us, to follow and live as He did, every. single. day.

So if you really want to "keep Christ" do it as He asked you to, always.

Thrive

Go take a walk. Not right now, but tomorrow, or later today. Get outside, breathe deep, and just walk. No headphones. No distractions. Just you, the world around you, and God. We forget that we are our mind, body, and spirit, and even if you're a genius but never exercise, your body will crumble, and even if you're a gym-rat but never pray, your spirit will suffer. We have to take care of ourselves. YOU have to take care of yourself. Redbulls, poptarts, computer screens, and praying less than 30 seconds a day is not living. It's barely surviving when God wants you to THRIVE. Have you ever even felt that? Thriving? I have - and it didn't come from money, or ease of life, it came from seeking Him, taking care of my self, walking and praising every day, and just learning to be healthy in all I do. Thriving is possible. Pray, and your choices will be clearer and your faith stronger. Get out and move and your hormones will level and your sleep will be deeper. Eat well and your skin will shine. Eat the Word and your life will shine. It's all related. Start taking care of yourself. You're one of His most favored creations.

Whether in Word or Deed

Do everything as unto God. How you speak with the grocery bagger; how you speak to your child's teacher; how you talk to your husband, family; how you do your job; when you clock in vs when you actually start working; how you drive; how you spend your time, money, and talents; how you raise your kids; how you speak to your kids now that they are no longer kids; etc etc etc. Do EVERYTHING as unto God. In excellence. In kindness. In meekness. In confidence. In grace. In patience. In love. Do EVERYTHING as unto GOD.


Col. 3

1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.b 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Reboot

I want to apologize, for not being on here a lot, but I know why. God wants us to serve, that is the number one mandate for Christians. But - we also need to find time to seek Him, alone. My mother works now, so I do all the errands, and my gym is 20 min from my house (its really nice, so I don't mind the gas cost to go the 8miles to get there.) The times when I'm alone in my car are my worship hours. I turn on Air1 Radio and I just sing. It takes spiritual energy to get on here and post to you all, and if TonY ever breaks his phone I might actually get a chance to be the first to reply to a page message (jk, lol.) We sometimes need to recharge our spiritual batteries.

Our mom's know this, about needing that "me time." My mom has even said, "If you have a baby that's crying, for no immediate reason, and you are at your wits end: leave the room. Make sure they are safe, but remove yourself. Put on headphones, whatever it takes, and calm down. When you are back to center, then you can go take care of the baby, and have a better mindset about it. She'll even sense you're calmer and it will pacify her."

People of all ages need those "let it cry while I get back to center" moments. There might be things in your life that you know you need to do (ie: me get on here and talk to all you awesome little fireballs for God) but if there is something in you (other than laziness) that is keeping you from it, then address it. God will bring situations to our awareness so we will do something about them. That's not to say He wants it done this instant, you have to know His timing.

His timing isn't just about actual events, revelations of the mind and heart count too. He will always come through when He sees fit, and we have to be patient. Even if that baby is crying, you have to be ready to comfort him/her. Same with life. Even if things around you are falling to pieces (or in my case, the house is a wreck and you have 24 hours to clean it, paint a bathroom, and make 3 meals premade for the weekend) you need to get yourself center in Him before you grab the spackle and the paint and go to town on the shattered walls.

Reminds of this song I used to listen to almost every day (the CD's WOW 2000 to WOW 2007 were my childhood.)

Welcome to this heart of mine
I've buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I've made
Inside of me
Come decorate, Lord
Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain
Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded

Come inside this heart of mine
It's not my own
Make it home
Come and take this heart and make it
All Your own
Welcome home

Right to Ourselves: Ego

An outsider looking into the current state of the population of most first-world countries would conclude, given the evidence found in everything from magazines promising perfect bodies by summer time to the number of social media accounts boasting our latest adventures, that we are a very egotistical society. In fact, we are not. Even if ego were the popularly defined belief of self-superiority, then the evidence of our image worshiping society does not support its existence, but lack of it. Therefore, this cannot be ego’s true nature.

            The “selfie” is a prime example of this misinterpretation. Take for instance teenagers on social media. As of May 2013, the average teen on the popular social media site Facebook has over 300 friends, according to a study titled “Internet Project” by PewResearch. The same study showed that 91% of the photos posted by these users are of themselves, taken by themselves, thus the term “selfie.” This practice has become so common that the Oxford Dictionary even added selfie as a legitimate word in the English language as of last year. One would think this practice of teen social media users immortalizing images of themselves so frequently would mean an overabundance of ego, yet PewResearch determined that, “teen Facebook users will manipulate their profile and timeline content in order to garner the maximum number of “likes,” and remove photos with too few “likes.”” The act of removing a picture solely because it did not reach the level of popularity desired is a strong indicator that this perceived ego brushing practice is in fact a well-disguised lack of self-esteem.

            A much darker reality stems from this lack of ego. Self-harm is the act of causing yourself intentional pain through cutting, burning, hair-pulling, or scratching, and can be as deadly as self-poisoning and intentionally breaking bones. The Truth Hurts conducted a study focusing on these things, and concluded that these symptoms and disorders have an onset in young people as early as twelve years old and as many as one out of every fifteen teens in the United Kingdom is affected by some form of self-harm. The study, published in Mental Health Practice, confirmed that, “It is very common for young people who self-harm to have low self-esteem, to lack confidence and to have a poor self-image.”

Has our misinterpretation of the term ego led to this? We live in a society that looks down upon those who boast in themselves, yet we accept a lack of self-confidence as the status quo by making the search of it through superficial “likes” as normal. In turn, we reap the deadly repercussions of a youth who believe themselves to be without self-worth.

A society that has lost this sense of self as described in the novella, Anthem, published in the United States in 1946 and written by famous novelist and philosopher, Ayn Rand. The novel’s working title prior to publication was “Ego,” and her work does a good job of personifying the destruction that comes when the word is misused, and worse, forgotten. She ends the novel by stating,

“And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which will not die, should we all perish in battle. The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory.

The sacred word:

EGO.” (p.128.)

It is true that ego is the belief of one’s personal worth. It is not self-righteousness, neither is it the thought of your own superiority, nor is it the act of self-worship. A lack of ego and its widespread misinterpretation has led to a pandemic of people who are afraid to believe in themselves and their right to self-appreciation. Ego is in fact the one thing our society lacks. It is the personal conviction that your life, your actions, and your beliefs are worth something, and in turn, you are worth your own existence, effort, and faith.