God is like drugs

So this past week I got my wisdom teeth taken out. It was one of the most painful experiences I have ever had, the doctors put a hole in my sinus and had to stitch it up along with the holes that were created from removing my teeth. Despite all the pain, there was one good thing - vicodin. The oral surgeon prescribed to me to this miracle drug to relieve me from my pain. In a sense God is like drugs. See we are stuck in a world filled with sin, and because of that sin, pain. The beauty of it all is that God has forgiven our sins when we ask Him to be our personal Savior. One other thing that my drugs did for me was they made me forget all about Friday and most of Saturday. It says in Psalms 103:12:

He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.

When God forgives us and removes our sins from us, He forgets about the wrong we have done just like I forgot about all the pain from Friday and Saturday. God is like drugs.

Perform: Mistakes

So I was at a play/program thing tonight that had a variety of different performances. Everything from acting to singing to playing guitar. Sounds about like a talent show right, well I saw something in those fifteen different acts that I do not really see very often. I saw perseverance. They messed up a time or too in their skit or performance, but even though they messed up, they kept going and did something about their mess up. I think a lot of times we mess up in a big way in, and in our minds we say, "I never want to do that again!" But then two days later, we find ourselves doing that very thing. Why is that? I think Psalm 13 sums it up quite well. Psalms 13 was written by David right after he committed adultery and murder. It says:

For the choir director: A psalm of David.
O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the light to my eyes, or I will die. Don't let my enemies gloat, saying, "We have defeated him!" Don't let them rejoice at my downfall. But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he has been so good to me.

In verses five and six there is a tense change, it goes from present to future. "But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me." That tense change shows Davids steps to move through his adversity and persevere.

Good Samaritan

At one of my Upwards Basketball games this week we were in the last period and there was a pretty big collision in the middle of the lane and a bunch of the girls went down. One of the girls from my team that was still standing reached down to a player from the other team and helped them up. After that happened I no longer cared about what was going on in the basketball game, I was too proud of her actions on the court, her willingness to serve and love on people when they were down. I learn more from those kids than they do from me. She reminded me of the the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that parable a man is beaten stripped and used. Two people walk by in disgust of the man, but the third stops and helps him out, even though he probably had other things he needed to do. This shows one of the two greatest commandments perfectly. It says in Mark 12:31:

The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

During our game my player had other things to do like come back and get set up on defense, but she took the time to help a person in need. She realized what we struggle to realize as we get older. She would have have wanted that girl to help her up if she fell down so my player helped this girl up, loving her neighbor as herself. We all go through hard times and struggles of our own and we want people to love on us and encourage us as we work through our struggle. The only way people will help you is if you do the same for them. This week look for someone who is struggling, maybe they aren't doing so good in a class or they have some personal problem, be the Good Samaritan and stop to help them.

Grace!

So I have really been struggling with things to write about on here and as a result this one will be a little different. I have been reading this book called "Awareness" by Anthony De Mellow and in it he talks about how people do not need other people in order to make it through life. Mr. De Mellow believes that everything that happens to us is a result of our actions. For example, if we had an addiction and we got out of it, he would say that no one had an impact on us except for ourselves. However, how many of us have made it through a struggle by ourselves, with no support from others? I know I have not. Jesus believed the complete opposite, in fact thats one of the main things Jesus taught in his public ministry. If you look at all of the miracles Jesus performed, they all were to help out someone who was in need. This week while I was struggling to think of something to talk about I had a great conversation about this with Grace and she gave me the idea to talk about how I have seen Christ in other people throughout the week. This week Grace helped me out when I really, really needed something to ponder for the week. Even though it was quite a miracle it certainly showed me how to help people out.