Passion, Identity and Twilight

I have a confession. I judge anyone over the age of 18 who reads and enjoys Twilight. For those under 18, I judge their parents. It's an unnecessary problem. I'll give you that. But it's still there. I will confess that I've never read any of the books. I have, however, read synopses of them and in context excerpts. From them, I've been able to pull that the story is horribly bland, the characters are of the kind where you hope the guy in the hockey mask learns how to run to save you the next 85 minutes of your life, and the writing is so bad that I feel like the editor should be put in a cage with and handcuffed to a cougar for allowing such a monstrosity to leave his office (And not the cat kind of cougar either; the 43 year old woman who hibernated in a tanning bed for most of the 90's kind. Or as she's known in the wild: the Leathery Death.) To put it simply: I hate these books.

But realistically, why do I even have an opinion on this? Why do I so passionately hate them? I'm obviously not the intended audience for these books and their being horrible has no real effect on my life. I hate Twilight for the same reason that anyone else does; because there are people out there who not only love it, but think that it's good, and it's my job to show them that they're wrong.

I think that's the trick with passion, it has to go both ways. No one really hates anything that someone else doesn't love. If people don't think something is worthy of love, others don't think it's worthy of hate. It's almost as if love validates hate. I really can't think of a subject that people passionately love that doesn't have a group of just as passionate haters who feel it is their job to counterbalance the fan club.

But the thing I'm learning is that our identity is found, not in what we loves, but in our passions. That means that when we love something passionately, we're identifying ourselves with it. You can tell this because the haters don't just hate the object of love, but the lovers themselves. But, if passion is a two-sided coin, then that means that the haters are identified with the object of their hate as well. For instance, if I think about abortion, before I picture any type of advocate, I can't get out of my head a picture of a group of activists protesting a clinic. They are identified with what they hate.

This leads me to wonder, am I known more for what I passionately love or what I passionately hate? The beauty of grace is that my identity is found in Christ no matter what I do, but what does the evidence of my life say? Nothing that I do can take away who I am, but if 1 Corinthians 4:20 is true, then I shouldn't have to tell people where my passion lies. It should be obvious.

PS: Kelly, you're the exception. I don't judge you no matter what you read.

Knowing the Ending Ruins the Story

Being a literature lover makes you a little weird. You develop little ticks that make you stand out as the weird, antisocial old man who keeps trying to show kids a magic trick that wouldn't have impressed Cro-Magnon man that you will someday be (or crazy cat lady, depending on your gender).

What is one of mine you ask? I'm a freak about not knowing how a story ends. And when I say freak, I mean that. I'm a sucker for a mystery. I remember when I went to get the last Harry Potter book with my then girlfriend. We waited in line at Walmart for the midnight release and after we received our copies and walked towards the checkout she opened up the book to the last chapter. I almost gave a "spoiled thirteen year old who just heard no for the first time" worthy tantrum and definitely raised my voice more than a little bit (fun fact: the spoiled thirteen year old tantrum thing is where the term "spoiler alert" came from). Mind you, all I saw was the picture for that chapter, but still. From then on I knew that the last chapter had a broom and a bucket in it! Book=ruined. (By the way, if you're reading this "then girlfriend," my bad.)

The cool thing I'm starting to realize about God is that He's a master storyteller and I think we have in common that neither of us like for the ending to be ruined. Well, we sort of have that in common. I mean, I'll freak out over finding out the ending to a story or a movie, but I'm even more frustrated about God not giving away the ending to the "Tale of David" before it's completion. But, God being the master storyteller that He is knows that a story just isn't a good if we know the ending. The ending isn't the most important part of the story, but it's often hard to justify paying attention to the actual story if you already know the ending.

The middle is the most important part of the story and if we know the ending, it cheapens it. And we need the middle. The middle is where faith comes from. The middle is where the adventure happens, and adventure isn't adventure if we know the outcome. So, as much as I want to know how this season of my life is going to end, the most important part of my story would lose much of it's value if I did. So, as much as I wish I knew where or even if I'll be working a month from now, I'll trust that the Lord knows what He's doing. After all, He's not going to give away His secrets when He doesn't want them known. No good author does.

Fun Facts Friday!

It's that crazy time of the week where you get to learn more about me than you probably wanted to know. I've never been accused of being a private guy, so it's not like I'm opening up Pandora's Box or anything here. But regardless, this week I'm going to share just a few of my life goals to give you an idea of where I'm going. Please take notes as there will be a test.

So, presenting, in no particular order, David's Life Goals:

1. Visit six out of seven continents. It's nothing personal Antarctica, but unless I get an all expenses paid trip to you, I can see penguins at the zoo. (I've actually hit up four continents already. Just South America and Australia to go, plus a more proper trip to Asia would be nice since I just barely nipped the tip.)
2. Backpack the Highlands of Scotland with a couple of my guy friends. Not that I have a problem with girls going, I just don't want them to see me in snotty crying mode if the Shetland ponies don't like me.
3. Go skydiving. Anything that I'm this scared to do is probably something that needs to happen. But logically speaking, this is the most likely goal that will lead to my death, so I might save it for when I'm in my 80's.
4. Buy a house for each of my kids with cash.
5. Pay for my kids' and grandkids' college tuitions with cash. (No funny comments for these two. I just think they'd be awesome.)
6. Get something of mine published in a place where people will actually want to read it. Let's be honest, I have words that need to be heard on a grand scale.
7. Run a marathon with my wife. This is mainly a precautionary tactic. If she ever runs away from me, I'd like to know if I have a shot at catching her.
8. Read Moby Dick, Les Miserables, and Atlas Shrugged. Though I realize that at least two of those books are amazing, I mainly would be doing this for pretentious reasons. I mean, it will be awesome to make a reference to these books, and then when people look at me like they don't have a clue what I'm talking about, I'll get to remove my monocle, sneer and say, "Oh...I guess you've never read that before. How quaint." You have to have read at least two of these before you're even allowed to integrate "quaint" into your vocabulary.
9. Give away $100,000. Again, nothing funny here. But how awesome would it be to write that check to someone who really needs it?
10. Have a daughter. Hold your aww's. This is for more selfish reasons than it might seem. You see, the thing is, I just inherited a lot of guns and I don't want any of them to go to waste. I might let her start dating when she turns 16. From that point on, let the games begin.

I know that this has been mostly a downer week. In case you're wondering, I'm doing tons better, so no worries there. Next week will be a lot happier. Monday there'll be a crazy cat lady reference and even a story about me freaking out. Stay tuned!

Down and Out and Whatnot

I don't feel like I've shared a little bit of what the Lord's been teaching me in a while, so I figure I probably should. I brought it up the other day, but I've been pretty down lately. Downright depressed is probably the best way to put it. Being unemployed takes its tole. I try not to think about it too much, but I've been struggling a lot lately. My self-worth has been taking a pretty heavy hit. Add to that the fact that I really haven't been hearing from the Lord much lately and you've got a good recipe for the mopeys.

But I've had Abraham on my mind lately. Specifically that part in Romans 4 where Paul talks about Abraham. When the Lord calls Abraham and promises that he will have tons of descendants, he's 75. I'm pretty sure that that means that his wife Sarah was around 65. If at that moment God had allowed a 65 year old woman to conceive, that would have been miraculous and the Lord would have received glory from that. But that's not what happens. Twenty-five years pass with nothing good happening in the baby making department.

The way I am, I feel like if God promises me something and I've waited a couple of weeks, I should be exalted as the patron saint of patience. After 25 years, I would had already moved through the doubting phase and moved straight to the "I must have heard Him wrong" phase and moved on. But Romans 4:20-21 says that Abraham never wavered in his faith. It just grew stronger everyday and he held on to the fact that God is able to exactly what He promises. So even when the Lord wasn't doing the miracle, He was still getting glory from Abraham's faith.

And a bit of wisdom that John Flowers told me recently keeps being brought back to my mind. Abraham having a son after he was called would have been a huge miracle, but the longer the Lord waited to give him what he was promised, the more impossible it seemed and the bigger the miracle would be and the more glory God would receive.

That's what I'm trying to hold onto right now. Because that's how I feel right now. It's easy for me to think that everyday that passes without me getting a job, it becomes even more impossible for me to get one. But if I view my situation the way the Abraham did, then I realize that everyday that passes brings me one day closer to the Lord doing a miracle.

An Explanation In Oh So Many Words

I'm not a great writer. Just putting that out there in case you were expecting something else when you come to this side of the interwebs. This is evidenced by the fact that I didn't blog last Friday as I promised. I made it nearly three weeks without breaking stride, which is, admittedly, longer than I thought I would make it; but it's more the reason why I didn't blog last Friday that makes me not a great writer than the fact that I didn't write itself.

I didn't write something for last Friday simply because I just didn't feel like it. That's the big difference between a good writer and a great writer. A great writer writes out of passion and a good writer writes outs of emotion. There's a pretty big difference there. Passion allows one to work regardless of how one feels. In fact, it's hard to get someone who's passionate to not do what's in their heart. Emotions, when allowed to control a person, tend to be evoke a lot of self-centeredness. And being self-centered is something that, sadly, I do usually excel at.

I'd like to think I'm a pretty funny guy when I put my mind to it. When I post a new blog to my site, I would like to think that I put a smile on someone's face. And the truth is, lately I've been pretty down. This whole being unemployed thing is taking it's tole on me and has been zapping a lot of my joy lately. Since I set up Friday to be a day for me to goof off and be funny, I just didn't have anything in me that was all that funny, so I skipped it.

I say all of this for a couple of reasons. First of all, I could use your prayers that I find a job soon (or a direct hire if you're able to give me the hook up). Also, I do intend to take my promise to blog regularly seriously, so just know that if I you don't see anything up on here when you might expect to, it's probably because I just didn't have anything to say. I would rather not say anything than waste your time with filler.

And for those of your worried about my self-esteem, though not great, I do actually think that I am a good writer. I mean, check out the last sentence of that first paragraph; it's over three lines long with commas coming out of the wazoo (which, contrary to the OED, is actually located behind the ear), and not a bit of it is a run on. I even threw a semi-colon in there. That junk's not easy, my friend. See, you're not even sure if I even used it write. It takes skillz to know how to do that.

I'll accept the fact that I can usually communicate pretty well through writing. But if you've ever actually talked to me in person, I'm sure you realize that there was a bit of a trade off there.

Thoughts on Encouragement

I don't know a lot. Shocking I know, but I'm not nearly as wise as I wish I was. But there is one trick I've learned in my life that's never led me astray, and that is to encourage people with abandon. If you need encouragement right now, don't wait around on someone to bring it your way, send it out to others instead.

Granted, this principal doesn't work for everything. If you need a car, I doubt you'll be able to give one to someone else (but you can still, however, be generous to random people). This tends to qualify more for the intangible things. I know that I've had times in my life where I've been down and really wished someone would go out of their way to randomly encourage me or just let me know that they're thinking about me to let me know that I matter and then I get even more down when no one does.

So I finally figured out that rather than sitting around waiting for someone to come along and help me, I could just go ahead and give to others exactly what I wanted myself. Instead of waiting for someone to encourage me, I can just go out of my way to encourage someone else. So whenever you're down, take the focus off of yourself and try to lift up someone else. I guarantee that you're not the only one needing it in that moment.

Discouragement and depression are not of the Lord. They are often weapons that are used against us, so whenever we take the focus from ourselves and lift up others, it's like using the enemy's weapon against him.

Stop Getting Saved

It's hard to believe that I haven't worked in youth ministry for nearly 8 months. That fact kind of crept up on me recently. Prior to these past few months, I have a good five years of youth ministry experience under my belt. I'm pretty passionate about it and I can't wait to find a new outlet to do it through.

But something like youth ministry is bound to have it's ups and downs. I can take ups and downs. But there is one thing that I've experienced countless times that has become a pet peeve of mine. My goal is for this to be more of a processing than a rant, so bear with me. But I get a little tired of seeing students get saved...then get saved again...then get saved again...and again...and again!

Please don't misunderstand me. I realize that salvation is a process. Myself, I said a prayer when I was five, then I accepted Christ when I was 12. If all someone did was say a prayer, then the best thing that they can do is actually accept Christ rather than continue a life deceiving themselves.

But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about someone who feels conviction, accepts Christ, eventually gets into sin again, feels conviction, assumes that a real Christian would never mess up so badly and get as far away from God as they did, say another salvation prayer, repeat.

I feel like a lot of the mentality behind this is develops because often, when someone accepts Christ, it's a very emotional thing. I know in my case, I really did feel God in that moment. Faith can bring about great feelings and experiences in a believers life, so when someone stops having those feelings it's easy to feel far from God and for us to question whether or not we even knew Him in the first place. I get that. I've been there. It's a depressing and often dark place to be.

But the question remains then: Why do we no longer feel God? The solution certainly isn't the answer to every case, but I do feel that it is to the majority of Christians around here, myself included. Dead things don't feel. James 2:26 says that faith without works is dead. How are we going to be close to God when our faith is dead.

The times that I'm closest to God come not when I'm just spending time reading my Bible and praying, but when I'm also out serving the Kingdom. In fact, ministering enhances those other times with God. We can't afford to be lazy; it kills our faith. I've heard it said that following Christ is like swimming in a river, you're either going forward or your going backward, but you can't stay in one place. If you're pursuing the Kingdom then you're gaining holiness, if you're not then sin and satan are gaining a foothold in your life and you're separating yourself from the Lord. So of course we'll feel doubt in those times, and we'll feel like we have to say a prayer to make it all better. But if we do that we're just setting ourselves up for a never ending cycle of failure.

Christ called us to follow Him, not pursue emotional encounters with Him. If we're following Him, then ministry will flow from our lives. You can't convince someone who's serving the Lord that they don't know Him.

PS: I totally stole this awesome little bit of wisdom from David Schendel. Sadly he doesn't have anything to link to, so you'll just have to talk to him in real life.

PPS: Sorry for the super long post today. I hope you enjoyed it.

Fun Facts About Women

I'm a people watcher. I try to refrain from making that known too often, because, quite frankly, there's a very fine line between people watching and stalking. If I go to a coffee shop with a book for a couple of hours, I'll probably spend thirty minutes reading and the other hour and a half looking a folks. Part of that is because I love seeing how people react to one another; it's always very telling about who they are. It could also be that, though I've never been tested and diagnosed, I'm pretty sure I have, at least, light ADD. So whenever I'm sitting there and someone walks by, it takes considerable effort to not look up and see who it is. Another contributing factor could be that I'm kind of a creeper. Who knows?

Either way, I'd like to share one of my findings from my creepy, ADD induced social observations: Women who love the Lord are hotter than women who don't. It's what they call in the social sciences: the Spiritual Gift of Hotness. I can't explain all of the reasons why it's true, but I'm pretty sure I have a basic formula for some of the surface level hotness.

Smiling people are more attractive. If there are two attractive women sitting side by side and one of them is mopey and the other is cheery (I think I'm on my way to creating seven alternative dwarfs that won't get me sued), the happier of the two is always more attractive. So my formula goes like this:

If Smiles=Hotter, and Christian Woman=Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit=Joyful, Joyful=Smiles, then Christian Woman=Smiles, therefore Christian Woman=Hotter.

I'm still working on getting this published in a reputable journal but I'm pretty sure in the next few years this will be pretty widely accepted. Since non-christian women do actually smile, this isn't a foolproof wife finding formula, so don't treat it as such. There are a number of different factors. And as I've established before, Christians are really weird. Christian guys in particular. So things that we find hot are bound to be different from more "normal" guys. But the smile's all I have figured out at this point. Sure, it could have something to do with the fact they these women realize that they need Jesus instead of you and for some reason that's attractive. But for now, I don't have a formula for that one. Check back with me in a few weeks.

u haf 2 no the rulz b4 u can brake thm! lolz

I only came close to failing one class throughout all of high school. As it turns out I actually made a D in it. Due to me having an English degree, it might surprise you to learn that this class was Honors English 3. My teacher, Mrs. Hunter, was a former Clemson professor who decided to teach high school instead, which I think is the reverse order of what people usually shoot for, but I'm not one to judge.

I remember that her class was relentlessly hard. We had to memorize dictionary definitions verbatim, read big books at a pace I was never expected to read at except when the book had pictures, memorize lots of lines from big books with even bigger words, and write horrendously long papers. I also remember her filling our heads with horror stories of how much harder college would be. For those playing at home, I'm sure you realize that that last one is a lie. I can't speak for every major, but no college English class is all that hard, and I'll tell you why: English professors are either so absent minded that you can always convince them that you've done something that you really haven't or they're softies who love for you to visit their office and will go out of their way to help you pass their class (or they're too smart for their own good and resent you for not being as smart and make it their goal to make you drop their class, but we won't talk about those teachers).

Regardless of how hard I remember that class being, I ended up gleaning gobs of wisdom from Mrs. Hunter. One in particular has shaped the way I think for a while now. "You're not allowed to break the rules until you know the rules." The beauty of the english language is that you can pretty much make it up as you go along. We're constantly creating words, changing the meaning of words that already exist and turning other words into verbs, even when it's a sin against all that is good to do so. (I'm looking at you "facebooking.") But the difference between Faulkner writing a book without punctuation to make a point about how well the human brain uses context to figure things out and the church sign down the road using "u" instead of "you" in pure ignorance is that Faulkner knows the rules. (On a side note, if you're an adult and you still text using u, r, y, or 2 instead of real words, just stop it!)

Most good artists are the ones who know the rules and break them. When someone knows the rules and they see that you've broken them, the question stops being, "Why didn't they know better?" and becomes, "They absolutely know better, so why did they do this?"

I bring this up because so many Christians today are against the "religious rules" that are all around us. But the thing is, most of us are ignorant of what the rules even are, and when we're ignorant of the rules and why they're there, we're setting ourselves up to fall into the same trap as those who came before us did. I guarantee you that no one in any church ever said, "We should wear suits and ties to church and the ladies should wear nice dresses. That'll really stick it to the sinners out there!" The religious rules that exist today, like the dress code, drinking restrictions, music styles and even what version of the Bible to read didn't start out as religious rules. They started to help bring people closer to God.

My point is this, if you try to break the rules without knowing what they are, you're setting yourself up to create a bunch of new religious rules. Rebelling for the sake of rebelling is stupid and I fear that for many Christians my age, being nonreligious is the new religion.

My Brain is Full

It's time for one of those super honest blogs where I talk about something I'm struggling with and give you a little insight into the inner workings of David. Pardon me while I grab a chair and sit in it backwards, AC Slater style, and just rap with you about what's going on in my life.

I'm distracted. My mind goes a mile a minute lately. It's not like I have tons of deep thoughts going through my head at once. I'm not under the burden of genius or anything like that; I've just been easily distracted lately.

I'm pretty sure that the reason I'm distracted is because I don't allow myself enough quiet time to just get my thoughts out there. The other night I was driving home from downtown, and rather than turn on my iPod or the radio, I just sat there in silence. I usually stay away from situations like that because I really like music and honestly, with all of the bad stuff that's happened in the past year, sometimes I just don't like to be alone with my thoughts.

The thing that really bothers me is that the times that I tend to get most distracted lately is when I'm trying to spend time alone with the Lord. Maybe that's because I have to be quiet during those times and all of the thoughts just attack me at once. I'm not sure why it's happening, but I do know that it's frustrating. Whenever I'm reading any other book I'm fine, but when I try to read my Bible and connect with the Lord it's like I have a little Micheal Scott in my brain keeping me from naming the 13 original colonies (ooh, pop culture reference!).

So I have a plan, and I would appreciate some prayer that I implement it well. First of all I'm going to start allowing more quiet in my life. I'm going to have times where I'm not on the internet, watching TV, reading, or listening to music. I'm just going to get alone in my room and just sit there with my thoughts.

Second of all I'm going to put 2 Corinthians 10:5 into action. The way I see it, Christ is in everything, so no matter how out there and distracting a thought may be, it still connects to Jesus in some way. So whenever I'm trying to concentrate on the Lord and I start thinking about how great some blueberry pancakes would be, I'm going to take a second to thank the Lord for blueberry pancakes and bring it back around to Him. (On a side note, how great are blueberry pancakes? I mean honestly, thank You Lord for creating a dish that allows us to have something that tastes like candy for breakfast!) Everything can be brought back to the Lord, so that's what I'm going to do. My goal is to become a master of taking my thoughts captive and causing them to worship God no matter how out there they might be.

Friday Fun Facts

Okay, I'm going to try out this format and see how this goes. I'm going to try to start pumping out Monday/Wednesday/Friday posts. This week has obviously been a success, but let's see how long I can keep it going. I think Friday's are going to be my fun day where I just share something funny or embarrassing about myself for your enjoyment.

Currently, I'm not a fan of assigned small groups. I just think it makes more sense when stuff like that happens organically, but this was not always so. I led two different small groups during my time at Clemson. For one I took time to carefully plan out Bible studies and then got mad and frustrated when they preferred to watch Lost or the conversation went to places where even the demons went, "Whoa guys! That's a little much." By the time I got my next small group I was so burned out that by the end of it we were mainly just thinking of creative ways to shoot each other with an air soft gun.

Would FCA have approved of what we did weekly in the name of "fellowship"? Probably not? Was Joe Mata uncomfortable that time that he was the only one who showed and it was just the two of us? Absolutely! Was it good times that led to friendships that I still have? Definitely.

Either way, these two groups had one major thing in common. I started them both with the obligatory "I have no idea what I'm doing leading this thing, so let's share the intimate details of our lives" conversation. AKA the "here are my worst sins" conversation. AKA the "I used to drink a lot and look at porn" conversation. It's probably the most awkward way to get to know someone, yet I've embraced it twice for some reason.

You might think that I'm dumb for thinking that was a good idea, and you'd be right. You might even think that FCA was dumb to put me in charge of anyone, let alone an entire group of guys, to which you'd also be right. But you're forgetting the most important point in all of this: I found out how easy it was to get my closest friends to divulge their deepest, darkest secrets.

The Villain Has to Die

One thing you should know about me is that I'm a sucker for a story. Honestly, it's one of my weaknesses. I love to put up a facade that I'm a huge book snob who snubs his nose at bad writing, but honestly, I can get hooked to any narrative, no matter how poorly written it may be. It doesn't matter how weird and out there the story is, if there's a good flow to what's going on, I'm involved in it.

The reason I love stories so much, I think, is because I love people. Characters always hook me and keep me coming back for more; especially villains! I love villains because they tend to have more depth than any of the other characters. Most of the time the villain is just a normal person with a skewed view on things. Like in real life, there's rarely such a thing as the evil scientist bent on world domination. Everyone tends to think that they're doing the right thing, even if the means aren't too great.

But once in a while, a story will give you a larger than life villain. This is the one who is more of a force of evil than a real person. The things that they do and the ends they long to produce just aren't redeemable. As soon as you meet this character you know that the only way for the hero to live is for that villain to die. The Wicked Witch has to melt in order for Oz to go back to normal. Agent Smith has to be deleted for there to be hope for humanity to be free of the Matrix. Voldemort has to die in order for Harry to live a normal life. The Emperor has to be thrown into the reactor for the galaxy to be free.

So imagine this: Christianity is born and is gaining a lot of momentum. Those in power are all speaking in whispers with one another, "We have to stop this." But none of them has to gall to go against the people to start the oppression. But one day, a mob gets angry and is incited against a man named Stephen. When asked to defend himself, Stephen instead decides to defend God, and in doing so, angers an already angry crowd to the point of where they actually do what had only been spoken of in secret before. Things get out of hand and they kill him. And in the shadows stands a man watching the whole thing. He looks like he could have orchestrated the entire spectacle himself. He doesn't throw one stone. He just stands there, approving of everything that happens. We just know that this guy is bad news. His brief mention is a hint that we'll hear more about him.

The next thing we know, this man, Saul, has made it his personal crusade to go from town to town and kill every Christian he can find. Reading this story for the first time, you just know that like the Egyptians, Canaanites, and Philistines before him, this is our new, larger than life villain. And the only way that we'll be able to solve the problem he creates is by killing him. If his goal is to kill all of the Christians, then in order for the heroes to succeed, he'll have to die.

But then there's a twist. This villain decides to go to Damascus to hunt more Christians. Everything changes here. You see, the hero does have to succeed. The villain does have to die for the things that he's done. The only problem is, when Saul goes to Damascus, we get the big twist that the Christians aren't the heroes of the story after all; Jesus is! And Saul is the villain, but he's not the only one. If Jesus is the hero, and the villain is whoever has wronged Him, then that makes the villain of the story everyone who has ever sinned against Him.

So what does Jesus do? He kills the villain of course. Saul doesn't survive his encounter with Jesus. The man who leaves for Damascus and and the man who arrives there are two different people. In the same way, the David who entered into a church one Wednesday night in seventh grade was not the same David who left. The old one was a villain; he had to die because the things he had done to the Hero were far too horrible for him to live.

Thankfully, in this story, the Hero has control over life and death. In this story, the Hero can bring dead things back to life. In this story, the Hero can make old dead villains new and good.

Stop Trying to Get Sin Out of Your Life

I feel like there's a pretty big mistake that I've been making for years and I've seen a lot of fellow brothers and sisters making the same mistake. That mistake is to try to get sin out of my life. I remember I was going downtown Saturday night and before I left, because there tends to be a few temptations when I go downtown, be it having a drink too many or letting my eyes wander to the girls all around me, I prayed for God to help me not sin that night.

I then felt the Lord give me a very clear realization about that prayer. Was that really my goal for the night? Was my only concern to just not do anything wrong? The Lord didn't put me on this earth to just "not sin". I'm here to bring Him glory. So my prayer changed from "help me to not sin" to "help me to see the opportunities to glorify You." This small shift will change everything! I guess that means it's not a small shift after all, but regardless, it's a necessary shift.

The problem with focusing on getting sin out of my life is that whether I'm actually sinning or just trying to stop sinning, my focus is still on sin! Here's how it usually goes for me: I pinpoint what I need to stop or start doing, I go a little while without messing up, I let my guard down with a good pat on the back, I slip up, I feel guilty, I feel even guiltier so that I think I can't approach the Lord, I stop doing it until I feel like I can approach the Lord again, repeat.

This concentration not only leads to constant failure, but it leads to me feeling like I'm not good enough for Jesus and bypasses everything having to do with grace so that it becomes about what I can and can't do.

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus' response was not any of the "thou shalt nots" but it was to love God. So my goal as a Christ follower should not be to stop sinning, but rather to love God with all of my heart. And Matthew 6:33 tells me that when I do this, other things just kind of fall into place. When I love God, the effect is that I sin less in the same way that when I love a friend I don't do things that hurt them, but instead do things to let them know that I love them.