Traffic

When I was a wee little thing, just starting to drive, I used to scoff at those who complained about traffic. "Common," I thought "what is the big deal?! especially if you're not even late for anything." Just being in the car was exhilarating and enjoyable, and I did not care if the palmetto was a parking lot!

Fast forward 4 years since I got my license, and let me tell you, nothing makes my heart sink harder or faster than pulling onto the palmetto, trying to head north at 5:30pm after a long day at work, and seeing a vast, seemingly unending, sea of cars...and they're not moving. What was my little 16-year-old brain thinking? Traffic stinks, and I sit in it every work day.

So I take a deep breath turn on my music and settle in for the slow grind home.
You know what I think gets me the most about traffic, not so much the fact that I'm dead tired and I just want to get home and turn my brain off (oh! that's part of it, but not the main thing). What really irks me about traffic, is PEOPLE IN MY WAY. I just don't like it. Something is in my way, something is hindering me from what I want to do and where I want to go, and there's really nothing I can do about it, I have no control

Sometimes life can feel like one big traffic jam. One thing after another hindering you from going where you want to go, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's frustrating...I know. So, what gets us through, what helps us cope with the traffic jams of life?

Well, when I'm on the palmetto at 5:30 there are several things that keep me from going absolutely insane. First, I usually look up at the sky...5:30 has some great sunsets. Looking up at the sky and enjoying the beauty of that sunset brings a smile to my face, and makes me somewhat grateful that I can't drive 70 miles per hour and miss God's masterpiece.

Where in your life can you look up to God's blessings? They may be small, they may be simple, but taking the time to look up at them could make your "traffic jam" go by much quicker.

The second thing I do is call someone. Talking on my phone also keeps me distracted and in better spirits. Is there someone you can bring into your life to encourage you and come along side you to help you through the rough spots of life?

And finally I remember that eventually I will get home...no matter how bad the traffic has been, I've always made it home. The trials do not last forever, they will end, and that is good news.

Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Sean Connery Flicked Me the Bird

I'm a little concerned. We're only three weeks into the spring semester and I'm already tottering on the edge of academic despair. It takes all that's within me to keep from hurling myself over the cliff boredom into the apathetic abyss below (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit).

The truth is, I've found it harder and harder to concentrate as the semester goes on. The first few days were great. The professors were new, the students were new... then I started to notice things... you know, little things. Let me give you an example.

I have physics at 2:00 every tues and thurs with professor Bone in one of those huge lecture halls. About halfway through his second lecture I couldn't help but notice the way he wrote on the whiteboard. He writes with his right hand and holds the marker cap between his left thumb and index finger. Normally this type of behavior wouldn't strike me as odd, but professor Bone likes to point at the class while lecturing. Since his index finger is occupied, he just waves his middle finger back and forth across the room. On top of that, he looks and talks exactly like Sean Connery. Understandably, it's quite difficult to listen to a lecture on the torque a uniform electric field exerts on a dipole while Sean Connery is flicking me the bird.

He's not the only professor I notice either. My ethics professor can't extend his right pinkie finger and sticks his tongue out every time he asks the class a question. My chem teacher looks at the floor every 45 seconds and has the oddest shaped beer-belly I have ever seen. If I didn't know better I'd think he stuffs a koala bear under his shirt before he comes to class.

The thing that bothers me the most, though, is that no one else my classes seem to notice. I don't understand it. There has to be someone else out there who sees these things... right?.

Sure, I Believe in God...

So, what does it mean to 'believe in God'?
Does it mean to believe He exists as a divine being? Last time I checked the Devil (who was an angel that rebelled and got kicked out of heaven) also believes God exists.

If the devil believes in God, and has no moral growth to show for it, what good is it for you and I to believe in God? Is that going to do anyone any good?

The people in this world who really made a difference, who really accomplished anything, were people who had beliefs (beliefs are the first step - and VERY important) but they also let their beliefs inspire action.
Abraham Lincoln believed that slavery was wrong, so did a lot of other people, but his ACTIONS started the ball rolling on some real change in this country.

If you have a belief in God, great...but what action is it sparking?
If you want a belief in God, great...but what action is that sparking?
Don't be content to just let ideas float in your head. Ideas are great IF, and only if, they spark action.

Who do you say HE is? (2)

Often we are challenged by the question, who really is Jesus Christ? Right, was he simply a maniac who called himself God, was he a prophet of God, or was he really who he said he was? Ultimately we just end up getting confused about these kinds of questions. My desire is not for you just to believe whatever we tell you Jesus Christ is, rather for you to check it out on your own. With that in mind just allow me to help on your search, and for that we're gonna go to the Bible which is God's word for us.

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. John 1:18

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."John 14:6

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever believes in me shall not hunger; and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." John 6:35

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Col 1:17-18

Well, I really hope that this may be a good start for your search. Till then, my question for you is still the same, who do you say HE is?

Finals Week

As I gulp down my third cup of coffee for the night I pray that the caffeine will sustain me just a few more hours. Tonight marks the halfway point of finals week and my third all-nighter in four days. A caffeine-induced panic is all that keeps me from passing out on the library floor. In the midst of growing anxiety over a calc 3 final I have on friday, I stop to think... what will it be like on that day? Will I be prepared when I have to stand before a holy, righteous God for my final examination? How gut wrenching will the moment be when I have to answer for every secret action, every hidden thought? God doesn't grade on a curve. He says that "whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point becomes accountable for all of it" (James 2:10). Have I broken any of the ten commandments? Better yet, are there any that I haven't? What defense do I have against to judgment of "Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28)? Suddenly the stress of exam week seems trivial when I realize that my next breath could be my last and the wrath of God may only be a heartbeat away. There are no night-before cram sessions with death. No last-minute good deeds can make up for even one of my, of your, endless offences. How will you answer on that day? Have you kept all of the commandments perfectly? If not, what security do you have that your next breath will not be in hell?

Time for another cup of coffee.

Rain...

Can you stop the rain from falling?
It's cold, wet, drops from hitting the earth?
So small, so powerless, there's nothing you can do.
If pouring, hard and long is its desire
If sprinkles, soft as flower petals choose to come
there's nothing you can do.

Oh the insignificance of man!
Oh the arrogence of looking inside such a powerless being to find truth.
Can you stop the rain from falling?
Can you discover God on your own?
Pray to the one who created the rain to fall on the evil and the good.

The search starts with Him.

Who do you say HE is?

Two thousand years ago, Jesus and his friends were having a conversation about who people thought he was. "who do people say the son of man is?" he asked them. They responded with what they had heard. But then Jesus changed the stakes. Turning from the informational to the personal, he looked them in the eye and asked: "But who do you say that I am?"
It's easy to answer the what-are-others-saying question. But there comes a point when we must face Jesus' question ourselves. Who do you say that he is?


Did you know that Jesus claimed to be God? A man, who was merely a man, and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.Who do you say that he is? is the most important question you can ask and answer.