Grow Up

I was reading Hebrews this morning in the Message Bible and this jumped out at me.

Hebrews 006:1-3(ish)

So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ.

I have been learning a lot lately about growing up in Christ. I think one of the biggest realizations in this growing up in Christ area has been discovering Christ's unconditional love. As Christians we are to be little Christ's and love unconditionally. I believe that loving unconditionally starts with loving Christ and continues with being selfless and loving others no matter the circumstance.

The beginning of this verse is incredible too - "...get on with the grand work of art." We are tapped in to the master artist and our "grand work of art" is being worked on each and every day. It is such a beautiful picture to look at our lives and what we do as a "grand work of art."

guilty or innocent

the other day i was discussing with my family if it would be better for a jury to condemn an innocent man or to let off a guilty man. we did not come to a definite conclusion.

today i was reading in proverbs and Solomon answered our question...
Proverbs 17:15 - Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent- the Lord detests them both.

I would prefer to not ever be on a jury that acquitted a guilty man or condemned an innocent man. imagine the consequences for supporting something God detests.

shortness

God can still use short people.

last night i took my little brother Paul to a Charlotte Bobcats game. we were able to score some free tickets through a friend of my other brother's.

last night was the first home game for the shortest player currently in the NBA, Earl "bu, bu, buh" Boykins (5'5"), he is the second shortest player to ever play in the NBA beneath Muggsy Bogues (5'3"). he was a really fun player to watch, because he was quite a bit shorter than most the other players he had to work that much more for points. he scored 13 points and was a really hard worker.

now for a deeper thought behind this. i know for me there are a lot of times that i think that i am not worthy of being used by God because i fall "short" of his glory, if you will. whether it is because i have failed or because i am not spiritual enough or a plethora of other reasons. then you look at this guy playing in the pros being towered over by the other guys and still he shows up and gives it his all and does well. that is how i want to be that even though i am not worthy, except through the grace of God, that i still show up and give God my all and do everything with passion and a love for Christ.

over a year

i get harassed on a pretty consistent basis that i have not updated my blog in over a year. i hear comments such as: "i though you updated your blog the other day and then i read the year on the post was 2007." "why do you even have a blog if you never update it?". so, i guess i will put a new post on here just in case anyone reads this and would like to know whats going on with me.

i will start with a recap of 2007 and the first month of 2008:

January - worked on getting in shape for joining the air national guard.
February - traveled to DC to visit my cousins that are married and for the super bowl.
March - decided the air national guard was the complete wrong direction and quit all the processing. traveled to seattle, montana and vancouver to visit awesome people.
April - started flight school, working towards my private pilot license. traveled to LA for mark's graduation from the police academy.
May - my aunt came to town to surprise my mom for her 50th.
June - got a new job, working as a technician for an aerospace company called Goodrich Corporation.
July - the awesome becky came to town, skydived for the first time (amazing) and flew a plane all by myself for the first time (so incredible).
August - decided to move to seattle, emily came to town, traveled to canada for cara's wedding and the mountains of NC for fun.
September - turned 22, traveled to NYC, started an amazing relationship with becky caldwell, went camping with the NC friends.
October - MuteMath live in concert, mountains of NC again.
November - traveled to jamestown, nd (known for having the world's largest buffalo), met up with becky in minnesota and had steve the coolest amerinadian in town for turkey week.
December - traveled to KC, becky came to town, a very different christmas.
January - passed the test and got my pilot license, went to haiti with the abare family for our christmas gifts to each other (it was an amazing time had by all).

to sum the entire year up in these words seems so discrediting, but it was all of the details and experiences throughout the year that made 07 heaven. 08 will be great!

for now..

direction

lately i have felt like a lot of my friends have been asking for direction from God, including myself. with the help of my good friend steve hazeltine i have realized that maybe there is more to our relationship with God than to just constantly be seeking Him for direction. so, the thing that i have been working on is intimacy with God and then out of the abundance of that relationship direction will come. instead of always praying for direction and just about never feeling like you are getting any.