A New Phase in Life

Faces

2012-01-18T13:50:00.000-08:00

Lately there have been many occurrences in my life in which friends or acquaintances of mine have been rather two-faced when it comes to their words and actions. So many people will put on a front of being all good and spiritual and holy. But at the end of the day, they will go out with their friends and put on their "worldly" face, and do all sorts of horrible things. The opposite is also true. Some people put on an act of being all bad or mean, but deep down they are nice people, just wanting to make friends, yet not knowing how.
Today in one of my classes, we talked about what it meant to be a Christian young adult. As a class, we came to the conclusion that we had to live within the boundaries set up for us, in order to form our own moral compass. We should make our own boundaries based on the Bible, and should lead lives in which we understand and follow the concepts of integrity, respect, maturity, identity, and community. After taking part in that discussion, I was thrilled to think that so many people wanted the same things in life that I did. I want to be a Christian young adult who is capable of being a spiritual leader among my peers.
However, shortly after that conversation, the topic turned to this scenario: What would you, a Christian young adult, do if a fellow employee was stealing from the company for which you both work? My opinion, of course, was that I would confront the employee and tell them that they should turn themselves in and make right what they had wrongfully done. If they did not own up to their actions, then I would have no other choice than to take the matter to their superiors. Nobody likes a snitch, but if you give the person fair warning, then it's on them, and it is their responsibility. So that is my opinion. However, it differed greatly from the opinions of my classmates. They said that it was not their job to monitor their fellow employees, and that one should not confront them because "it's not like they're going to change anyways." It blew my mind that people who had, just minutes before, said that they wanted to be young adults who did the right thing, now were saying that they would let someone get off with their sin, simply because it wasn't any of their business, and they didn't want to be a snitch. As Christians, we reflect Christ. What would someone think of Christians if all we ever did was let them keep on sinning? How does that make us any different from the world? I am not saying we should be tattle tales. But there comes a time when it is necessary to take action against sin. We should have the boldness to confront each other with love.
Anyways, I digress. My main point of this is that we should not have one face for our pastor, professor, or peer group leader, and another face for our friends. Integrity is "doing the right thing, regardless of who's watching." Either you have integrity, or you don't. There is no half way point.
Now it is confession time. I OFTEN find myself guilty of having different "faces." I act a certain way around people at church and school, and then a different way around my family and friends. This was a good reminder to me that I should make sure that I am consistently doing the right thing, and maintain my identity of who I am, and not change it whenever I am around different people.

2012

2012-01-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

Much has happened in my life since my post on "trust." The past 3 months have definitely tested my ability to trust. Tomorrow marks the start of yet another change in my life. I will finally be in a college setting where I can talk about my God without fear of being looked down on or contradicted. However, (there's always a "however"), I am rather apprehensive about completely starting over in a new place, meeting new people, and trying to make new friends. Not many people have to move 2 times within only 6 months, but that is what I am going to do...tomorrow. I've decided that this is yet another moment when I have to completely trust in God to work everything out. It's a learning process. Sometimes I have the confidence in God that a child of God is supposed to have. Other times, I fail miserably.
You know what else is a learning process? Finding out what God's perfect will for my life is. I wish He would just lay it out, right in front of me. I have a vague idea. It's just all the little details that remain a mystery to me. A comforting thought is the idea of just taking it one step at a time, and letting God work out the details. Something I read just today has helped me to eighty-six my desire to know the smallest components that will make up my future: Romans 8:28, Isaiah 43:7, and 1 Corinthians 10:31. Basically, those verses say that God has created us to bring glory to Him. That is the sole reason we are on this earth. God will take care of everything else.
This does not go with my topic, but I am very thankful for forgiveness. I know from what I have learned, and even witnessed with my own eyes, that God will always be there for me. He is my Provider, my Comforter; He is the only One on Whom I can consistently rely. But, even after He has proven Himself to me over and over again, (just for my benefit, not because He "had to"), I still have faltering trust. It makes me very grateful for second chances.
All of that to say, I am looking forward to my first semester at this new college. I hope that it is a time of spiritual growth in which I can continue to learn God's will for my life and to learn to trust Him more.

Trust

2011-09-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about trust. What is trust? One definition of trust is "reliance on the integrity or strength, of a person or thing." Right now, I am having to learn to live out that definition of trust. When I have no idea what to do next in my life, or when I am worried about something going on with school, I have no choice but to trust. When I got saved several years ago, I decided to put my trust in God. But trust is not a one-time thing. It's a daily renewal. Every time a problem comes up, I need to be trusting God to take care of it. The first part of that definition said, "reliance on the INTEGRITY of a person." God will always do the right thing. Always. Also, He will never ask us to do something that we cannot. He will always be there to help us when we can't do it on our own. He doesn't want us to do anything by ourselves anyways. He WANTS us to trust Him and to fully rely on Him for everything, even the little things.
The other part of that definition says "reliance on the STRENGTH of a person." God can do anything. Too often, we find ourselves thinking, "Oh, that's impossible. It's hopeless." Not with God. He is awesome. He can do absolutely anything that He wants to. He can work miracles. Sometimes, though, He might choose NOT to do something, simply because He want's us to learn something from our circumstances. That's when we have to remember His integrity. He will do the right thing, and He knows what is best.
Another definition of trust is a "confident expectation of something." We don't have to live our lives constantly wondering whether or not God will be there for us. If we have put our trust in God, then we can expect Him to come through for us. We can know for a fact that He will always be there for us when we need Him, and even when we think we don't need Him.
So all that to say, I need to trust more. A lot of big decisions coming up, but I know that God will be there for me and that I don't have to rely on myself to make those decisions.

Real Truth

2011-09-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the first week of classes is coming to an end! It has been quite an adjustment learning to live with someone who might not necessarily be your “BFF.” However, the biggest adjustment I have had to make is in the classroom.

The very day we moved onto campus, the president of the university told a story about five blind men who went to the zoo. When they arrived, they went to the elephant exhibit; however, because they were blind, they were unaware as to which animal lived in the pen. Naturally they were all curious, so the first man went and touched its side, and came to the conclusion that the elephant was a wall. The second man went up to the elephant and touched its trunk. He exclaimed, “This is not a wall, it is a snake!” The third man cautiously approached the giant creature. As he reached out his hand, and touched the tail. “You are both wrong, it is a rope!” Next, the fourth man extended his hand and felt the legs. He said, “You all are crazy, this is just four tree trunks!” The fifth man, wanting to offer his own opinion, walked up and touched the one of the elephant’s tusks. He said, “I don’t know where you all get the idea that it is a wall, snake, rope, or tree trunks; this is clearly a sword!” The five men stood arguing for sometime over who was right about what the object really was. Come to find out, they were all right partially, but none of them had the truly right answer.

The president then compared these five blind men to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and last of all, Christians. He said “All of these religions think they have all the right answers; however, they only know part of the truth. They are partially right, but the truth is made up of all of the opinions put together.”

That instantly got me thinking. I pondered on that for a few days. I had psychology class this morning. My psychology teacher made the following statement: “Everyone believes something, but you shouldn’t hold to your beliefs so strongly. Because honestly, you can’t be biased, you have to be completely open-minded. Everyone thinks that their belief is right, but in fact, they might not be right in the end.”

Whatever happened to standing for what you believed in? I thought people valued that. I believe that is it important for everyone, especially Christians, to know what they believe and why they believe it. They shouldn’t compromise with people who ask them to be open-minded. We don’t have a religion, we have a relationship. We may act like our way is the only right way, and that’s because it is. There is no other way that we should be living our life.

Suffice it to say, my biggest struggle this semester will be trying to maintain my stance on Christianity. My university would love for me to accept that everyone is right; that we must compromise what we believe to discover “real truth.” However, I have already found my truth.

And now I have unintentionally spent an hour on this blog. oh well.

An Idea?

2011-08-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

We are in an age in which electronic communication is dominant. People are constantly on their phones and computers -- text messaging, emailing, blogging, etc. But what about that old tradition of handwriting notes and letters? Sure, they may say the same things as those texts, emails, and blogs; but there is just something special about having that sheet of paper in your hand, filled with words from someone who means something to you. Also, there's something about waiting in anticipation for the mail to come. When sending words via electronics, the feedback is almost instantaneous; you only have to wait for your contact to type a few words back. However, when using written correspondence, you may have to wait a few days or even weeks to get anything back. The time between letters builds more suspense for what the letter contains. Therefore, what is inside the letter will mean more once you finally get the chance to read the letter from someone who cared enough about you to write back. College is starting in just a few weeks. I will definitely be making good use of the technology that is made available to me. I will be using it to send emails to teachers, to send a text to someone that I miss, etc. But, I might try my hand at writing a few letters. Should keep me occupied in my down-time :)

"anthroneopophobia"

2011-07-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

What's your biggest fear? This question was posed to me a few weeks ago. Of course there are the obvious fears that everyone has, such as the dark, spiders, etc. But then I got to thinking, what is my greatest fear? What is the thing that gets me the most worried in life? Then it hit me. Meeting new people. Of course! Many people have anthropophobia, a.k.a. the fear of people, while others have neophobia, or the fear of anything new. My fear is a mixture of the two; I guess you could say I have anthroneopophobia, which I completely just made up. However, with college starting in about 8 weeks, I will have to be able to overcome that fear and begin to meet about 900 new people. And in "meeting" them, I will have to do a little bit more than just request a Facebook friendship. I will be sharing the next 5 years of my life with these new people. I cannot simply stay in my dorm with just myself for company. That would be miserable, to say the least. They say the way to conquer your fears is to face them. Come August 24, I will be facing all 900 of them at once. Ought to be interesting.

2011-06-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

A hobby is defined as an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation. So I am 2 weeks into my summer and I desperately need a hobby. For anyone interested, googling "list of hobbies" will give you results that will enrich your life such as knitting, rafting, body building, etc. I mean, come on. I want something more interesting than that. I suppose I could become a body builder who knits while rafting. That would be pretty extraordinary, but a little too difficult to achieve. And it would be just plain weird. I simply want something that I can do when my boredom has reached its limit. So, since I am fresh out of weights to begin body building, and I don't live near a river to raft on, and I just flat out hate knitting, it looks like this has become my hobby. Even if no one reads this, it's ok. Because now 30mins to an hour of an otherwise boring day has become more interesting than if I had just been blankly staring at a Facebook page.

May 26, 2011

2011-05-26T17:35:00.001-07:00

It is the fourth day of summer! As of 8pm this past Saturday, I am officially considered part of the alumni of Athens Christian. The graduation ceremony was filled with moving speeches and testimonies from classmates whom I love very much. It was definitely a night that will be remembered by all who were a part of it.

Now it is the season for graduation parties! A bonfire on the night of graduation was the kick-off to our summer. Monday night was a time for Just Dance, manhunt, and swimming with some members of our senior class. Definitely a blast. There are many more to come!!

College registration is coming up soon! Cannot wait to get all of that finalized. I’m a little disappointed in my freshman seminar that I have to take - Chinese Culture. I hope we watch Mulan. Oh well. I do love my roomie, though!! We have already started getting our room stuff collected, and are gonna have a great time when fall comes. :) Absolutely cannot wait to see what is in store for all those who graduated and are going to college this year.

After registration, I have nothing to worry about except having a relaxing summer, with several beach trips planned and even a cruise!!

2011-05-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Graduation practice was today!! Found out my walking buddy, and had a walk-through of the whole graduation. So excited. Although I will be a bit teary-eyed on Saturday night, I am ready to have that diploma in my hand. Only 2 days left! Tomorrow night is the awards banquet. Get to get all dressed up and such. It shall be fun!

Anyways, have you ever heard of a soapbox? An ordinary person will assume that a soapbox is a box full of soap, right? Well that’s what is. But sometimes it can also be defined as “A temporary platform used while making an impromptu or nonofficial public speech.” When one is “on his soapbox,” he is essentially “speaking his views passionately or self-importantly.” So here goes my soapbox for this final week of high school.

Don’t start drama. Especially during your last week to ever see your friends. And especially not over freshman boys who are the age of most peoples’ siblings. You will never see them again. Don’t let some 14-year-old boy ruin a 12-year-old friendship you have had with a classmate. For real.

2011-05-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Well . . . Saturday is the day I have been waiting for, ever since my first day of kindergarten! Saturday is the day of my high school graduation! Back in August of last year, it seemed that everyone and their mother was saying, “Enjoy your senior year. It will go by faster than you could have ever imagined.” And of course, they were right! Now I am merely three days away from the end of my high school career. Wow, it has gone by so fast. Let me recap my senior year for you readers.

From August to October, I was kept busy with playing varsity volleyball with the best team ever. Games each Tuesday and Thursday with practices from 3-5:30 every other weeknight kept me quite occupied. Then, every Friday, varsity football games provided me with enough social time in order for me to maintain friendships with non-volleyball players. And of course, on the weekends, Saturdays were my “lazy days,” and Sundays were my church days, which I spent with some my youth group friends.

Anyhoo, in November, my senior class went to a leadership conference at the WILDS camp in Brevard, North Carolina - definitely a highlight of my year. The conference was full of ways to become a better senior Christian leader in our high school. Then winter came, along with wrestling and basketball season. In case you haven’t noticed already, our school was quite sports-oriented, considering the fact that all of our out-of-school interaction occurred in the bleachers.

It was during this season that I applied for my first job ever, which was quite an experience. Being during the holidays, I was often out until well after midnight, per the request of my bosses. In the spring, our senior class took our senior trip to the Big Apple. Many memories were made that I won’t soon forget. Also during the spring were the all-important sporting events. Although our school had track, tennis, and baseball teams, I spent most of my free time at the baseball games. :)

Now, baseball is over. Exams are over. Classes are over. High school is over. Forever. Kind of a sobering thought, yet exciting at the same time. A new phase in life is about to begin. The life filled with college, increased learning, and steps to becoming my own person.