Change

So God kind of just dropped this thought in my head. It was kind of just came in and needs to get talked out so I'm talking it out.

Everything in life changes. Obviously. But seriously everything changes. Like muscles if you use them then they get stronger, if you don't they weaken and tear down. Papa Mace used to say "We're either going to get better or worse today, you can't stay the same." and all of that kind of sunk in today and tied with living and heartbreak. that if we refuse to change then we are asking for heartbreak. I talked to a friend earlier tonight and she (like all of us) wants to hold onto the past, past experiences, past friendships, past fun times, but if we try to stop and hold time then we're setting ourselves up for heartbreak because everything continues to change. It's like with high school friends we want to hold them in the same place we last left them but when we see them again we've changed and so have they, so we have to embrace the change and accept they're not the same person we think them as.

It seems as if Refusing to change is refusing to live. I say that because to live, truely really live, we must adapt and live today differently than we did yesterday, each experience changes us, each day adds another level of emotions, knowledge, experiences, and information for us to adapt to and helps curve and motivate our behavior. If we like our surroundings and we try to stop time (which would be the only thing to stop change) (time=change) by holding onto everything at it's direct moment we are refusing to live the next day. Like living one day over and over again, true it maybe a great day, but life isn't just about that one day high. If you think about it, by trying to hold onto the past is like saying your satisfied with life just as it is. (it's good to be content, never satisfied). Think of all of the bad things that a great day has, even if its not for you. There's still poverty, still starving people in every country in the world, still sin, still people who have never heard about a man named Jesus, still people who have heard the name but have yet to see his love carried out by people who claim to know him. We are refusing to let God work in our lives if we hang onto the past. We're saying we like where we are now and I don't want to be any closer to you or any more like you, God. I understand the fact of sometimes our relationship with God is better than other times. My relationship with God has had mountains above the clouds and valleys below sea level, but through each thing God has taught me a little more about who I am, who he is, who he's making me to be, and what his plans are for me. God says, "I know the plans I have for you, plans for you to prosper, plans for hope and a future." But we're stopping short by refusing to change and trying to hold onto the past.

Stopping short. . . It's like we're climbing a hill to get a picture at the top. We know once we get to the top we can see over everything and that it's going to be beautiful, the way the sun hits off the low lying clouds in some of the valleys and how the trees are 37 different shades of orange, but how the sun reflects off the blue water creating a shimmer that is just amazing. But all of that is hardly a quarter of what we could see on one side from the top of the mountain. We only know this from what we've see climbing it. So we start of climbing and make it like an 1/8 of the way up the hill and there's a clearing where we can see and it's beautiful. Then we make it 1/4 of the way up the hill and it's even more aspiring, so we take another picture. Then we get back to climbing and go through alot of bushes and briars and steep spots to get closer to the top. There's different spots along the way that we can stop and look to see how beautiful it is. Granted, sometimes we use the vision of what we have seen as encouragement and motivation to make it further. Sometimes we stop and take a rest too long at a clearing and miss the opportunity to be higher. We could walk backwards up the hill and keep looking at everything that's going on behind us, or we could turn around and strive towards the top. (kind of like looking at what God's doing in your life, occasionally it is good to turn around and just be amazed and in awe, but if we are just looking at how far we've come and what we've been able to accomplish, we don't really get anywhere else. We've taken our eyes off of the destination to look at the wakes behind us. Or like stopping weightlifting to check out our muscles, but if we look to long then we get no further, we get off course, and our strengths begin to wither.) The point of stopping short was like getting 1/4 of the way up the hill and being satisfied there. Stopping and seeing how beautiful it is and just sitting there with our half an acre of vision. The half-acre is beautiful but it's only a half-acre. Once we get to the top we can see for miles and miles and each of the little snip-its of beauty and glory are so intricately tied together that they just flabbergast and amaze us. So we shouldn't stop short or part way up the mountain. We should press on towards the goal or top, look at the beauty others have found also and encourage them to strive on (some briar patches take 2 or 3 to go through.), and not stop short, not to give up, keep letting God work in us and through us, and embrace the change which allows us to truely live life.

Only one thing is consistent, Everything else evolves with time.
We've all heard only one thing stays the same, only one thing is consistent before, but I guess I never really argued that or listened to it before. I tried to argue it this evening as if I was trying to present my case and prepared for all of the arguments against it, but nothing could stick. Money is the same- but money isn't the same as I've learned in Econ this semester that the value of money fluctuates more than some peoples blood temperature. The FED and other Gov't committees can pretty much control it and adjust it for inflation and unemployment, exports and imports, everything like that. Love is the same- I'd love for this one to be true, but love is not the same, at least not our love. If that was the case then in 3rd grade when we told the little girl I Love You it meant the same thing as I'll whisper to my bride on our wedding day as to I'll remind my wife as I leave the world. Our love changes, we learn of a whole new level of love each time we give it out we realize that there is more to love than we have previously known. Hate stays the same - Thank God it doesn't. Hitler's hate for the Jews is not the same Hate that we find today. Similar possibly but not the same. Hate like love can grow and decline with time. Death is the same- One, death is an act that only happens once so if you can die the same way a couple of times, you might have a case to plead. Two, we are dying of diseases now that no one would have thought of 100 years ago, not that we've now diagnosed them, but that we've made issues that have caused problems. Think of the black plague that once was, well, a plague but now we don't think about it. Writing has came along way, music along way, smiling isn't constant, moods are definitely not consistent. Seriously, the only thing that can be consistent is the one thing that exists outside of time, thats God and his Love for us (captial L different kind) (and i know that's kind of two things, but his Love is part of Him so it counts as one.) It's just amazing at the fact that every possible thing I can think of changes but one all but one, and no matter how you try to bend or skew it or stretch it and put it to the limit, it still never changes. It's a beautiful thing.

Jesus, the man.

So I've kind of wondered about Jesus as a dude. Not so much focusing on being God. Granted yes, I know he was 100% God, but he was also 100% man. So I wonder about the man side. I wonder how he carried himself. Most of us, atleast I didn't really think about Jesus as a guy. The Bible says he was sinless, but never says he was perfect, we just assume that he was. But I wonder about his grades in school. Did he have to study really hard? What was his favorite class? Did he get straight A's or was he more of a C student? It often reads that jesus didn't heal everyone, that he sent others away without touching them to save them from their infirmiries, but I wondered why and found that it was that wasn't his job. His job wasn't to heal everyone by touching them, by teaching in every synagog, it was all part of it and everything he did should be closely looked at, but he didn't do it all. He did what he was called to do. He did what his purpose was. So in that same sense, did Jesus do well in school, or was his purpose to focus on other stuff.

How did he react when the girls in junior high started flirting with him? How many girls were in-love with him? How did he gently turn them down saying. . . what would he say? I can't be slowed down by you? This isn't my purpose. There's someone specifically for you, (in his head: "Bill Hendricks of Jerusalem, he's a tentmaker"). But we think we should give everything our all, but we shouldn't really. Cause Jesus didn't give his everything to every aspect. If he would, he never would have accomplished half the stuff he would have? So did he pour himself into his studies? what about his carpentry? Did he pick it up right away? Did he smash his fingers? Did Jesus ever break a bone? Did Jesus fart in public? (you laugh, or maybe you think it's sacrilegious, but the Bible says he was human and he walked the earth. Therefore: by not accepting or thinking about him as a man is really getting an inaccurate picture of Jesus and ergo an inaccurate picture of God, which means your worshiping a false God. Ok, I know thats a bit of a stretch and whatever, but i think you get my point of why I want to see Jesus as a guy. Also, by seeing Jesus as a human it shows us a little more of how us, as humans should live. Sorry, I forgo to end the parenthesis so here's the end. ) <-see that was it.

I also wonder what his favorite food was. Did he like vegetables? Did he try to give them to the dog? Did he have a dog, ok maybe not a dog but a pet in general? If so what did he name it? Did he cry when it died? Was Jesus ever heart broken when he had to leave Mary and Joseph to start his ministry? Did he ever look back and get sad? Did he miss his friends from his childhood that had moved on. Did he ever contact an old friend to catch up? or did he always know exactly what was up? How would that conversation go if he did know? what would you say to the other person?

Was Jesus good at sports? What was his favorite one? Was he an introvert or extrovert? Was he good at art? (i mean helped make the world, but was he good with paints and sculpture?) What would it be like sitting through a bible study with him? Would he lead the conversation or would he let others figure it out for themselves and just help along the way? Did he play an instrument? which one? did he ever wish he could play one but couldn't? Did he ever want more? Not just more people and more God, but like more choices for food, or more musical ability, more free time? Well, I guess not cause he would have been content with whatever he has provided for him.



But then another thought comes up. If you don't see Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the ultimate Sacrifice, the One, if you only see this man named Jesus of Nazareth as a historical figure, what would you think? The history books record him, but do they record him because he is simply the head of one of the largest world religions? Muhammad and Buddah both fit into that category, but they both had moral teachings: how to treat each other, yourself, nature, all of that jazz. They theorized and hypothesized and came up with formulas and awesome sayings that could change the world or the way it looked at things. But how often do you see Jesus quoted by a non-believer. I'll quote Ghandi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." It's an awesome quote, and makes a very good point.

Wikipedia says on the "Historical Jesus" that "He preached the Kingdom of God, using pithy (precisely meaningful; forceful and brief) parables with startling imagery and was renowned as a teacher and a healer." It's a good start, but hmmm. It seems like it's missing some key elements in the life of Jesus. you know the whole coming back to life thing, but i guess thats not something you want to write in History books. It could cause someone to be uncomfortable, it could cause some thoughts, it could cause a revolution. a revolution is what I'm praying for. For the world to see who Jesus really is and to love and be in love with him. what the world would be like. . .