-The “If-It’s-Easy” Method

If something comes easily, then surely it’s what God wants us to do, right? And on the flip side, if something is difficult, then that can’t be what God is saying to do…right? Don’t we all wish that were true?

James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Trials? Trials aren’t easy, but the Bible tells us to consider them an opportunity for joy instead of considering them a sign from God that we’re doing the wrong thing. I guess that kind of rules out the “If-It’s-Easy” method.

-The “Open Door” Method

This is a favorite. “If God wants it to be, the door will be opened.” “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” “The open door is a sign from God.”

Ok, let’s take a look at this with an example. You’re fresh out of high school, on a college campus for the first time, out of the watchful eye of your parents. It’s your first taste of freedom. Someone invites you to a party where there will be alcohol, drugs, and lots of people to hook up with. Open door! The opportunity has so obviously presented itself, so that must mean that you should take it, right?

Nope. Just because there’s an “open door,” that doesn’t necessarily mean you should walk through it. Or just because there’s a “closed door,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re doing the wrong thing. There’s got to be another way to decide.

-The “Follow-Your-Heart” Method

I’d like to think that I’m always going to make the right choice by “following my heart,” but I’d be giving myself waaaaaaaaay more credit than I deserve. I’ve made many bad decisions because my feelings have told me they were right. And I’ve missed out on doing things God has wanted me to do because I just haven’t “felt like it.” The Bible tells us that our heart is deceitful above all things, and I believe it. I want to make decisions based on something more concrete than my feelings.

So what’s the alternative?

When I was younger and would go to stores with my mom, I could always tell where she was in the store by the sound her keys would make. Since I was around my mom so much (and around her keys, I guess), I could distinguish the sound her keys made from the other sounds in the store. I knew that sound. I could follow that sound to find my mom.

Jesus says that his sheep hear his voice, they know him, and they follow him (John 10). Just like I came to know the sound of my mom’s keys because I was around her a lot and became familiar with the sound, we can come to know God’s voice as we spend more and more time with him.

-The “Hear God’s voice, Know Him, Follow Him” Method

Spend enough time in God’s presence so that you come to recognize what God’s voice sounds like. As you grow in your relationship with God, you’ll start to be able to distinguish His voice from other things in your life, whether those are the voices of comfort, open or closed doors, or your feelings. Then you can move forward in confidence, knowing that you’re doing what God has told you to do.

I’m taking 3D-Design, Film History Since 1940, Logic, and Screenwriting.

I also have been given the amazing opportunity to intern at Trailblazer Studios which does a ton of post-production (editing and the likes).

Why do I tell you this?

Because it’s all about stories!

3D-Design is all about communication, Film History is all about how people DID communicate, Logic is about examining communication, and screenwriting is one of the most basic forms of communication. And a lot of these classes (and the internship) focus on communication through telling a story, specifically through film or TV.

And man, is there a lot to learn.

But I think one of the coolest things (to me at least) is how films can so prove the existence of God, and verify what the Bible says, and I don’t mean just those few films that preach it up (or at least hint at God/the Bible) like Facing The Giants, Fireproof, or I’ll even give it to The Book Of Eli.

And I bet you’re wondering WHAT ON EARTH I mean by that, because all media is usually so anti-God.

Well, to start off in my screenwriting class we had to study very closely a screenplay of our choosing in order to get ourselves familiar with the material. So I choose Forrest Gump, ‘cause it’s a great film right? And everyone loves it right? Well, it turned out to be tons harder than I thought…but I guess that’s one reason why it was so great. But the thing that makes it REALLY great is because here we have a (slightly) autistic guy who goes on not only to live a “normal” life, but an EXTRAORDINARY one. And why do we like it? Because it’s the Fool Who Triumphs!

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1 Cor 1:27

We love it because it’s a God principle.

Or, another one of my favorites is from a movie called Adaptation (one of those awful “artsy” films, which I DO NOT suggest watching at all) that we had to watch for screenwriting class. At the end of this film, one of the characters named Orlean is crying over her dead boyfriend with whom she was having an affair and with whom she had gotten into a lot of bad stuff. She goes from way up top to way down low, and this is what she says:

ORLEAN

(suddenly weeping)

Oh my God. Everything’s over. I did
everything wrong. I want my life back.
I want it back before it got all messed
up. Let me be a baby again. I want to
be new. I want to be new.

“I want to be new.” Isn’t that exactly what every person wishes? Deep down? Because deep down all of us NEED to be new in God.

It’s interesting because the book that we have read to help guide us in screenwriting emphasizes primal goals. Like being new and starting over, or the primal urge to mean something to the world. And is this not all in the Bible? It’s because the things in the Bible are ingrained in us just like our DNA, and its principles function in the world.

So, next time you watch a movie, look out for the God Principles, and comment if you find one in a movie!

While that message is true, we do not see a lot of people walking around like they are free.  If you take a snapshot of our society you can see all the problems there are.  Turn on any “reality” show and all you see are a bunch of people that are trapped.  Christian or not, most of us live an enslaved life.  Jesus said in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  If Jesus is your savior then he has set you free.  Many people claim they have freedom, but do they really?  What is really interesting about this verse is the one that prefaced it.  Jesus was talking to the disciples about being enslaved and they ask him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” (v33).  The disciples didn’t know that they were being held back.  They didn’t realize they needed to be set free.

Have you been set free?  Have you allowed Jesus to come into your life and take off the chains that hold you down?  Some people are like the people in our service who just stood there.  There are things in life that are chaining them down and holding them back.  They may be a Christian or they may not.  They may know they are being held back or they may not.  There are so many things that we could be enslaved by.  It could be a past relationship, it could be our childhood, it could be alcohol or drugs, it could be our pride, it could be our anger.  Jesus has set us free, but we must walk in that freedom.  I’d encourage you to not be like the disciples.  Don’t assume you are living in freedom.  Examine your life and see if there are things that are holding you back.  Jesus died on the cross to take our sins.  He died to set us free.  Let’s begin to walk in that freedom.

I have off work this week and next week.  It is fantastic haha.  There is one thing that is tough to do on a week off: to get motivated.  I have a lot of stuff to take care of since this is the week before Christmas, but all I’ve really wanted to do is sit on the couch and watch TV or play video games (side note: I have beaten 2 video games in the past 3 days, but they were both games that I had started before my break).  It has been tough to find motivation but in the past 3 days I have got all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped all the presents (with some help), cleaned my room and put up all my laundry, worked out every day, played a round of golf, had some pretty awesome quiet times, and spent time with my family.  It’s been tough to get up and make myself do some of those things (especially cleaning my room), but I feel so much better now that I have got everything done.

Sometimes I struggle with the same thing in my relationship with God.  Sometimes it is hard to motivate myself to spend time with Him.  Now maybe you don’t have that struggle, and if you don’t leave me a comment and let me know how you do it haha.  But I think it is something a lot of us struggle with.  As Christians, we don’t want to admit that we struggle with being motivated to spend time with God.  So we tend to just try to hide it, and act like everything is OK.  But just like cleaning our room or running errands, when we spend time with God things are much better.  So how do we motivate ourselves?   What is the magic formula?  To tell you the truth, I haven’t found one.  I usually use the same trick that I use to motivate myself to clean my room:  I just do it.  Sometimes it just takes getting into the presence of God.  Here is how Jesus put it in Luke 9:23, “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  You have to deny yourself and follow Jesus.  The simple truth in our lack of motivation is really that we are selfish.  We just need to realize that spending time with God isn’t a waste of our time, rather it is the best use of our time.

I’ve never met a person who didn’t think their life was busy.  But our lives are never too busy to spend time with God.  I have found that the more frequently I spend time with God, the more motivated I am to keep doing it.  As we get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus, make it a habit to spend time with Him daily.  Instead of getting caught up in all the distractions that come with Christmas, get caught up in Jesus.  Just like your room looks better after you clean it; your life will be better after you spend time with God!

Now on a unrelated topic, here are my thoughts on some of the Christmas CDs that came out this year.
TobyMac- Christmas in Diverse City -  The TobyMac portion of this CD was pretty good, but I did not enjoy the Diverse City half.  I am a huge fan of “The First Noel” which features Owl City.  Other standout tracks are “Christmas This Year” and Byron “Mr. Talkbox” Chambers’ “Christmas Time”.
Hawk Nelson – Christmas – I was really looking forward to this CD coming out.  I am a huge Hawk Nelson fan.  I love their first Christmas EP, the Gloria EP, that they release a few years ago.  Unfortunately this CD is a big let down for me.  It has 7 songs and is less than 20 minutes.  One of my biggest pet peeves about Christmas CDs is that bands don’t record full songs.  They only record a verse and a chorus.  It seems like they rush to get a Christmas CD out.  This CD has that feeling.  However, I do really like “The Holly and the Ivy” and “Silent Night”.
David Crowder* Band – Oh For Joy – This is by far my favorite Christmas CD that has been released this year.  I love what DC*B did with these Christmas songs.  They gave them their own feel and even added some new bridges to some of the songs.  It makes me even more excited about their new CD coming out this January.  My favorite song on the CD is “Joy to the World”.  Other stand outs are every other song on the CD haha.

I hope each and every one of you has a blessed Christmas.  As you spend time with family and friends keep in mind that without Jesus there wouldn’t be a holiday.

Dear 16-year-old me,

There are a lot of things I could tell you and warn you about, secrets I could let you in on early, facts I could share that might be useful to you, but if I could tell you five things, this is what I’d tell you:

1. Enjoy your fast metabolism while you have it. It won’t last forever. Also, if you could go ahead and start to exercise, I’m sure that the just-out-of-college me would really appreciate it.
2. High school is not the most important thing in your life. Enjoy it and do well, but don’t take it so seriously.
3. The guy you are dating now is NOT “the one.” Stop dating him. Right now. In fact, you can pretty much stay away from guys for the next few years. I know you’re feeling insecure and want a guy to make you feel good, but only God can do that. Dump the dude.
4. You really do have a good family and you’ve had a good life so far. Appreciate what you have. There are people in your life right now who you think are just so much more important than your family, but you won’t have any kind of contact with them years later. Be kind to your parents and sister. Love on them.
5. It’s okay to really live for God. You’re not missing out on anything. Other people’s lives look so much more fun, but the fruit of their decisions will not be good. God not only has what’s best for you, but also what’s most fun, exciting, and adventurous. It’s not too early to really get serious about Him.

The next few years of your life will be really, really good. You’ll go through some hard stuff, but you’ll find that God is ALWAYS faithful to you. Enjoy growing up

Love,
Erica

PS. Your looks WILL improve. Stop worrying. But you might want to try some makeup or something in the meantime.

That’s where the art of sucking it up comes in.

A couple of years ago, I started to notice that my metabolism wasn’t quite keeping up with me the way it did when I was younger. My clothes were starting to fit in unflattering ways, and my lack of concern for physical fitness was beginning to be obvious. For the first time in my life, I was actually going to have to exercise and/or watch what I was eating in order to keep my body looking the way I wanted it to.

Although I knew I needed to change some things in my life (i.e. actually work out and count calories), my half-hearted attempts of going to the gym and lethargically using the elliptical while watching Oprah weren’t really cutting it. So I got some advice from someone who knew a little bit more about exercise and getting in shape.

And this person made some awful suggestions. He wanted me to do things like…push-ups. I know that as you read this, you’re gasping and shuddering as much as I did when I first heard about it too. But I knew I needed to really exercise, and I knew I didn’t want to, so I had to just suck it up and try it. And it wasn’t all terrible. In fact, I kinda started to like it. I began to see some changes in my body that I really liked and that made up for the unpleasantness of actually doing push-ups and lunges and things like that.

I remember when someone first talked to me about telling other people about Jesus, and I just thought that was going to be so awkward. I knew the Bible said to do it, but surely God wouldn’t have me do something I’m uncomfortable with, right? Wrong. I had to suck it up and just really pray that God would give me a humility and love for other people. And then I had to actually start to talk to people about Jesus. And although it’s still sometimes uncomfortable, it’s become a lot easier and I can see the benefit of it. Someone having a life-changing encounter with Jesus and being able to spend all eternity in heaven with Him is definitely worth my sucking it up and doing something that the natural, fleshly part of me doesn’t want to do.

I can tell you that there are many times when I just want to do what I. want. to. do.
But I can also tell you that the Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things and that our flesh wars against the Spirit. Sometimes we really do just have to practice the art of sucking it up and do what we know, what God has told us, is best.

There is a column on ESPN that I read about every week to get some fantasy football advice (read one of my previous blogs if you want to see how I feel about that) by Matthew Berry called Love/Hate. In the same fashion, here is my love/hate of winter.

Love:

Cooler weather – I am a sucker for zip up hoodies. I LOVE wearing them. I am also a fan of being able to walk outside and not instantly start sweating. My ideal day is when I can wear shorts and a t-shirt during the day, but then at night it cools off and you can wear jeans and a light jacket. I also recently got a few argyle sweaters that I enjoy wearing.

Hot Chocolate/Apple Cider/Egg Nog – the winter brings back a variety of fantastic beverages. Some people may be thinking (except for egg nog), I drink those all year, why don’t you. As I previously mentioned, I get hot and start to sweat very easily. Hot weather + hot drink = miserable Nick. But cold weather + warm drink = perfect combo. And egg nog is just delicious, I wish that was available all year.

Christmas music – There are some awesome worshipful Christmas songs out there. My favorite is O Holy Night. The chorus where it goes “Fall on your knees” gets me every time. There is something really powerful about singing a bunch of songs about the coming of Jesus our savior. There are also lots of people releasing Christmas CDs this year (David Crowder* Band, TobyMac, Hawk Nelson).

Food – I’d be lying if I didn’t include this on my love list. There is so much good food with Thanksgiving and Christmas. At work there are always some kind of homemade treats. There are foods my family makes only at Christmas time that are some of my all time favorites. On Christmas Eve my family always fights over my grandma’s fried shrimp!

Christmas Parties – There are always lots of fun parties around Christmas. The tacky Christmas sweater parties are my favorite. Although I think I may have slightly offended my mom last year when I asked to borrow some of her sweaters. But my outfit was pretty legit!! I will also add into this section hanging out with family. Some of my favorite Christmas memories are from spending time with my family.

Hate:

Cold Weather – I love cooler weather, but am not a fan of cold weather. I am not a fan of having to wear tons of layers, or always wear a hat or gloves when I go outside. While I do love sleeping snuggled up under a bunch of blankets, that is about the only time I enjoy cold weather. My hands also get really dried out and crack. It’s no fun.

Christmas music – Wait, I thought this was in the love section??? Oh, it was… now I’m confused. I also hate Christmas music. I hate that every year people and places start playing it earlier and earlier (some radio stations around here start the day after Halloween). Like I said earlier, I love the worshipful Christmas songs, but I hate all the cheesy childish ones (“I saw mommy kissing Santa” for example). I also can’t stand how you will hear the same 5 songs on the radio just 20 different people singing them. I have the select few Christmas CDs I own and enjoy, and that’s about all I will listen to.

Food – Ok, Nick what are you doing here?? This is the second one that made both the lists. Yes, I love eating the food because it is delicious. I do not like the struggle to not gain weight during the winter. All the food and all the goodies are very tempting and hard to stay away from and my self control isn’t always at the top of it’s game.

People Christmas shopping – Giving presents is supposed to be such a selfless humble act to show you care about someone. But people get crazy trying to get those presents. It’s like you need to put on full football padding if you are going out the morning after Thanksgiving. People can be so pushy, demanding, and mean trying to get items at a store. This is why I prefer to try to do as much shopping as I can online and avoid the crazy people.

So that is my list in a nutshell. What are some of the things you love/hate about winter?

Shocker, I know. But I do…I find it interesting to learn new things and ideas. I’m pretty much up for learning anything – provided that the teacher is good (although biology, history, and geography are not my strong points…but that’s a topic for later discussion).

With that being said, I love philosophy class.

I have never in my life taken a philosophy class, and the closest I’ve ever come to anything regarding that area of learning was some logic in math class. The basics. So this semester I ended up taking an ancient philosophy class (the lesser of two evils – my other option was economics I think, and I was NOT about to take THAT…plus, ancient philosophy is all about the dudes who founded tons of science, math, and physics stuff, so I was like, why not…). I surprisingly love it – partially because it uses a lot of logic, partially because our teacher is awesome and hilarious, but mostly because of the dynamic of the class (which I think I’ll post later about my fellow classmates…I seriously wish I could record class sometimes).

Recently we talked about the argument of “The Unmoved Mover” which is a cool argument considering it’s pretty much an argument for God (which if you’d like to dig into it, I’ll let Wiki explain it for ya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmoved_mover ). But it reminded me of the first day of class. On the first day our professor asked us a question: say there was a magic Genie (this is what I always think of when people mention Genies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrWnXllf1JY ), and instead of granting you 3 wishes, he grants you 3 answers to any three questions. So, I started thinking of questions like, “Why do we get hiccups?” and “How are bumblebees able to fly?” and “TELL ME MY FUTURE MUHAHAHAH!!” Intelligent questions like that. You know what the rest of the class starts asking? “Is there a God” which turned to “what is the Nature of God” which then eventually turned to something like “what is the nature of space-time and it’s effects on human nature blah blah blah, <insert some really intelligent quantum physics here>?” And for some reason this kind of took me off guard. I never even thought of asking those questions because I already KNOW that there is a God, and generally speaking His nature. I think one of my biggest problems is that I forget what life for people who aren’t saved is like. I forget that it really is a dark and lonely place where you really don’t know. I don’t need to ask a Genie to know.

It also reminded me of what we were talking about in church a couple of weeks ago. The title of the message was “I Don’t Believe In Atheism”, and basically we talked a lot about how there is a part of everyone that knows there is a God (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+31%3A33&version=NLT ) – after all, people don’t make groups about disbelieving the Easter bunny or Santa Clause (sorry to anyone just now finding that out… ). All these people in my class were wanting to know if what they were believing was really real…Nirvana, Atheism…whatever it is. They wanted to know because they didn’t truly know. At the same time there a lot of Christians who don’t really know that God is really real either. And I think I forget that too.

What do you think? Lemme know in the comments below!

Last Sunday night as I was laying in my bed thinking to myself, “If I had only started Gonzales and Green-Ellis I could win this week.”  Then I realized I was actually keeping myself up by stressing about a fantasy football game.  I realized how dumb this was.  In the grand scheme of things how much was this really going to matter?  Not at all.  When I see God face to face he isn’t going to ask me why I had those guys on my bench.

I think a lot of times we worry and stress about things that really have no importance.  But there as also times where we worry and stress about things that can be important, like grades, bills, friends, jobs.  But when we worry and stress, we are not trusting in God.  Francis Chan said it like this in his book Crazy Love, “Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what is happening in our lives.  Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.”  Worry and stress are very selfish perspectives.  When we worry and stress we are focused on ourselves.  Paul said it like this in Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

Ok, so I shouldn’t worry about anything, got it.  Wait… what?!?!?!  You can’t be serious God.  There is no way you could expect me not to worry about ANYTHING!!  Doesn’t that sound familiar?  Haven’t you thought that just about every time you have read that verse.  I know I have.  But in the end, yes God is serious, and yes he does expect that.  Worry and stress are not from God and you don’t have to live with them.  Tell them to pack their bags and kick them to the curb!  “But Nick that is crazy, how can we do that?”  Bobby McFerrin was on to something when he wrote “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”  But he did miss the mark a little bit.  It should go like this… don’t worry, pray.  Paul says that instead of worrying we should pray about everything.  If something comes up in your life and you start to worry about it, in that moment start to pray about it.  Paul also says to thank God for all He has done.  When we thank God we remember all the blessing He has given us, all the times He has helped us, all the times He has rescued us.  When we remember these thing, we start to see that God can take care of whatever it is we are currently going through.

To not worry and not stress is not an easy task.  It is something I have to remind myself of daily.  When you find yourself in that same position just remember, don’t worry.. pray.

I remember learning in school that in literature autumn is used as an archetype for tragedy or death. I understand that, but fall just feels so alive to me—all the vibrant colors of changing leaves, cooler weather for layering long sleeves and sweaters, the state fair, my birthday, and lots of Thanksgiving goodness. Mmm, so good!

Really, I love any time the seasons change. In the middle of the summer, when I’m sweating like crazy just thinking about stepping foot outside, it’s good to know that cooler temperatures will be coming soon. Or in January when I have to bribe myself with promises of hot coffee in order to get out of my nice, warm bed, I think about spring coming in just a few short months and the frigid temperatures are a little more bearable.

I think a lot of people are afraid of change in life. Unlike with the change in seasons, a lot of times we don’t really know what to expect when our lives start changing. And sometimes the changes are difficult. I remember going through a breakup with my high school boyfriend and thinking that the change was just so hard. Looking back now, though, I thank God that I’m no longer in that relationship. (All friends and family reading this are enthusiastically shaking their heads in agreement right now). My life is so much better now, despite (and probably because of) going through what was a difficult change at the time.

I think one really exciting thing about following Christ is that even when our lives change, we can always trust that God will lead us in the right direction. We never have to worry about what the changes that God initiates will bring about in our lives—they will always be good, always for our benefit. And when changes happen that are out of our control, we can trust that God will cause even those things to work together for our good.

As the temperatures start dropping and the leaves start changing color (just pretend if this isn’t happening in your part of the world), let’s grab our pumpkin spice lattes and cozy sweaters and let’s be reminded that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and just thank Him for all the ways He’s changed our lives.