God Is The Only Constant- Heraclitus (Revised)

I know the smell anywhere; smoke.

Frantically, I run across the field towards the black billows of thick, furling smoke. It fills the night sky, choking out the breeze and veiling the stars. I keep running forward, though, further and further into the blackness. All around, curious neighbors spill out of their houses, their faces immediately shifting from curiosity, to worry, to panic; one of the houses a block over, undeniably ablaze. 

Along with the rest of the neighborhood, I stand with a sinking heart, watching it burn to the ground. 

The firefighters did their best to save it, but in the end the house was too far gone. Thankfully,

the family wasn't in the house at the time of the fire, but their life was. 

They lost everything. They lost their home, all of their belongings, their dog, and the neighborhood lost a house; a scorched plot of rubble left in it's place; a scar. 

There is a new house there now, a new family, a new life. All of the grass is grown back in and its as if there had never been a fire there at all. Only those who know what it looked like before miss it. 

Is that life? Change, I mean. Things grow, live for their time, and then wilt away. Is there nothing more? 

People, jobs, time, circumstances, they all change. LIFE...CHANGES. 

"The only constant is change" -Heraclitus, Greek philosopher

But Heraclitus only knew the half of it. There's more.

 God. Never. Changes. 

He is the same from the beginning to the end, for He IS the Beginning and the End! 

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." -Revelation 22:13

Your circumstances will change, your friends will change, your passions and concerns will change, but God never will and neither will His Word. If "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God," (John 1:1) then you can always rely on the fact that God never changes. You can always depend on GOD. :)

No matter where He leads me, no matter what changes or happens, I can forever rely on my Savior, Lord, and Heavenly Father for all grace, all forgiveness, love, strength, and mercy. 

Isn't that great? 

Sweet Frailty

I.... am weak.

I am powerless. 

I am broken and fragile. 

I am faithless. 

BUT,

I am... because  He IS. 

HE is strength. HE is power. He is healing and durability. He is faith. 

God is creator, designer, omnipotent Savior, and because He is, I am. 

God sent His only begotten Son to die for me. He took what I deserve, so I might live. The love in that single act is so incredible it brings me to my knees. There, I am strong. I am powerful. I am healed and can endure all things; I have faith because I have GOD.
And that's enough for me. 

Is it enough for you?

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the Earth, neither faints nor is weary, His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength.- Isaiah 40:28 & 29

Selfishness Vs. Humility

It's eight AM when my phone rings. The moment  I answer it, the caller immediately mistakes the sleep-ridden condition of my voice to be the tone of "I'm currently preoccupied; this isn't a good time". She asks if it is, I say it's not, and she says she'll call back later when I'm not so busy.

Busy... right. I begrudgingly throw all four layers of covers off and drag my not so eager body out of bed.

Later in the evening she calls back and explains that she had needed someone to lean on earlier, someone to talk to and she had thought of me. 

-But I was too busy-

She said that she went the whole day wondering if it was a better time, every hour or so. After telling all that was troubling her, and some advice on my part, some tears on hers, I assured her everything would be alright, and said I'd keep her in my prayers. Then, we said our goodbyes and I sat there staring at the floor with this realization:

 My friend, whom to which I was not a friend, endured the duration of her day with a heavy, hurting heart and I had only made it worse, when all I REALLY had to do was listen.

This question came to mind. Why are humans so naturally selfish? 

Look up human nature in the dictionary, ten bucks says the definition is "selfishness".)

Though I always try to put others first, I didn't the one time someone really needed it. How many other times have I done this, have my friends hurt with no consolation? This struck a chord that clashed ruefully, hurting my ears.

But then, as the hurt moved south to my heart of hearts, I thought about the only human to walk the Earth that would have put  his friends, and my friend the caller, and anyone and everyone first time and time again at 8am, at 6am, at 3am, or any other given time, awake, asleep, eating, bathing, sickly, healthy, NO MATTER His current state, Jesus would have put her first. Besides, He DID put us first. Before His heavenly kingdom...before Satan's tempting...before His heart gave out, He put us first. 

Lesson learned? 

~.Yes. ~

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." -Philippians 2:3-4

This is my prayer for today:

That Jesus would help shape my character to reflect His own, putting others first, regardless of the situation as He did. Through God, I can do all things. So I know that with His help, humility will be easier to come by for He is the source, the Living Water of which forth love, humility, faithfulness, and eternal happiness springs. 

Too Many Clocks

"The time?" The man glanced at his invisible watch on his arm and then back at me with a goofy, toothless smile plastered on his bearded face. "Why, the time is now, youngster!" He said grinning, a hearty laugh escaping through the hole where his teeth should have been. Then, he walked away leaving me behind unsure of the time and even more unsure of his sanity.

 Though... Perhaps he was right on the matter. The time IS now, the time WAS now a minute ago, and the time WILL BE now in a minute, and so on. Since this is unarguably the case, why are we so often caught up in the times and what everyone ELSE is doing? Why do we worry and put so much effort into planning elaborately, or dwelling on the past, when we are losing out on what is happening right NOW? 

Guilty as indirectly charged, I personally spend too much time dwelling on the past, my mistakes, and, on the upside, joyful experiences that I wish I could relive. What I don't realize, however, is that by being so caught up in the past, or in many cases the future, I am personally engaged in wasting the present time that has been given to me. 

The all too familiar saying, "you only live once", or as the current generation knows most popularly, "YOLO", is the world's way of saying life is too short to waste time so live in the moment before it's gone. The only part of that saying that I agree with is the part about wasting time. Before our eyes, time is running out.

 In the Bible, it says in Matthew 24:36, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only,"  Now, for the people with an absurd amount of clocks in their living room, they may always know the time, but they do not know the hour in which the Lord is to return. 

Jumping down a couple of texts, it says in Matthew 24:43, "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into." 

Verse 44 says, "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." 

Simply put, we don't have time...to kill time. 

In 2 Thessalonians 5:2 Paul writes,"For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night." Don't dwell in the past. REMEMBER the past, but please, please, please, live now. 

Twiddling Thumbs

"That's the trouble with those youth today," began the older gentlemen sitting in the white rocking chair on display outside of the Cracker Barrel. "They've got no purpose, so they sit and twiddle their thumbs with frowns on their faces," He croaked, twiddling his wrinkled thumbs with a frown on his face. The look was not becoming and this unsettled something in me.

Now here is where I find a bit of irony in his words.  I, one of "those youth" the man was speaking of, am not even sure of how to twiddle my thumbs. I believe, what he meant, however, if I may take the liberty in saying so, is that many young people don't have much to wake up for every day. That is true. There is the ordinary routine of a high-schooler, which we've all been through and know thoroughly, but then there is the post-school lag of "what to do now". I've recently woken up out of that lag and am now a wholehearted, purpose-filled youth and I owe it all to God's direction, divine appointments, and my awakening desire to get involved with life.

This is my life's recently revised purpose:

I'm going to give God my plans and simply enjoy being one of "those youth" WITH a purpose. 

Here's what I've learned, though. At times, regardless of age, we can all be one of "those youth" the old man was speaking of. Often, we have no purpose. We think that the world will keep on spinning whether we are out doing something worth while, or sitting uselessly twiddling our thumbs, so what does it matter?  I did some self-reflecting recently with this in mind: life doesn't stop to take a beat for anybody. So the way I see it, you have two choices.

1. Let life pass you by, or 2. Hit the ground running and try to keep up. Choosing the latter, I know what I have to do. So here's the question: What's your purpose? Why do YOU wake up every day?

Friends, don't sit and twiddle your thumbs. If you don't feel like you have a purpose, it's probably because you're waiting for self empowerment. Look to God; keep searching with Him as your strength and purpose. You'll be surprised by what you find. 

Matthew 5:13-16

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."