A New Name

     I would love to write in this blog more, it's just that not much has been happening lately. At least not in the sense of "me doing stuff." However, as I said in my last post, I have been learning quite a bit lately about following God and my role in His plan. One thing I have been considering is renaming this blog. Not that I think that "A Writer's Journey" is a bad name or anything, but ever since I've felt that God put a writing gift in me (more than a year ago), my focus has been getting less on the Giver and more on the gift. I would like to remind myself and inform others that I write for one purpose only: to give glory to the One who has redeemed me. I don't write to make money or for fame, and I mean that in the strictest sense. Usually when people say that, they mean that they're not trying to make a lot of money, or garner too much attention. What I mean when I say it, is that if I never get hired for a single paying writing-related job in my life, I won't care. I've stopped caring about where my next meal will come from or how I'm going to survive. My God is much too powerful and much too faithful to His followers for me to worry about those things. The goal is not my survival, but God's glorification. Of course there's always the genius who will read that and say, "Well it's hard to glorify anyone if you're dead because you didn't worry about surviving." As I've already said, my God is faithful. He worries about the survival part for me. What's that, Mr. Genius? It's irresponsible to think that way if you have people depending on you, like a family? I say my family (no, I don't have one of my own yet) would be much better off in the hands of Someone who knows exactly what they need and how to provide it, instead of relying on a flawed, corrupt, and foolish man such as myself. Of course, that's not to say that there's no effort required on my part. I have the responsibility of taking the opportunities that God sends to me as a means of survival, such as a job, and working as hard as possible to make the most out of that opportunity. I also have the responsibility of discerning which opportunities I need to take and which I don't, but that will come automatically as long as I stay close to God and seek His will. As I've said before, I don't think that these beliefs are radical. I think that any Christian who has spent a decent amount of time reading scripture must come to the same conclusion. Politicians, stand uncompromisingly for what's right and let God worry about the votes. Singers, sing for Christ and His glory, and let God worry about where you'll perform next. This applies to everyone who has been given a talent from God. After all, our abilities are not our own. We didn't choose them. That's why they are called "gifts," because someone had the sense to realize that they were of a divine nature, and therefore couldn't have come from ourselves. All of us have four choices when deciding what to do with our gifts. We can use it for ourselves, we can ignore it and not use it at all, we can use it for others, or we can use it for God (which usually also requires using it for others).
     Anyway, if any of you could help me come up with a new name reflecting this attitude toward writing, I would greatly appreciate it. Until next time.

The Summer So Far

Where do I even begin? It's not that a lot has been happening this summer, but the things that have happened are so important that I hardly know which to tell about first. When all else fails, go chronological, I suppose. The first thing that happened was that I went to the Ramp. It's a ministry in Alabama, in a small town called Hamilton, I believe. the Ramp is sort of like a gas station for Christians. When you're running low on fuel and you feel that life has lost its luster, you go to the Ramp and get reminded why we're living here at all. We got there on a Thursday night, and I'm glad we did. That way I was able to get all the dead stuff off of me, the things I had been bogged down by without even realising it, and I could use the whole rest of the weekend to focus totally on learning from and praising God. The schedule for Friday and Saturday went something like this: get up at about 7 in order to pray. After praying, eat breakfast as quickly as possible so that no time is wasted in getting to the Ramp. After arriving, get inside the building and start worshiping. Break for lunch (optional). Eat lunch as quickly as possible and return to the Ramp. Start worshiping again, with periodic interruptions as God gives words to the ministers. Break for supper (optional). Return and worship, then hear a prepared message. After dismissal, return to temporary residence, pray, and read the Bible. Sleep (optional, but recommended).
It. Was. Awesome. And it was only the beginning. When I got home, it was like the Ramp came with me. I loved praying. I loved reading God's Word. Now when I read, God continually reveals things to me that I never saw before. I'm currently keeping track of them in a notebook next to my bed, and you can bet there will be some interesting articles in the Opinions section next semester. I think it's safe to say, because I've proven it many times, that I prefer a good message to a meal. God has been doing other things too, but that's a bit more personal than I'd like to get on this blog. Let it suffice to say that God has been working on me in a rather spectacular and supernatural fashion.
Now I would like to get on my lovely soapbox for a moment. I don't consider the kind of life I've recently started living to be radical. I consider it standard Christianity. I can't imagine living any other way. To return to the powerless, dreary, ball-and-chain Christianity that I used to have (as it now appears to me), and that I see so many other Christians needlessly putting themselves through, would be sheer madness. Do yourself a favor, and let God break you apart, then rebuild you. That's one thing that God has been showing me. We all have pride. Every last human (including myself and others like me, of course) is infested with it. What's so bad about pride? It blinds you to your faults, your sin. Think about it, would it be easier to preach the gospel to a university professor, or a homeless man? I'd take the homeless dude every time. The reason is that a professor is full of himself (generally speaking, of course). He has great confidence (and as a side note, confidence usually means pride) in his knowledge and thinking ability. Sin? Why should a distinguished man like him pay any attention to that? Repentance? Fit only for the common rabble. Salvation? The learned and the accomplished are above such things. On the other hand, someone like a homeless person, if they're desperate enough, knows that they are nothing. They are ready to cling to whatever hope someone gives them. What is the difference between these two people? Not much. Where they were born and who their parents were can probably account for most of it. Things that no one can control or boast about. True salvation can come only when we realize that we are insignificant blips in the universe. Deeply corrupted, sinful blips, at that. That is why pride is so dangerous. That is why, when I pray for people, I pray that they would have their souls broken, that God would hold all the filthy, evil rottenness of their life right in front of their face, and then offer them His glorious Redemption.
Anyway, that pretty much sums up my summer. Oh, and I'm learning spanish.