Free

At American Eagle we are giving away a free smartphone when you try on a pair of jeans. Every time I tell someone that they give me this blank stare as if I'm lying to them. Then they say there must be some strings attached because you also get a free $25 money card to AE too. I tell them that all they have to do is sign up for a new 2 year contract or they just have to renew the one they have for 2 years. Thats when people go and theres the catch. I tell them that its not really a catch because when you get a phone from their carrier anyways you pretty much always sign up for a new 2 year plan. People still give me a dumbfounded stare. I just let them go on their merry way and let them decide for themselves if they want to get the free phone or not. 

Its really interesting how even though they are getting an expensive phone for FREE people can still find something to complain about. Yeah you have to pay for the minutes and the data plan but if you were planning on getting a phone you at least don't have to give up money for that. Still its too much just to get one thing for free. Its not perfect so there must be something to complain about and because of that its not worth getting.

Something free that costs us nothing just can't ever seem to exist or the deal just must be to good to be true. If someone offered you salvation from eternal damnation and thus giving you eternal life would you take it? They said it was free, a gift from someone great. All you had to do was believe that why it was a free gift was true. Would you believe such an unbelievable offer? Its so radical that it couldn't be true. No one would ever offer such a deal would they? 

The offer is more radical than a smartphone which even then seems skeptical. So would you put your faith in the death of one man so that you can have the free gift of eternal life? 

But in the end is anything ever free?

A Life Part 2

As I continue asking God everyday to let His way for my life shine through I find it difficult to listen to what God wants. I find that my mind keeps going on about all the things I have to do in one day that it almost seems that I can't stop thinking. The hardest part for me is just letting go and listening.

Prayer is a two way thing much like a conversation that you would have with your friend at coffee. Except God wants to be so much more then that with you. Its hard to imagine myself sitting down with God and having a cup of coffee with Him or just even having a conversation with Him. Most of the time I'm the one doing all the talking and keep asking for things and forget to just listen. I think I'm afraid to listen because I might not want to do what He asks me or I'm not going to want to face what He's telling me to give over to Him. However I forget that God has the best intentions for me. His love for me is greater then the person I go to get coffee with so wouldn't the things that He has to say be even more important in my life.

I had recently switched my majors and I keep wondering if it was in God's plan for me. I was at coffee with a friend talking with him and he told me that it seems like I'm in a transition spot where I don't really know where things are going but God does. I think He's right and now I'm going to have to listen to what God is saying and what He wants me to do with my life.

I'm reading a new book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. In it was an essay written by a fourteen year old girl named Brooke Bronkowski. She listened to God and this is what she had to say about her life.

"Since I Have My Life Before Me"

I'll live my life to the fullest. I'll be happy. I'll brighten up. I will be moe joyful than I have ever been. I will be kind to others. I will loosen up. I will tell others about Christ. I will go on adventures and change the world. I will be bold and not change who I really am. I will have no troubles but instead help others with their troubles. 

You see, I'll be one of those people who live to be history makers at a young age. Oh, I'll have moments, good and bad, but I will wipe away the bad and only remember the good. In fact that's all I remember, just good moments, nothing in between, just living my life to the fullest. I'll be one of those people who go somewhere with a mission, an awesome plan, a world-changing plan, and nothing will hold me back. I'll set an example for others, I will pray for direction. 

I have my life before me. I will give others the joy I have and God will give me more job. I will do everything God tell me to do. I will follow the footsteps of God. I will do my best!!!

That's what really happened to her. She died her freshmen year of high school but the lives she touched were thousands.

Imagine if we thought like that and let ourselves be directed by God. There wouldn't be anything in this world that we couldn't do. In I Peter 1:6-7 it says that we rejoice in our struggles because it tests the genuineness of our faith. The struggle of having to let go and have faith in God to lead your life is tough, but it should be one that makes us rejoice! 

A Life Part 1

Well its now summer and I figured that since I have been sitting around and doing a lot of thinking I would share some of my thoughts. 

I had been reading a book called Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne for 2.5 years. It took me a long time but I finally finished the book. Seems kinda odd because a friend gave me that book in a time that I was struggling in my life and it seems that just as I finished the book I realized what was causing the struggle (I'll get to that later). 

As I was reading through the book I felt myself asking so many questions. Was what he was saying right or did I disagree with it. Half the book I felt 50/50 but the one thing that I think he changed my mind on was that doing just enough isn't ENOUGH for God. Just barely passing through life giving the little amount is not what God wants at all. He wants a life that is fully devoted to Him. A life that is radically living out for Him at every second of our lives. It was being a radical that the book was pointing towards as this Irresistible Revolution.

After finishing the book I looked back over what I had read and saw that my life wasn't there. I was just doing the things to just barely get by. Doing just barely wasn't good enough though. It didn't leave me with a life that was for God, it just left me with a corrupted life that was far from what I should have been doing. I tried doing things all by myself but we as humans can't do anything on our own. We were built to be in community.

This community is with God and with others around us. I believe that they both go hand in hand though. These two things are separate but also together. There are times when we need to just be alone with God and then there are times that we need to be together as a community either for worship or just for fun. These communities are what keep us to what our lives are to be for without them we will fall back into a corrupted life.

I know that because of my lack of trusting people and God I let myself think that I could do things all on my own. A friend pointed out to me though that it was the fact that I focused on overcoming my sin that I forgot that all I had to do was give it to God. I had to trust in Him and get over myself. I could do nothing by myself but with God nothing would be impossible. All I had to do was give God everything and live that radical life. 

Sounds simple but its still a struggle everyday if not every second. I am human and in this life I can do nothing alone.