The Trust Fall

There is SO much going on this week...

Wednesday morning is See You At The Pole. Students from our school will gather around the flag pole to pray with one another. I've been encouraging some of my friends to also get a couple songs together to lead worship for it. The school Variety show is Thursday evening. This week is also homecoming week, which means the football game is Friday and the home coming dance is afterward. I'm still looking for a date although I don't HAVE to have one...

While these things sound fun they can get stressful.

God's been teaching me how to do the trust fall with him, and not only him but with other people. As a person, I can't just take everyone on by myself and handle it all perfectly, and sometimes I've found myself in a place like that.
The truth is that God puts people in our lives for a very important reason.
I can't do everything!
I can't be the hero that saves the day and makes everything happen.
I'm only one person.

Even the bible says in Matthew 18:20 that when 2 or more gather in his name that he is there with then and that it will be done unto them.

Not that you can't pray for something and receive it on your own. But how much more effective will something be with more than one person working together to make it happen?

We've got to learn to trust the people he's placed in our lives for a reason, especially when it comes to moving together and ministering to others.
Sometimes it can be hard.
Maybe the other person will not do what they're suppose to do the way you think is right.
But your point of view may not always be the best either.
It would be awful boring if we all thought the same way, you know?


Recently as I've been getting used to my Sophomore year, making new friends, I've been watching the trust fall happen to some of my other friends and peers...
And they trust fall with boys.
(or girls, if you're a guy reading this.)
This is a generation full of trust falls...

I've wondered if there was anyone out there I could metaphorically trust fall with that would catch me and take care of me.
(Although I have a lot of time left.)

I know there are plenty of faithful, loyal guys that are just friends that would catch me and bring me back to full standing.
Some guys will catch you but leave you on the ground and walk away.
Some guys will leave just as you're about to fall, you turn around and see them walking off. It hurts for a little bit to think that you'd trusted them enough to almost fall into their arms. But you're glad you didn't. Or else you would have fallen to the ground.
This has happened to me.

Upon looking for what I desire in any relationship of any kind, I want someone who I can trust fall with. And one where they will always be faithful to catch me and bring me back up as I do the same for them. It's important in a friendship, or any relationship for that matter.



God will never let you fall when you trust fall with him.

But the question is
Will you trust him?

Come and Take Your Place...

God, I pray that you take your place in the center of our hearts.

Be the center of our lives.

Open our eyes so that we aren't looking for love in all of the wrong places. Open our ears so we can hear your voice that gives us careful instruction in every step of what to do.

Because when it all comes down to the end, at the very end of the day, we ask ourselves
Did I learn to love today?



Servant-hood is a form of love. When people see you sacrificing real time, real money and your life for something else, it shows the love and passion you have.

Some people think "They have to be stupid to sacrifice that much money and that much time for something like that." or maybe "They all have to be senseless. Look at them standing in the middle of the school-yard praying. Don't they realize that everyone is making fun of them?"

What will you do to serve?
What will you do to show your love for God and passion for Jesus?
What will you risk for your passion to reach other people because you care about their eternity?
How far are you willing to run? Or how much time are you willing to sacrifice praying for other people and standing in the gap for them?

We were made to serve.
But we were made to love and be loved.

We weren't made to hurt one another or cause pain to one another. We were made to lift one another up- to be iron sharpening iron.

Recently after attending our morning devotion group we've been talking a lot about persecution, being close to God and being close to those who stand in Christ. It doesn't mean not being close to those who don't believe- they need friends and prayer, too.
But are we going to choose to suffer through persecution for what we love? Are we going to choose what we say around one another and be the people that has iron sharpening iron?
My friends in this morning devotion group and other Christian students throughout the campus are inspiring. Maybe they don't realize it. But taking the stand for Christ and living a life of love and servanthood IS inspiring. And it's awesome seeing people do that.

So what if we get persecuted?

I hear,

"Look at what's happening around you...
People are waking up.
Because you guys prayed.
You guys took a stand.
You guys follow through with the plans I have for you.
And now they can experience the same love we share because you shared."


Now I have friends that are Iron sharpening Iron at school.
They help me throughout every day. They encourage me to keep going.
:)

That part of you on the Inside

Yesterday after school I was laying in bed and thinking to myself.

Things now are not how they were two months ago. Or six months ago.

During the summer we have so much free time (even while we can be busy). We have extra time to think, breathe, and without being in school every day on a schedule and routine and in classes learning something new, we tend to find ourselves. That person on the inside that really matters and that voice on the inside that isn't getting drowned out by everyone elses' words or by the things we face every day being in high school or being around the world.
High school stops shaping us for about two months.

And we have some free time to let other things shape us.

Like friends, family, and new experiences like trips.



For a while after entering back into school, I started forgetting myself after learning so much this summer.

I joined the raider team and I have other new classes.

Everything on top of everything is very time consuming.
But I thought to myself "Is any of this even who I am? Do I enjoy this? Or am I doing it for everyone's approval?"

I even questioned myself, "Where did I go? Where did that person who likes sitting outside in the fall leaves in the cooling sun with a jacket on reading a good book go?"
I thought "Where did the person who could be perfectly content doing something they enjoy because they enjoy it even if they're alone?"
Like sitting down and writing a song or playing an instrument.
Taking pictures.
Running around in the woods.

It's as if I lost myself for a little while trying to please others.
And in the mean time while letting everyone else shape me I lost sight of that childhood that I lose bit by bit every day.

But I found it again.

We're all at that point sometime or another.

And we can all find it again, though it may be a bit dusty.
Because it lives in your heart.

Equilibrium.

This past month while it's been very fun and hectic, getting back into the swing of school and surrounding myself with new people. Other students and I have been getting together Morning Devotion and things the school can do to help spread the word. This is GREAT and has had so much progression. I'm glad this is getting done and I'm happy on the inside knowing that things that have been prayed out are happening.

However, I've taken a notice to something after praying about it and experiencing it.
At the same time, while these wonderful things are happening, I have to remind myself to do things that will keep me spiritually refreshed while I'm busy. And also the truth is this- no matter what happens, the devil will always try to find a way to attack the things you're doing for other people and for God.

When people are getting saved, hearing the word and when lives are being changed for the better, he doesn't like it.
And he tries to stop it by using the same strategies over and over again.

How do I know it? It's obvious just by the things that happen everyday.

Recently this year I've faced a lot of things that I've never faced as much before as now, and I will admit then and there it's distracted me some.

People and schedules tend to be the worst distraction when you let everything you do get out of hand. With growth in the word and in God comes responsibility, and with being busy with the temporal things we do everyday it's easy to sometimes neglect prayer, God and your heart although you prioritize it.

There will always be an equilibrium. The difficult thing can be to find it and keep it constant.

Further into my sophomore year.

This year has taken its unique twists and turns thus far!
Some of this year has seemed to have read straight out of A MidSummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (which we're ironically reading in my English class at the moment)... (Not really straight out of the book, but it makes sense.) It's like another Shakespeare book. Interesting and nothing I've ever really experienced before until now. You'd think your Sophomore there was some love chemical released in the air. Cupid squirting his love juice on everyone's eyes so that the first person they meet they become infatuated with.
Everyone is talking about it...
Including me...
I've discovered a very awkward aspect of myself.
I think I'm more awkward this year than I was last year...
it's rather awkward.
The truth is I have no dating experience at all. Seriously. I "dated" one person in 6th grade and one person in 7th, and both of those things happened in less than a week. I've never kissed a guy. I don't even think I've held hands with one as much as I'd like to some day. I've had a couple crushes, but I guess while everyone else was into dating and who likes who I just... really wasn't. I'd love to have that special person like everyone else seems to. It looks like a lot of fun to have someone that close of a friend in general. I don't know when exactly the time will be right or anything like that. I guess I'll just let things fall into place as they may and continue doing what I'm doing as in what's right and not let it consume my thoughts too much...

I don't have any of the same people in my classes this year. A few people, but not really. I'm glad because it's giving me an opportunity to meet new people (which I have) and I like it. I love meeting new people! And I can adapt to change quickly but don't always like it... something I will have to get used to...



I've been praying about where I belong lately. As in if what I'm doing in high school is lining up with what will benefit me for my future... I realize that some of the things I decided to do this year may not impact my future and it has me concerned and sometimes has me wishing I had done something else... but maybe it can and will have a future effect. Mental determination and strength is what I'll be learning as far as I see. And that does have an effect.


Tomorrow I will be leading worship with the Word and Spirit Church Kiddies and teaching them a lesson with the other leaders. :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

A Pair of Hands Can Tell a Story [A Poem]

I look at these hands and say
they tell a story.
More so I wonder,
Do they tell my story?
Do these hands recite the story
of my heart?
Or do they recite a fiction
that really isn't mine?
Are these markings
from what I love doing?
Are these creases, occasional scars or bends
from following my calling?
I hear the melody in the air
and run my fingers across the keys,
across the sheets,
across the strings,
across the air,
a heart ready to create,
a pair of hands ready to make
something worth knowing,
something worth hearing.
Something my heart is foretelling.
His hands had cuts and a hole in each palm
yet he layed hands on, healing thousands
and was told he was wrong
for doing it, but he kept going, going without stopping
because he knew it was his job, his heart,
his calling
to known and be made known
his father's heart; voice.

I desire my hands to recite
my calling
to make music, to write of freedom,
to tell the story of the one I live for,
to lay hands on the sick and pray that they recover
to tread the journey of life, to find and discover
to use for what's good, to do what's right,
to do what I'm called to
to follow my dream,
to follow his dream.

[9/10/11]