You may wake up to a text every morning that says the same thing every time, something so warm and happy, the phrase that puts a smile on your face. You may say it every single time you get off the phone with certain people, you say it before you go to sleep, you may even say it to the food that you favor, the store that you go into all the time. Those three words that have the strongest definition that we will never be able to comprehend, "I LOVE YOU!" What does that even mean? How can we say “I love you” to a parent then go into our refrigerator and say the same exact thing to our meal, how can we say “I love you” to our wife’s/husbands then step out of a movie and say “I loved it”? Yeah, it may be just a phrase that we say, but I have a feeling that not everyone has really thought about those words, those words that are way more than three syllables and goes further than a Valentine’s Day card. Most of you know exactly what I am talking about and you know what I am about to say, you may have heard it in a sermon or two and let it go out of your memory bank, if it was even allowed entrance. I was listening to a song called “How He Loves” by John McMillan when I got stuck in deep thought and decided to write this blog, I hope you give these words that I say a chance. I don’t know if many of you were like me as a child, I was the biggest brat. At the end of almost everyday, I would know how many paint splotches there were in the corners, I made designs with the cobwebs and my nose collected dust. I would always get in trouble for dumb words that came out of my mouth, for throwing legos at my brother, and for those wrestling matches that I started. When I heard my full name being called by that deep voice, I knew what was coming my way. It was either some more minutes spent with the left corner in the family room, or the hand on the bosom, the same hand that would embrace me shortly after. I was such a messed up little kid who has grown to be an imperfect man. After my punishments, I always remember my dad calling me into the room and talking to me, checking to see if I know why he did what he did, if I learned from my mistakes. No matter how many times my face met the darkest side of the room, I still made the same mistakes over and over and over again. You’d think that it would be so simple to not call my brother names, to obey the easiest rules of the house, but the easier the rules seem to be, are more than not the rules that are the hardest not to break. I went from a little seven year old who threw a fit to losing at video games and started fights because of it, to a 22 year old who is broken as much as everyone else, maybe even more. No matter how many curse words slip out of my mouth, no matter how many people I think badly of in a day, or lustful thoughts that had come into my mind my whole life, I am 100 percent forgiven and Loved more and more every single day. A true Love, a Love that would Love me no matter how many sins I have done. The biggest and most enormous man wants me, and He wants you. On the cross he is stretching out his arms saying “I love you this much”, so give him a chance to show you more of his Love…, even though we will never be able to comprehend that Love, we have it and it is unlimited. So if you ever think that you are unloved, open up that Book, look at that crucifixion painting, and know that no matter how imperfect you are, there is at least one person who loves you...
“If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking”
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Rich
A thought popped in my head the other day when I started getting excited about the Invisible Children Legacy Tour. We have it made out here in USA. We don’t have to wake up in fear of armies coming to our cities and killing or kidnapping us, we don’t have to worry about hurting our feet due to the lack of shoes, and we obviously aren’t worrying about being unable to access what’s going on around the world (internet, television, etc.) I know that the biggest worry for me is choosing which v-neck I want to wear with my shoes. I have it made and I am so fortunate.
I was stuck on the freeway and I started noticing all these billboards that try to sell products to people. There was this one advertisement that got me to thinking, thinking, and thinking some more. It read “Lap Band” with the image of an overweight person’s foot on a scale. Sure, some people are more fortunate than others with good metabolism, but we are one selfish country. 67 percent of America is overweight, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are an estimated 307 million people in America according to the World Factbook, which means 206 million Americans are overweight. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Americans spend $40 billion a year on weight loss programs and products. If a majority of these overweight people paid for these programs that would be $380 a year spent on these diets by one person. That upset me, there are third world countries out there that barely survive off of a dollar a day and here in America the average person spends up to $140 a day. In Timor-Leste, a third-world In South-East Asia the average family must survive on 400 dollars a year. I just can’t imagine what the pot-bellied starving children would think when they would see these advertisements for diets and surgeries for weight-loss. They would be confused and would wonder where all this food came from and how ridiculously lucky we are to be able to stock up groceries for a full month on half a paycheck or even less.
We are so spoiled and we don’t even know it. Some people have a pair of shoes for each outfit and some of those pairs don’t get worn more than five times. Some families in poor countries have only one pair of shoes for the children to share, some children even have to miss out on education because schools require students to wear shoes. In some cases, each child in a family is able to attend school twice a week if they are lucky.
We are blessed with freedom. In Uganda, children hide every night in order to stay hidden from the rebel group and forced to join. Almost 90 percent of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), the most feared rebel group in Uganda, are abducted children that are forced to join or are killed. After being abducted, they terrorize any civilized areas and abduct more children into their army.
We don’t know how great we have it, or we don’t show our appreciation enough. Compared to other places in the world, each and every one of us with a five-dollar bill in our pockets are rich. So start looking at what you have, start appreciating, and realize that you have it better than a majority of the people in the world today.
I was stuck on the freeway and I started noticing all these billboards that try to sell products to people. There was this one advertisement that got me to thinking, thinking, and thinking some more. It read “Lap Band” with the image of an overweight person’s foot on a scale. Sure, some people are more fortunate than others with good metabolism, but we are one selfish country. 67 percent of America is overweight, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are an estimated 307 million people in America according to the World Factbook, which means 206 million Americans are overweight. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Americans spend $40 billion a year on weight loss programs and products. If a majority of these overweight people paid for these programs that would be $380 a year spent on these diets by one person. That upset me, there are third world countries out there that barely survive off of a dollar a day and here in America the average person spends up to $140 a day. In Timor-Leste, a third-world In South-East Asia the average family must survive on 400 dollars a year. I just can’t imagine what the pot-bellied starving children would think when they would see these advertisements for diets and surgeries for weight-loss. They would be confused and would wonder where all this food came from and how ridiculously lucky we are to be able to stock up groceries for a full month on half a paycheck or even less.
We are so spoiled and we don’t even know it. Some people have a pair of shoes for each outfit and some of those pairs don’t get worn more than five times. Some families in poor countries have only one pair of shoes for the children to share, some children even have to miss out on education because schools require students to wear shoes. In some cases, each child in a family is able to attend school twice a week if they are lucky.
We are blessed with freedom. In Uganda, children hide every night in order to stay hidden from the rebel group and forced to join. Almost 90 percent of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), the most feared rebel group in Uganda, are abducted children that are forced to join or are killed. After being abducted, they terrorize any civilized areas and abduct more children into their army.
We don’t know how great we have it, or we don’t show our appreciation enough. Compared to other places in the world, each and every one of us with a five-dollar bill in our pockets are rich. So start looking at what you have, start appreciating, and realize that you have it better than a majority of the people in the world today.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Footsteps
So I have had this account for some time now and I really haven't had anything that I have REALLY wanted to blog about, nothing that I wanted you all to know. If you know somewhat about me, you might know about my passion for non-profits (or companies thats sole purpose is to help others) and what they stand for. I am REALLY into TOMS Shoes, and guess what?!?! They have an event coming up! I am thrilled to the max that I can help out such great organizations by doing something so simple. You can also participate, it would actually be great if you did. TOMS got this crazy idea by asking people throughout the country to go barefoot this Thursday, 4/08/10, if you can't do all day (for some weird reason), try it out for 10 minutes at least. What's the reason for this? To simply raise awareness about people who aren't as fortunate as us, people (yes, even little children!) who have to do their daily deeds barefoot. Remember, they are even as fortunate to have cars, so they must walk everywhere, through mud, rocks, banks. Here are just a FEW examples of what those people go through by something we take for granted, or don't nearly appreciate as much as we should.
1) Nearly a million people in Ethiopia are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.
2) Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene and wearing shoes.
3) In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to school, clean water and to seek medical help.
4)Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.
5)Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.
I hope you can go barefoot for one day and raise awareness. Maybe someone will ask you why you are doing what you're doing, there is a perfect opportunity to educate them, then perhaps they will join. Join me and go barefoot on April 8th, 2010.
1) Nearly a million people in Ethiopia are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.
2) Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene and wearing shoes.
3) In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to school, clean water and to seek medical help.
4)Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.
5)Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.
I hope you can go barefoot for one day and raise awareness. Maybe someone will ask you why you are doing what you're doing, there is a perfect opportunity to educate them, then perhaps they will join. Join me and go barefoot on April 8th, 2010.
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