Two Words: But God

 ^{Ephesians 2:1-10
  "1} And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God , being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Enough Said!

What Do You Fear?

Fear.  That word alone brings about images to us.  We think of things that we fear.  For me: heights, tight spaces, losing loved ones, failure, rejection, talking to girls and so on.  We become a slave to our fears.  We let our fears dictate our lives.  But why?  This month I have been doing a devotional put out by the Moody Bible Institute that I grabbed at my church.  The whole month is on the subject of fear.  Over and over, day after day I read how the Lord frees us from our fears.  How with the Lord at our side, fear is no master of us.  Fear comes from not trusting in the Lord. 

Psalm 112: 6-8 "For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever.  He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.  His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries."

I will freely admit that I do allow fear to be my master and that I do not always trust fully in the Lord.  I am currently amidst a crazy journey that God is leading me on.  And yes, our whole life is a crazy journey.  But right now the Lord has me in a crazy chapter, he has given me a vision and told me to go.  He asks me to trust him.  But day after day I do not trust him.  I am afraid to reach out to contacts and really go full throttle on this journey.  It is because of fear.

We have to trust in the Lord.  For if we truly believe in his word and the life of Jesus Christ, then we will not allow fear to hold us captive.  I have been fighting this and it is a daily, rather second by second fight.  So friends, do not be a slave to fear.  Listen to the Lord, trust in him!  Allow your hearts to be firm and steady.  For fear is no master of us!
Love Y'all

It's the Story that Counts

After reading "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" I was all jazzed up to go live a great story, start some new exciting chapters.  Last week I had three new chapters starting and all looked like they were going to lead to great stories.  I think I forgot that life has it's ups and downs.  Two of those three chapters were closed on me in the past few days.  Which was very humbling.  But I do believe the one that has been a major part in my story for a while will continue to be so and will offer many exciting chapters to come. 
I am not writing this to complain.  I cannot stand blogs that just complain.  I am writing this because I got caught up in life, caught up in the good things and forgot why these stories were happening, because my author started them.  He created me as a character and guides me through the story.  Every good story has conflict and every good protagonist goes through what is called a character arc.  They have to face adversity and come through the other side.  After wallowing in self pity for a few hours today I was reminded this by a client I was working with at work.  He said to me "life is a rollercoaster."  And I laughed.  It is true.
Look, if we put all our pride and self worth in silly little things that do not really matter in the large scale of life, like I was doing, we will always be disappointed.  If we realize who our author is and understand conflict is apart of becoming a great character and creating a great story, then we will be able to deal with those minor bumps in the road.  So friends, seek God ALWAYS!  Do not be afraid to have some adventure, start some exciting chapters, but know that sometimes chapters are short or bad, but it's how the character changes after those experiences that determine the real story.
Love Y'al
Oph-dizzle.

Memorable Scenes

          As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.  Tonight I read a chapter in which he talked about how we need to live memorable scenes in our lives.  That our stories will not be memorable or exciting without memorable scenes.  He asked his readers to think back to movies that they loved and the scenes that they remember from those movies. Those scenes are memorable for a reason.
          One of my favorite movies is "Forest Gump".  It is full of memorable scenes.  Through that movie I become attached to Forest and find myself rooting for him in life.  He tells his life well sitting on a bench at a bus stop.  And the stories he tells are all memorable.  Teaching Elvis how to dance, getting shot in the butt in Vietnam, becoming a ping pong champion, an all American football player, and on and on.  He lived a great story but he went out and made it great.  He made it memorable.
       When I look back to memorable events in my life, both good and bad, they all stick out for reasons.  None of them happened while I was on my couch watching ESPN or while I was sleeping until noon.  They happened when I was back packing, chasing a girl, hanging out with friends on railroad tracks hobo hunting.  Those are memorable events.
        I am told by friends that I am a good story teller.  I can recount story after story from high school.  Those stories came about because I was doing something, I made those stories happen.  In the same way we need to create memorable moments.  Now I am not saying that we need to climb Everest every day but we should not be afraid to live an exciting story.  Do something out of the ordinary.  Sign up for a triathlon, go on a road trip with friends, go downtown and hang out with homeless people.  Go do something that creates a memorable scene.  I believe in my heart the God created us to live memorable lives.  And by that I do not mean that others necessarily remember them but that we remember moments.  That we can look back and say, yeah, I remember that, it was crazy, but great.
       I am currently living a few of those moments right now.  My story had been boring, dull, and pathetic for a while but I have decided to not allow that anymore.  I have handed God his pen back and am letting him write those scenes and I am enjoying them for what they are.
I encourage my friends to do the same.  Live a great story, have some memorable scenes.  Think back to the movie "The Notebook" We have all seen it.  We all know the most memorable scene of the movie, ask yourself why it is memorable.  Then make those moments happen in your lives.
Opher

Cliche

Yes, it is cliche to write a blog reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the new year,.  And Yes, I am about to take part in that cliche.

I started this blog just about a year ago and recently went back and reread all of my posts.  It was fun rereading them, remembering the situations that caused me to write them.  When reflecting on the year I can say that I did see personal growth in my life.  It was at times very challenging and I could probably complain about a lot of it if I chose to.  But that is no fun.  I went through those challenges and have come out a better man.  I spent 4 weeks serving at a YL camp in June and saw God in many, many ways.  Grew in many, many ways.  I went on two YL Capernuam camp trips and again saw God in numerous ways.  Those two trips only further confirmed a calling that God has placed upon my heart.  With the guidance of God and support of others, Capernaum is close to being a reality in Toledo.
 
I could go on and on about what the Good Lord did in my life this past year, but I won't.  I will say this, looking forward to the new year is exciting for me.  I will actually graduate college in about 5 months!  Hopefully there will be a ministry in Toledo devoted to serving our friends with disabilities.  And hopefully I continue to grow as a man of Christ.
 
  I want to live a better story this year.  I want to be a better character created and written by God.  A strong character always faces adversity and conflict.  That character has to go through that conflict and undergo change while doing so.  I am prepared to face the conflicts and undergo that change.  I will strive to no longer hijack my story from my author but instead let him write the pages for me.
2012, here I come!
With Love,
Opher

(P.S:  I recently finished one of my "short" stories, finally.  I think I am done tinkering with it.  One way to better my writing is to have people read my crap and provide feedback.  So, if anyone wants to take on for the team and give my piece a read, let me know.)