Love is Evident

 ITS EASTER WEEKEND. . . .surprise.

This is the most powerful holiday of remembrance in the history of holidays of remembrance, for on this weekend we see the greatest showing of love, and the greatest showing of power this world has ever seen. We see a dramatic death that brings life to all that choose, and we see a resurrected life that puts to death all the powers of evil. In a matter of three days, all of humanity was forever changed.

Leading up to the death of Jesus, we see a few powerful examples of God's love and forgiveness, we see some selfish and sinful acts from those around him, friends and strangers, and we see areas in our own lives that we might be living like one of the disciples, or maybe on the flip side, an area where we might be in a place where we can take comfort in knowing that God went through what we did, to an even greater degree. Jesus was completely rejected! He was separated from His Father, He was beaten and tortured, spat upon, mocked, taken advantage of, attacked. But this was only from strangers, from soldiers, from those He didn't spend countless days with. AND YET, He was also betrayed, denied, and ignored by His CLOSEST friends and disciples. Maybe you have felt rejected, ignored, attacked, mocked, or any of the other traits. Don't feel alone, but know that God was there with you to even greater degree. Take it from Him when He spoke the most powerful words as he hung upon that cross, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do". Remember that the greatest commandment is to love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. TO LOVE. It's not right to be in those places, it most definitely isn't fair, but sometimes we are there nonetheless, and we must remember to love, to love as He did!

And maybe you have been on the other side, as I all too often find myself, ignoring God, fighting God, fighting those He loves, hurting others, letting fear of man control of me as it did to Peter, letting fear of comfort control you as it did to Judas, and every time turning your back on God, turning aside the want of others in replace of only what you want. Know this, as I so often remind myself, God died for you. He forgave you on the cross. He took your faults, your screw-ups, your pride, your failures, and He took them upon Himself and in exchange, gave you His righteousness. It is the most powerful expression of love EVER. and all I have to do is see what He did, accept it, repent, and follow after Him. He bridged the canyon for me and for you.

But it doesn't end there! Jesus rose again. Tomorrow we celebrate Resurrection day, more popularly known as Easter. The day that life conquered death, that sin lost it's power, and that God became victorious since forever and until forever. We now not only have an unconditional love, but a hope of one day returning to heaven to glorify the Savior and perfecter of our faith. Man, if that doesn't get you going, I don't know what will!

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Philippians 3:10-12

This is a holiday weekend of an evident love! A love that unconditionally was poured out for everyone. A love that forgives despite the circumstances. A love that reconciles and brings together those that were once separated. 

If you have 10 minutes, check out this sweet video! THE GOSPEL

Love is Not Always Given

I decided to cut the road trip story short. Not much happened the rest of the trip except countless hours of driving, a sketchy hotel in Colorado, and the Arches National Park. Now I could probably pull some abstract idea of what there was to learn from a giant arch looming over us, and I could probably write a funny story of all that happened during the boring drive home, and to be honest, I had already done that and was ready to write that part of the trip, but I decided this is an exponentially more applicable topic right now, especially in my own heart.

What do you do when someone wrongs you? or even worse, what so you do when you wrong someone else? Or maybe a mixture of the two? We all make stupid choices in the life, in the words we speak, in the actions we live out. People will make stupid, unwise, painful choices to you that will either directly or inadvertently hurt you, just as at some point, you will do the same thing back to people. It's a universal struggle to make right choices ALL the time. When things begin to turn sour, it starts to get very hard and you are confronted with many other challenges. Is it right to point out when someone wrongs you, even if they didn't intend it that way or didn't realize it? What is someone comes to you with a list of wrongs, maybe even a list that you don't agree was wrong? Is it alright to talk to others about struggles you are having with others? and if you do, what light should you shed on it, Reality? Humility (only your wrongs)? Pride (only their wrongs)? And most importantly, how are these situations resolved? These are all tough questions and even tougher to put to action. We all too often place selfishness in front of humility, anger in front of forgiveness, pride in front of God.

I've noticed lately that a lot of people, including me, do not know the answers to these questions, or don't see how to take action. When someone wrongs us, we all too often lose sight of the blood of Jesus Christ. That person attacked me, they hurt me, they made me lose some of my blood! YEAH BUT, you have attacked Jesus, you have hurt Him, You made Him lose His blood. Every time I do something wrong, either to someone else or to myself, I am sinning against God as well. And YET, God - forgave - us. While we were yet sinning, while we didn't think we needed forgiveness, He forgave me of all my sins. FORGIVENESS is the answer. I heard a song a few days back and last night I played it all night as I was sleeping, hoping it would be beaten into my brain while I slept. These are the lyrics to the chorus:

Seven times Seventy times
I'll do what it takes to make it right
I thought the pain was here to stay
But forgiveness made a way
Seven times Seventy times
There's healing in the air tonight
I'm reaching up to pull it down
Gonna wrap it all around

This is a call to step up! To everyone! Whether you are a freshmen in high school, a staff for some organization, or Billy Graham, you are not above humility and forgiveness. You don't out grow you're need to be humble and forgive. We all need to step up. What is it about ourselves that we let pride get in the way all too often? I know there is nothing in myself that I can see that warrants the all too frequent pride I let get in the way. I am nothing. Maybe the more we see that, the easier it would be to talk to each other, to forgive one another, to admit wrongs to one another. All too often I see a shallowness in many of the friendships I see. I walk around campus, I look at my friendships, I look at what's missing, and I see no depth. And there is no depth because there is no forgiveness. Forgiveness overcomes pride, which in turns leads to trust, which in turns leads to depth and ultimately closer relationships, relationships that are enticing to those that see them, that draw others in, not push them out.

If you are having trouble forgiving someone, try seeing it from their perspective. I know all too often, all I recognize is what I saw or felt or the reason why that hurt me. I fail to recognize what they saw or felt or the personal reason to why it hurt them. or if that doesn't work, try seeing it from God's perspective. That's a for sure winning tactic.

So will you step up with me? Will you answer this call? We all need to. All too often when Love is not given, we decide to not give love in return. I say, when love is not always given, to give it back anyway.

There is never a time love shouldn't be given

Love is Selfless

Part 3 - Day 4 - Utah Spring Break Trip - Bryce Canyon

That night we were surprised yet again by our living arrangements. We had stayed in Zion Canyon for an expanded amount of time not looking forward to having to go to a boring cabin to sleep. But when we got there, our minds were blown. This RESORT had a mini golf, a pool, a tennis court, horse riding, a rec barn with tv and rock climbing and table tennis. Now unfortunately we couldn't do hardly any of it. The golf was closed, the pool was frozen over the night before, the tennis courts had snow drifts on them, and the rock climbing was unmanned. But nonetheless, we had a blast. Our "Cowboy Cabin" had a king sized bunk bed and a pull out couch bed. We were in heaven, or at least it looked that way with snow covered hills and canyons laid out in front of us and ponderosa pines engulfing our cabin. I was almost always the first one up and this day was no different. I made sure I woke up extremely early so I could explore and walk and read and write. The sunrise that morning was magnificent as the light reflected off the patches of snow. I walked around the entire resort listening to a podcast by Aaron Stern about the prodigal son and the reckless love of the father. The point of the podcast was, instead of figuring out which son you most identify with, to focus more on practicing the same love the father showed to both sons.

I mentioned it before, but for the first part of this trip I wasn't exactly being very selfless. I was getting annoyed and jealous and probably a little bitter for a span, especially on Zion day when a part of our company were constantly complaining and making opinionated comments about what was good and what was bad (and most of my likes fell in the bad). It definitely took a morning with God to reflect on my attitude. Have you ever found that when you pray, especially for the person you might feel angry at, that you begin to lose that anger? It works! It changes your heart completely! I determined the rest of the trip I would deliberately focus on being selfless, even if that meant being forgotten or put down. I didn't deserve anything I was getting angry about anyway. Afterall, as I talked about in the Grand Canyon post, God has already built a bridge for us all.

Bryce Canyon was stunning. It is at a higher elevation so there was a lot more snow that we had to trudge through. We ended up doing a short hike to the bottom of the canyon and back to the top. The soil was completely saturated and thus very muddy. At one point there was even a mini mud slide. But it was rigorous and adventurous and picturesque.

A lot of the time, I think I mix up selflessness with ignorance or apathy. Instead of purposely serving others, I end up just staying quiet and ignoring my wants and letting the group decide what they want to do. By being selfless, I withdraw. It might not exactly be the best way to go about it . . . . But things were a lot better that day. It might just be a new heart perspective or the fact that there were a whole lot less disagreements now that there were less people arguing over a bed, over where they were sitting, over what music was being played.

God is the essence of a selfless love. Intentionally giving up His Son who was beaten and bruised and then hung on a cross for a selfish people. He forgives before, during, and after all of our wrong choices. He set the example that I can only attempt to follow. He showed us how to die to ourselves even when someone wrongs us.

Love is Breathtaking

Day 2/3 (because we didn't really do anything on day 2)

So spoiler alert: I used the analogy I was going to use in this post on my Bike Adventure blog because I just couldn't contain it.  Which BTW if you haven't gotten a chance to check out is behind this LINK, Alright, lets dive in.

NAU is a fairly beautiful campus. It's kind of a mix between Tucson and the Northwest. The campus buildings were nothing spectacular and the landscaping wasn't anything to ride home about, but it did have one characteristic that made it seem somewhat serene and peaceful. When you get up to the elevation of Flagstaff, the air just gets more crisp, and the mountains smile down at you. Not everyone is driving around. It's quite peaceful. Unfortunately, we didn't stay. We had to get to Utah. So after a considerably slow train that stalled our journey onto Route 66, we were back on the road.

I've done this drive before (that's an entirely different story that I will touch on). It's not the most scenic drive. Pretty much any drive through Navajo Nation leaves the risk of two things happening: falling asleep to boredom and never ending streets - or - breaking an axle or over heating on the horribly paved streets. Needless to say, I did my best to try and fall asleep along this part of the trip. When we did eventually get to Lake Powell, it wasn't much. We were probably the liveliest things happening to that lake. Best part? you may be asking. There is this HUGE boat ramp that had to have been a good quarter mile or more in length. Merry, Gollum, and Myself decided to run up that steep bad boy. Best and worst decision of my life.

We had mixed feelings about Kanab. I had broken down for 4 days there on my last trip trough Utah. I, personally, love it! The red rocks around the city are gorgeous and the town is very quaint. The rest of the guys found it eerily creepy.  Either way, we were there for the night. Tomorrow we had Zion National Park in our GPS (we didn't actually have GPS)

Zion National Park is gorgeous! Behind Crater Lake, it might be my distant second favorite. It is absolutely breathtaking. And i mean that in more than one way. To get into the park, there is a 1.1 mile tunnel. (on my biking blog, i said 3 or 4, but it totally felt that long when you are holding your breath). During tunnels, I would always try to hold my breath when I was a kid. I thought this would just be another boring, quick tunnel. Turns out, after a good 45 seconds to a minute, I was about to die. When the tunnel was built in 1930, it was the longest car tunnel in the United States. Would have been nice to know that before hand. But the light at the end of the tunnel eventually came, even though I failed at holding my breath. And beyond that peaking light of the tunnel laid of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

God's creation is absolutely astonishing. And like I've said before, it takes your breath away. He created such a beautiful creation for us to witness. From the colors of a sunset, to the smells of a flower; From the magnificent starscape, to the intricacy of the human eye, God is the master of beauty. When you get a chance to get out of the hustle and bustle of city life and take a hike through a beautiful landscape, you began to be reminded of all He has done. Coincidentally enough, that night I read Psalm 50 which reads:

The Mighty One, God, the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.

Now I know it's a different Zion, but I thought that was so true! God is breathtaking! His love . . .

is breathtaking!

(all of the photos in this road trip story can be attributed to the skills of Chris Weber)

Love is Vast

Day 1: A calm, unblemished blue sky hung over us as we departed Phoenix up the inclined road of the I-17 toward Flagstaff. Seven men who came to be nicknamed Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippen, Gandalf, Legolas, and Gollum, crammed into a rustic gold, seven-seater minivan. What began as a distant idea was quickly taking form. 5 days of the open road lay ahead of them, traversing the national parks of southern Utah and Northern Arizona. What stories lay ahead of them they could only imagine. What vast lessons they would learn along the way could only be discovered.

Sometimes it’s easy to feel alone. Even when you are surrounded by 6 other people in a small van, it’s very easy to feel left out. This usually happens when my view of myself becomes much smaller than it should be. I begin to compare myself to others rather than to God and I always feel inadequate or out of place. Other times, I view myself to highly and feel better than the rest. When this happens it’s very important to get away, get back into the word and remember whom I should be comparing myself to, and whose eyes I should be viewing myself through.

We were there. Every step closer revealed an ever-growing gape in the earth’s crust. An ever-widening gap for which there is no bridge to cross. Words can’t really describe how vast that canyon is. I tried to visualize what a normal cliff would be like standing by itself and then placed that cliff into what I was seeing. There were 5 such cliffs layered into the canyon, each one more impressive then the one below it. Standing on the edge of a sheer rock face, I began feeling like a miniscule little ant compared to the immensity of what I was seeing. I can only imagine what an astronaut or the astronomers of Hubble must feel when they see the planet in it’s entirety, or zoom into a seemingly black spot in space and reveal thousands of galaxies. We are so tiny.

The Grand Canyon kind of reminds me of my inadequacy to Christ (except more impossible to traverse). I have built a chasm. On one side stands me, on the other stands God, in between, a vast canyon separating me from Him. There is no possible thing I can do to get to the other side. A hardened rock formation of bitterness, jealousy and loneliness makes up my cliff walls. Even on the car ride up, I could pinpoint various times I felt such emotions. I am the master canyon builder. But the Master Engineer stepped in and built a bridge across my crafted canyon in the form of His son on the cross. It reminds you exactly how vast God’s love really is, and how much our love falls incredibly short. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, while we were yet in the process of widening and deepening our canyon. And that is freeing! It frees me from guilt and self-righteousness, from expecting others to be perfect. I can step back see the bridge He built across my canyon, and then look and see the many other bridges He has built for those around me.

Gandalf drove us back to Flagstaff that night with Pippen as his co-pilot. 4 more days of the driving still loomed over the trip. It had only been 12 hours. Tomorrow, the journey would take them into the state of Utah, into many more evidences of the type of love God has for us. Into day 2

Love is Breaking Through

"Through the fog there is hope in the distance. From cathedrals to third world missions, love will fall to the earth like a crashing wave!" Toby Mac - City on our Knees

Fog is an interesting thing. When I lived in Washington, we would have many a foggy mornings. My memorized sights and locations on the way to high school that I can see perfectly on any other day, would be completely washed out as i struggle to see whether or not the light in front of me was red or green. Traffic becomes a dangerous concern as car lights become a muffled mess reflecting every which way off the rain droplets in the mist. Even when turning on your car lights in hopes to break through the fog and see the path more clearly, you in fact make it harder to see. As your headlights become brighter, the cloud in front of you only becomes more visible. It was scary the first time I found that out, (along with the first time i found out to not shoot windshield fluid when it's 20 degrees outside). I have never seen fog in Arizona, the clouds just never seem to be able to get low enough. But yesterday, the clouds were lower than usual as a "snow" storm blew through. The clouds which completely fogged the Catalina Mountains eventually rolled away and revealed a majestic winter scene. The mountains are basically no longer white (the pains of living in Arizona) but yesterday was quite possibly one of the most beautiful instances I have seen here.

During winter break I was driving with Danielle and her friend Cheryl up to Cheney to see my buddy ol pal Brandon. It was a particularly sketchy day. Very foggy, snow everywhere, streets a little icy but very salted and graveled down. That was when I initially started thinking about this subject. Ironically enough, this song by Tobymac came on while I was thinking about it. It's such an amazing song. Anyway, the fog made it almost impossible to see anything, the trees we were driving by, the cars driving the other way. It's scary.

And yet so is life. Life is a fog! You can't see anything in front of you! Personally, I have no idea what lies ahead. Will I finish school? will I travel the world? will I get married? will i, will i, will i . . . It's impossible to know the future but I will just keep on driving because I know God sees all of time laid out before Him.

My favorite experience about fog is when it begins to lift. Slowly the sun begins to become a blurred light. Patches of blue light begin to appear. And finally the sun breaks through in a glorious appearance. It's just a matter of time. Our Son will show up and break through the fog and light up our path for a short time, directing each one of ours steps. He will lift the clouds, revealing majestic snow capped mountains. Hold strong through the fog, drive forward in anticipation of that light,

Love is breaking through!

Psalm 42 - As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Love is The Forefront

"It's evident You run the show so let me back down, You take the leading role and I'll play the background" "I can play the background, Cuz I know sometimes I get in the way, So won't you take lead and I can play the background" - Lecrae

"We must war against the flesh, so that we don't place Christ on the back-burner for sin, aim to have a Spirit-like Mindset and glorify God in whatever you do/think!" Victor Yates

Lately things have been messed up. I'll be the first to attest to that. I feel like relationships that I've been holding so dear are being taken held hostage by the enemy. Whatever seems to be the case: lack of communication, jealousy, being wronged, lack of forgiveness, fear, gossip, all of the above - They are slowly and painfully deteriorating into apathy. But when it all comes down to it, it is too much selfishness mixed with a lack of grace and a lack of love.

Today, I saw the movie, "The Grace Card" and the message of the movie rocked me. So many times we build up these walls with people. "Oh, well I heard this story about him so we can't be friends", "Oh, that girl used to do that horrible thing, so I will constantly always have to judge her for that in my heart", "This person has hurt me too deeply to forgive them", or the most painful of them all, "Because of something that happened with this person, I am going to ignore, separate, and gossip about it until it blows over to the next thing". In the movie, much pain was had between two friends, especially with one of the friends families. All of the above walls were possible, but grace was ultimately chosen. Grace healed everything! So often I feel we are too quick to step back and judge then to step forward and offer a hand of grace; too quick to lash back in anger, in defense, in selfishness, then to lash back in love and in grace and in selflessness. I know all too often I see my heart lashing out in anger after being wronged and in jealousy when i see someone else being blessed. It's our apathetic tendency. But I say we strive more after a Godly tendency. As Mr. Yates said above, "aim to have a Spirit-like mindset and glorify God in whatever we do/think."

We can say we love our friends and our family and maybe even our enemies, but until our actions show it, I would disagree. Love needs to be the forefront of our lives. Do everything you can to not let apathy get in the way, to not let selfishness cloud your relationships, to not let sin destroy. Begin playing the background as God leads your life. Play the background in your relationships as you put others before you. It's a hard task, but a fulfilling one.

Give out the grace card

"I promise to pray for you everyday, ask your forgiveness, grant you the same, and be your friend always"