Road Trip

I said I would blog about my mission trip so here it is. This Saturday I will be taking a flight with a group from my church to Belize to work in Belize City with children for one week. We’ll do crafts, coloring, face painting, sports, and tell our testimonies with all the kids. To be honest I’m a little nervous I haven’t really been out of the country much and the mission trip I went on two years ago is the only one I’ve been on, but once again God throws something at me that I never thought I’d ever get a chance to do. While I’m nervous I am also excited, this is a great opportunity to travel and see more than just the United States and also an awesome chance to share the Gospel with kids and make a difference in their lives. I’m sure I’ll have fun and will write all about it once I get back, in Mississippi I learned a lot and I know going Belize will teach me more. Until then I pray God will keep us safe on our travels and give us an opening to spread His word Amen.

Quiz Time

A friend suggested I post some sporcle quizzes on the Bible on the blog so here are a few to try.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/bigpapi/biblebooksbypopularstory
http://www.sporcle.com/games/jdkell6589/bible_questions
http://www.sporcle.com/games/krazykoolbeth/color3
http://www.sporcle.com/games/soxfan1/Old_Testament_Whos_Who

Enjoy!

Can They Make It?

I wrote that the Red Sox still have a chance and here’s my reasoning. The Red Sox are currently and injured team, they have holes in the lineup that will be filled soon (hopefully). Even so, people are saying “Bridge Year” but the only reason people say that is because the Sox aren’t doing well and why aren’t they doing well? They are an injured team. What I’m saying is that they have a great team when healthy and they will be healthy from August to September and ready in October. Right now we are seeing a lineup of Scutaro, Macdonald, Ortiz, Youkilis, Beltre, Drew, Cameron, Hall, and Cash, imagine a lineup with Ellsbury, Pedroia, Ortiz, Martinez, Youkilis, Beltre, Drew, Cameron, Scutaro – sounds pretty good. Also everyone hates the pitching, well I did to but here’s the thing, Beckett was injured when he played and looking at last night’s performance seems on track, Lackey is turning things around and being the guy we paid for, Matsuzaka has been good, Buchholz and Lester have been aces and Wakefield is going back into the bullpen. The Sox are 7 games out of 1st place and 4 games out of the Wild Card; with a healthy team I won’t be surprised if they are playing baseball in October. If there were fewer injuries this year then the Sox probably would be right behind the Yankees, but the team is coming back and ready for the playoffs. One area that is a concern is the bullpen, the Red Sox currently have four good pitchers in their bullpen, the problem is two of them can only go one inning at a time, Wakefield may add some stability and long relief but if the Sox want to be a force in August and September and secure a playoff spot they need another relief pitcher, and one who is very good at that.

Where am I Going?

As I’ve been reading 1 Kings I’ve noticed a few things, one is how far from God the nation of Israel gets, and two how it all started from a few small problems. 1 Kings takes place after King David’s death and the start of Solomon’s reign. Currently I’m reading chapter 22, and things are not going well. After Solomon died there was a civil war that split the nation into two separate parts the northern Israel and southern Judah. Eventually the Assyrian’s capture Israel and sometime later the Babylonian’s capture Judah. The interesting thing though is this, all of Israel’s problems started out as small things. Idolatry started with the golden calf, David’s family problems are similar to Jacob and his twelve sons, what start as family disputes carry over from generation to generation and end up causing the ultimate ruin of an entire nation. I’ve been thinking about faith and how it has to be active, it has to grow, and what this shows me is that early decisions have a big impact later on, that the choices I make now will affect me in the future. I could go through the motions every day, read my Bible, pray, and try to be a good person, but if I am not going anywhere if I am stagnant then where will I end up? Meaning at the end of it all how will I have changed? On the other hand if I actively pursue God and make an effort to love and obey Him and care for those around me it will make a difference. Faith was never meant to be something that could be put on a shelf and dusted off, it should be worn and exercised daily so that it will have an impact. I used to think of every action as going to or away from God, but really it’s like taking a turn on a road and it all depends if the decisions I made brought me closer to God or farther away from Him.

Random Post

I apologize for the lack of posting, don’t worry I’m alive; I’ve been very busy lately and have much to say (as usual) a few quick notes though on upcoming events/posts. First I would like to say that I think (rather wishfully) that the Red Sox actually have a chance, I know it’s a bridge year but this team has too much talent and has been through too much to end its season in September. Also, I’ve been reading 2 Kings and have a few posts and my series-that-wasn’t on Psalm 119 to finish. Lastly in about 1 week I will be going to Belize with a group from my church, this blog started with a mission trip and it will end with one. Just Joking (I couldn’t help it). I am very excited for my trip it is a great opportunity to travel, spread the Gospel, and simply share the love and grace God has given me with others, I will write in detail about the trip both before I go and after I get back. It takes me back to when I first went to Mississippi two years ago, I didn’t know that I wanted to write, I didn’t know I could, and I absolutely didn’t think God would use me in such a cool way as this, I guess the trip was the start and this is just the beginning. I guess it shows that you don’t have to travel all the way across the world to make a difference in God’s eyes, very often you can do it right at home.

The Art of Faith

As always I’ve been thinking a lot about faith, sometimes I feel that if there comes a moment or even a series of moments where my faith falters it means I’m doing something wrong, that everyone else around me who believes is stronger than I am. I’ve found that that is not true, there is a different kind of strength we need not just belief but control over our emotions and keep on believing. I was reading his book called The Joyful Christian which is essentially a book of excerpts from C.S. Lewis’ work, and one was titled “Belief”. This is a passage from Mere Christianity, and in it Lewis talks about the difference between belief and reason, for example I hate getting vaccinations, my reason tells me that it’s for my own good and that they really do not hurt all that much, but I still ignore my reason and try to avoid getting shots. This, Lewis writes, is the battle between reason and emotion, my intellect tells me one thing but my emotions tell me another. This can be carried over to faith, the battle between faith and emotion. There are times when the sun is shining and everything is great and I say “Sure, God is looking down on me right now” then there are times when God is distant, when I’m on my own when I say “Am I absolutely sure about everything?” But C.S. Lewis continues, he writes that “Faith…is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods” he also writes that he went through my same dilemma, and I am positive that everyone at one time or another feels the same way. Lewis finishes the passage saying “That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods ‘where to get off’ you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro” I know what I believe, and the hard part, faith, is continuing to believe even when my moods change.

Pictures from Oregon

I Finally Figured It Out

My earlier post was about Dutch, this one is about baseball. A long time ago as a young kid I played baseball and gave it up, sure I would never return to the game again (cue dramatic music). A while ago I woke up and decided that I wanted to play baseball and thus my journey began. I never knew why God wanted me to play baseball or even what position, all I thought was that He wanted me to be good, really good. It sadly turned out that I was not really good, while this year I was pretty good (.381 avg., 2 HR 3 2B, 7RBI in 10 games), but as I was hitting in the batting cage today facing the prospect of trying out for a more competitive team next year and the hopes of college baseball in the near future I thought to myself why am I doing this? Will it matter in forty years if I made a college team and was a star, especially since it would take a lot of work, but I thought what if I worked out a ton and hit at the cage and put the setting on the machine all the way up to 80mph and hit halfway down the tunnel so it’s really like 90mph, then I…, in the end is it worth the effort? I decided today that it is not, I love to play baseball and will continue until my limitations, well, limit me. Then what was the point of playing!? I figured this out, I prayed earnestly to become a better baseball player and I am one, I’m actually pretty good, but God did not make me a better player, He wasn’t at bat when I hit my homeruns, what He did was give me the strength and perseverance to keep trying, to keep working. When everyone said I would fail God told me I would succeed, He lifted me up when I was down and that was what really made me a better player, how else could I hit for an hour (700 swings) twice a week for a month? It is this perseverance that God gave me, this “never give up” attitude that will serve me well later in life when I face greater troubles. That, I believe, is why God gave me the desire to play baseball, to learn to persevere, and hold on and never give up.

Faith and Prayer

This is going to be one of two posts on prayer and faith, both are connected but different in a way. I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer, I used to view prayer as a combination of two things, one where I ask God for things He can either do for me or give me, and two I basically talk. Over the past few weeks, and I guess you could say months my view has changed and here are two factors in this change. A while ago I had a dog named Daisy, she was a sweet, beautiful dog, no other dog can compare to her, she loved to paw us when she wanted something, she would eat food off of the counter, she sat on the furniture, she never left your side, and she never, ever got mad at anyone. But in 2006 something very sad happened, she died of cancer, a battle she faced all her life. While we had Daisy we also had Dutch or first dog, he is great too, when he was younger he would play with us but now serves as our protector. But then near the start of the summer he got cancer. I prayed a lot for Daisy and seemingly nothing ever happened, sadly I did not pray as earnestly for Dutch, I admit I thought nothing would happen to him either, I went to Oregon for a week and we were planning to put him down before we left, then it would be just us an Rosy. But then a miracle happened, a family friend took him in, they loved him and kept him alive so that he is here with us today as I write this post and will hopefully be with us until his 8th birthday on August 8th. The fact is that I did pray and God answered my prayers and I thought to myself, it doesn’t matter whether I pray 1 time or 100 times, I had the faith to pray and to call on to God for help and He didn’t disappoint. I felt foolish because I thought I had lost faith and while I did not approach Dutch’s illness with the certainty I had shown during Daisy’s sickness, he is still with us and that is all that really matters, perhaps next time I get an opportunity to pray for someone or something I will be if not more certain, I will be more faithful.