Clear for the First Time

So a few quick thoughts, first Oregon was great, pictures to follow. Second my tech-savvy cousin told me that blogger is being reformatted under google.com so this means my blog will change websites. It will still be good old “Tay Tay’s Random Blog” just not through blogger.com. When this happens I will post the new site, also I was told all content will be carried over so don’t worry all my year’s of posting didn’t go to waste. Back to the post, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and the main idea I am driving at is this: change is not a given, while forgiveness may be, change happens in your heart and must be enacted through you with God’s help. What the heck does this mean? Well lately I’ve come to realize that while I may call myself a follower of Christ (and at times I sure do act like it), that doesn’t mean my journey is over, no, instead it means it has just begun. You ever get that annoying feeling that the more you try to be good the more you realize how far you are? Well I’ve come to that point. As I sit here at my new macbook writing this post all I can think of is this big laundry list of things I need to do to clean up my act. But here’s the thing, it doesn’t work that way, not even close. The reason the image of Hosea and his wife has struck me so much is this: God wants me, faults and all. When I wrote “Why Grace?” I was wrong in saying grace made no sense to me, it made perfect sense, I just never fully realized it. Grace isn’t about cleaning up, it’s about being accepted for you who are; the thing is this, it doesn’t end there. So where do I go next? I can’t possibly expect to be perfect from hereon, then again aiming at sinfulness isn’t a good alternative either. I’ve been reading plenty of books and have a few thoughts already, posts to follow I promise. For now I think the main focus is love, love of God and through Him love of man. Who knew, two years ago faith was all I cared about, now six years into my journey with Christ I’m finally understanding the true message of the Gospel, God’s love for us. He didn’t have to create man, He wanted to, fully knowing the grief and joy that would come with it. The list of books I’ll be reading consists of the following: Don’t Waste your Life, The Reason For God, Tattoos on the Heart, and of course, The Bible. It’s a journey for a reason, I’m sure glad I have God to get me through it.