Yesterday, as I gazed up into the night sky, a magnificant sight met my eyes. Thousands upon thousands of glittering stars shone down upon me unobstructed by city lights. It was as if God had sprinkled tiny diamonds all across the heavens. Thinking about the universe just blows my mind. Seeing a scale of the earth compared to the other planets and stars makes me realize just how small I really am. I am truely insignificant. Yet, God choose to send his Son to earth for the purpose of cleansing me from my sin. Jesus came to die for me. What wonderous love is this? Truely HE is worthy of my praise!

TRUST. It sounds simple enough, right? I mean, c'mon, it's only five letters long. It can't be that complicated. Wrong! Somehow trust always seems to elude me. It does not come naturally. Instead of trusting God's perfect plan for my life, I continually try to control my own future. But guess what? I'll let you in on a little secret...no matter how hard I try, I will never be able to change my future. Ever. God has already planned it all out for me. Trust isn't easy. It's a scary adventure. But it is an adventure that God has called me on; and one that He will help me through. If I love and abide in Jesus Christ, everything will work together for my good just as He has promised. Right now I just need to focus on Christ and let Him work through me. He knows best...even if I can't always see it. My life is in His hands.

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Do you ever have those days where you feel like screaming at the top of your lungs because of school and family stress but you know that if you did, every0one would think you've gone insane? Really, though, you're the only sane person and everyone else around you is going insane. Or so it seems. And have you ever noticed that grumpy moods are contagious? When one member of your family is in a grumpy mood, it seems to permeate the whole house. Pretty soon everyone has lost their patience, and you can almost feel tenseness radiating from each person. This is when our real character is revealed. We can try to put a pretty little mask over all our imperfections, but at some point the mask just seems to explode. Everyone of us is born with a sinful nature. That is why we so desperately need the grace of God. He is the only one who can wash us white as snow by his blood.

"Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."

Trust

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His promise,

And to know, "Thus saith the Lord."

Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him;
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus;
Oh for grace to trust Him more.

As a child I didn't question why things happened. I didn't worry. I just trusted. Trusted in my Heavenly Father. I knew, with my child-like faith, that He would take care of me and everything would turn out all right. Isn't that what he says he'll do? He cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, so how much more must he care about me.

As a teenager, though, I started to question things—wishing my life was different, hoping my future would be better. Perfect, in fact. My trust started to dwindle. I still knew what God had promised, but in my heart I wasn't so sure I believed it. I knew I should believe it, but that didn't make me believe it.

I think this is why God has called us to become like children in order to enter his kingdom. We need to put aside all our adult worries about life and the unknown future, and instead come to Jesus with a simple, childhood trust. We need to rest upon his promises. He will never leave us or forsake us.

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the LORD."

Union Gospel Mission

I think that many times its a lot easier for me to give up my money than my time. My life in twenty-first century American culture can get extremely busy at times. Trying to juggle devotions, school, sports, church, and friends isn't always easy. It seems as though some days I never have a quiet moment to just sit down and relax. So to give some more of my time up to help others out is a lot harder than dropping a couple of coins in a jar.
Every Sunday and Wednesday, my youth group supports the homeless men at the Union Gospel Mission (a.k.a. UGM) by passing around a container for the students to drop their extra change in. The theory is that if every high schooler contributes twenty-five cents each, we can keep the program going. So far, it's worked. Once a month, people gather in our church kitchen to help prepare bag lunches—consisting of a meat and cheese sandwich, crackers, and a couple cookies—which we then distribute to the men at the UGM.
Even though I contributed twenty-five cents every once in a while to the UGM, I had never actually spent the time to help make and pass out the lunches. This past Sunday, though, I finally decided to help out. Not because I particularly wanted to (although I was a little curious), but because I needed to do a project for school—one where I had to help others out and then write a paper on my experiences.
I can now stand before you and say that my experience was well worth the effort. When I showed up in the church kitchen at 3:00 that Sunday afternoon, I didn't know anyone my age. Nevertheless, I stayed and helped prepare about 150 bag lunches. Then I traveled with the rest of the group (about fourteen people in all) to the Union Gospel Mission in St. Paul. Once at the mission, we unloaded all the lunches and carted them into the mission's kitchen. Along with the lunches, we had also brought some grapes and bananas. We arranged the lunches and fruit so that when the men came filing in, they could grab a lunch, some fruit, and finally a styrofoam cup to either fill with water or punch. We also laid out some free tracks for anyone to take.
Dinner began at 5:30, so at 4:00 we took about a half an hour to sing a couple songs and listen to a devotional led by Andrew. Then, at 5:30, we again entered the kitchen and handed out the various items we had brought to the men filing through the line. My job was to hand out the styrofoam cups and also let the men know that the tracks in front of me were free.
Towards 6:30 (when dinner ended), we ran out of lunches. So we distributed the rest of the fruit, and then started some conversations with the men still left in the dining room. I was able to talk with three men and also give them a track. At 6:30, we cleaned up and headed back to church.
Driving back home, I realized that I had met some new people, conversed with homeless men about the Bible, and helped feed the needy. God used that experience to grow my faith in Him. He got me out of my comfort zone. Brought me into a situation where all I could do was trust Him. I now feel a burden for those I talked with that night. I pray that God would save their souls. Open their eyes to see how gloriously beautiful Jesus Christ is, and how much they need Him.
I encourage anyone who hasn't experienced something like this to get outside your comfort zone. Help those in need. And trust Jesus—He never disappoints.

The Tree

This is a story I wrote for the Christmas season. Although it is not true, I did build off from some true life events.

Time—12:47a.m. I listened intently. All was quiet except for my parents' and brothers' gentle breathing. Good. I wrapped my blanket tightly around me, and tiptoed in my soft, fuzzy socks to the living room. Our fragrant, Balsam-Fir Christmas tree stood erect near the window. Bright, white Christmas lights encircled its branches. I curled up in the lazy-boy chair next to the tree. As I gazed out the window, the cold, pure-white snow glistened in the street lights. Alone in the room with a Christmas tree as company, I thought of the verse, "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10a) Still. As an American, I have very few still moments. Usually I am busy jumping from one thing to the next, and noise continually sounds around me. That's why I treasure times like this. When I'm quietly sitting alone with God...and our Christmas tree. I love Christmas trees. They always remind me that the baby Jesus came to earth for a single purpose: to deliver his people from their sins. He came to die. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." (I Peter 2:24) But why is it so important that Jesus Christ die on a tree? It is because in Galatians it says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written,'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith." So this year as I gather with my family around the Christmas tree, I'm going to keep in mind the reason that the Son of God came to earth. Thank Him. And spread the joy inside me this Christmas season.

Caution: Automatic Door

Why do almost all automatic door have stickers on them that read: Caution: Automatic Door! In my (humble but accurate) opinion, they should instead put signs on the non-automatic doors reading: Caution: Non-Automatic door! That way, people (not of course meaning me) wouldn't look so stupid when they run into doors that don't open automatically for them...