Can I Be A Witness?

Truth be told, I've never witnessed to someone about my faith in Christ.  I have the things I've written, and I've been a part of things I find to be a powerful witness, and I try to live my life in such a way as to be an example to others, but I've never actually witnessed.  Most of us really haven't, I would guess.  Why is that?

Honestly, there's no excuse.  There are reasons I could come up with, but in the end, they all fall short, due to the gravity of what we're dealing with.  Witnessing about Christ is not simply an attempt to change someone's opinion about something.  It's not about getting someone on your side, or to see your point of view.  It's not about making a connection or creating a new friendship.  It's not about showing people things in their life that are causing them to stumble.  It's not about showing people how to make better choices and live happier lives.  Such things may be a side effect, but this isn't why we should witness to others about Christ.

Here is the absolute, non-sugar-coated reason why we witness about Christ: because those people who end life with Jesus as their savior have no destination but Hell.  It's a terrifying thought, and yet we allow people to come in and out of our worlds every day without being the hands and feet of Jesus in their lives.  When we allow our own fears, our own pride, or any other of our own issues to come in the way of showing the love of Jesus to another person, we are giving our present circumstances more worth than that person's eternity.  There is no question that we should value the eternities of each and every human on this planet more than our temporary feelings of discomfort.

I pray that God brings people into my path to allow me to be the witness for Him that I should have been all along, and that when that happens, He will provide me with the words to say, and that I will not back away into the shadows because of my own fear.  I pray that God will show me that that person is loved, just like I am, and that he or she needs the forgiveness and grace that I have already accepted into my own life.

Love

What is love?  This question has many different answers, for there are many different kinds of love.  Love is one of those things that is exceptionally powerful, and yet very dangerous.  Used correctly, love can change lives for the better.  It can bring people closer and make people stronger.  Used incorrectly, however, it can bring pain.  Here is a look at different kinds of love.  This is not meant to be technical and comprehensive, but practical and applicable.

The greatest form of love is the one that can only come from one source: God.  The love that God has for us is beyond our own comprehension.  It is greater than any love we could give out ourselves.  The unconditional love of God is the reason us Christ followers live how we live and do what we do.  We have based our life on this love, following it with all our heart, despite the fact that we do not fully understand it.

The greatest love we ourselves can give out should, in fact, not be for each other, but for God.  Everything we do should be in devotion to Him, not to each other.  God is our creator, our Father, and our savior, and what He has done for us far outweighs anything that another human could ever do for us.  There should be no question as to who is atop our love list.

There is no question that the human in this world that I love the most is my wife.  When we make the marriage commitment, we are devoting ourselves to our spouse.  Good marriages are built upon many things, including love.  Such love does many things.  It makes me place more importance on my wife and her happiness than I do on myself and my own happiness.  It creates an environment of unity and absolute trust.  In our marriage, there is an absolute trust in each other.  We know that neither of us will be unfaithful, and neither of us wants to be, or would ever consider being, unfaithful.  Such love means that we work out our differences in a respectful way.  It means we tolerate each other's faults and shortcomings.  The best marriages are not simply a legal union, but they are sacred institutions, blessed and made holy by God.

While I have not experienced this in my life, the love one has for their children is a very sacrificial love.  Parents work hard in their occupation and at home to provide for their children.  Having a child changes everything that happens in the home, and the best of parents do not see such changes as a burden.  They see such changes as what needs to happen to give the child everything they need.  They do what they must because they love their children, and they would do anything in the world for them.  This love compels parents to give their children all the opportunities they could hope for in their life.

There are, of course, many other groups of people we have love for.  This includes our parents and family, and close friends.  These people are an essential part of our lives, and we have great love for them.  However, God does not say to simply love those people close to you, but to love your neighbors.  And your enemies.  So this is something I try to do: love everyone, even people I've never met before.  Everyone else is in the same predicament I am: they are sinners, separated from God.  The same salvation, the same love, that is available to me, is available to them.  The same God made them, and the same God sent Jesus to die for them.  They are no better or worse than I am, for we are all broken.  So why would I withhold love from any of them?  Do I believe them unworthy?  If they are unworthy of love from me, then I am ever more so unworthy of the love of God.

The last form of love I'm going to discuss here is car love.  That's right, car love.  This concept covers not just cars, but anything made in and limited to this physical world.  The truth is this: I love my car.  It's my favorite possession.  It's great fun to drive, and even though I've owned it for nearly four years, I still get excited by the fact that I get to own such a vehicle.  I love my car very much.  That being said, it's car love.  Car love is having very positive feelings toward something of this world, yet placing the proper weight on it.  I love my car, yet would I put more value on my car than I would another person?  Would I die for my car?  Would I become depressed and think my life was over if my car burst into flames?  Of course not.  People who live in such ways do not have car love, they have an obsession, an idol in their life.  A car is just a car, and while I have great car love for my car, car love is weak and meaningless compared to any of the other loves discussed here.  A car can be replaced, as can a house, or a boat, or anything else made by the hands of humans.

Love is a very powerful thing, but when used incorrectly, it can bring pain to our lives.  Taking the love meant for marriage and applying it elsewhere leads to adultery, cohabitation, and divorce.  Loving any human more than you love God puts that person on a pedastal, at a high place where only God should be; it is a form of idolatry.

In closing, whoever you are, I love you.  I really do, and, more importantly, God loves you too.

Positivity, Trust, and Perspective

[ This is somewhat of a sequel to the previous post named Contentment. Similiar, with a slgihtly different view. ]

I'm an optimist.  Some people would say that I'm overly or blindly optimistic, and too trusting of people and situations.  They would say that I ignore reality in order to feel good about something.  This, however, is simply not true.

I believe that positivity, like contentment, is a choice.  It is my choice to see the glass half full and not half empty.  It is my choice to see the good side of situations and people.  For me, something that lives very close to optimism is trust.  Trust that God won't lead me down any path where there is no hope.  Trust that there is no situation that can arise in my life that will produce only negative results.  I have absolute and unquestionable trust in the Lord my God that everything I encounter is for His will and His purpose, and such purposes are greater and more amazing than anything I could possibly dream up myself.  I know God is working in me and in my life, through situations we see as good and bad.  Even when my human brain sees the negative parts of something, I choose to focus on the good.  I choose to keep trusting that things will work out.  If I were to instead become pessimistic about all such things, I may miss the silver linings that God has placed in my life, as I would be too busy focusing on the darkness of the storm.  Pessimism is often the off-switch to God's work in our lives.  God will work through our hope and faith in things we cannot see.

Another part of positivity is perspective.  For some people, their positivity is like a thermometer that is affected by every small thing that happens in their life.  Every time something small and imperfect happens, they overreact angrily, turning a small thing into something much larger.  Life is certainly full of negatives and imperfections, many of which must be dealt with or fixed in some way.  However, how we react to such things is vital to our positivity, and to our contentment.  If we blow up with anger every time something happens, there is no doubt as to why we're unhappy.  However, if we choose not to overreact to bad situations, instead calmly doing what must be done to rectify it, we keep our positivity intact.  Practicing such things will then allow us to better handle when bigger things happen.  Keep a healthy perspective on the ups and downs of life, and don't blow small things out of proportion.

When facing an unknown circumstance in life, it is our choice whether to look at it positively or negatively.  It is our choice to hope for good results or believe in impending bad results.  I am an optimist, but more specifically, I try to be a realistic optimist.  I try to look at situations realistically (not blindly) and logically, but also positively.  Maybe things won't turn out so bad.  Maybe things will work out.  And, if things don't work out, I try to look for the good in the bad, for there usually are positive effects of negative situations.  For example - in April, I was laid off from my job.  This is, obviously, a negative for our finances, but throughout this time, I have not gotten down on it or discouraged.  As I continue to interview for new jobs, I know that God has a plan for me, and that this will all work out for His glory and His will.  Also, not having a job has granted me time to do a lot of work around the house (which we bought at the end of last year).  I did a closet remodeling project, and have been doing a lot of work on the back yard - things that would have taken a lot longer, if I had had a full time job the whole time.  As for our finances, while this puts a small kink in our plans when it comes to putting money in savings and paying down the house, I can be thankful that we are financially situated enough where we're not struggling.  My wife still has her job, and we have no issues affording what we must afford.  We have been greatly blessed in that regard, and thus the job loss is merely an inconvenience, instead of a major difficulty.

Contentment

Life can be hard.  We all have challenges and stresses.  We've all had bad things happen to us.  We've all been hurt by someone else, and we've all been the one to hurt someone else.  We all regret things we've done, and regret things we haven't done.  Such things are simply truths of human existence.  To say that life is always easy is foolish, yet we cannot allow ourselves to be crushed by the hard times.  Most people, it seems, allow their circumstances to define their level of contentment.  They're only happy when things are going well with their job, or their finances, or their relationships, or whatever it may be.  Following such thinking may be the way of the world, but it is not a path that will ever lead to true happiness.

I am not perfect, and I have no dilusions that I live my life in a flawless manner.  Nor do I have the answer to every question.  However, I am quite a happy person, and this is why: I do not base my happiness on my current circumstances.  I believe very strongly that contentment is a choice, and the biggest part of that choice is this: what is the source of my contentment?  Is it my job, my marriage, my money, my car, my house?  If one of those things has difficulties, or completely breaks down, does my contentment go with it?  My contentment does not rest with such things, but instead with something deeper, something greater.

God is the source and the foundation of my contentment.  That may seem crazy to some, but it is the truth.  These are things I know about God, and they are the reasons I cling to him: God is eternal, all powerful, all knowing, and loves me with a strength and fervor that I can't even grasp.  He holds me and my life in his hands - the same hands that were pierced for me on Calvary, spilling the blood that set me free from my own condemning sin.  These truths make anything bad that can happen in this life seem so insignificant.  There is nothing that can come my way in this life that can take away my contentment, because the source of that contentment is not of this world.  Even if you took away everything I have in this life - my marriage, my house, my car, my friends, all my possessions, one thing would remain: the love of my God, and that love is strong enough to hold me, and that is all I need to be truly content.