Coloring to Conformity

A kid coloring on a wall is so free to explore creativity.  He uses the wall as His canvas, he sees no limits to the proper use of a wall.  He's never heard of conformity and rules he must follow; like:

1. A wall needs to be plain and white
2. There must only be a few pictures that have similar themes.
3. Never let a creative design be free to roam outside of a frame.
4. ...fill in your preconceived notions of how things should go...

Sometimes if you watch a kid carefully they reveal our Savior to us all so well.  They teach us in their freest moments to "...offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God- this is our true and proper worship- and to not CONFORM to the patterns of this world..."

Lets be the crayons He uses to color on His walls.  It's His masterpiece.

Do as I say, not as I do

People are constantly teaching and telling you how to live your life.  They are giving guidelines and rules that help them to live their own.  They will tell you exactly what you did wrong in a situation and say how they would have handled it so much better.  This is the beauty of community and life but the problem is there is always a point or moment when the teacher falls short- When the one who gives the advice doesn’t follow it themselves.  Then we hear the famous line "Do as I say, not as I do."  But fear not, there is One who has lived out exactly what He preached and never, not even once, fell into what He so mightily preached against. 

Isaiah 2:2 says “You should not put your trust in people to save you, because people are only human; they aren’t able to help you” and later Jesus says “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 

We can’t put our faith in man because men are not God and WE WILL let each other down (I am the first to admit I constantly fall short of my teachings). 

But as long as I teach and point to Jesus- then it is not I who holds up the standard but Christ.  “I claim to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified.”  Do as He says, and as He does.  

Good Samaritan of Today

Staring from the inside out we see a 6 year old boy watching his "Daddy" walk out of the front door for the last time because Daddy says "He's had enough and he's probably not his kid anyway..." We see him hide behind a chair while he watches his mom get beat to a bloody pulp by her new "Mr. Right" boyfriend.

Staring from the inside out we see him being shoved off from one relative to another because no one  ..."has enough time or room..." and "...he's not their problem to live with anyway."  Oh and don't forget that time he was 14 and found true love with Sussie Stevens.  She said she wanted to be with him forever and two weeks later started a rumor that she couldn't be with him anymore because he was "gay."

It was only a joke.  He's overreacting.  That's a fake tear drop in his eye.

Or is it?
Are we afraid to try and understand?
Would it take an awkward conversation and holding his hand?

But we have rules to follow and laws to obey;
Surely Jesus wouldn't want us to disobey.

I'll talk to someone about it and we can "deal with him later."  I'll wait for an answer and until then "he'll be okay."

Lost. Lonely. Left to die. That's what's behind the tear drop in the corner of his eye.

Believe it or not Jesus died for him, that filthy piece of trash.
He called him his own and healed every rash.

He showed love and mercy.
Go and do likewise.

Lost Time.

A friend of mine sent me an email sharing their heart. To me it was such a beautiful display of how God is revealing the Gospel to them. Here are a few lines of the email:

"The goal of my time on this earth is to point to Him, to Worship Him, and lead others to Him. The time He has allotted for my life is to be spent for this purpose. Not personal gain, but service to the One who created me, gave me gifts to be used for His glory and purposes, and who gives me the time to do as such."

They went on to say...

"And so tonight He just spoke to me about how since it's HIS time and not mine, it's silly of me to be upset about potential 'lost time.' It wasn't my time to lose, and God's time is NEVER lost."

Time is a curious thing. Sometimes it's comforting, and sometimes it's terrifying. You may have heard it said, "We have all the time in the world..." and in the same stroke of a pen "There is just not enough time in a day..."

Though I've only lived for a short time (approaching 22 years or 192,720 hours [without counting leap years] or however you like to look at time) I have experienced both the "ups" and "downs" of time. It has taken my life prison and has set it free.

Friends, I have come to the conclusion that maybe it's time to put my time in the hands of the One who created time- because lets face it, outside of Him, time is nothing but a race to death. But fear not because the Creator of time has overcome death. It's time to be free.

Childlike Mess

I love eating hot wings for many reasons.  Obviously the taste would be at the forefront of them all, then the ease of accessibility, and then astonishingly enough because of the mess they make.

I don't think any picture could get my point across better than this.  I love eating hot wings because all of the sudden- I become a kid again.  I get down and dirty and become totally engrossed in eating each individual wing.  My face begins to be the masterpiece of this whole experience.  The fortification of my lips gives way to the excess of sauce, my nose begins to run from the fiery aroma, and my cheeks start to feel the tingling of the zesty sauce that's plastered to them.

I love it.  I cannot eat a wing and be mad at the same time, it's sheer bliss.  I know what you're thinking "Travis you're such a weirdo."  Well, definitely Yes, but maybe not because of this secret fixation.  What if when we become like children again, we start to use all of our natural God given senses for everything we come in contact with?  All the sudden we can taste, touch, smell, see, and hear everything we do.  

I think that when Jesus said, "to enter the kingdom of heaven we must become like children again," maybe, just maybe, It could of had something to do with using all of our senses to connect ourselves with Him.  Because let's face it if God is everywhere and in everything then we can't just feel Him, or hear Him, we have to learn how to taste His goodness, see His faithfulness in every part of our lives, and smell the fragrance of His forgiveness and freedom.

Every time I eat a hot wing, I become like a kid again.

Every time I taste, touch, smell, see, and hear God, I become more and more like a kid engrossed in a hot wing.  I become covered by His grace, hope, and love.

Beware the hot sauce is sticky and tends to spread onto everything you touch.