You Are My Superman

This world is a tough place to survive.

           

Lets just be real for a second.

Sometimes we can easily find our selves swaying from one side of the pendulum to the other side. One moment we are a person who is closed off from any opportunity to be loved. Then we find ourselves opening ourselves to all sorts of hurts and pains, in our desire to love others.

Again, This world is a tough place to survive.

However there is a hero in this tough place of surviving, and that is you my friend.

You, my friend, are the Hercules, Superman, or Hulk of this world.

Hercules, you are the man or woman who made it through this whole wide world, and conquered it, and still loved the Lord.  Throughout your whole life you probably face all sorts of crises, issues, losing loved ones, disappointing people, failures, and tough moments of faith, but somehow the darkest cloud never took out your light, blew out your candle, or left you without hope in Jesus Christ.

My hat is off to that man or woman, who can tread through this life, and still have an ounce of joy and delight at the end as he lets his last ounce of breath come out of him or herself. 

The world tests our stamina in so many ways.  I think you can try your very hardest, and even be dealt the best cards in this lifetime: be born into a loving family, with loving and supportive parents, find a phenomenal job, and be with a phenomenal spouse, but at the end of the day still something picks at you, that makes you struggle. Each person bears their own cross, and sometimes, and I would say the majority of the time, we do not get to choose that cross.

I guess, I hope or endeavor in life is that we, you, or I do become superman and superwoman at the end of this existence. No matter what our ugly monsters or skeletons are in our life. I hope we become better people from them. I hope that as we struggle in the ugly muck of life, we become triumph, and learn to put to death the horrible destructive parts of our lives.

Although this world is a tough place to survive. There is always hope. Hope will live, even in the darkest shadows of our lives. 

Donny Darko is Real

The monsters underneath our beds late at night are really not the monsters we should be scared of.

My mom once told me a very wise and honest thing, “Ephraim, after you graduate college, please know that the world is a very dark, and evil place.”

It is this comment that we find the unfathomable knowledge of this world.

We must be weary of those who set up the stage to look like the most amazing person, a person could ever want to believe. Unfortunately, the more we grow up the more easier it is to be more susceptible to becoming more jaded about life.

Lets leave this one segment of sad information for something that will be more practical and useful.

In life for us to transition from one stage to the next we will end up facing many life crises (cf. Erik Erikson). In each stage we transition, we might end up feeling stuck, or even frustrated. It in those moments that we must embrace the ultimate pillars of life- truth and grace.

Although the world can be so dark, disappointing and depressing, we have to allow balance, moderation, and variety to enter the equation.

I really believe that it is through the difficult moments of our lives that we truly realize some of the most important wisdoms we will ever find throughout our lives. Although it sucks in the moments, we learn so much more about ourselves, and what we can truly handle. It is being able to take the sucky crappy situations, and be able to turn them into positive, that allow the soft, joyous parts of our hearts live longer. Then becoming men and women who are gumpy old bags looking back on life with regrets, more disappointments, and in a storm of unhappiness.

I think it was once best said from a Christian artist I heard, “What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?”

Love is a B!tch

To not be able to love anything, is antithetical to the design of how God wanted things to work.

However to love means to be vulnerable (C.S. Lewis)

It is unfortunate that even from birth man must first face its first double-bind.

Love means Risk, and to Not Love is to not Live

The challenge of this paradox, is one that is resolved within the wounds of the savior himself, Christ. That for him he had to love his creation, but he also put risk starting from the utter point of human existence. Although God taking a chance on humans looks bad from the start, the beauty of this risk slowly arose as the predestined unfortunate death of Christ happened. This provided an avenue for love to return to its creator.

So we have the jeopardy that love brings, but we also have the blossoming of hope too.

Hope is something that one struggles to find its origin.  However, as one who isn’t a licensed scientist, but just an explorer of this earth and its interactions. One can easily gain tangible evidence of hope, when observing people struggling, and they overcome their struggle. That is where you will confidently find a droplet of pure hope. It is in our struggle we find hope. In addition, it is where the beauty arises in love. When a person is willing to give of themselves not for their own success or providence but to give that love to someone else, we find pure and true love in that unconditional act of humility.

When love is given without asking for something in return, it is when love cannot be consider a fool’s choice, but a wise person choice.

Or Maybe that’s wrong? – Could you really love someone and not become a fool?

I think it would a disappointing life, to live your whole life with your heart locked up, becoming this unbreakable, strong person, who has no emotions, because their heart is locked up in a tiny closet, far far far away from any chance of it being taken.

I think that when you love someone, there is always opportunity to get hurt.

But we also have to realize that we can hurt too (Joyce Meyer).

We have to have faith, rather then fear, that love will eb and flow in our relationships, as we eb and flow with our flaws, and faux pas. 

A Rape of Codependency

Isaiah 61:1, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."

For many out there, Codependency is not just a struggle but a terrible virus which has paralyzed their life. Codependency is defined as, "a psychological condition or a relationship in which a person is controlled or manipulated by another who is affected by a pathological condition."

Like I said codependency is to some like a virus. It can easily provoke some of the most dangerous situations that one has encoutered. So where is God in the mess of all this?

Isaiah 61 starts off by saying "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." We have to realize that as much as God designed the human person. He will always be our sole leader. He is the bearer of all truth. he holds justice in his hand like a gold scepter, tall, bulky, and heavy. The ability that God has in our lives is the ability to break away from destructive relationships. The truth is whether you've struggled with codependency or not is that there will always be people you bumped into who have their own issues. Therefore I think it is time to look at how Scriptures manifest some basic principles to allow healthy growing relationships blossom and negative unproductive relationships be extinguished (or avoided).

The rest of Isaiah 61 writes, "Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has set me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives."

God does not want his people hurting; however, he has given us a hope. Within the design of humanity we were given rationality, cognition, a brain. In our lives we must drive it by logic. For man to prosper he must keep to what is good for him. Many times codependent people struggle because they use potentiality to allow them to maintain unhealthy relationships to continue. However, the anointing of God has been given to man to not allow bad things to happen including intoxicating relationships. Practically speaking if there is even a  small voice saying, "This feels wrong!" or "this is not right? Something has gone awfully wrong." This is probably a time to seek truth. However, people forget to switch gears. They are driving their lives through emotions (i.e. potentiality) which is the perfect opportunity to be taken by someone who will abuse their poor decision-making, their natural ability to keep giving, and the codependent's unattainable gift for seeing the good in people. But to allow cognition to become the driver, a statement like this allows the transition to be simple... "Is this person being a light to your life or are they pulling darkness into your life?"

The decision now feels like time has frozen and you feel stuck but we have to realize that for us to find satisfaction we must only keep the people who add to our life not subtract. Therefore to be able to move forward into more long-lasting joy it means driving our lives with intellect in the drivers seat and our emotions in the passenger seat. This process in itself is a life-long learning process. As your journey through life we start seeing the signs a lot quicker and easier in making those hard decisions. But we start now, and over time, those decisions turn into a beautiful array of health, happiness, and an intimate relationship with Jesus. Allow His Truth to show you insight into what persons should be in the depth of your heart. Do not be afraid to say no! Jesus loves you, and you deserve a life of joy!

Screwed Up and Loved

Luke 12:22b "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life."

- It's annoying to give God back the day. Annoying eh? What does that mean?

- I think the danger of living in this human body is we wake up and immediately we are starting the day conquering tasks and before we know it we are trying to conquer the world.

But Jesus tells us clearly DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT YOUR LIFE!

For me my anxiety is drawn by the fact that I am in a job concerned about whether I will have productivity. It is frustrating that I have already started my day in a position of control. Learning to be able to accept humility, and give me control to God is extremely rewarding.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

"Whoever," what a strong and powerful word. A word that has no restriction. A word which engulfs every living human being. A word that describes unconditional when it includes whenever.

Jesus still loves us even after the fact we do take control into our own hands. The beauty of Jesus is allowing mistakes, sin, screw-ups, but even more amazing is his ability to walk with us through it.

A Prayer to the Sower

Mark 4:3, "Listen! A sower went out to sow"

Mark 4:8-9, "And other seed fell onto good soil and produce grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thrity-fold and sixty fold and a hundred fold. And he said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Wow! I did not expect to survive yesterday emotional despair, let alone return to a joyful attitude to sit in front of the father again.

I do still feel the tension inside my face. I mean it could just be sinuses or the fact I am still holding back some anger.  

But after reading Mark 4 about the sower I realized a few different things.

1. You have to have a heart ready to listen to get to a place to be okay with celibacy.
2. That you do reap what you sow. I want to sow healthy choices so that I can reap great harvests of great relationships.
3. That it can be a season of struggle but there are seasons where the heart listens.

Lord,
Soften my heart
Help me find peace
Help me awaken a patient spirit
Help me trust you more and more each day,
Love your Son,
Aaron

A Penis in God's Hand

Matt 24:36-37

            “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man.”

            Yes! I have a penis! Yes! When the tiny chromosomes in my mom’s womb collaborated with my dad’s sperm together, its genetic creativity provided with a piece of anatomy that I will never be ungrateful for. I don’t want to get ridiculously graphical because it can easily lead down roads unprofitable both for the writer and the reader but the reality is each human will bear either a penis or a vagina.

            Within the last decade or so sexuality has broadened its wingspan that it is impossible to not interact without sex becoming a part of a conversation. Whether its kids, love making, going to use a restroom, or even the typical getting contraception or women’s products. Sexuality has become the meat and potatoes of frequent conversations. Therefore as a young man aware of his sexuality, and a culture who’s daily interaction revolves around sex. What does one do or not do?

            For years many have said “Now remember use the right head to act on?” Some may be perplex by these comments, others repulse, or some simply snickering at the sexually implicit gesture. It is vital that a man chasing after Jesus learns this pretty soon, otherwise this decision-making truth could be the sinking-sand of his faith.

            But how does one learn this profound common sense gesture? A-hah! This is the crux of this letter. I know that Matt 24:36-37 is talking about the end of the world but I think you can also find more truth in it.

            The timing of God is very different then our own timing. And within that timing not only includes when Christ shall return, but for a single man, it means trusting God with my (or his and her) sexuality. It would be ignorant to think I am the only single guy who wakes up every morning with a boner and desires to go mate with the next object that has a pulse. The reality is if God has the end of the world figured out. The least I can do is learn to trust God with the sexual libido he has given me.

            I don’t want to finish so abruptly. I want to add just a couple things. First, trust is an emotional intentional action. I have to daily go to God, and say, “God I need you. I have sexual needs, but your sovereignty and love for you goes higher than what I believe I need to do.” But secondly, trust is a cognitive process of realizing that God has also provided us tools to learn how to trust him. For example, using our time wisely going and doing something productive and living in community. It can be easy to drive life through emotions and get into emotional car accidents. But allowing God to use your mind to steward your body, especially sexually can allow God to give you the wisdom to know how to take care of your body without losing righteousness.