For The Sleepless

This is my first video post ever for this blog. I hope you enjoy the thoughts that I have on our vocation in this life. I usually have time to methodically plot out my thoughts via text, but I decided to take a chance and talk to myself on the computer. I had to break up the video into two parts due to it's length. The video is a total of about 21 minutes. If you can't listen to it all at once, that's okay. This is your one time that you will be able to pause me mid sentence and walk away if you want. Once again, I hope you enjoy the new scenery, because you have to stare at my face for this. mwuahahahaha. Here it is: To Be or Not To Be?    

  Speak O Lord "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 Surrender it all. What are you waiting for? Why do you feel that you have to go through this life carrying everything on your shoulders, your burdens weighing you down and making you hardened to those around you? You secretly burn with hatred inside for things out of your control. You have so many things you want to share with someone who will listen, things that you are ashamed of but you don't know where to go. All you want is peace, to feel rested and to be aligned on the path of life. Even though we live in a world full of many different personalities, hobbies, and beliefs we find it difficult to open ourselves up to others. Deciding to hold everything in and shut off people from our feelings, we g...

Last night I was watching a movie about a musician who falls in love with a deaf girl. (I must say, it was a pretty emotionally moving movie.) The main idea of the movie was to never give up because something is difficult. The theme is one that all of us must be reminded of from time to time. As the couple falls in love there are the (almost) typical obstacles that they must overcome. The turning point in the movie really made me think. I started thinking of my life. I was sitting there watching this movie with my son sleeping in my lap and my amazing wife next to me on the couch. Life was grand during this thought. (I know this next part is weird) I then started to think about what would happen if I landed in the hospital on the ledge between life and death and I had time to say my last goodbyes to my family. Once again, I know this is a morbid thought, but what would I say? Knowing myself, I would apologize for something out of my control. I would be sincere in my apologies because...

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  ~Attributed to Howard Thurman Passion, this two syllabic word packs a powerful punch to the stagnate. Every day we interact with thousands of people and do you wonder if they are passionate about what they do in life? I'm sure when you are stuck in traffic you can tell who has passion. The actions that people convey can tell you a lot. Whether it's the guy cursing and gesturing his anger towards people or the other guy using the same bodily actions to sing and air guitar or drum to pass the time. How do we productively use our passions to allow us to positively come alive in this stuck-in-a-rut world.  I know that during the time of the Olympics we see tons of people from various countries gather together to show the world how passionate and dedicated they are to a healthy lifestyle, exerc...

This is the final of the 3 posts where I am discussing some of the new songs off of the cd "Rhythm and Repose" by Glen Hansard. In the previous posts, I've discussed the gifts, we've been given in this life and how we should take every moment we have to use them to the best of our abilities, praising God in everything we do. The second post was how we can deal with the storms that rage in our life, and that even though they may seem impossible, we find that if we focus on God's promises, we can get through those trials. Today I want to focus on knowing when to humble yourself. What I mean by this is that we need to break down our selfish pride and know when to let others give us a helping hand. Song of Good Hope by Glen Hansard In the last post, I referred our troubles in life to storms. In today's song, Glen uses the image of our troubles being like rivers. When you look at a river, you probably think that it's not that bad as it seems. You can probab...

I've decided to continue using Glen Hansard's music to talk about how we can use what's given to us to prepare for the storms in life (this part 2 of 3). Last time I talked about the gifts God gives us to either talk about God to someone, encourage other Christians, and how we can praise God by using the gifts he has given to us. In life we know that our time on earth isn't going to be an easy one. In fact, as Mr. Hansard puts it, "Get ready for the storm, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming." Glen Hansard - The Storm, It's Coming Ever since the fall of man back in the early days of the earth, sin has been a constant struggle for any and every human. We go through life facing certain challenges that may shake us off our foundations. Most of the time these challenges come unnoticed and then they hit us right where it hurts. These challenges don't just shake the person it hits either, usually other people are shaken up as well. How do we prepare f...

Each year I sit down with my students and we look at the gifts God has given us. Why do I do this? I like to drive home some important points. Each of us is a special creation. God has given us certain abilities that another may not have. For instance, God has given person A an ability to share God's word or encourage  person B through their unique abilities. By practicing their gifts, I let the students know that they will have shown their thanks to God by using it to do God's will. When the students realize that they are unique with their gifts, we realize that God really does have a special purpose for us in our life. Of course, you can't teach something about God without backing it up with his word so we can see specifically where he calls us to use our gifts. The apostle Peter said, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one ...