Keep Trying

   My husband enjoys playing soccer in a summer league. He's played on the same team for years now. Usually he is recruited to play defense. That's the position he is best at and the team needs him there the most. This season though, he decided he wanted to play striker. He wanted to have fun and he barely played striker on that team before. He also wanted to score some goals if he could.

   At first, during the season, he played striker and the team struggled to win games. He kept telling the team he wanted to play striker though and they abided by his wish. As the season went on, the team began to struggle more as people on the team wouldn't show up to games. My husband decided to sacrifice his wish and played defense or midfield to help the team. That didn't mean he gave up on his goal. 

   During the last regular game of the season, he went to the game and discovered that four of the players who didn't say they were not coming didn't show up. They began the game with five field players against seven field players. They were playing against the second to last place team and my husband had hoped to score a goal that night but it didn't seem possible because of how few players they had. 

   At halftime they were playing 7 verses 8 with one substitute (it was a co-ed league so they needed to have two girls on the field but only one girl was there). The team kept pushing through in the second half even though it began to rain. My husband found himself in the midfield and he ran down the right side of the field. He made it past one defender, took a shot, the goalie blocked it but didn't catch it, my husband recovered the ball, he went around the goalie, he shot and scored. Just as he scored, the rain stopped. I looked over to the left and saw a rainbow. My husband hadn't given up on his dream even though the odds were stacked against him.

   That's what we need to do in life as well. We must persevere through it all. Hard times will come in our lives. When they do, we have a choice. We can choose to give up or we can push through. We can choose to trust God and work hard. 

   So, are you persevering through trials? How can you rely on God in everything?

Are You Awake?

    If you know me or have read my blog for a while, you know a place I like to go is Camp YoliJwa. It's a Christian camp that I've gone to for most of my life. While there, you do different activities. One of the things you do there is sing songs. There's a song that we sing in the mornings from time to time usually toward the end of the week because that's when everyone is tired. 

   The song goes like this: "I'm alive awake alert enthusiastic. I'm alive awake alert enthusiastic. I'm alive awake alert. I'm alert awake alive. I'm alive awake alert enthusiastic." There are motions with the song and the whole point of it is to wake you up if you are not awake. It is a silly song and usually brings laughter to the group. 

   Sometimes I think this song can relate to our Christian walk. We start to get tired and begin to just go through the motions. We don't feel like doing all the things, working hard, and trying to grow in God because it feels like work and we are tired. That's when Satan gains a foothold in our lives. When we begin to become tired or lackadaisical in our walk the devil comes in to try to break us away from God. 

   This is why we must be "alive awake and alert" in our walk with God. We need to stay strong and grow in him lest Satan step in to break us and our relationship with God. Not only do we need to be alert, we should also be enthusiastic about our walk with God. No other religion has communication with God. Sure, other religions can pray, but they don't hear back from their god. Our God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to talk with him and he listens. He gives us direction too, if we listen. Isn't that something we should be enthusiastic about? The creator of everything wants a relationship with us.

   So are you "alive awake alert enthusiastic" in your walk with God? How can you grow in God today?

Weather and the Good News

    I know we've all done it. We checked the weather for a certain day wondering if our plans would change or be cancelled. Then, on the day of our plans, the weather changes and we blame the weather person for getting it wrong. 

   Well, what if we didn't have weather people or the ability to look at a weather forecast? How would we plan events then? How would we know what to wear? We would have to go outside to figure out what the weather is. We would have to prepare our everyday lives like rain, snow, or sun might happen. Would we still plan events not knowing what the weather will be like? We probably would. 

   New question: what if we didn't have the Bible? I know, that's a big jump but stay with me. The Bible gives us a forecast of events that will happen in the future. It tells us how to live our everyday lives. If we didn't have the Bible, we wouldn't know those things. We wouldn't know what was coming in the future. 

   Even if we didn't have the Bible, I believe God would make the good news of the gospel known. People cannot stop God's plans from happening. Sure, we have free will, but God is the author of everything (look at Jonah, he had free will and chose to disobey God then he got eaten by a fish and changed his mind). God is a good father and he would let us know that one way or another. 

   Thankfully, we do have the Bible. That's one tool we can use to get to know God. It also tells us the forecast of the future and how to deal with problems that come up in our lives. While the weather person may get their forecast wrong, the Bible tells us the truth. We should be grateful to God for the gift of the Bible. We should also be grateful that we don't have to pack a rain jacket, umbrella, snow pants, a winter jacket, sunscreen, etc. everyday because we do have weather people; even if they get the weather wrong sometimes. 

   So, are you grateful for the gift of the Bible? How can you spend time in God's word each day?

Staying Free: Independence Day

   On July 4th each year, America celebrates our independence from Great Britain. All those years ago people decided they didn't want to be under Britain's rule anymore and, because of that, we have freedom today. People celebrate this freedom in different ways. Some people get together with family. Others just stay home and rest. Some decorate their homes. No matter how we celebrate, we have the freedom to choose how we celebrate because of the country we live in.

   Yet, there are some who still live in the bondage of slavery. I'm not talking about other countries. I'm talking about some of us still living in the bondage of sin. While we are free in America, we are not free in our hearts. God wanted better for us and sent His Son to set us free from that bondage. Some of us accept this freedom and keep it, while others turn back to bondage. 

   It's like if we would have fought for our freedom from Britain and then decided, no we don't like our freedom. We would rather Britain come back and tax us. We want to be under someone else's rule. Would America look like it does today if we would have decided that? No, it would have looked very different. God gives us a choice. We can choose to follow our sinful desires and stay in bondage to sin and Satan; or we can choose to get freedom in Christ's sacrifice on the cross and stay free.

   Many people choose the freedom in Christ but they go back to sin. It happens to all of us probably where we sin even after choosing to accept Christ as our Savior. But the problem is some of us choose to continue to walk in that sin without repentance. That's not freedom. That's choosing to go back to bondage. Sin is bondage. God offers freedom.

   How do we get free and stay free then? We grow in God. We learn about him and how to follow him. We read his word so we know how to say, "no" when Satan comes knocking. We choose to follow Jesus' example and do our best to emulate him. That's freedom. Freedom is having the choice. We choose who we follow each day. We choose if we will sin and eventually go to Hell or if we will accept Christ as our Savior, follow him, and stay free from our sins by choosing to continually follow him. 

   So, are you in bondage or free from sin? How can you continue to stay free from sin?