Beautifully Broken

The upcoming year brings resolutions along with hope that things will be better in the months ahead.  I think this can be beautiful.  What if we all make a resolution to live out our faith… and we actually keep it? A common reason people are turned off to Christianity is not always because the facts or science behind it: it's US. Sadly, this is all too true.  People give up on the idea of a perfect, loving God because, well, we don't do a very good job representing Him.  We think it's okay to tell that little white lie, to have that one extra drink, to be unfaithful to our spouse just once, and a countless number of other things.  The worst part about it?  We try and act like we are glorifying God the whole time.  Not only will this dramatically hurt the people we are close to, but what about the people watching? I feel like we are all under the impression that no one notices us.  For example, I Facebook/insta stalk people all the ti...

As Christmas approaches, we are often reminded to keep the true meaning of the season as we celebrate Christmas.  I want to challenge us to take that a step further: let's reconsider the meaning behind each action we take, and each request we long for in prayer. Prayer is one of the most important parts of our walk with Christ.  It's what differs our Lord from any false idol; we actually can have a connection with Him, and He hears and responds to every request!  With this being said, I'm afraid we sometimes miss the point in our prayers, as well as in our motivation in life. In 2 Kings, Hezekiah is asking God for deliverance from Assyria.  I think the way he asks is interesting: Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God. (2 Kings 19:8) Did you notice anything unexpected in that prayer?  Most of the time we pray because we want something.  Why do we want that new job?  ...

As I'm reading through the Old Testament, it's kinda funny how much trust some of these people put into their idols.  Like let's talk about the golden calf for a second.  The people were waiting on Moses to come down from getting the 10 Commandments, and they literally watched as their gold jewelry was melted down and formed into the shape of the cow.  They didn't just think the cow was a nice decoration, but they viewed this thing they had just created as an IDOL. So they knew they were watching this thing being created, but then all of a sudden tried to worship it?  I don't get it. But then again, don't we all do that? We watch our phone crack after we drop it, then we go out and buy a new one. We watch that guy/girl walk away after a bad breakup, then we decide to put our full trust and self-worth in someone new. We watch as we draw back from our friends and family because we are so stressed about school, but we allow our view of ourselves to be ...

"Just trust in God" is one of the most used phrases for pretty much any situation, but it honestly isn't accomplished as much as we would like to admit.  I can think of so many times people have told me that, but it's almost like we hear it so much that we forget what it means. That phrase is becoming more like a catchphrase in times of stress, decision making, after a loss, or pretty much any situation that it seems as if people just say it when they don't know what else to say.  Let's bring back the importance of what that phrase really means. So to start, what does it mean to fully trust in God?  I feel like we sometimes confuse what having faith and trusting in God really means.  Does it mean that when we trust in God we know He will give us whatever we have been asking for? Nope, probably not.  Honestly, trusting in God doesn't even mean that we know everything is going to be okay.  Sometimes life is hard and things DON'T feel okay at the mome...

Can we just talk about how awesome God is for a second?  Like seriously-He is the absolute coolest. I think it's easy to start thinking about our faith as a responsibility.  Yeah, Christianity is our religion that we follow.  That's nice and all, but isn't Christianity more than that? So let's say you're in your apartment and you realize you're completely out of food.  It's cold outside, plus you're living on the "broke college student budget".  Imagine if someone knocked on your door, knew EXACTLY what you needed, and made your fav flavor of Ramen magically appear.  You would think that guy was awesome, right?  If this guy gave you the option of being fed for life would you accept, or would you say "nah, I'll just read an article about you later." You would OBVIOUSLY accept a lifetime supply of free food, right!? Okay, so hopefully you agree that God's miracles are a lot more awesome than a lifetime supply of mic...

In college, or really any time in life, it's super easy to only go to God when we feel like we "need Him".  As in we didn't study enough for a test we need to pass,  we are going through relationship drama, or a ton of other things that cause stress.  I think we do that because we forget how big God is.  It's easy to pretend like we can keep God in our back pocket and pull Him out for emergencies, but we forget God is way too big to be kept in our pocket. In 2 Kings Chapter 1, Elijah is faced with 50 of the king's men who are doubting in the true God.  Elijah fully relied on the knowledge of how massive God's power really was, and trusted his faith in the situation. Without hesitation, Elijah declared "If I am a man of God, may the fire come down from Heaven and consume the captain and his men" (1:10).  And the fire DID!  Elijah was able to do this because he was confident in the fact that he WAS a man of God, which is much more than treating G...