Monday, November 1, 2010

God, Guys, and Girls



            Being that this is my first ever blog entry, I’m not exactly sure how this is going to go. When thinking about topics that I want to write about, a lot of things come to mind. Unlike most people who journal about day-to-day events, I have a lot to catch up on in here from the past week or longer. The main topics I want to discuss are my relationship with God, my current understanding of women, and the relationships I have gained by being in McChesney this year at school. Basically, tonight’s journal will focus a lot on relationships.
            One thing that I’ve always lacked in my life is a strong devotional time. There will be times when I will go for a few weeks (and other times not even that long), and then I will become “too busy” and I will fade away from reading the Bible. I highlight too busy because it is often laziness or filling my time with other less important activities that stray me away from my devotions. Lately, God has been putting on my heart that I really need to start again and grow closer to Him. As my Facebook status said, sometimes when you think you have everything together on your own, it all get’s taken away and you are forced back to the basics and to Him.
            Today, I decided to read Isaiah 43. Going into tonight and even into my devotions, I was unsure where to read from. I actually Googled “Bible Passages about moving on” and a verse from Isaiah 43 came up. About halfway through reading the chapter, I knew that God had directed me to the right place. Isaiah 43 starts out by talking about how powerful God is and how he has provided for the nation of Israel. God is telling Israel that He is with them and He is protecting them. This was a major comfort for me. Lately, I feel that I have been fading away from focusing on God and it is always refreshing to know that God protects his own people. The latter part of the chapter talks about how Jacob and Israel had turned away from God and how he could easily punish them for that. This passage really hit home for me. I know that if I don’t grow closer to God, then my life will not be as good as it can be with Him. As I was reminded in chapel recently, a relationship requires work, a lot more work than sitting through a sermon once a week. For my relationship with God to grow, I need to constantly spend time in His word and in prayer with Him.
As far as my knowledge of women, I have yet to understand them. Though this is what many guys say and it is often joked about, I cannot think of a better way to start off this paragraph. I look around at many of the quality men that I know and most of them seem to be single. While some reason for this may be because they are choosing to stay away from relationships at the moment, some of this is also because quality women are so hard to come by. So often, my friends or I will see a girl and be attracted to her physically and then find out about her “extra-curricular” activities. It is so disappointing to see so many beautiful women selling themselves short because they think this will make them attractive to men. They may be fulfilling the desires of weak men, however, they are hurting themselves more than they know. It is a total turnoff to see a girl not living up to the potential that God has for them because they want to feel “loved” or “wanted” by non-spiritual men.
Finally, I want to say how blessed I am this year to be in the company of so many quality men here in McChesney. It was not until this year that I realized what I had been missing out on in quality relationships with men who can challenge me spiritually. I have always had four or five close friends who have challenged me, but it is such an encouragement to be filled with an entire hall of guys who are spiritually driven and such high quality men. These are guys that I can hangout with and never have to worry about doing something that will hurt me spiritually.
Of our greatest experiences together, the best time that we have shared this year is our Fall Break trip out to my roommate’s house near St. Louis. The bonding time that I shared with every one of the guys that went was indescribable. It was a full weekend of hanging out and fellowshipping with close friends of which I’ve only experienced few times in my life. I was able to learn so much about these guys and also learn from them. Together, we all challenge each other to become the men that God calls us to be. I realize that I am genuinely blessed to be in the position I am in.
Though everything in my life may not be going perfectly right now, I know that my future is bright. With quality friendships surrounding me and a fresh start with my relationship with God, I know that life is good. As I said in the last paragraph and I will restate it now, I am truly blessed.