One Year of God's Faithfulness.

Wow.

Today marks exactly one year since my first blog post came out. Talk about "Not By Sight"...I definitely couldn't have seen that I would have written a blog post every two weeks for a YEAR. Can I just say how faithful God is?

There have definitely been a lot of ups and downs, times when I could write five awesome posts in a day and times when I couldn't write two coherent sentences, times when I felt like I was on top of the whole Christian lifestyle and times when I was barely hanging on. In my personal life, I know it has been like a roller coaster with some free fall in the mix. (I hate roller coasters so some of this past year has been especially rough.)

I know this is a bit of a cliche verse, but Lamentations 3.22-23 is so rich:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. 

Besides giving me inspiration for blog posts and the skill with words to write them, God has showed up in big and small ways this past year. He has brought people into my life when I felt alone. He has brought songs to my attention to encourage me. He has guided me through my high school graduation and into my freshman year at college. He has never abandoned me when I cried out to Him for help. Just a few weeks ago, I was struggling with a speech, gave up and told God, "If you don't help me, it's not gonna happen." If I didn't have that speech finished by dinner-time, then the sky's not blue.

What I'm saying is that, even though a lot of times we may feel like our prayers are just messages on God's answering machine, if we take the time to look back and trace God's hand, we will undoubtedly see it. His hand is in all things, certainly, but we can't comprehend all things so it is better to see how He has worked in your life.

I guess this post would be better around New Year's, but I think any time is a good time to reflect. Although living in the now and looking toward the future is important, we have to remember how we got to where we are so that we have the strength to go on. If God got you through a time of loneliness last year, then when loneliness strikes again, you can know that He will get you though again.

As I celebrate a year of God's faithfulness, I encourage you to look back and do the same. Whatever painful things may have happened to you this past year, I know you won't regret it, because God is in all of it. Every minute of every day, God walked with you. And He is still with you.

Representatives of God

So in  my last post I talked about the third commandment and how we should be careful of the words we use and the thoughts we think. But I think there is more to the third commandment than just words and thoughts. I mean, yeah, we need to avoid using our God's name in an irreverent way. Absolutely.

But think about this: whose name is in the word Christian? Christ, right? As in, the Son of God?

How do we misuse "Christian" though?

Glad you asked.

Let's break it down. The word "Christian" means "little Christ." So we are a representative of Jesus, right? So when you tell someone that you are a Christian but don't act like Christ, isn't that a false representation? Isn't that as bad as misusing God's name?

When I think about being God's representative to a watching world, I am both overwhelmed and honored. After all, if people are looking at me to see what Christianity is all about, then I need to be on my game 24/7/365, right? So that's overwhelming for sure. Short of God's strength and grace, it would be impossible. But it is also an honor. God could reveal Himself to whomever He chose however He wants. But He chose to use me to share His gospel, and I think that is one of the most exciting and inspiring things we can grasp.

We could go on forever about how to live as representatives of Christ, because there is so much that Jesus is that we can never be. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't try. We have the responsibility and privilege of being a representative of God, and we should be eagerly representing Him wherever we go. I think if we got that straight we would be a lot closer to actually representing Him than if we just tried to follow a list of rules.

I know this is a little shorter than usual, but I don't want to use thirty paragraphs to explain what I can say in three. You are the light of the world. Shine bright.