Distance

     I never thought that distance would be a good thing. I always thought that distance ruined things, that it only brought stress and tension to things that were once not-so-far-apart. I thought distance would be impossible, that it would only make my life harder than it already was. I thought long distance relationships were only in movies. I thought that they never really existed, and if they did, they didn't last. I never would have seen myself greeting distance with open and welcoming arms like I did one month ago.

     What I have found out is that distance depends on the heart. I always thought that I would never meet someone or something worth working through distance for. I considered it a waste of time. However, when you do find that something or someone worth doing distance for, distance only becomes the key unlocking the gate to progress.

     Sure, it's challenging, and at times it even sucks. It's easy to be emotionally connected to someone especially when you're also sharing a physical connection. But when you're 1500 miles away and can only rely on emotional and verbal connection, things get tricky. I needed to change my heart in order to make things work. I needed to create an even more selfless lifestyle. I needed to pursue harder than I ever had. I needed to relearn how to pursue someone, essentially. Through all of the learning and adapting and trying, I can safely and proudly say that all of it is worth it.

     The saying, "Distance makes the heart grow fonder" is nothing far from the absolute truth. The love and care I have now is far stronger than the love and care I would have if I still lived back home. It would be easier to still be home, but being here has given me such a strong sense of appreciation for who I have back home.

     Every letter, every word, every text, every FaceTime, every picture, every goodnight and good morning message is beyond worth it, for someone far beyond my dreams. In my situation, distance is allowing love to grow where doubt used to be.

Reminders

     There was a changing moment for me today, right when I woke up. There is a quote floating around that was said by Henry Ward Beecher that goes along the lines of, "The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day."Ever since hearing this quote, I decided to test out the validity of this quote the past couple of mornings, but this morning in particular made me realize just how true Henry's quote was.

     As some may know, I have a few tattoos. As most of you do know, tattoos are permanent and you'd have to go way out of your way to drastic terms in order to remove a tattoo. I wanted the tattoos that I have to serve as reminders for me. They have stories behind them, but I didn't want to get a tattoo that only meant something to me for a short period of my life, rather I wanted the certain tattoo so that it would serve me in a positive way the rest of my life. The tattoos that I have are intended to be personal, daily reminders to me, that are for the most part hidden from the public. They have been "reminders" to me in the past, but this morning they almost spoke to me. Almost as if a clear voice was speaking in my head through the stories on my body.

     The cross on my ankle. My first tattoo and story. It is not just some cross I had my friend tattoo on me, but it became a reminder of my foundation. Friends are not my foundation. Family is not my foundation. Good times are not my foundation. Tattoos are not my foundation. Items and belongings are not my foundation. My spiritual and emotional foundation is found on the cross. The cross being on my physical foundation, my foot. When I look down and see it, I remember who I'm living for and why.

     The Greek word Méinate in my arm. The Greek word "méinate" comes form the passage in John 15:4 where Jesus tells His disciples that he is the vine, and in order for His disciples to bear fruit, they must remain within Him, the one true vine. This Greek word has the meaning "to abide or remain within a source that provides life." I've learned that remaining is not only a daily thing, but it's a lifetime commitment. You can't remain if you aren't in the vine in the first place. Remaining is a command that we can only fulfill by dying a Christian; dying a believer in Jesus Christ. If we quit halfway through our life, we didn't remain. When I see this word, I'm reminded to never give up, to never quit, and to pursue The Lord always.

     The face of the Lion on my thigh. My most recent tattoo. It is not complete, as there is still to be a lamb placed on my left thigh. These combined create the transformation of Christ. Isaiah 53:7 portrays Christ as the Lamb, the Lamb going to the slaughter. The Lamb offering Himself for His people. All throughout Jesus' life, He served others. He was the sacrificial Lamb stated in Isaiah. In Revelation, we see Jesus as the Lion. He is no longer the sacrifice, but the leader. The authority. The glorious One. He comes back stronger and with power over all of the world. He didn't get there easily though. He died, served, and sacrificed with His life that he had here on earth. In order to reach the Lion, we must live the Lamb.

     These stood out to me this morning. All throughout my morning I was reliving each story and reminding myself the meanings behind each and every one of them. My morning today was shaped by these stories, and I plan on having a day filled with joy and servitude to others. Don't let a morning last a minute, live in awe and peace in your mornings, that your days made be made right.

The Judging Game Part 2

     When moving to a new place, you will more than likely meet new people, and if you don't think so, then I'm sorry to have burst your bubble, but you will. You'll meet people from different cultures, religious backgrounds, traditions, environments, families, beliefs, and so on. In my current situation, I am adapting to the people in this new area. I'm the one who is considered a foreigner here, or a "Zonie" as they call me because I'm from Arizona. I'm the one with the accent because I'm not from Kansas or anywhere in the midwest for that matter. I'm the one with the odd taste buds and weird food combinations. I'm different.

     This isn't bad. Actually, none if this is bad. If anything, it can turn into something really really good. Meeting new people and learning all about them and their lifestyle can radically change your life and open your mind. This rarely happens though. Almost all of the time, when we meet new people or adapt to a new area with new people, we judge. Almost always, we judge. We don't care enough to drop what we are bringing in this culture with us in order to learn about other people. Instead, we use what we have with us to judge people against our way of life. We compare them to what we consider normal. I experienced this in the past three weeks here at college.

     I met a student here, a freshman like myself, during my first week. Tall, handsome, athletic and musical. He has it all. Rather than lowering my judgmental defenses though, I raised my judgmental weapons and took aim. Based on the way he talked about himself, his church, his friends, his talents, and his family, I immediately had shots being fired from my judgmental weapons. I hardly knew him and yet I had already shot through him multiple times with judgment and learned to dislike him to a point of almost hating everything he did and said.

     Imagine that. Within a matter of a week, someone who I had never met before was already classified by me as someone I did not like. I never even gave him a chance. But, through some work of God it seemed like, things changed.

     My roommates and I leave our dorm room unlocked when we are in the room for anyone to come in as they please and talk or hangout with us. A couple of days ago the three of us were in our room playing XBOX when our dorm room door swung open to, you know it, the freshman who I had judged. He came in and sat right down and began to just talk with us. Immediately I was ticked, not wanting to deal with anything he was going to do or wanting to listen to anything he was going to say. I really did not want him here. But, something happened.

     I was playing guitar when he came in. Nothing special, just an acoustic guitar and I was randomly playing some chords. After a couple of seconds had passed, he began to sing along to the song I was silently playing. I wasn't singing at all, but for some strange reason he knew the song and immediately picked it up. He was singing along with my playing and we got so into it that we had our entire room singing it loud and all. Afterwards we were all laughing and enjoying what had just happened through music, and I began to realize how wrong I was about him. I realized I had wronged him and made a terrible mistake of judging his every trait and quality. In the midst of my judgement, I missed his desire to play music with me and get to know me and be my friend. My judgement ruined what could have been a great start to a friendship.

     It's hard not to judge. Clearly I just wrote about the ease I had judging that fellow friend of mine. It's easy to judge and paint a picture of someone's life for them in your mind. It's easy to hate someone rather than learning to love them, but it ruins friendships and relationships. Because of my swiftness to judge him I lacked the one thing we are all called to do, and that's love. I was too busy hating everything about him instead of searching for things to love about him. He gives me high fives, hugs, hand shakes, encouragement, positivity, and the desire to play more music with him. My judgement, if held onto, would have hidden all of these things from me. I was taught something so important within the first two weeks of school: having judgment over love as a foundation for a friendship will only leave you hating somebody for who they're not rather than loving them for who they are.