Thinking Differently

What is the measure of a life? Where does true joy and happiness come from? What is the bottom line, the irreducable minimum, the common denominator?

Why are we here?

God.

He is the answer to every question.

If you don’t have God, your life is worthless. If you don’t have God, you have no joy or happiness. God makes all men and women equal. God is the reason for existing.

Everything else is either a bonus, or a result of us not believing that God is the answer.

But this is not something you can simply know, and have it make your life worth living. You must believe its truth, and live by that truth, even when your mind lies, and tells you that you can’t live this way. Even when your emotions cry out in the silence of the night and the shadow of the day, you must live by faith.

You have got to love God, and that is manifested in only one way: obedience to God.

Everything else in life is secondary to obedience. And this is the truth that lives behind the mirror: it is this obedience that is the open doorway to joy and happiness. To enjoy life, to smile, to have purpose and meaning and self-worth, and the ability to walk your road with head held high through all dangers, toils, struggles, blood sweat and tears is to obey God.

All you have is these seconds to draw breath and release it again.

All you have are these seconds to serve.

Take them, and live for God.

Hello there readers.

I am sure that those of you who have been looking for updates have been a little confused as of late. Let me fill you in with some detail….about 3 weeks ago I got back from Quebec Missions Reality, and a week after that I broke up with my girlfriend.

It has been a really crazy couple of weeks, and alot of thinking and learning, and growing, and soul searching, and crying out to God. But, by His grace, I think I am coming through, with a new perspective on life, and definite goals for growth.

This whole final semester here at Word of Life has been such a stretching experiance. I praise God for it all, and though it has not always been fun and good times, even the valleys of life are good when God directs us there.

I find it hard to believe that in about 15 days I will be done with the academic part of my stay here, and be about to graduate from Bible school, done with a first part of my adult life. So much has happened, that my head spins at where I have been, and the roads I have walked.

God is moving, this is sure.

Looking ahead, not sure what I am doing for the week of break after the school year, but once I return for summer camp, I will be a tech supervisor here. That means I will be running most of the tech for the Ranch, and will be discipling some of the high schoolers who come to work for us. Alot of work, and challenges that I don’t exactly feel adequate for.

So that is my life, as it has been, in a nutshell. Would greatly appreciate your prayers.

~Peace~
the StormRider

Not As Strong As We Think We Are
Rich Mullins

Well, it took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

And they say that one day Joshua
Made the sun stand still in the sky
But I can’t even keep these thoughts
Of you from passing by
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

CHORUS
We are frail
We are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And the Master said their faith was
Gonna make them mountains move
But me, I tremble like a hill on a fault line
Just at the thought of how I lost you
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

CHORUS

And if you make me laugh well I know
I could make you like me
Cause when I laugh I can be a lot of fun
But we can’t do that I know that it is frightening
What I don’t know is why we can’t hold on
We can’t hold on

CHORUS

When you love you walk on the water
Just don’t stumble on the waves
We all want to go there somethin’ awful
But to stand there it takes some grace
‘Cause oh, we are not as strong
As we think we are

by Dido

I know you think that I shouldn’t still love you,
Or tell you that.
But if I didn’t say it, well I’d still have felt it
where’s the sense in that?

I promise I’m not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

I know I left too much mess and
destruction to come back again
And I caused nothing but trouble
I understand if you can’t talk to me again
And if you live by the rules of “it’s over”
then I’m sure that that makes sense

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

And when we meet
Which I’m sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I’ll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I’ve moved on….

I will go down with this ship
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love and always will be

Broken pieces of the man I used to be are all that’s left of who I am
A shattered mass of all my countless broken dreams.
I wonder where I go from here

I found the one that I was always searching for
No more empty promises
I’ve come to realize what I’m worth is so much more
More than how you made me feel

This wanting more….is tearing me, it’s breaking me
But what [I] want’s not [yours] to give
You were my dollar sign, my brand new house,
My product line
When I’m done with you I’m spent.
When the smoke is gone I have to face what I’ve become…

Will [God] rescue me? Could [God] get me out alive?
I’m trying to hold on but I’ve lost the will to fight
Will [God] rescue me? Take me far away from this shattered life.

How can I go on pretending that there’s nothing wrong?
Life has brought me to my knees
This mask I hide behind is killing me,
There’s nothing left
Is there anyone who feels like me?
When the smoke is gone I have to face what I’ve become…

lyrics by Seventh Day Slumber
altered slightly to fit what I want to say