So. Grab my hand, and let's go.

I cannot imagine my life ever becoming a routine.

The work I have done, that I will continue to do, with Invisible Children has helped me come alive, it has taught me how to live, how to love, and how to glorify our living God in it all.

I have driven into so many sunsets and sunrises----the Lord sustains us, and the beauty that stretches through the sky is His alone.

We are all so ignorant of our surrounds, but we can at least drop our fear and run towards the compassion that is forever liberating. And you know what, we can try, we can apply ourselves. We can grab a hold of the glory, the love, the strength, and the might of our Lord. And we can jump, we can run, we can dance, we can inspire, we can grow, we can learn, we can love, we can laugh.

We can exhaust ourselves in His majesty.

How beautiful.

So. Grab my hand, and let's go. Let's exhaust ourselves in our heavenly Father's majesty. Until our breath is taken away by the One who supplied it.

We don't reap the harvest for ourselves.

God's eyes and our sunglasses

Do you know the times when you’re listening to those songs and they just seem to be causing you to float along in the car, as if you were a part of the story the song was portraying? And in all reality you truly are a part of it, because you make it your own story.

I always connect things to something. I guess I’m more sentimental than the next person that comes along.

I keep writing things in my head and never put them down, and when I finally do feel like articulating them, it’s far too late. However, I scribbled this next connection down so I would find the time to write it out.

It’s nearly fascinating how much more beautiful the world can look through a different lens. Particularly the pair of lenses that are held together as your sunglasses.

And so I’ve been throwing this realization everyone has when they put on a pair of sunglasses around in my mind; that their surroundings just look more alive. And what if this is the way God sees the world? He sees the truly beautiful creation that He intentionally orchestrated, and we get a chance to peer into that once we pick up the sunglasses.

But, the lens doesn’t always have to be a pair of sunglasses. When we embrace this reality that our own vision, our own understanding cannot do us any justice, we begin to view the world in our Father’s eyes. And it is indeed, a much more beautiful world.

However, we don’t always wear the sunglasses and we don’t always embrace His creation. Sometimes we just blindly stumble through, but in all truth, we cannot see the creation fully unless we embrace it. And that in itself involves more than our own sight and knowledge. It takes us picking up the lens, quite literally and figuratively. And peering into a world that is overflowing with His vast strength, promise, love, and beauty.

What a gift He has given us.

What if certain things were created so that we could get a glimpse of this? That we could experience more fully the way God loves us and His creation.

Till Kingdom Come.

I didn't bring my camera with me to this adventure of mine here in California, but maybe that's a good thing.

For the first time I am not capturing every waking beauty of God's creation on a camera, I think it's time for me to take the beauty as it is in it's natural state.

I cannot even articulate the incredible might and glory I have witnessed through every single sunrise and sunset here. Sunsets are so rich in indescribable glory, and my heart cannot contain the immense amount of love God has for each of us.

Sometimes, I love to think that God let's us pick what the sunset or sunrise will look like. Like every person who is welcomed into the kingdom gets to swarm together colors on a pallet and create, in the most literal sense, the only pallet of colors that ever meshed together in such a way.

It has been such a weird concept to try and grasp the fact that people have died, and people have already experienced what it is like to be face to face with the Almighty, with our Father, with our Abba. And it makes me tremble to think that some of my friends have experienced this. And it is because I cannot comprehend the Lord's glory. I cannot and will never know how much my Father loves me while I am on this earth because my mind can only process what is transitory and what is conditional.

I can only contain a glimpse of God's love, and that is more than effective. There is so much beauty and indescribable might in God's love, that it breaks my heart when people never look up to grab a hold of His constant presence. Or to acknowledge when the wind weaves through your hair, and you take a deep breath in because you know you are alive by His grace.

I think it is a blessing to not have my camera with me. It gives me a time to capture His love in a new window. Perhaps this will be healing for my heart and strengthening for my soul. To take a moment as it is and smile, breathe in, and thank God for it.

It is just so strange to think about the absence of a friend, the conversations you shared, the memories, the laughs, and the journeys you embraced together. And to face the reality that they are in the presence of the One who cared more than anyone, and who has finally taken them home.

And it is the most beautiful thing to know whole-heartedly that your friend lived for Christ because he knew that He was his source of life. And that this life was intended to embrace His living hope and to run with endurance, to not fear, but to thrive in His love. Because you are who you are by Him.

There is so much to be learned by those who surround you, it is down right bizarre.

But, we were made to refresh each other's spirits and I think that is so special.

Through life and through death there is happiness, and I am continually learning that these two are arm in arm.

To live is Christ, and to die, is gain.

We have such an outstanding ability to embrace a hope that surpasses our knowledge and just run with it. Our potential is incredible. And when we take that and run, it is the most beautiful thing I've ever known.

24. “Jesus Christ is my Savior, my world and my aspiration. His grace, mercy and provision has blessed me beyond all imaging through the most amazing group of family and friends, experiences, dreams and love. I want to extend even a small glimpse of that unending agape love to anyone I can in the hope that they will be able to know the freedom I know in Christ, to know that this place is not home, and life everlasting is only to be spent in adoration and complete awe of God and his majesty in heaven. “-Chris

We don't reap the harvest for ourselves-

our love is bound in each other.

And that is the beauty of life.

pallets

There's been a lot of consolation in my life right now, whether I am willing to accept it or not, whether I am able to comprehend it or not.

I just have these unsettling feelings sometimes, and sometimes I wonder how people can be so certain of something so completely beyond any of our understandings.

And sometimes I wonder how to take in the consolation.

I feel like it is is always an easy resort, an immediate comfort, when someone passes away, to say that they're in a better place. And I don't say this to question or doubt God's indescribable might.

But, sometimes, I feel like people are deceived. Because in all truth, where is the line drawn between fact and hope?

When our friend Will passed away, I became infuriated when someone would say "Well, God has already determined his destination." When everyone who was listening knew that the person was sugarcoating his actual thought..."I really think this kid went to hell."

What am I supposed to think now? As I sat at the funeral and I listened to his former youth pastor speak....at times I felt like the youth pastor was forcing himself to believe himself when he said "I know he's in a better place."

Why have I continually been walking around with the unsettling feeling?

I visited Will's grave today, to see the new addition.

It had been cloudy all day. I drove my car over to see it right after I got off of work. I parked. And made my way to him.

As I stood over the addition of his grave, I began to read it and observe the pictures that captured him.

And suddenly, as my eyes continued to race across the display, I noticed faded streaks of color that swept across the deep grey.

I fixed my eyes on the colors, only to realize that a rainbow reflected perfectly over his name.

I looked up in the sky and couldn't find the rainbow, when I looked back down, the reflection was still there.

I glanced up one more time to look thoroughly, and sure enough. A glimpse of the arch of a rainbow was visible.

I looked back down and laughed and all I could think about was God's promise.

He never leaves us.

And while I continued to stare at the streak of color on the deep grey, I thought, that perhaps this was the consolation I had been searching for.

Taking a deep breath, I laid down to close my eyes toward the sky and to fill my lungs with all the things I couldn't comprehend, and to simultaneously feel the joy in the greatness of God.

However, only continuing to take in small doses of the consolation.

Because, sometimes, that's all I can ever do.

And while God is sufficient. My own two feet make me stumble.

Perhaps that was it. Perhaps the faded color over the grey pallet was a further restoration.

And comfort.

the gardener.

Occasionally I am baffled, at the occasional, complaint "well, there goes millions more of OUR money."

Especially when it is pertaining to the betterment of others.

However, I think to myself, what is OUR money and what does it ENTITLE us to?

I applaud the stability of America, we are blessed with a democracy that truly works, where individuals are a key asset to how things are carried out. And this alone already makes us privileged.
And I don't think we're just privileged for the sake of the betterment of ourselves.
Sometimes I think we are so far out of line when it comes down to the entanglement of our society's standards, or rather the own standards we ourselves place on us thoroughly on the fact of who we are lead to believe we are as a nation.

Who even said that the limitations our society(mainly ourselves) placed on us meant that the "boundaries" that were built as a result determined what we could and couldn't do?

That privilege doesn't entitle us to ourselves, we're stable for a reason and it doesn't revolve around the walls of our state or even our nation.

Jesus' love is supposed to surpass ALL of our boundaries.

I know that every generation proclaims something that they feel like collectively they're good at.

And when I have literally witnessed 10s of thousands, 100s of thousands of young people coming together all over to world to show that WE truly care about each other, despite where we are from, I know we are doing something right, I know we are doing something beyond ourselves. We know and we embrace the truth that comes with equality and worthiness. And that is something that our generation is good at. Not just knowing, but carrying out the truth that we are no more valuable then anyone else.
Something that our generation is getting right is that Jesus' love does infact surpass all of our boundaries and beyond.

I am appauld to continually hear people say we need to do more here. What? What do we need to do, how much more can we better ourselves, how much more power can we contain before it's too much?

There is a great deal of respect that I have towards the work that has been put forth towards our country, and towards various systems, but when did that mean we were only entitled to ourselves?

It is our selfish motives that we are breaking. Which to me doesn't mean irresponsibly doing things. It's not about being fiscal with our money.

But when you object to the betterment of others with or without the knowledge that there are things in the states that we fuel with way too much money or the notion that we need to take care of ourselves first. I cannot feel anything towards you but heartache.

And I am not saying all of this to shuffle towards the thought that we need to pump all of our money towards everyone else. That is the last thing I am implying.

I am just saying.
How can the complaint be valid when it is purely tied around selfish motives?

There are a lot of things we got right, but there are a lot of things we got and continue to get wrong. And there are a lot of things that we get right and continue to get right.

There is always room for improvement in the fact that we are they and they are we.

We are the salt.

And we have responsibilities.