Cardboard Box

My mind likes to fire in a million different directions. Every single second, new thoughts come in and old ones are being pushed out. I have been thinking a lot recently about my thoughts and just the power that they have over my everyday actions. In 2nd Corinthians, Christ calls us to "take captive EVERY thought and to make it obedient to Christ." Every thought. What a calling. Sometimes, I feel like I don't even control my thoughts because I have no idea why a certain idea popped into my mind, but it's just there. And I am sure that this is the same way with everyone else. How many times have you blurted out something or stated something and your friends around you give you that head cocked mouth slightly open look that means: "What in the world are you talking about?" Then you have to verbally play the game of connecting the mental dots just to try to get everyone on the same page. That is what I am talking about. Why do our minds do that? Why are we so easily influenced by advertisement or our peers? Why do we ever think that we can tame our thoughts on our own?

I wrote a little blurb, anecdote (awesome word), sketch, narration, call it what you will. This short story does in some ways relate to myself; however, I think that it is a neat concept, and it is something that we should all realize. So, wrap our mind around this. It's called:

Cardboard Box.

"My eyes open because my ears hear the abhorrent ringing of the alarm clock. Before I even open my eyes, I think to myself how much I don't want to get out of bed, how cozy and warm my blanket it, did I have any dreams, is it really already time to get up, should I shower today, what clothes can I wear, what's my first class, is my roommate going to be awakened by my alarm, why am I awake, could I fall back asleep, I'm hungry, and is it going to be a good day. And so my mind is off and running. I drag myself to the shower, turn on the hot water, and 10 minutes later I'm getting dressed in a button down shirt and tie. How you feel can be directly correlated to how you dress. Or so I've been told. I grab a pop tart because with a little bit of breakfast, I can feel so much more alert, smarter, and more ready to tackle any and all challenges. Or so I've been told. I grab my backpack and my keys and I step out of my room into the world. I go throughout my day, sit through a couple of meetings, maybe sit through a class or two. I get lunch with some of my friends, send a couple of text messages. I listen to some music along the way. I say the right things to the people that I need to say the right things to, and I listen to things that other people say to me. I discuss certain things with some groups of people, but not with others. I constantly plan ahead and I notice when people are dressed in tacky ways. The occasional girl catches my eye and I do a quick double take, but not too long because I don't want her to notice. Of course, I think about the girl that I really like, and I think about all of the possible guys who could like her as well. I think about my past grades in certain classes, and what my future grades could be. I notice the weather, shiver if its cold, and sweat if its hot. I overhear conversations, sometimes on purpose but most of the time just on accident. I think about what other people are thinking. I think about what other people are thinking of me, and how I could make sure that their thoughts are positive ones, because I do a lot of negative criticizing of others in my head. The list goes on. At the end of the day, I crawl into my bed, and before I fall asleep, I tend to think back over the day. What was good? Bad? Was it a good day? Was I happy? I tend to think about the next day and what I will have to do. I tend to think about the past and some of the dark things that no one really knows about. I finally fall asleep, and my mind turns "off" for a short select amount of hours. Then I hear the alarm again and it starts all over. Will today be any different, or will my mind once again be stuck inside this cardboard box?"

I am sure that you have all heard of the phrase, "Think outside the box." Yea, it's motivational. It's a fun concept. Think differently! But have you ever realized that this quote just reaffirms the fact that there is a "box?" Our thoughts are so influenced by society and we don't even realize it. How are we supposed to "take every thought captive," when we allow society to hold such a prominent position in our thoughts. What stereotypes do you practice? What language do you use? Guys what are your first thoughts when you see an attractive woman, or girls what are your first thoughts towards a handsome guy? What kind of music do you listen to? What jokes do you think are funny? There are so many things that influence our daily thoughts, but isn't it funny how we so rarely allow God to be one of those things? We put our thoughts inside this "box" of society, and close the top, shutting off all opportunity to see the true light of Christ. The scariest part of the whole thing is that we get used to having our thoughts in in this darkness of society, away from God. After a while, we get so caught up in the everyday lifestyle, the everyday pattern of thinking that we forget why we even needed God in the first place. We stray so far away from Him, and our thoughts can become so wicked, but thats where the amazing part comes in. God's grace reaches even deeper than the most wicked spots of your mind. God's love overcomes the darkest of your thoughts, and His mercy can break the chains that society has placed on your way of thinking. And then there is Jesus Christ. He takes the nail that pierced his left hand and drives it through the wall of the the mental box society has placed your thoughts in, flooding you with a overflowing sense of clarity and truth in Him. He takes the nail that pierced his right hand and drives it through the walls of immorality, of worry, of pain, and of struggle, and floods you with salvation and strength of the Father. He takes the final nail that pierced His feet, and drives it through your pre-conceptions, your misconceptions, and your fears, flooding you with wisdom, guidance, and an enormous viable peace. With Christ, we are no longer of this world, which means we do not have to be confined to the thoughts of this world. Christ calls us to be above that, to not get weighed down by the over pressing flow of our thoughts, but rather to rest solely on Him, and to take captive each and every thought for the glory of the Kingdom and the Father.

I pray that you can go throughout your day with your thoughts focused on Him above and not on the things of this world.

They'll know we are Christians by our love,
Signing off,

JD

Why Sleep When You Could Write

GOOD morning. It has been a while since my last blog post, and I can't promise when the next will come. I've been feeling like I needed to write this for about a week now, and finally, I got swept in the undertow and so here I am, adrift at sea, lost in a world of a blank white page with nothing but words ready to spill over from this inkwell so often called the heart. After reading this post, you may have the impression that what you just read was quite possibly the most unorganized mess of ideas and thoughts ever. But my friends that is what is known as spiritual vomit. And more or less, does not the description of the most unorganized mess of ideas and thoughts describe us perfectly? It is kind of neat how out of such chaos, we find order in God; that out of such imperfection rises a savior.

After conducting a thorough and detailed analysis of the past four weeks of my life, I have realized a couple of things. For starters, I go to bed way too late, and get up way too early. People always say that the first step to fixing a problem is admitting that there is one. When I slept through the time that my family was supposed to arrive for Family Day last Saturday, I realized I couldn't hide from it anymore. So naturally, I went about trying to fix this problem. It just so happened that it took me until 7 a.m. on Saturday night to think of a solution, and by that time, I was tired and so I just decided to "sleep" on it. It's like I am in a constant game of hide and go seek with sleep. I am always looking for it, but I can never find it.

Anyways, I wanted this blog post to talk about some of the ways that God has been at work in my life over the past four weeks, but as I began to look back, I realized that I could probably write a short book on how He has been working in these past four days alone. Here is one of the things that God has revealed or spoken to me to share with you. Don't worry, more will come!

• God has been teaching me a lot about what it means to have joy and why we should have joy. I had a quick discussion with a friend today in which he spoke some truth into my life about joy. He said, "there is a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is tied to the circumstance, and it can be influenced by external conditions." However, joy is something that comes from within. It is the assurance that God is enough for whatever life may throw at us. Joy comes in the power of salvation, in the realization that we are alive because of a grace so undeserved. Joy is something that we should never lose. Even when the situations are bleak, even when we are going through something of a challenge, we should aim to be so rooted at the foot of the Cross that our Joy does not falter. I really liked this quote by somebody of whom I do not remember the name.
  
  "It is not our struggles that make us who we are, but it is the joy we show during these times of difficulties that determines how bright our light shines for Christ."
  
  How powerful. When I heard things such as this, I aimed to be joyous in all that I did, but that is HARD. Like really really hard. There were times where the very last thing on my mind was being joyous, and there were times where I needed to in layman's terms: "recharge" my joy. But how do we "recharge" our joy? Here's the awesome part. We "recharge" it through prayer. When we connect with God, His fills us back up with His love, with His mercy, and finally, with His joy.

Thanks for reading and catching up. I'll leave you all with one final quote/thought from the devotional "My Utmost for His Highest."

"The secret of a Christian's life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God."

They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,

Signing off,

JD