A Pilgrims Way

I came across a good post today that I can completely relate to.  Here it is check it out…I’ve copied and pasted my favorite parts from the post here.

It has a great quote from LIFESTORIES by Mark Hall lead singer from (Casting Crowns) whom I really love…

“When I’m not living for Jesus daily and show up at church after squeezing out life on my own terms all week, I’m needy when I walk through the doors.

• I need the greeter to make me feel welcome.
• I need my friends to sit by me.
• I need my soloist  to sing my favourite song.
• I need the pastor to be engaging.
• I need the small group leader to love on me and do cartwheels when I enter.
• I need the small group leader to call me when I’m sick.

I am so needy because I’m not complete when I get there, and when I’m not being completed by my walk with Jesus, I unwittingly demand completeness from people.  I raise the bar of expectations, and people don’t meet my needs because it is impossible for people to do so.”

Mark then goes on to contrast that to walking daily with Jesus.

“When I faithfully pursue God, spending time with Him in Bible study and a spirit of unceasing prayer, then I’m completed by Him.  He indeed is all I need.

When I walk into church, I see people like He sees them.  In other words, I recognize and acknowledge that I’m an instrument.  I walk in and want to sit by others as a ministry.  I want to help greet visitors.  I want to make sure somebody called those who were sick.  Why?  Because a life of praise comes from understanding that this life is not about us.  It’s about something bigger than us.  It’s about loving God and loving others, the two greatest commandments.”

I completely relate to that.  There are times when I walk into church and need others to be on their game…I need their encouragement, I need their smiles, their handshakes, their laughs, their hugs and pats on the back.  I need their worship to be true and uplifting, their speaking/preaching to be thoughtful, encouraging, challenging and God breathed.  Now I realize that’s not really fair…but that’s reality.

There are other times when I feel on my game…  And I do feel that need to jump in and help others and get involved.

That’s one of the great things about being a part of the body.  When one part is weak another is strong…  We can’t always be on our game and when we’re not it’s nice to be able to count on people to help lift you up, strengthen you and bring you out of funk or something.

Next time you walk in the church doors or really any door this might be a good thing to think about.  What do I need to do?  What is today about?  Am I full or empty?  Complete or incomplete?  Should I focus on receiving from others, receiving from God?  Should I focus on giving to others, giving to God?

So I’ve had my iphone now for about a month.  I’m still loving it of course.  But in that time I’ve struggled with the idea of having a case or not.  Wisdom says that if you spend $500 on a device you ought to find a way to protect it, but I never found a case that worked for me.  And let’s be honest we’ve all dropped our ordinary phones before.  I just got tired of being nervous every time I pulled my iphone in and out my pocket so last week I set out on a desperate search to find the perfect iphone case for me.

So the things I was looking for 1.) full protection - I wanted something to cover the screen, that’s really the only thing I’m worried about.  Don’t get me wrong…I don’t want my casing all dinged up, but if it gets a ding it’s not unusable.  If the glass screen breaks, cracks, chips…you’re screwed.  And your beautiful little device just isn’t the same.  The problem is that most cases don’t cover the screen because doing so would disable the touch control use.  The only option I saw available at this point was the static stick on film, but I’m sorry those just don’t work for me, they get all bubbly and take away the whole feeling good about using your phone appeal to me.  There were also removable covers, but if I have to take a cover on or off everytime I use…I just won’t and that would defeat the purpose.   2.) Simple Design - I wanted something that was simple, not colorful, not bulky, nothing that pimps out the phone.  Clear was prefered.

At first I couldn’t find anything.  I finally came across a case that sounded interesting.  The Xylo T2.  I came close to buying it, but it was like $35 and I could not find a single review of it anywhere I looked so I had no idea if it would work or not.  I didn’t want to take the risk of throwing away about $40 so I kept on looking.  Still nothing…  In an effort of last resort I turned to Youtube.  If you’re looking for anything chances are it’s on Youtube.  Youtube is the best search engine now if you ask me.  So wouldn’t you know I found a video about a case mate case, called Naked Case.  Looked cool.  I went to the website to find it, it wasn’t listed anywhere.  I did a search somewhere and found it on their site.  It regularly list for $35 but they were selling them for $10 + $3 shipping to a limited amount of people to try so I bought one.  It arrived yesterday, and so far so good.  I love it.  The entire phone is protected…the touch screen still works.  It’s everything I wanted.

Weird….While writing the post I’ve tried to go to case-mate.com and find a link of the case, but I can’t find one.  I can’t even find a search option on their page.  I read here that they only offered them to 150 customers.  Maybe I was just lucky…well that’s a first.

Anyway…so far so good.  I love the case.  I’ll keep you posted as I go if I notice any shortcomings.  But for $13 I’m ecstatic and think I’ve found just the right case for me.

I’ve started watching a new series recently, John Adams on HBO. I love historical time pieces like this so I was excited to get started watching. In history class we tend to gloss over the finer details and just hit the highs and lows of our American heritage, but we really miss out on the grandness and richness of our story. I’m through the first 3 episodes right now and I’ll say it’s been awesome watching our American history unfold through the eyes of John and Abigail Adams, the continental congress, etc… It’s been awesome getting into the heads and hearts of these rebels/revolutionaries as they struggled with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Episode 2 really moved me… It ended with the signing of the Declaration of Independence (Which I don’t recall ever reading from beginning to end - But I made sure I did it today)

Here’s a link to it if you want to check it out yourself.

What an awesome document.

Like most shows today, John Adams reaches back into the past to comment on and contextualize our present. I don’t know if the makes of John Adams have an agenda of their own, but I’ll give them credit they definitely make me think. They make me think about the nature of tyrannical governments (Is there intent to compare Englands King George to Ours??? I don’t know….probably) They make me think about the effects a foreign occupying military force has on both the soldiers and citizens. They make me think about the difference between a rebel/insurrectionist and a revolutionary. They make me think about how easy it is for a government to become stubborn and heavy handed in enforcing their agenda on a country, especially when that agenda is not in the best interest of the people…maybe not even what they want. (Side Note Here: Check out the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence against King George. Do you see any similarity to what’s taking place in our country today?)

looking through the lens of the past we can’t fully appreciate what our forefathers did. Independence, revolution….was a huge decision with dire consequences. I like how the show portrayed the struggles the continental congress had dealing with this issue.

I’m proud to be an American. I think there are a lot of mixed messages today circulating our world and country, a lot of confusion about what America stands for, what America is about, what do we value, what is the American dream. It’s nice to go back to the beginning to get some clarity. I do think we’ve lost our way a little bit, somehow gotten off the track.

One part of Declaration really stood out in my mind today.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Revolution is strong term… I don’t think we need a revolution in this country yet. But I think we definitely need some reformation. We need, once again, men and women in this country to stand up and bring clarity and focus to our present situation. We need men and women brave enough to lead us on a new course, in a new direction towards a better tomorrow.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a republican, democrat, independent, green party, libertarian, etc… We need to get beyond the issues that divide us and focus on the values and ideals we all share…we’ve got to ask ourselves what kind of nation do we want to be and then set out to make it happen. We’ve got to ask ourselves what our forefathers really wanted. Did they mean what they said? Did they believe in the equality of all mankind as endowed by the Creator? Did they believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or where they just cleverly designed words and phrases penned on paper to justify whatever plans and schemes they concocted. I think they meant it and I wonder what they would think of our country today?