This Is My Hero.

..earthly hero, that is. ;)

my flag is turning white.

So awhile ago I read a book called "Passion and Purity" by Elizabeth Elliot. (Fantastic read, definitely check it out.) And it really touched me. Just today I stumbled upon a segment that I shared with some of my close friends and again I was really moved. Here's the portion I shared with them:

The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying. The seed must be a splitting and a breaking in order for a bud to form. The bud "lets go" when the flower forms. The calyx lets go of the flower. The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form. The fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed. The seed falls into the ground...

There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold rightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the times come to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.

It is easy to make a mistake here. "If God gave it to me," we say, "its mine. I can do what I want with it." No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of -- if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.

Think of the self that God has given as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God's intention when He made the acorn was the oak tree. His intention of us is "...the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don't feel that the "loss of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God's purpose in your life the less terrible will the losses seem.

...

We (are) being asked to trust, to leave the planning to God. God's ultimate plan (is) as far beyond our imaginings as the oak tree is from the acorn's imaginings. The acorn does what it was made to do, without pestering its Maker with questions about when and how and why. We who have been given an intelligence and a will and a whole range of wants that can be set against the diving Pattern for Good are asked to believe Him. We are given the chance to trust Him when He says to us, "...if any man will let himself be lost for my sake, he will find his true self."

When will we find it? we ask. The answer is, Trust Me.

How will we find it? The answer again is, Trust Me.

Why must I let myself be lost? we persist. The answer is, Look at the acorn and trust Me.

I love how this relates to me right now; again. Even though I learned a lesson once doesn't mean it's stuck. It's so important that I learn to let go. Surrender. It's kind of a funny thing for me. I try so hard to not try. But God's grace is always there. And I know, deep inside of me, that when I let it go to Him it's always better. It's always worth it. It's sometimes scary. And it usually involves even more risk and surrender down the line. But my Jesus is faithful and loving. And He always gets me through.

So even though something feels great now, and I'm wanting it more and more. I'm going to try my hardest to let it go. Because I know that Jesus is stronger; bigger; more. than what I'm holding onto. And when I trust Him, He works all things together for good. And not just my good! His good. And His good is ten times better than anything I could ever imagine.

My Passion.

This is a paper I wrote for English class, and I'm actually surprised at how good it is. So I thought I'd share it with ya'll.

I think you all can, and will agree with me when I say that music is a part of everyone’s life. In fact, I think it would be quite a challenge to find someone who actually does not enjoy music. There are so many different genres of music that relate to all different kinds of people; it’s almost impossible for someone to not like any of it.

Now granted, there are those “music freaks” out there who claim to love everything from rap to rock to alternative. (I would be one of them) But then, there are also people who love country, and that’s just weird. But what I’m trying to get across is that these genres ensure that everybody at least has a certain band or song that they enjoy.

With that being said, I’m reminded of the Christian genre of music. Religious music has always been a part of everyone’s culture in some way. But when the Contemporary Christian music movement began, a lot of it was, well... cheesy. Now that I’ve said that I’m happy to say that Christian music has indeed come a long way. It’s no longer the cheesy, rhyming song, that’s made up of about three guitar chords; singing of a life of sunflowers and happiness that never faces pain. There are now Christian artists in every genre you can think of, and there is a lot of talent behind their ministries. Christian band are also starting to get a lot more recognition for their talent and growing popularity.

All of this is actually a great thing! Music influences a lot of people. And there are tons of people who would never purposely step foot into a church, but they’d definitely listen to a new band or song. So with so many good Christian bands sharing hope through their music; there are now many, many more witnessing opportunities for these types of people.

Not only are these opportunities available in a larger scale now, but many times they bring results. There are countless stories of people who have been ministered to unsuspectingly through music. And the cool thing about Christian artists is that they don’t just sing music that touches people, but they also have their own personal testimonies of God in their life. A lot of times when people like music they want to know more about the artist behind it; and that opens a great opportunity to share Christ. There’s nothing better when sharing Jesus with someone than a person who walks the walk and lives their faith out loud, all the time.

Concerts are another awesome opportunity to share Jesus. When you go to a concert you’re probably excited to be there to see at least one of the bands playing; otherwise you wouldn’t be at the concert. And I know from experience how thrilling a good concert can be. So this gives Christian musicians an opportunity to tell fans why they’re writing the songs they’re writing, what the songs mean, or how God’s worked in their lives. It’s just a different kind of atmosphere and people are more likely to listen and connect with what’s being said.

I honestly believe that God uses music in powerful ways in people’s lives. And it thrills me to no end whenever I hear a story of a life being changed through music that at some point pointed them to God when maybe nothing else could have. It just blows me away!

So I’m going to wrap this up, but I want to make sure you know I don’t think it’s an easy task to share Jesus through music. In fact, I’m convinced it’s quite the challenge. You have to work extra hard to make sure your heart is right, and you’re motives are pure. But when you do keep your heart right, and in tune with God; big, crazy things happen. And when people have a passion for Jesus and a passion for music, and they in turn give themselves to God for His use, great things do happen. And lives are changed forever.