Serving, deserving, and Crash

Alright this is going to be more of a "rambling" than a blog...just so everybody knows....I was up late last night...am tired...and am rambling...and probably look alot like this...and yes this is my facebook picture as well.

The first thing is love and "acts of kindness"...I'm not gonna quote the Bible(although I probably should), I'm not gonna preach, I'm just going to express my thoughts based on my beliefs. What "good things" do we do for other people? Alright, we hold the door open for people sure...we give a couple bucks to a homeless person...we help out at a shelter...we are active with a youth group...we go on a mission trip...we say hello to anybody we know...we strike up a conversation with ANY clerk we give money to, or any other person in a line, on an airplane, whatever. Alright, these are the things I do...and I consider myself a "nice" person - heck, most of us, with the exception of my brother, consider ourselves to be "nice" people. Well, I used to. Here's the problem...I look at Jesus as an example, and the things He did...and I compare it to the things I do. What is going through our minds when we do nice things for people? Well, I can't speak for everybody...but what I think is probably what most if not all people think.

"I just did something nice for somebody."

Not every time, but some if not most of the time. Am I right? After we do things, we realize we are doing something "out of our routine" for somebody else. Which is fine - there is nothing wrong with that...we are still using what we have to help other people - Jesus would be accepting of that. But here's the problem - how does it make us feel? It makes us feel great. It makes me feel great. I LOVE doing things for other people - which is fine...but ask yourself the question....and before you answer, just think about it for a few seconds...

When I do things for other people, Why do I do them?

Because God wants us to, because we are called as humans to, or because it makes us feel better about ourselves? For me, it's all three. Absolutely it's all three. I don't do things because I want to feel better about myself all the time - but the fact that it makes me feel good makes me want to do it again, right? When we fall in love, it feels great right? THAT'S why we like to do it! When I eat one or two Gushers out of a pack, I keep dipping into the bag for more...because i like them! In fact, I once ate an entire box WHILE in walmart and had to buy an empty box!

So here is what I'm striving for. I don't want to be somebody who does good deeds for people because of any of these...I don't want to do things as an obedience...I want to do things as a habit. I want to help a less fortunate person get a meal because it's in my nature. I want to reach into my pocket and give five dollars to somebody without a thought crossing my mind. I want to go to another country and do missionary work because I HAVE to, not because I want to or think it's "the right thing to do." Is this achievable? Maybe not, - but i KNOW it's not possible on my own. Jesus did this. And He is the only thing that can help me do the same.

It all comes back to love. We have to figure out how to LOVE every human being...can we do this? Not on our own. I want to...and I am going to spend the rest of my life, no matter where I go or what I do, learning to do just that. I'm gonna screw up a hundred thousand times on the way, but I'm not gonna stop trying and stop learning. I love this sign - it says "Love in Disguise" Chocolates. I don't want to be an example of Love in disguise...I want to be Love...AND...now I need to go find some chocolate because I'm hungry.

So I'm going to try to love as many people as I can. Remember...

The people we serve don't always have to be deserving.



Alright, Subject #2 - more of a cultural and less heavy thing - and MORE of a rambling! haha...

Last night(and this morning...i was tired!) I watched Crash, the winner of the "best picture" award at the Oscars. If you didn't know this about me...I always try to watch movies that are nominated for best picture...and...don't tell anybody, but a lot of them aren't good! Crash however was a good movie. It was about racism...and other than the fact that Ludacris was in it, it was a very real movie. I don't really know how bad racism is in this country...I don't think it's as bad as the movie portrayed it to be, but, I don't know, because I haven't lived in LA...I haven't experienced it to the extent that some other people have...and I don't think any of us can say we know how bad racism is in the U.S. unless we've actually seen it. It drives me crazy when people I KNOW haven't seen it walk around and say "Racism is worse than you think" or "Racism isn't as bad as people make it out to be." Why, because you saw Neil Cavuto on Fox News talking about it? We don't know...flat out. Because racism is a disease of the mind. It's something that goes on within our corrupted minds, and we can't 100% know what is going through another person's mind.

In the movie, there are Mexicans, African Americans, Persians, Puertoricans, Caucasians, and others. Here's my problem - they're all the same race! they may not be the same ethnicity, or religion...but we're all human beings. The part of the movie that caught my attention was when the Persian family said, after being referred to as Arabs "Since when did Persian become Arab?" Think about that for a second - the family themselves was trying to say "we're different than the Arabs." this is a problem that won't get fixed - and that's what the movie was trying to say...the movie ends the same way it began, except with 2 different people in the same situation, symbolizing an endless loop. It sucks. Flat out, it sucks. We can Pray, we can shape our own minds, but when it comes down to it, we can't make another person behave a certain way. We can encourage, we can spread the Good News, but when it comes down to it, this is a God thing. Human beings are faltered, and..

We will always see differences with our eyes instead of seeing similarities with our Hearts.

I'm the same way at times...When I see somebody of a different race, the first thing I think is...that person is...Asian, Mexican, Italian, etc. And I know this isn't necessarily racism...but here's the point. A 5 year old kid doesn't see the difference...our society shows us the difference, and we acknowledge it.

What I plan to do about this is what I wrote about above - focus on love, and Looking to J.C. as an example. Do what he did, shape my heart, and shap my mind to love in a way that is natural and complacent - God, hear my prayer...this is what I long to do.

On a lighter note...It's freaking finally warming up! Spring is here!(even though it snowed here this morning...just a one day lapse..it's getting warm!)