An Easter Post: Tears of Joy

            I’m the kind of person who cries easily. Seriously, I mean show me a picture of a sad puppy and I tear up. So it’s no surprise how much I cried when I watched the Son of God movie today to celebrate Easter.

As I watched Jesus endure forty agonizing lashes on his back; watched Jesus get pierced through his hands and feet with rusty nails; watched Jesus drip blood and tears; watched Jesus die on the cross; and watched Mary carry Jesus’ lifeless body in her arms just like she carried him when he was a baby; I cried desperately, my nose dripping snot and my eyes turning red.

            It was not a pretty sight.

            My mom walked into the living room and found her daughter in a puddle of snot and tears. I wasn’t embarrassed since, being a pastor, she was sure to understand my sorrow. However, she reminded me about something that took me a little off guard.

            “You know He rose three days later, right?”

            Duh, of course I knew that. I don’t know what my mom expected. I wasn’t going to stop crying just because I knew there was a happy ending. It was still so horrible to see how Jesus was crucified. Still, it did make me feel better as I waited in anticipation for the movie to get to the part where Jesus returns. I wiped my tears away and smiled when my anticipation was rewarded.

            It’s wonderful to know that Jesus rose. I don’t know if any other religion believes in someone dying and coming back to life, but it’s amazing that Christianity has that. It’s even more wonderful, though, to know that Jesus will come back again. How amazing will it be when He does? I can’t even imagine it.

            I do know this, though. I would more than likely cry for that too.

Only that time, I would cry tears of joy.

A Valentine’s Day Post: If I Don’t Have Love

                  At the risk of sounding corny, I’m just going to come on out and say it: Love is everything. It really is just everything. It’s what makes life worth living, what makes the world turn round, what makes the sun shine, etc. I love love!

                  Yeah, someone’s in the valentine’s mood, sorry!

                  All right, so love is great, but what’s my point? Well, the thing is, it bothers me that most people just associate Valentine’s Day with love between couples. Now that’s all well and good, but there are so many other types of love. There’s the love between friends, between parents and their children, between family members, etc. Why aren’t those kinds of love celebrated on Valentine’s Day? Sometimes they are, such as in elementary school where children make valentines for their classmates and parents. Why stop at elementary school, though? I think these different kind of loves should be celebrated more, and here’s why:

                  Because all kinds of love stem from one source: God’s love.

                  God’s love shines through us every time we love someone else; whether it’s the love we have for our parents, our friends, or our boyfriend/girlfriend. God commands us to love, not just on Valentine’s Day, but every day. Without love, there really is no point to anything. Like the Bible says:

“¹If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3)

                  Our actions don’t mean anything unless we do them with love. Love really is everything because God is love and the act of loving is just one of the ways of sharing Him with the world. However, that love shouldn’t be restricted to Valentine’s Day, and definitely not just within couples. Everyone deserves to love and be loved.

                  So, this Valentine’s Day, I want to show God’s love not just to my Valentine, but to my family, my friends, my fellow church members, and anyone I meet.

Psst...Check out this song I love to celebrate the day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A New Year's Post: Realistic Resolutions

            I keep trying to think about what my New Year resolution should be. I don’t want to do the typical “get in shape” or “learn a new hobby” kind of resolution. Those kinds of resolutions only stick at the beginning of the year. It’s easy to work out or practice a new instrument in January. It’s also easy to just give up and put that gym membership card or hand-me-down guitar away in a place where it’s forgotten until the next year rolls around and the cycle starts all over again. 

I want to do something that will stick all year round, something that I know I can look back at by the end of the year and be proud of doing.

A realistic resolution.

            My resolution for this past year of 2014 was to mature. In 2013, I went through a rebellious stage and my relationship with my mom struggled quite a bit. So when the New Year came, I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to mature throughout the year whenever I had the chance.

            This wasn’t the kind of resolution I could just practice for a month and then give up on. It was more arbitrary. Every time there was a hardship, whether it occurred once a month, weekly, every day, or not, I would find myself encountering chances to practice my maturity.

It wasn’t something I could avoid like the other two common resolutions I mentioned. It’s easy to avoid the gym or put away the guitar to ignore the resolutions, but when I found myself in a situation where I had only the two choices of acting mature or immature, it wasn’t so easy to avoid the promise I had made to myself.

            Looking back on this past year, I can honestly say I think I’ve fulfilled my resolution. Like I said, since the resolution was different, it was more achievable. Being in shape and learning a new hobby are clearly definable. For example, loosing fifty pounds, and being able to run a few miles when before I couldn’t, would qualify as “being in shape.” Also, going from never having picked up a guitar to knowing the basic chords and some simple songs qualify as having “learned a new hobby.”

            But how can one define maturity?

It’s difficult to say the least. “Mature” could mean anything from being able to handle any crisis and avoiding all drama to simply respecting my parents more often. It’s relative. Technically, so can “being in shape” and “learning a new hobby,” but not as much. I think that’s why my resolution stuck. No matter what, even if I slipped up and acted immaturely from time to time, so long as the next chance I opted for maturity, I was still making progress.

            For me, striving for maturity was a more realistic resolution, and I’m glad to say I think I’ve met it.

            As for 2015, I want another resolution like the one I made for 2014. I want something just as arbitrary and just as achievable, something where even the slightest bit of improvement will leave me satisfied by the time 2016 rolls around.

            What I think I’m going to go for is this: “to grow in faith.” I’ve had my fair share of doubts this year and ran into a few bumps in the road on my spiritual journey with God. For next year, I want to make sure I face those bumps with better traction. Like with the “maturity” promise, the chances to work on the “faith” resolution will come at random, but in the end I think I will feel just as fulfilled.

            Maybe “growing in faith” is not a very realistic resolution for others, but it is for me. I invite anyone who wants to join me to, well, join me! I also think my last year’s resolution to mature is one worth trying (I know as teens that can be difficult, but hey, I mean, we won’t be teens forever, might as well practice.). If not, any resolution that seems more realistic is better worth making then something we all know isn’t going to stick (Like I said, who wants to keep lying to themselves about getting in shape? If that treadmill didn’t call for me last year, it won’t call for me this year.)

I think if people could make more realistic resolutions for themselves, they’ll be more inclined to keep them and be happier at the end of the year. And if the resolution is something like, say, “growing in faith,” I think that’s something worth praying to God for help fulfilling. I’m sure God wants our New Year to be just as fruitful as we do.

Happy New Year!

A Christmas Post: A Christian Santa Claus

            With the holidays coming up soon, I find myself seeing a lot of “Keep Christ in Christmas” in churches and on social media. As much as I agree with the statement, I’ve also noticed paranoia with the idea of Santa Claus that I think is over the top. Many Christians don’t like the idea of Santa Claus because they feel it distracts too much from the truth of Christmas, which is Jesus’ birth. Some Christians even take it so far as not giving gifts on Christmas.

            As usual, I think all of this hoopla is ridiculous.

            I’m not saying we shouldn’t remember Jesus. Of course not, Jesus is the whole point! And I’m also not saying this because I love getting presents (I actually prefer giving presents more because I find that more fun). But, as always, I believe there should be a balance.

            The perfect example is this movie I saw last week with Whoopi Goldberg called, Call Me Claus (by the way, spoilers). It’s pretty funny since Whoopi becomes Santa by the end, but the original Santa is who drew my attention. This Santa was different. There was something about him that struck me and by the end of the film I realized what.

            This Santa was a Christian Santa.

            I had never realized it before. The reason why so many Christians don’t like Santa is because he seems to symbolize a kind of non-Christian Christmas. But yet, there I was, watching a movie with a Santa who acknowledged Jesus as the entire reason for Christmas.

            There was one particular scene where this all jumped out to me. Santa was struggling to convince Whoopi’s character, Lucy, that he truly was Santa and that she was his successor. He was beginning to lose hope, so his top elf took him to get some Christmas cheer. The elf brought Santa to a church, where Lucy’s niece was singing her solo to the popular Christmas hymn, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” which talks about spreading the word of Jesus’ birth.

With his spirits lifted, Santa turns to his elf and says something along the lines of, “This is what Christmas is all about. I can’t give up now.” (Don’t quote me on that, though. It wasn’t like I was taking notes during the movie to get it word for word.)

There was more, though. One of the reasons why Lucy didn’t believe in Santa was because, as a child, she asked Santa to bring her father back from war, but instead her father died. When Santa finally gets the chance to talk to the adult Lucy about that incident, he reminds her that Santa isn’t God and how when these devastating things happen that we can’t explain, we just need to remember that our loved ones continue to live on in our hearts.

It’s a beautiful message and definitely a Christian one. Heck, Santa even tries to sell a Christmas calendar where one would move baby Jesus each day getting closer to Bethlehem. These were just some of the ways in which I saw this Santa as Christian, but there were other instances in the movie (despite how corny it gets at times with the side effects, it really is a nice film worth watching for the holidays).

The whole point is that I think a balance can exist between the whole Santa craze and keeping Christ in Christmas. This movie is proof of that.

I think doing away with the whole Santa Claus idea is sad. Believing in Santa Claus is one of the many ways kids learn to have faith. The idea of being watched to see whether a child has been good or bad during the past year and then rewarded based on the child’s goodness is a way to teach kids about actions having consequences, which leads to a more mature understanding of sins. And Santa’s generosity is symbolic of God’s, which is infinitely greater.

But also, on the other side, I do understand how only focusing on Santa Claus and presents does tend to keep Christ out of Christmas. We still need to be reminded that Christmas is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, God on Earth born in human form to a young virgin adolescent named Mary. It wasn’t easy for Mary and Joseph, but they did what they could to bring into this world the most amazing gift of all, Jesus. (And I know people dispute whether Jesus’ birth really was in December, but I don’t think that’s important. It’s celebrated in December now and that’s all that matters.)

Like I always say, balance. There can be a balance between the Santa Claus hype and the strict Christ in Christmas attitude. Why can’t Santa be Christian? The Call Me Claus movie proves that he can be. Christmas is a wondrous time of year, but I don’t want to get swept up into the Santa Claus hype and I don’t want to ignore the many traditions associated with Christmas either.

To me, Santa is Christian, and though he might come down my chimney on Christmas Eve and put presents underneath the tree for me, I know he’ll be doing it to celebrate the true gift that doesn’t need to be wrapped or given, Jesus Christ.

(And no, I don’t still believe in Santa Claus, but I think I’ve made my point.)

Have a merry, blessed, Christmas!

A Thanksgiving Post: Be Thankful on Your Own Time

            Right away, I’m just going to apologize that this is such a short post. I’ve been extremely busy, but I wanted to get this off my chest.

            A friend of mine did a presentation in one of my classes on how some businesses, such as K-Mart and Target, are having Black Friday sales that begin on Thanksgiving. As a result, many employees are forced to work during a time when they should be at home celebrating with their families. These stores exploit their power over their employees, threatening to fire anyone who is not willing to sacrifice their Thanksgiving for their job.

            I think that is just horrible. Thanksgiving is a day to spend time with family and be thankful for all that God has given us. How greedy is it to deprive people of that opportunity! No one should be told when he or she can or cannot give thanks.

            I admit, we are all supposed to be thankful year round about the many blessings God bestows on us. However, Thanksgiving is a day dedicated to just that. Of course, the origins of the holiday come from the Pilgrims and the Native Americans (who I’m sure didn’t really sit down and eat together all lovey-dovey, but it’s the principal of the thing) and all that jazz. It is a holiday that commemorates the idea of being thankful in general, so it is not necessarily a Christian holiday. Regardless, Christians direct that thankfulness to God every year on the fourth Thursday of November.

            And yet, here are these businesses that want to take even that away. It’s times like these that sadden me. It opens my eyes to how dark the world can be sometimes. Well, I refuse to support this along with my friend. Black Friday madness is one thing, but expanding it to Thanksgiving is another. So tomorrow, I will be eating and celebrating, putting aside a specific day to thank God for all of the many blessings He has given me.

            God deserves to be thanked at all times, especially tomorrow.