At the Crossroads of Life and Death

Sometimes, when we grow up in a certain setting we feel we do not really have to choose where we end up.

But the line between eternal life and eternal death is actually really thin.

Do not let the Devil have a foothold.

Yet "Trust in the Lord", a phrase so easy to say, so hard to keep.

A phrase that means everything when you stand on the line between two of the oldest enemies in "Time".

And if you ever do, which I hope you never have to, I pray you pray God gives you strength. I pray that you remember, Jesus died for you. Its such a basic, simple statement that we all know, and many were brought up on it, its so simple, but think about that statement. Everything, the purest, most beautiful, righteous, glorious, He became, defiled, slain, cursed, for you.

For you, a broken being. For you, forever struggling. For you, always in pain. For you, always seeking for more. For you, a greedy, selfish creature. For you, self-centered, and self-serving. For you, a human. Why are you throwing it all away? Why are you throwing love away? Why are you throwing life away? Why are you throwing hope away?

You are loved. I promise you. There is hope. There is a reason to keep going on. There is a reason why. Even if you may not see it now, trust. And let Him be in control. He knows where you're going, now and always. And I pray, we make it to the end.



He died for you.

Dating

I'm going to put the subject of this post right into the open. Dating in High school.

You can already hear it. I'm going to say you shouldn't. Well... you shouldn't.

Before you close this window, I'm going to interject and say, I understand perfectly why a teenager would want to start dating. Don't misunderstand me. I'm a teenager too, and I go through the same lonely feelings and sometimes I feel like I want to love seriously as well. After all, lots of other teenagers do it, why can't I? Aren't I as mature, if not, more mature than some of my friends?

Well, be honest with yourself. Would you say that you are more mature now than you were... oh about three years ago? It does wonders to wait to be even more mature before you start to date.

Three years ago, you might have felt bitterly towards someone else for contradicting, or not agreeing with you, possibly dissing you and your opinion. However, today, you might ponder deeper if a person did that to you. Is she having problems with something? At home? With other friends? Is she going through a hard time? We become wiser and more sensitive and sensible with time.

Over the next three years, what is the probability that you will gain even more understanding and ability to handle situations? What is the possibility of you gaining even more control over your emotions? You might have great control over your emotions now, compared to you going into desperation and hopelessness at the breaking of a friendship when you were twelve. (Not that you would be unaffected by your friend's departure now, but you would now probably try to patch things up sensibly and confront the problem trying to resolve it, thus strengthening understanding and relationship.) So you would probably gain even more control over your emotions in another few years time.

Don't we learn from our mistakes? From experience? Yes and no. We do, but do we humans really really have to learn everything the hard way? Truly, the younger you are, the more impact it will make in your future. It affects our society, how we think of a relationship, a marriage. You can gain so much more if you had a little patience!

I'm not saying its easy. No one wants to feel like they're the only one who doesn't have a partner. But keeping it at friendship isn't that hard is it? Getting to know each other better, seeing the worst and best sides of each other. Loving each other as friends. You can have just as much fun with friends, and friendships do last longer, and hold stronger.

Wait a little longer. Its worth it.

Identity

If you asked me if I would enthusiastically proclaim that I was a Christian in School, I might have cringed. Its somewhat fearsome, among people you don’t know very well, and whom don’t even have a religion or any particular belief. For most teenagers, this would be the case.

How can we live to glorify and worship God? How do we be non-hypocrites, “praising God” and being “Holy” in Church while being indistinguishable and blending into the crowd at school and when we’re not among other Christians? Its a challenge.

It might seem like an incredible leap of faith which would be crazy to take, but truly, if its what we want, if we really want to choose this path, there is no grey area. To live to worship, you cannot be of the world. If you don’t want to be “different”, if you don’t want to seem what they think is strange, then forget it.

It sounds harsh and extreme. But its a war. And wars are just that.

Know who you are, and choose who you want to be. You are His beloved. You are His chosen one. You are His child. You are His sibling. You are His bride to be.

Understand who you are. Understand who you were chosen to be.