Breakaway and the Broken

Breakaway Ministries is an on-campus organization at Texas A&M University that meets every Tuesday night to worship God and study the Bible. Over the years it has grown in popularity and size among the student body.
I am a huge fan of Breakaway, I'm actually wearing a Breakaway shirt right now. I would attend before I was even in college. It is an amazing ministry and I know it has changed the world for Christ in more ways than anyone may ever know.

I see this photo of thousands of students at my school campus studying the Bible and worshiping God and all I can think is "go!" Go out there to those who have no idea what love looks like. Go and let them know there is hope for the hurting soul! Imagine the impact of each of these lives photographed if they each told one person about Christ? Imagine if they took they time to get to know one person that didn't know Him and walked along side Him. It's beautiful to gather together in praise but what is it for if you don't go out in work? Instead of a show, let there be a flood of righteousness and evangelism. How hard can it be?
Texas A&M, you have been blessed. Lets go bless the world. We have enjoyed the comforts of a nurturing Christian bubble and now it's time to shine. We are called to go. Lets change the world.

Live a little.

3) If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

I think a lot of it goes back to the last question. We are afraid of stepping out and failing. We do what is expected of us and not what we really want in fear of rejection. We like a lot of things but say “in another life I would...” when really it’s feasible in your own life.

I like the show Once Upon A Time a lot but one thing that bothers me the most is that everyone has this understanding that there’s nothing they can do to change their own lives and they have to get magic to do it for them and is sucks every time. Thankfully life isn’t actually like that. You can actually be yourself and oddly enough, people like it when you’re yourself. Go give it a shot! Life is short.

With the life I have left, I’m going to do what I enjoy. I am going to know people, love them, I’m going to learn, even when it’s hard and I’m going to travel, see what I can before I can’t move anymore. And after that? That’s when the real living starts.

Safe or Significant

2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?

Hopefully we can all agree on this one, but I may be wrong. D.L. Moody once said:

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.” I couldn't have said it better myself. See it's easy to play it safe and never fail at anything, but then you've never really lived have you? "To live would be an awfully big adventure" are some of the closing lines of one of my favorite films, Hook. To live is to make mistakes, fail, recover, succeed perhaps, but that's not guaranteed.

And who's to say failure is a bad thing? It's really where we grow. That's the nature of this world. If you work out, your muscles are torn down so they develop into strength. So it is by failure that we grow to be better than before. I think of Edison: "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." It is by perseverance that we have significant lives. Think of Frodo and the One Ring compared to the rest of the hobbits of Hobbiton, he is the Hobbit that Elves in great halls would sing of for generations. He lived a dangerous life and because he never gave up he was significant. Significant lives are never safe, but safe lives are never significant. Don't trade what is possible for what is comfortable.

Now some things may simply be failure for some. William Wallace did die, but his bravery liberated Scotland. Realistically speaking, it was because Wallace was not afraid to die that his memory and historical impact will never die. He could have stayed in his village and lived a safe life, but he knew and understood what was possible.

I think of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and their fellow missionaries in Ecuador. Did they fail? Well, they were killed by the people they came to save. Doesn't sound like a winning situation. Nevertheless, because of the risk they took in going, knowing the dangers, thousands of people have heard the truth of Jesus Christ. That is a huge win for something that really matters.

Always be willing to fail, because "to live would be an awfully big adventure".

50 Questions and Age

I've been challenged by one of my very best friends to complete a challenge. I am going to post every day for the next fifty days and answer one question in each. Simple enough. This was inspired by another blog and if you want to see all the question you can go check it out.
So here's question number one!

1. How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

As I started this blog post, Pandora thought it would be appropriate to play Blink 182's "What's My Age Again?" Good on ya Pandora.

Whenever people ask me how old I am I normally ask them to guess. The average age offered is 25. Maybe they're just trying to flatter me though....

This question sort of makes me laugh because for the past few years I can count three different groups of friends that have referred to me as an old man. One of these groups is actually in a separate country. When I was a sophomore in high school one girl said I was an old man even then. Don't ask me, ask them. It might be my diction.

I am 20 years old, as far as I know, but I have always been something of an "old soul". I like to think I have enough experience and exposer for an old man in some areas. I also like to stay home in my robe and read a book while drinking tea and smoking a pipe instead of going out dancing.

I think if I could choose how old I was right now without losing the days between I would be 23. Seems a young, able, mature, respectable age. Like you might have your life together a bit more. Nevertheless, we know how all those 13 going on 30 situations worked out so I'm not wishing on my lucky stars.