A Legacy

Friday was the funeral for my 22 year old cousin, Zac. God chose to take him suddenly from this earth to his eternal home in heaven. No one had a chance to say good-bye, he was given no chance to make anything right, God just took him. Yet for one so young, Zac left behind a legacy that screamed of glorifying and loving God. He walked with God and he lived his life with a seriousness that is astounding. God was the center of his life. He lived and died for His glory. Everything everyone said about Zac showed his deep love for God and the people around him. The lives he touched, the people he influenced, the difference he made, all of it is amazing.

For the past week as we dealt with the shock, grief, funeral, all of it, my thoughts keeps running to the fact that Zac was only just over a year older than me. I can't tell you how much I have wept, not at the thought of his death, but at the thought of how imminent my death could be. It's so easy to think, "Eh, I'm only 21, nothing is going to happen, I have my entire life in front of me." But that is so not true. Only God knows the length of my days. It's easy to take life for granted...to assume that I'm going to live until I'm 90, it's easy to blow each day focused on the things of this world and not taking much time to focus on God and the real meaning of life -- glorifying Him. I am ashamed at how much time I spend doing what I want rather than doing what God wants me to do.

I can't get over how fast a life can be snuffed out. It a matter of mere seconds someone can go from alive and perfectly well right into eternity. (I know this is nothing new, just a new reality for me.) Life really is just a vapor, here and then gone. Sometimes that vapor lasts slightly longer than others, but still, it goes by quickly and just as quickly it disappears. What is more important, doing what I want or doing something that matters for God? Which matters more, fame and fortune or the lives of others? God calls each Christian to make an influence on the lost around us, to bring them to Him.

If I were to die tomorrow what would people say at my funeral? What would be my legacy? Would they talk about how much I loved God and wanted to serve Him? Or would they talk about what I had wanted to do? Would they say my life glorified God or would they say it glorified me?

Healing Rain

Healing rain is coming down 

It's coming nearer to this old town 

Rich and poor, weak and strong 

It's bringing mercy, it won't be long

Healing rain is coming down 

It's coming closer to the lost and found 

Tears of joy, and tears of shame 

Are washed forever in Jesus' name

Healing rain, it comes with fire 

So let it fall and take us higher 

Healing rain, I'm not afraid 

To be washed in Heaven's rain

Lift your heads, let us return 

To the mercy seat where time began 

And in your eyes, I see the pain 

Come soak this dry heart with healing rain

And only You, the Son of man 

Can take a leper and let him stand 

So lift your hands, they can be held 

By someone greater, the great I Am

Healing rain, it comes with fire 

So let it fall and take us higher 

Healing rain, I'm not afraid 

To be washed in Heaven's rain

To be washed in Heaven's rain...

Healing rain is falling down 

Healing rain is falling down 

I'm not afraid 

I'm not afraid...

More Unanswered Questions and Waiting

Right now my heart is in turmoil. I have so many unanswered questions, so many choices, so many decisions, so many options, so many emotions. Sometimes I think I know what I want but most of the time I have no idea. The hardest place right now is knowing what I want but not being able to go after it. The pain from that is staggering. At the moment I have no choice in this matter, I have to wait for God to move, and I've been waiting for years, and sometimes I wonder how much longer I must wait. Yet, even though it's hard, I must trust and wait on the Lord. Driving home from Ohio last night I listened to this song over and over for almost two hours. I must keep moving, even though I am waiting.

He Knows the Way I Take

"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold."

~~*Job 23:10*~~

When I read this I was overwhelmed by God. He not only knows the next step that I am going to take, He knows my whole path. He knows each hill and each valley; each twist and each turn. Each pothole and each bump. He knows each potential hazard that can trip me up and each flower along the wayside to brighten my journey. He knows it all because His loving hand created it uniquely for me.

Sit back for a second and reminisce on how crazy your life has been in the past year, five years, decade, or even your whole life. Think about all the times you didn't think you could carry on one more minute. The times that life seemed so bleak and dismal that you thought for sure the clouds would never pass and the sun was no longer in existence. Amazingly, you did make it through, the sun did shine again, and your path once again became flat and much easier. So often I find myself in the depths of despair, wondering if my path will ever again gain the same altitude that it once had. I feel lost in despair and cry out, "GOD WHERE ARE YOU?!" How foolish of me. God is there. He created this specific detour in my path so that I would learn to trust His guidance once again. He did it so that I would, "come forth as gold."

God loves each one of us, and He will never give us more than we can handle. Yes, He pushes us, and yes, He stretches us, but He never destroys us. If we break because of pressure it is our own doing, not His. When our loving Father created the trials of our lives, He created them so we could learn to trust His leading, trust His path, trust His trials, and yes, trust His blessings. He longs for each of us to take Him at His Word and realize that He knows our path better than we do because He created it for us.