1 Peter 1

This month I will try to put spending time with God as a priority.  I am not going to set myself up for failure by setting my goal to high and saying I will spend a certain amount of hours each day reading my Bible and praying, but I have felt that my relationship with Christ is so important and spending time with Him is the foundation for everything else. I want to spend time with Him. So as I was reading through the Bible yesterday I finished up James and started reading in Peter.

Here is what I found interesting in the first chapter of Peter:

 v. 3-5 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

Wow! I don't think that I can fully grasp this concept and I am going to spend the next few days thinking, praying, and re-reading it. But the words IMPERISHABLE-UNDEFILED-UNFADING seem so powerful. What do they mean?

Imperishable- enduring forever

Undefiled- pure

Unfading- not able to be worn down

Is there anything in which I can compare something like this too? What in this life is any or all of these words? I know things that are good and have similar qualities but nothing that will always last and always be pure.  Christ's love has proven to be these things over and over again.

I also really got caught on v. 22 "Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart."

So, being obedient to the truth purifies our hearts and allows us to love each other deeply. That is so beautiful to me. I want to be able to do that. I think there are times I do that, but I want to do it more and encompass more people. I find it easy to love some people but really hard to love others and I want this deep love to be for those that I find difficult to love. After all I know that it I can't be the easiest person to love, at least not always.

Perhaps more on this later...

How the typical day off is spent

I always have big plans for my days off...catch up on laundry, do the dishes, read, relax, etc. but then I also want to spend time with friends.  So today was as follows: some dishes and cleaning (but not enough to actually notice that I did these things)-lunch with a friend (amy and I had a good time we talked about life, music, work, and God...then we went on a drive to pick up some peanut butter pie for me to take to dinner at my brother's house)-working out at Malone-dinner with brother, sister-in-law, and cousin-book study with the girls.  I also tried to get in touch with mom and wish her a Happy Birthday.  Needless to say I didn't get much relaxing done, but I feel like I got a lot done and I don't think I would have spent the day any differently.  I guess I should wait to come to that conclusion until after working tomorrow in dirty clothes. :) 

The Feeling of the Day

So today seems to be pretty typical.  It's Wednesday and half the week is over and for some reason I am looking back and wondering what I have accomplished for the greater good.  This sends my mind into the abyss of the unknown. What will my future hold?  Will I be able to break out of the cycle of the ever unsatisfying 'American Dream' or will it devour me day-by-day and hour-by-hour until I am just another victim of its grip.  I have been thinking a lot lately and thinking leads to more thinking which sometimes doesn't get me anywhere because I don't take action and don't know how to make it applicable or tangible.

Some of the things I have thought today:

Why am I working for Starbucks?  

What are things I can do to help those around me?

Will I ever find my purpose?

Will I some day wake up and feel like I am helping to bring about positive change in my community and the lives of those around me?

What were the key components in Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech, and what do I do with that?

These questions may seem simple or the answers may seem simplistic but i wrestle with the answers and in fact-only find more questions instead of a few answers.  I will continue to search, perhaps God will shed some light in His time...may I be granted patience and grace...