High School

High school kind of sucks, right? While it can be a lot of work sometimes, in no way am I referring to high school in the academic sense. No, I'm talking about socially. High school is essentially one big race. A continuous marathon that can be ran throughout a whole lifetime. It's exhausting, is it not? There's always pressure. In high school, our identity defines us. We strive to be the smartest, fittest, most successful, best looking, funniest, and coolest. We compete over who can get the most girls, or who can be liked by the most people, or who can be the best Christian. We want to be the person that tries the most, or the person that tries the least. We want to be the person that does the craziest things or the person who does the most drugs. We want to be the good kid that stays away from everything. The list goes on and on but I hope you're starting to get the central theme. High school is about being someone you're not. It's about trying. Trying to be something or trying to act like you're not even trying. I think we are all victims of this. Going into high school I always wanted to be the nice guy who had a girlfriend. I constantly thought to myself "once I have a girlfriend, everything in my life will be a lot better." Well, it's four years later now, and I have still yet to have a girlfriend. However, everything in my life is better than I could have ever imagined. And not better in the sense that I am always happy, but better in the sense that I am living passionately and purposefully. You see, after constant heartbreak and disappointment, I finally realized something about myself. I was in a never ending race. Having a girlfriend would not bring fulfillment to my life. I soon realized that nothing on this earth would bring fulfillment to my life.

The fulfillment I found came through someone named Jesus. Now, this name comes with a lot of connotations but how about just forgetting all of them for a second. Jesus was basically a really righteous dude who lived 2,000-ish years ago. He was a rabbi but said a lot of things that aggravated a lot of the religious leaders in His time. This was interesting because Jesus was said to be the prophesied messiah. The really cool thing about Jesus is that He, Son of God, came to the world for the sick and the sinners, not the religious people. Jesus came for people that were broken - the triers. Jesus hung out with a lot of messed up people but called them His brothers and sisters. When He met them He didn't ask them to say a prayer or go to church with Him, He just said, "follow me." Jesus eventually ended up having a lot of adventures with the people that followed Him and changed their lives forever. The reason Jesus had such an impact is that He lived differently then any other person. Jesus was never about trying to be something He was not. Jesus was about trusting in who God knew He was. Trying didn't matter to Jesus and since Jesus was also God this becomes even more intriguing. God doesn't care about trying, but about trusting.

Now it's been more or less than a couple years since I've actually started following Jesus but these years have easily been the best of my life. Starting to follow Jesus has been kind of similar to a blind person that receives sight later on in his life. Before, I was able to operate but I was constantly held back by fear. Fear of not being good enough, loneliness, failure, etc. But now, it's like there's a whole new world out there. Now that I can see, life is actually pretty dang wonderful. My identity no longer defines me. Jesus defines me. And as my old identity disappears, so does the pressure that came along with it.

So, back to the high school thing. Once I realized that I was in this race, I became set free. Although I'll be graduating in a couple weeks, high school can be amazing. It's all about finding purpose and passion while you're there. No one wants to go to college still being stuck in the haze of high school. My prayer to you, fellow high-schoolers, is for you to try to realize this as soon as possible. This world will always let you down and it will never satisfy you. Thank God there's something more.

Much love,
Raven

One

Dear Christians,

With all this debate going on over marriage equality, I think there are some things we must not be ignorant of. First and foremost, we are called to unity not uniformity. Every person is different, therefore every person has different beliefs. In addition, no one is God. And it is impossible to completely understand God, therefore, when we're dealing with God, there is always the possibility that we have absolutely no idea what we're talking about.

On that note, let's say there's someone named Bob. Bob attends church every week and calls himself a Christian. Bill, Bob's co-worker, is not a Christian and isn't really sure what being a christian really means. Bob is the only person Bill knows that is a Christian, therefore his only example of what Christ is like. Now, this is just an illustration but is extremely relevant to today. Let's say Bob himself really hates mailmen. Bob's dog was ran over by a mailman when he was 10 years old, without any consolation from the mailman. Bob has always had this grudge against mailmen. So, Bob acts accordingly and is very rude to all mailmen, even the one that comes into his office. Bill notices this and connects it with his Christian faith. He thinks to himself, "Hm, Christians must hate mailmen." Now, this is an unfair connection since most Christians do not hate mailmen. However, Bob is Bill's only example of a Christian, therefore, his only example of what Christ is like. If you have not caught on yet, we're Bob. Everything we do is a chance to show people who do not know Jesus what He is like. So, we should probably be kind of careful about what we say and do.

While a friendly discussion is never a bad thing, there are definitely limits, especially when Bill is present. We must always be respectful of others beliefs and never see anyone as an enemy. We must avoid talking about Christians as "us" and everyone else as "them." We're all in this together. We should know that as Christians, we are called to love God and people above everything. We must remember that love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. And if we are not loving people with what we are saying and doing, we are not representing Christ. We often think our opinions are completely right, everyone who has a particular opinion usually does. But before we voice that opinion, we must be sure we are doing it for good (so everyone will agree with you isn't good). Keep in mind, most people are not going to change their minds over one comment. Most people have probably heard pretty much all of the counter-arguments to their opinion, so is it really necessary that you voice your opinion?

If we are hurting people with our actions then we must stop what we are doing. Remember this when you're thinking about posting that Facebook comment or tweeting that tweet. We are not going to become unified by getting into arguments 24/7 and hurting the people around us. We are going to be unified by learning to see the beauty in everyone's opinions. Nobody is the same, and that's a wonderful thing. If what you're going to say is going to hurt anyone, don't. They should know we are Christians by our love, not by our opinion on marriage equality. Build people up with your words instead of taring them down. Spread love, spread goodness, spread Jesus (not your opinion). 

Thanks for reading. Much love. 

Thanks

Life is a gift. This simple but powerful statement is something we take for granted every single day. It is far too easy to get used to our present situations and see our lives relative to the image we have of the people around us. The challenge is seeing every day as a blessing. Truly, I know life can get hard. I've had great days and terrible days in my lifetime. Something I can always be thankful for, though, is that the great days completely outnumber the bad ones. But, when they are happening, the bad days seem endless. They seem like nothing could ever change. Well, that's wrong. Face it, we're all drama queens. We often exaggerate the bad and underestimate the good. Life really is a beautiful thing, especially for people as fortunate as me. The thing is, we see things relatively. For instance, say today is the best day of your life and no other day could be nearly as great. Then, obviously, tomorrow can't be the best day ever. However, is that any reason not to see tomorrow as a gift? 

Just the fact that there is a tomorrow is a gift in itself. If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world. If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering. If you can read this message you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all. Now, given this perspective, don't our days actually seem pretty great? Is it not amazing that you can actually read this on the internet? You see, when we start each day expressing thankfulness for everything we have, things start to change. Maybe the fact that you got a bad grade on a test or that the person you like doesn't like you back isn't really that big of a deal.

What we need is to teach ourselves and each other thankfulness. If you start to think about it, life is beautiful. We're alive and we have everything going for us. So, now it's time to live like this is true. Go tell someone you love them. Give a hug. Go outside. Fly a kite. Don't let that that person get to you. Smile. Do the happy dance. Give someone a compliment. Live life like it's a gift. Share the gift with others. You were put here for a reason. You were made with this great love that overpowers anything and everything. What we don't realize is that we're given this great love as a gift everyday and we forget about it. There's this fire inside us, all the time, that we smother with our failures and burdens. But today, let that fire burn. Let this fire burn up everything that's holding us back. Take a chance. Let this love control your life and see what happens. Count your blessings and carry a heavy heart. 

Love you all, thanks again for reading.

All You Need Is

Since God is constantly making me new, why do I continue to hold on to my past? The thing is, no matter how much I try to convince myself that I am living in the present I always become aware of all of the grudges I keep holding in the back of my head. I think about my friends. I'm guilty of seeing my friends in two categories, likes and dislikes. Often, I find myself judging people to the extent of saying, "I really like this person, but if they did this or stopped doing this...I'd probably like them more." Sometimes I need wake up calls. We all need wake up calls. I need to realize I'm not as important as I think I am. God doesn't love me for the person I'm striving to be, he loves me for who I am. When I love people conditionally, or try to shape people into the person I want them to be, I'm taking advantage of God. I'm creating a double standard. I get this beautiful love as a free gift from God and I take it and keep it to myself. Then, I give others this love that really isn't love at all. If love has any type of conditions to it, then it isn't. Now, as humans, it's nearly impossible to constantly give out this true love, but would it hurt to try? Because, that's something this world desperately needs. Failures. People who try their best, only seeing the best possibilities, and get back up every time they fall. People who don't stop believing in their potential.

So, take tomorrow. You could think about your friend as someone who has good things and bad things about them. Or, you could thank God for all of the good things about them and love them anyways. Love them even if they lose some of this good - or all of it for that matter. Love like God does. Love without judgment. Love without categorizing people's goods vs. bads. Then, accept love. People so often get in the rhythm of pouring themselves out to others and rejecting it when they do the same. Love works both ways. Take a second  and think about how blessed you are to have the people in your life right now who love you as much as they do. I know when I think about this, giving love back becomes a whole lot easier, not just to the people that love me, but to everyone else. So, my challenge to you is to judge yourself, for a change. Look for this holy love in your heart, find out where love is missing, and fill the void. Give love. Receive love. Repeat. Thanks for reading. I love you.

Sharptop

So, this weekend, about 400 of my closest friends and I embarked on a journey by the name of Sharptop Cove. Sharptop is a weekend-long YoungLife camp. The headline to Sharptop is that it is "the best weekend of your life" which is an extremely bold statement that is completely ridiculous, but what is even more ridiculous is the fact that it is true. Sharptop is an unforgettable experience that everyone should have - an experience everyone needs to have. 

I'm sure most of you, as well as myself, have experienced a sadness and longing to go back just hours after being home. Instead of sadness I think the question we need to ask is: how do we bring Sharptop back home? To answer this, we must first figure out what exactly made Sharptop so great. It's really not complicated. Sharptop just gives you this feeling. A feeling that says it's okay to be yourself. A feeling that brings out the best in us. A feeling that the place you are in right now feels like home. 

The thing is, when you're on top of a mountain isolated from society, you kind of don't care about anything besides what is currently going on. Everyone is fully engaged in the present moment and can't think about anything but each other. We become a community. We become a family. We learn to lean on each other and we learn how to bring the best out in each other. And when we do this, we open up this void. A void only God can fill. You see, when it's just us and God we don't have to worry about anything else. Sharptop lets us be ourselves, naturally. We don't have to depend on other things to have a good time. Drinking, smoking, and drugs become a thing of the past. We get to make our own fun with each other, not worrying about anything else. Life becomes simpler. Life becomes easier. And love becomes apparent, everywhere.

Now, how do we recreate this? Well, first we embrace the moment. We appreciate the people we are with and focus on them. We pretend our phones don't exist and block out distractions. We become open to talking about what is on our hearts, not what we think is appropriate to talk about. In fact, we learn to only talk about what is on our hearts. We give hugs. We treat each other like family, because we are family. We don't leave anybody out because the feeling at Sharptop is not something that can be contained, it's infectious - it has to spread. We see ourselves and each other as new creations. We focus on the here and now and not the past. We don't judge because we are all family. We learn to be our goofy selves and not worry about judgment. We forget about hatred. We become slaves to love. And finally, we let this great power of love overcome all the brokenness in our lives. We let ourselves be transformed by this love that has brought us all together. We let in Jesus and let out everything else. We make every day the best day of our lives.

We keep calm and Sharptop. 

The Strength In Weakness

It seems like the people we look up to the most seem to always have it all together. They are sophisticated, on top of things, and never make mistakes. I'm here to tell you that these people are not real. This is a mask. People are not like that. The problem with this is that most people think this is true. If I could just be more like this person, I'll be successful. If I was just more attractive, maybe this person would like me. If I was funnier, I could get this person's approval. We must stop this. The people we look up to that seem so great usually aren't. They just get really good at pretending. Greatness comes with embracing brokenness. Embracing imperfections. Showing our faults on the outside and knowing that we are still loved.

When I was younger, I was jealous of so many of the people around me. I saw myself as inferior and wished I could be like them. They were cool and I was...myself. To cope with this I tried to emulate them. I talked like they talked and I acted like they acted so they would like me. The worst part is that this worked. I was cool. I was one of them. As I started getting older and wiser, I realized that being one of them sucks. When you are one of them, you feel the need to always prove yourself. You feel the need to put others down and to glorify yourself. Everything is about you. You get put into this battle. A battle you can not win. There will always be someone better than you. The only way to win is to give up.

The thing is God loves us. When we become them, we are hiding from God. We are hiding from this beautiful fact that no matter what we do, God still loves us. And if God loves us no matter who we are, we don't have to try to be someone else anymore. When we conform to them we give them power. When we be ourselves, we give ourselves power. Power to let the love of God transform our lives. Power to let go and let God. Power that is real. Power that will never leave us.

When we are vulnerable, we get scared. Scared of what people will think about us, scared that we aren't good enough. When we know God loves us we lose this fear. Now, when we are vulnerable we get to open ourselves up to others. We get to let them see our hearts, what we're about. Of course, they are going to see our faults but when we have the most powerful thing of all, the love of the creator of the universe, this really doesn't even matter.

As Christians we hear this message and think this doesn't apply to us. We think we know who God is and don't fall into this category. The truth is we all fall into this category. We often think we're in a competition for who loves God the most. Who's the best Christian. Hierarchy is a drug. We're addicts. When we admit this, we're set free. We get to live our lives, bragging not about our love for God, but God's love for us. The love that changed us from what we were. The love that lets us be ourselves. That love that puts us in harmony with our maker. True love. 

So how do we respond to this? We first show gratitude to the one who made this love. We thank God for loving us even though we don't really deserve it. Then, we learn to be ourselves. We learn to have our own opinions, have our own personalities, and have our own minds. We admit our mistakes, admit our flaws, and admit our brokenness. We learn to accept this love that we've been freely given. We become aware of this gift that is life and realize that it is our life to live, not someone else's. We make ourselves vulnerable to show others that it's okay to not be okay. We learn to show others this great love that God has shown us. We count our blessings and live with a purpose: to spread this great love everywhere we go. Because, in the end, we'll see that it is not about who we are, but how we love.

Thanks again for reading, much love.

Moments

Do you ever have certain moments where you are completely filled with joy? Like, nothing can stop this moment. Not a rude comment, a paper cut, or even stubbing your toe. These moments seem almost holy. They may last a few hours, or maybe just a couple minutes. No matter how long, they are just as beautiful. 

My friend and I were in a sort of a misunderstanding/bad situation the past couple days and then this moment struck me. We were in the car driving home from NY and I just couldn't help but smile, sing, dance, and laugh. My friend seemed to catch on and was forced to crack a smile. These moments are infectious. This is the best thing about them. You can't help but share them. I found myself obnoxiously singing at the top of my lungs and enjoying every minute of it. Although everyone in the car might not of enjoyed my singing, I'm sure they enjoyed my enthusiasm and joy. So, me and my friend had some bad feelings between us and almost suddenly they seemed to vanish. Like that. I haven't talked to my friend and don't know where we stand but I know that things are much better than before that moment. 

This moment of pure joy has to be a God moment. When you can only seem to focus on fun, happiness, and love. These are times when I feel closest to God and to the people around me. You can feel it in the air and there is nothing like it. I'm sure we have all had these moments at some point in our lives. I think these moments portray what we were made to be. In these moments we don't have fear. We don't worry about our future, or money, or being cool. We just be. We do things without thinking about how stupid we look to others. We have the best intentions and the best attitudes. These are powerful moments. Moments that we can not forget. These are also precious moments. Moments that can be rare and sometimes even seem to be extinct. This is why we must treasure these moments. We must make them last and make them happen more often. 

If you think about it, a lot of the time your mood is based on other people's moods. Moods are transitive. This is why the way we act is so important. If we choose to be cynical, this mood transfers to others and actually harms their well being. The term spread love is very cliche but cliche statements are cliche for a reason. Think about this when you wake up tomorrow. If you decide to look past the fact that we have school, or anything that may be a hindrance, and live free and make your day full of God moments then that will make everyone's day better. Just imagine the possibilities if everyone did this, everyday. The power of the potential of this is dangerous, in a good way.

Now, when you wake up tomorrow, do whatever you can to make yourself happy. Sing. Dance. Act stupid. Be goofy. Be yourself. Then let this happiness spread to the people around you. Live like this. Sleep. Repeat. Then, sit back and watch the world be transformed. Because love is seriously what this world needs. It's what we're missing. So, let it flow through us and pour out like waterfalls on those who need it most.

Thank you for reading. Just a few of my thoughts. Peace!