Lost and Insecure, You Found Me

so I’m sure all of you know this new song by the Fray, “You Found me”.  I am in love with this song.  Its just catchy and fun to sing to and a great piece of music well put together.  But then I started listening to the lyrics and really breaking down what the song was saying.  I think this song is about us and our relationship with God.  I think we are always thinking that God leaves us hanging and that He is not there when things are falling apart.  How we are just waiting on a call from Him.  But really I think God uses this to teach us patience.  He does this so that we rely on Him for everything and that we stop relying on our own strength to get us through.  I think He does this because He loves us.  Because before its all said and done, He finds us, when we need Him.  I love the term “lost and insecure” because I feel like thats how we are in this world, without God.  We are nothing. We are insignificant.  We are lost.  But God steps in to find us, He loves us.  He finds us lying on the floor.  When we’re desperate and call out, He’s there.  When we fall, He’s there.  When we call on Him, He’s there.  When we turn away, He finds us no matter how far we run.  God finds us at our lowest form, humans, sinners, evil, liars, rapist, terrorists, murderers, adulters, cheaters.  And He loves us and continues to pursue our hearts even when turned from Him and our faith is falling short.  I think these verses and bridge are about how we call and beg to see something, and we miss it, so God does His thing, and finds us.  

 

I’m attaching the video as well, enjoy!

 

Cheers,

-Brandon Thomas

 

this world

I am convinced that the world we live in today pretty much sucks, and that is in no way the way God intended it to be.  Yesterday my grandma, was coming out of the grocery store and had her wallet stolen out of her purse by two guys who tricked her by asking for directions while the other grabbed her wallet.  really?! what kind of world do we live in? what kind of person, or man, would steal from a sweet old lady?  I want us to be able to make a difference in the world for the better, and I feel like we are called to do so.  I feel like I come up short in that area, that I dont love enough, that I don’t treat people the way they deserve, the way God loves them.  

 

I want this post to be short.  I want people to take the 5 minutes they would take to read this post, and evaluate ourselves.   As people that love Jesus, or don’t, or people that love people.  Are we making this world better by being here, or are we just continuing to steal from old ladies, or talk bad about people, or treat people badly because we just don’t like them? 

The reason I wrote this post is because I need to take that 5 minutes, and I hope that you would too.  Weather you see it in this messed up world or in our own lives, I feel like a little part of it can be fixed, starting with us, a generation of influence.  

 

cheers,

Brandon

Empty Me

It’s weird how God works.  He never stops pursing my heart, even when I decide to turn my back on Him.  Driving this morning I was feeling kinda down about how I’ve been selfish in life, with chasing a lot of things that don’t matter, or that don’t truly satisfy me.  I fill my heart with all of these things that I think will make me really happy, and soon enough they are fleeting me.  So I started to think, what was the one thing that never gets old? It is when I am pursuing Godliness that I feel satisfied.  Obviously I’ll never attain “God’s Perfect Standard” and I’m not saying we as followers of Him have to.  But I really feel Him wanting me to “empty my life and leave it to Him”.   It seems that all of my anxiety and sadness or emptiness comes from being selfish and prideful.  I try and get as much as I can get away with just for the hell of it (literally).  Like I don’t love God in certain situations because I want what is there at the moment and not thinking about what truly makes me happy.  Does this make sense? Do you see where I’m coning from? 

This song called, “Empty Me” by Chris Sligh is what I heard while driving this morning.  It really put things into perspective for me. It made me realize what I chase most wont make me happy unless its God.  I’ve experienced it constantly through college.  A national championship ring doesn’t do it, neither does all the newest kicks or the sickest clothes.  No matter how much money I’m making I find myself wanting more.  No matter what I do, it all just seems temporary.  I love how in the song he says “everything is a lesser thing, compared to you”.  I want God to empty me of my selfishness inside and every vain ambition and the poison of my pride.  I also want to seek Him so that I can let go of any foolish thing my heart holds to.  He wants us to empty ourselves of all the crap we have stored in us so that we can be filled with Him.  I love that. I love Him.  And I want my life to reflect that not just to others, but to myself as well.  

 

Cheers,

Brandon

 

Bubbles

I just want to start off by saying, take what I have to say with an open heart and mind, because it might offend you, and honestly, I hope it does.  

 

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how people think of Christians as exclusive, and in their own world and that all we do is talk about and judge “non-Christians”.  Well unfortunally, that is true in many cases. Too many “Christians” are content with only associating with other Christians and thinking that its okay if they stay in their safe little bubble.  I know when Jesus was on earth, He did not spend all of His time with the people that followed Him, and conversing with the people that loved Him.  He spent His time making Himself known to people that didn’t know Him and that He wanted to come to love Him.  So why do we spend all of our time in “safe” places like Christian groups of friends and feel like thats okay?  I think fellowship is important.  period.  But its not the only thing that you need, in fact I think Jesus gets upset when we are scared to venture out of our comfort zone.  

 

Why do people not like Christians?  Its because we act like we’re too cool for the rest of the world, like we’re better.  My heart has been turned away from Christians lately.  I don’t mean I don’t love them, but I mean that I’m finally starting to have a heart like Jesus’, who wanted to love the rest of the world, and hang out with non-believers, and be a light in a dark world, and show holiness where it doesn’t exist.  I want to be able to take the great commission seriously.  I want to GO OUT AND MAKE disciples of all nations.  I don’t want to stay in a safe bubble and hang out with people who already follow Jesus.  Not that I don’t like them, I love them, but that is not furthering the Kingdom.  Going out and forming relationships with people who don’t know Jesus is what I feel like Jesus is calling us to do.  If we stay in our little Christian bubble, that wont happen.

 

So I hope if you are in that bubble, and are afraid to step out, you are offended but what I had to say.  I hope that your heart is starting to be like that of Jesus.  I hope that you can trust in Him to make a difference in you and use you in the lives of all of the people that surround you, the people that don’t know Jesus.  I hope that He uses you to be Him to an unbelieving world, and make it better.  

 

Feel free to leave your thoughts. I’d really appreciate it.

 

Love,

Brandon

Verbal Jellybeans

So I have gotten the sweetest opportunity this semester.  I get to work at a children’s clinic for the next ten weeks with children with disabilities.  I’m super stoked about this chance.  I’ve never gotten to do something like this so needless to say I am very very excited.  One of the biggest challenges for me will be to keep my kid excited for the entire two hours.  It wont be hard when its time to play on the huge gymnastics trampoline or all of the air mattresses, but when it comes time for the “language/reading” section, I imagine it will get tough to motivate the child I’m working with.  So why am I writing about this?  One of the things that the staff encourage us to do is give the kids “verbal jellybeans”.  These are basically compliments to encourage the kids and let them know that they are doing a great job at whatever they are doing and also just to make them feel better.  Everybody likes to be loved on, ya know.  So I got to thinking about how I live my life, but more specifically in my relationships with other people.  Am I a person that someone can come to and be encouraged by?  Am I someone that by talking to, they will feel better after talking to me?  I’m I known for building people up?  Probably not for the most part, and that saddens me.  Its all too common a practice for us to be short with somebody or cut them down to make ourselves feel better.  I don’t want to be that guy.  So how amazing would it be if our brains, hearts, and mouths lined up and we were just nothing but people who out poured love, instead of sarcasm or hate, because if we’re honest, we don’t love it when someone acts like that to us.  Golden rule right?  Why is it so hard?  I’ve been struggling with that question for a while.  So it would be my hope that we could all be candy stores of “verbal jellybeans” and lets see how that changes our every day encounters with people and see how that will affect our relationships with them.  

 

let me know what you think.

 

cheers, 

-Brandon

Full Time Student, Part Time Christian

Why is it that we like to compartmentalize God?  take a minute and think about it.  On average I separate “God stuff” and the rest of my life about 95% of the day.  For me, for a while, being a Christian was something that I just did on Sundays, or when it was convienent, or when I needed something, or if I was in a pickle.  As I have started to grow in my relationship with Jesus these past couple years, I’ve come to understand that God calls us to be a “full time Christian”.  That means that we are not just doing the God thing a couple minutes a day, and forgetting about it the other 1430 minutes and living them for ourselves.  I’m not saying we have to spend all of our day doing “Christian things” or reading our bibles.  We should spend all of our time just living the way God intended.  We shouldn’t have to be part time Christians.  We shouldn’t do stuff that we know is wrong because we are justifying it as forgiven.  We shouldn’t love people because we are supposed to.  We should love them because we have a heart like Jesus, who knew nothing but love.  We shouldn’t just take 10 minutes out of our day to read and pray, and then feel like our “Christian duty” is done.  The point I’m getting at is that I have seen all of these scenarios played out in my life recently, and I feel like I am missing out of what God has for me. 

Related to this, today in class today my teacher said something that totally rocked my world and literally gave me chills.  She was talking about physical education teachers, and how they are overweight, obese, never exercise, etc.  And that they should not be teaching a class that tells kids to stay in shape because its healthy and helps prevent cardiovascular disease.  The reason it stuck with me is because immidiately after she said that I thought about my life as a Christian.  Right now, I’m being a teacher who is spitting out all of this information about God and how amazing He is and how we should all follow Him and worship Him with our lives, and yet I’m not even doing it.  There is something really really wrong there.  

If we are not living the way God created us, He won’t hate us or stop loving us, but I feel that WE ARE THE ONES MISSING OUT because we are choosing to not follow Him.  I am the one who chooses selfish fleeting desire over Godliness.  I feel like I am missing out on His plans because I am too busy living my life for the moment, setting God aside, and living as a part-time Christian.  

 

I’m Sorry, 

Brandon

 

“you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” -1 Corinthians 6:20

 

“”You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”-Revelation 4:11