Eureka!!

Thank the Lord! One Saturday out of my life that i didn't have to be in Chick-Fil-A past 6 o'clock! But then when I got home.... boredom sets in. You see, come to think of it, having to close at work actually gives me something to do... even though i'm happy when i get the chance to leave the place early. Ironic I know. So after playing some Madden 10... which i LOVE... i decided - thanks to some help from one of my friends - to pick up a book and read. The book i read is called "Battling Unbelief" by a man named John Piper. This isn't an ordinary book by any means. This man is gifted with such intelligence i'm suprised he even understands what he's talking about. While reading i came across one particular passage of scripture:
"Cast all your anxieties on him because, he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

.... and then it hit me... well, God hit me. I know i've heard this at least 1,000 times... i don't know about you. It's basically saying give God all your worries, baggage, pain, whatever you want to call it, because he cares for you..... i don't know if you caught what i caught.... HE CARES FOR YOU. Which means stop "laying" down all your stuggles (and i put laying in quotes for a reason... sarcasm) and LAY down all your struggles. Don't get me wrong, i'm in the exact same boat... but God really spoke to me when i read this.
God: Hunter... stop bullcrapping around and let Me, the God who breathed you into existance, handle your struggles. Because i don't know if you realize it.... but I CAN HANDLE THEM.
Hunter: nah man, i'm okay right now... thanks though....
?!?!?!?!?!
I know! i want to punch me in the face too!!! But in all reality, we do it all the time. I'm not saying this is anybody in particular, PROMISE. Just saying that i do it and that not everyone is perfect. But for me... i lie to God... i'll say it again... i LIE to God. Which is pretty much looking at God and saying "no man, you're not good enough to handle my struggles even though you did put them in front of me."

God really just said to me tonight:
God: Look Hunter, i know that you lie to me, think you can outsmart me (which I do find very entertaining) (God has a humor.... just saying), but man, I care about you so much that I am ABLE to handle everything that is going on in your life... remember, I already did once on the Cross.

Did you guys catch that too? Just in case you didn't, i'll say it. God already handled all our struggles, pains, baggage... YOU NAME IT... on the Cross around 2000 years ago... when we weren't even in existance yet!

So if He already did it, why can't He do it again?

"So what you're saying is.... I screwed up?"

Oh the wondrous joy of getting my eyes examined.... at the butt crack of dawn. I got my eyes dilated and luckily i can drive with one eye opened and closed. But that's neither here nor there... you see, as I was sitting in the examination room, a thought dawned on me. I was wondering why my eye sight couldn't be any better so i wouldn't have to go to the doctor all the time and God said "So Hunter, you're saying I screwed up when I made you?"

talk about a slap right into the face. I mean, we think and say this kind of stuff all the time. "why can't i be taller, why can't i look better," and the list goes on. But every time we think or say things like this, we're saying that God didn't do His job right... and that's spitting right in His face. God made us the way we are for a reason even if we don't see it. the thing is, we're not supposed to see until He wants us to... if that makes any sense at all. God has a plan for us and He created us just the way we are so that we may fulfill His will for our lives. Because the whole point of us living is to freakin glorify His mighty name. He sent His Son to glorify Himself.... not to save us. And heck yea this is freakin hard to wrap your mind around it, but just think of it as this: If we could wrap our minds around God's will and plan and why He made us like He did.... then why in the world would we need Him? Because if you already didn't know, He does NOT need us one bit to glorify His name.

God made the world... to glorify Him
God made the cosmos... to glorify Him
God sent His ONLY SON.... to glorify Him

So, as I get off the rabbit trail that i so wondorfully went down, i just wanted to say this:
God - our Father who knows what's best for us even if we can't see it at the very moment - created us exactly the way we are for a reason... I'm tall for some reason... i have bade eyesight for some reason and to be honest... i'm perfectly content with not knowing why.

What's your favorite color?..... ORANGE!

So... right now my brains are still leaking out of my ears due to the insane worshipping and the insane speaking and the insane music and... dang i could go on forever. Well, if you didn't already know i just got home from the Passion2010 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.... which i have to say without a doubt is the best glimpse of Heaven that i have ever, in my entire life, seen. To be worshipping the One True Living God with 22,000 of your brothers and sisters in Christ boils down to one word... EPIC. The speakers, bands, and students allowed the Holy Spirit to move through them like i have never seen before.

One thought that i still cannot get out of my head is the idea of having... no.... WANTING a heart of anguish. Francis Chan spoke about it in his breakout session and it completely blew me away. Francis summed it up with this statement: "If the Holy Spirit is called the Great Comforter, let it do it's job! How can the Great Comforter comfort someone who's already comfortable?"......See what i mean!?!?! We're supposed to actively pursue a heart of anguish for our Lord so we can suffer like He did! We're supposed to imitate Christ... even if that means dying for him! We're supposed to imagine ourselves being arrested with Jesus... being tied to the pole across from Jesus and being beaten... and being nailed to the cross.... RIGHT NEXT TO JESUS CHRIST.... all the while staring into His eyes and our Lord staring back at us. This absolutely without a doubt blows my mind completely to a thousand pieces.

God is an awesome God. No doubt about that statement whatsoever. God really spoke to me this week about just how awesome He is and how much praise, worship, and glory He deserves. He showed me how self-centered i am and how God-centered I'm not. In the words of John Piper: "We were not made to be somebody... but to KNOW somebody." This statement is without a doubt 100% true. We are God's creation... created for one purpose and one purpose only... to serve His name... to glorify His name... and most of all to worship and adore our great redeemer who is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God showed me this week just how proud I am and just how much attention I try to get.

He is glorious and He reveals it to us daily... we just have to be Passionate enough about him and want to exalt him on a daily basis to see Him in all his splendor.