I'd Rather Forget and Not Slow Down (1/21/12)

This is just something I’ve learned about within the past week. I actually started writing this a week ago, and I’ve just come back to finish it, so I hope it makes sense.

These past few days have not been the best. It all ended with me crying on my futon while listening to “Nearer My God to Thee” from The Titanic. Dramatic, right?

Yeah, probably. Probably too dramatic for the situation, but I must admit that I needed to cry because of how upset I was becoming at the state of my mind and the position of my relationship with God.

It began this Wednesday night, when I began to think that a friend of mine was angry with me because of how she had been acting around me lately. This was hard for me because I thrive off of words of affirmation, which is undoubtedly my love language. So, when I think people are angry with me, I do not take it very well to say the least.

I found out later that she actually wasn’t mad at me, but that wasn’t until later, so from that point on, things began to snowball. This got me thinking about if I was a good RA or not. I began to compare myself with other members of my staff, which brought my self-esteem and confidence to an even lower level.

Then, I began to think about a relationship that I have with one of my friends that instills fear in me, which isn’t really supposed to happen in a relationship, but in this case, it does. I usually fear judgment from this person- for some reason, I fear that this individual thinks I’m annoying and hangs out with me because she feels obligated to do so. Again, when I think people are annoyed with me or dislike me, I do not take it well.

Next, I started thinking about my most ambiguous secret that I have not told many people about. This secret is more of a trial I have in my life, and every day I strive to control it so that no one finds out what it is. Some days, it doesn’t affect me at all, and other days, it’s a lot harder to deal with. When it’s harder to deal with, I lose my faith in God because I begin to think that he can’t fix something in my life that I think is so hard to deal with, and that he can’t fix me, a lost cause.

There are lots of reasons why I don’t tell people about this trial I face. If I haven’t told you, please don’t begin to think that I trust you less than some of my other friends. I know that honesty is by far the best policy, but in most situations, I am not ready to talk about yet.

And there was even something good in my life that made the snowball grow even larger. On Friday, while I was in the back room (the room behind the front desk in the residence hall I work in), my hall director pulled me aside to talk to me about something. I freaked out a little because I thought it was going to be about something I had done wrong, but he reassured me that it was a good thing. So, I sat down in the chair in front of his desk, and he told me that he thought I should also consider applying for the ARA position for next year because he thinks I would be good at it.

I was surprised, and honored that he thought I would be able to do this, but at the time, I was feeling a little overwhelmed at everything that was going on. You could basically say that I felt like the “Y U NO” meme guy:

Pretty strange looking guy, but that’s how I felt.

Anyways, all of this led to me lying on my futon while crying to sad tunes that were playing off of my laptop. Being that my iTunes is set to shuffle, a song started playing that I needed to hear. It’s called “Forget and Not Slow Down” by Relient K. Literally all the lyrics from the song were what I needed to hear at the time.

At first, these were the lyrics that stood out to me the most:

“I'd rather forget and not slow down


Than gather regret for the things I can't change now


If I become what I can't accept


Resurrect the saint from within the wretch”

One huge problem that was causing this life problems snowball to happen was the control I wanted to have over the trials in my life. I was trying to control everything so much that I was afraid to trust God and let go of it. To me, this was Him telling me that I needed to let go of what I was controlling and trust Him to handle it. After all, that’s what He does! He is a God whom I can have faith in, and I need to start resting my life in the hands of the one whom I can trust.

Another cause of this life problems snowball that was happening was the regrets that I was holding onto from the past. I believe that one of the reasons I have fear in that particular relationship I mentioned before is because I always dwell on the things I could have done differently, for example, I will ask myself, “why did I say that!” or, “I could have reacted differently in this situation!” in accordance with the things I want to change about the past.

And for this, the Lord spoke to me through these lyrics from the same song:

“Cause I could spend my life just trying to sift through


What I could've done better but what good do what ifs do.”

To me, this was so applicable to my life. It made me realize that really, what good do “what ifs” do? If you keep wondering “what if?”, it will only slow your progress and impede on your ability to freely witness for the Lord.

In many ways, I feel that this song was like the key to my jail cell. It liberated me from what was holding me back. It helped me come to the understanding that I don’t have to worry about what I’ve done or what I’m going to do wrong in the future, I just need to trust God to take control and to redeem those aspects of me that aren’t perfect.

And I know that once I’m able to let go and allow God to free me from my jail cell, I will be at peace.

Reasons

When I first created this blog just over a year ago, I created it for the sole purpose of helping people through my writing. However, little did I know that I created it with the public eye in mind. In the back of my head,  I was writing this blog to please people.

Eventually, it got so bad that I began to post much less frequently because I feared that what I wrote would not teach anyone anything and would not be read by anyone.

All while I was blinded by this mindset, little did I know that I was devastating God by writing for others instead of writing to Him and for Him. Don't get me wrong, I write about Biblical and Godly topics, but my motivation had become vain.

So God decided to do something about it. Before i even knew myself, he wired me to have the physical, emotional, and spiritual need to write. He made my brain so that I often think in terms of a third-person narrative (Seriously, I think "She walked down the cold, snow-dusted sidewalk towards Harshman Anderson-Bromfield Hall" about my own actions). By this point, this should have been as obvious to me as a bronze falcon statue on the north side of E. Wooster Street, but you know, I was paying attention to the sewer grate instead.

It took me a long time to realize it, but I finally listened to God and His megaphone and realized that i'm not here to write for others, I'm here to write for myself and Him, and through this process, others will be encouraged. Really, this is the only logical way for this to work, because if I keep on writing to please others, I literally might not be able to survive.

I really can't be in fear of others' opinions anymore. President Herbert Hoover once said, "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself --- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Hoover (or, in other words, his speech writer) was incredibly spot-on with this claim. I am letting something that doesn't exist hold me back, and if I let it hold me back anymore, I'm going to be really angry about how blind and stupid I was.

And either way, God wasn't going to let it hold me back anymore. So, here's to the future days of doing what I love to do, and hopefully helping and encouraging people along the way. I'm going to love to write even more because I'm going to have no fear of others' opinions. I'm going to write about my life and pray that it relates to yours. Maybe i'll take a break and eat some fried chicken, and then resume the process that sweeps me into the arms of the Lord as I grow closer to Him. This is what I was made for.

God is

God is…

The lights to a Christmas tree (He brings light to the darkest places)

The sunshine to a rainy day (He brings light to my most depressing days)

The light bulb to a lamp (He brings hope to a darkened place)

The gas to a car (He is the one who keeps me going everyday)

The thread that holds clothing together (He holds me together when I’m falling apart)

The liquid to a bottle (He replenishes me when I am thirsty)

The strings to a cello (He lets me worship through music)

The tea to a teapot (He brings me warmth when I am cold)

The foundation to a house (He has allowed me to build my foundation on the rock)

The money to a piggy bank (He fills my life with blessings)

The stakes to a tent (He keeps my feet firmly planted in the truth)

The ink to a pen (He allows me to write when I cannot speak)

The shampoo to a head of hair (He cleanses my head of lies)

The soap to a body (He cleanses my body of sin)

The sled to a snowy hill (He makes my life fun and interesting)

The glasses to impaired vision (He helps me see clearly. For real though)

The steering wheel to a car (He helps me steer in the right direction, to stay on the narrow path)

The words to a book (He reveals His character to me through the Bible)

The drain to a bathtub (He throws all my sins down the drain and says “forget about it”)

The toilet flusher to a toilet (He flushes my sins away and graciously gives me life)

The professor to a college class (He teaches me something new every day)

The bow to a gift (He completes me)

The staples to a stapler (I cannot function without Him)

This is what God is to me. What is He to you?

NOPE. Chuck Testa.

Sometimes, I wonder why I develop strange obsessions with certain youtube videos. I honestly can’t decide on how I feel about this in my life, but the one thing I know for sure is that God intentionally put some of these videos in my life because He wants me to write about them. So that’s what I’m going to do.

This particular video is a television commercial for Ojai Valley Taxidermy, located in California. Before you read any further, you have to watch the video, and for two reasons. One, it’s absolutely ridiculous and will either make you laugh or sit there in confusion, and two, if you don’t, you will have no idea what I’m talking about from this point on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJP1DphOWPs

As a quick summary, the owner of this taxidermy company, Chuck Testa , tries to lure people in by declaring that, “[he] specialize[s] in the most lifelike dead animals anywhere. Period.” In other words, you won’t even know your animal is dead because it looks so lifelike! Example #1:

Girl: “Oh no there’s a bear in my bed!”

Chuck Testa: “Nope. Chuck Testa.”

And after a few strange clips of animals driving cars, sleeping in beds, and ordering drinks at a bar, we finally understand how lifelike his animals are, no matter how ridiculous the clips may be.

I think the most interesting part of this video is that since Chuck Testa’s taxidermized animals are so good, they appear to be lifelike when they actually aren’t. In other words, if we didn’t know they were dead, we would think they were alive, which is a lie.

Yes, that’s right. Chuck Testa is so crafty that he can get us to believe a lie.

Without fail, this made me think of all the lies we believe today that aren’t true at all, Lies about ourselves, other people, how valued we actually are. And the unsettling part about this is that Satan is the mastermind behind these lies. Chuck Testa is to craftiness as Satan is to craftiness: they’re both professionals at getting us to believe something that’s not true.

We believe these lies everyday, and they’re so convincing that sometimes we think we’ve made them up ourselves, so they must be true. To me, this is extremely frightening. I’m sure you’ve believed at least one thing about yourselves or others that’s just not true. Here are some examples of common lies:

-There’s nothing special about me

-I’m not good enough

-God can’t use me

-I’m fat/unattractive/not smart

-I’m not worth anyone’s time

-The Bible is full of contradictions

-I’m a failure

-I can’t be forgiven for that

-My life is not making a difference

-No one will ever love me for me

-God doesn’t love me like others

These are just a small sample of all the lies Satan can get us or has gotten us to believe. It’s so hard to have these lies penetrating our lives and suffocating our potential. In my life, these lies have been a huge problem. For example, I constantly think that if I try at something, I’m going to fail, so as a result, I never try and never get anything done. This particular lie is the reason why I haven’t posted on here in so long.

Another lie I struggle with is that “I’m not worth anyone’s time.” I have so many wonderful friends here, but I constantly believe that they don’t want to hang out with me because I’m too annoying- I’m just not worth their time. And this has resulted in unnecessary fear and stress in my life that holds me back from living the life God intended for me.

These lies hold me back because the thing is, I know they’re not true, but I still believe in my heart that they are true. And how do you get over that? The good news is that these lies won’t kill you, but the bigger question is, how do you kill these lies?

The most important thing to do is to acknowledge that Satan is a real and active force in your life. However scary this may sound, it’s actually not, because Satan can’t break us- Jesus has already won the battle. 1 John 4:4 proclaims that, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Because of this, we can confidently declare that Satan will never be able to conquer us.

This is one of the most important things to do because simply ignoring Satan is even worse. It means that you’ve already lost the battle- if you decide to flee, you’ve already lost the fight, and by already losing the battle, you’ve given Satan power over your life.

But DON’T flee, because there’s no reason to be afraid! God is always right beside you, and he’s even given you ways to fight and defeat the enemy. In Ephesians 6:10-20, God gives us all the armor we need to go into battle. He gives us the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the shoes that give us readiness given by the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit.

All of that right there shows us that God loves us, that he doesn’t want us to be conquered, and that we don’t have to be conquered. By giving us these tools, he’s saying, “I. Want. YOU. And I will pay any price, overcome any obstacle, to have a relationship with you. I’m fighting for you, I’m going to battle for you, and with Me, there is NO WAY you can lose.”

How awesomely encouraging is that?!

And not only must you reject the lie, but you must also defeat it by replacing it with biblical truth. For example, say you believe the lie that God doesn’t love you like others. The way to actively defeat this lie is to go STRAIGHT to the Bible and say, “That’s not true, because Ephesians 1:3-14 says that I have been chosen by Him to be holy and blameless and to represent him throughout this life I’ve been given.”

And by this, we realize it is clear that God WANTS us to win this battle- he’s given us the power and resources to do so. And even if we’ve given up on winning the battle, he will STILL fight for us.

I hope that this helped you in some way in your life. I hope this gives you the confidence and clarity to say, “NOPE. Just Satan.” You have the power to defeat these lies because God is with you. What do you have to fear anymore?

*A big thanks to Mike and Tammy Smith who spoke about this at H2O fall getaway in October. Without their outline, I wouldn’t have been able to organize my thoughts and write this!

Guilty

Guilty. You’ve heard this word before, and you’ve felt this feeling before. And maybe you feel what I’ve been feeling. I’m betting you have.

This semester, I’ve seemed to not be able to give up my guilt. I’ve turned “living to serve” into “serving to live,” or in other words, trying to earn grace through works and through serving the Lord. On my account, I’ve spent at least two weekends this semester so far dwelling on what makes me guilty and condemning myself for it, which has often led me to tears.

But the funny thing is, I know that God loves me and forgives my sins. I know this all too well. I could tell you about it for hours upon hours, I could beat it into your head with a baseball bat. But this fact doesn’t change what I believe in my heart.

Because Satan has been telling me these lies so long, I believe them with my heart. And what I believe makes sense to me. I mean, who would forgive someone like me? Who has done so many things to turn away from God, some things that she hasn’t even told anybody in her life?

But the amazing thing about this is that God doesn’t make any sense at all. He loves us with a crazy love. He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for us. His only son came to earth, experienced every temptation possible but never sinned, and then he died on the cross for all of mankind, for all sins in the past, present, and future. He spent 3 days completely separated from God. Yes, that’s right- He went to hell for 3 days and survived it- just for you. Just for us.

I mean seriously, this man’s either a lunatic, or He must love us.

And I’m pretty sure the latter is the only thing that makes sense, as far as something can be from sense and logic.

So, if I knew all of this, why did I spend countless hours beating myself up for things I did in my past? Why did I dwell on where I was failing and where I had failed? Why did I even think that God was disappointed in me?

This, my friends, is the power of Satan. He’s really a lot smarter than you all think. Just think about this: Satan was cast down from heaven with 1/3 of all of God’s angels, which makes him a fallen angel. This means that he was previously an angel, and he knew far more about God and His plans than we even know today. He was an insider, but now he’s an outsider. The only problem is that he still has insider information, and he’s going to use this insider information against us in any way he can.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s ridiculously scary.

And I guess that’s what’s been happening to me for the past 6 weeks. I’m not really sure what help this is to all of you, and I’m not sure it makes very much sense, but I hope that if the same thing has been happening to you, just know that you’re not alone. And know that what you’re believing is a lie.

For Jesus gave up his life for us- “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:30

And if you happen to be thinking that you’re not worthy enough right now, please go talk to someone. Or if you have no one to talk to, send me a message. Respond on this blog. I would want nothing more than to help you. Please read John 3:16 & Ephesians 1:3-14 to remind yourself of how precious Jesus considers you. Please read Ephesians 6:10-20 to be reminded that God has given you the tools to fight these lies in your life.

Because if you’re thinking that God doesn’t love you and could never forgive you, you’ve been quite mistaken.

Vacation Time (What I Was Discovering During My Time In Michigan)

As I was sitting on the porch of the cabin we stay in during our vacations to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, I began to think about things. I originally intended to sit down and read a book, but I ended up thinking instead (as I’ve grown older, I’ve begun to realize that this is what usually happens when I sit down and try to do something productive). Over the past few weeks, and probably months, or maybe even years, I’ve begun to worry much more about the death of my relatives. I figure that this worry must have started after my dad passed away two years ago. Ever since then, I’ve worried myself sick wondering if any of my relatives will die suddenly. How many will die within the next year? The next 2 years? The next 10 years? I begin to worry about this, then I think about how old they are and how long they have left, which causes me to think about how many funerals I’ll have to go to in the next twenty years, and then I shut down and can’t handle it anymore.

I guess I better first mention that all of my family members are unusually old compared to my age. You see, my mother gave birth to me at age 40 and had twins at age 42, so that means that all of our relatives are old. Katie, Marco and I have always been the youngest in both of our families. On my dad’s side of the family, my uncle is 72, my aunt is 70, my cousins are all around the age of 50, and my second cousin is 8. On my mom’s side, my uncles are in their late 50’s and early 60’s, my mom is about to turn 60, and my cousins have all already graduated from college. My families are so old compared to my siblings and I that I no longer have any living grandparents, nor do I have a dad.

I sometimes start to think about how much longer my relatives will live according to how old they are. For instance, my aunt and uncle on my dad’s side have already surpassed the age of 70. According to the span of the typical human life, they may have anywhere from 10 to 20 years left to live. When I think about this, I get frustrated. I love my aunt and uncle both dearly. I’ve been on some awesome road trips with my aunt, and sometimes I really don’t even think she’s 70. As for my uncle, he is one of the most generous people I know. Trust me, we never starve when we come up here for vacation.

So, this worries me. It worries me way too much. Many of you don’t have to deal with this because your mothers had you in their mid 20’s, but my situation is different because I was born 20 years later than most children are to their parents. Sometimes I actually believe that I’m supposed to be 6 or 7 years older than I currently am.

And no, I don’t blame my mom for this because it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. I’ve come to realize that God must have wanted it this way for a reason, so it has to be this way, and I have to deal with it. No, I don’t like it very much, but I know that God knows me best and that somehow, He knows this was best for me. Sometimes the things that are best for you are not the ones that make you happy.

Anyways, going through this whole thing with my dad being gone has been tough, and it’s been even tougher this summer for some reason. When I arrived in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula for vacation, the toughness just escalated because of where I had arrived- in my father’s hometown. Calumet and the Keweenaw Peninsula were such a big part of my dad and his character, which then became a huge part of my life as I began to grow up. Every summer, it was copper, thimbleberry jam, Lake Superior, and Italian polkas. I didn’t expect this particular visit to be this hard, but I guess the grief process works in different ways for different people.

Every day I’ve been up here so far, I’ve dwelled on how much I want my dad back here, and how it would be different if he was. Coming up this year, it just seemed like there was a hole in the family, a hole where my dad was supposed to be. I’ve cried a lot too, and probably felt sad every single day.

When I think of the hole my dad left in our family and the pain and grief I went through (and we all went through) after he died, I can’t bear to lose anyone else, seriously, for at least 10 years. I just don’t want that to happen again- I’m not ready for it. Because all of my family members are so old, I always worry and brace myself for them dropping dead any day. And this thinking process kills me inside. It leaves me with a headache and twisted insides. It makes me feel like I’m chained to the floor and will never be able to move on. That’s what the pain of loss does to you.

Usually, this is how my thought process goes- I begin to think about it. Then I think about how I’m not ready for it to happen and how I couldn’t handle it if it did. Then I think about God and how He wouldn’t let this happen to me if I wasn’t ready for it to happen. But then I think of the other side of the argument, that maybe through this, God knows this is best for me and He’s doing it for a reason I may not know about.

This usually leaves me in a jail cell of thought. Like I said, it’s a vicious cycle of thought that keeps me trapped and chained to a chair every day of my life. So I thought, if I feel like I’m trapped and jailed inside my mind, then God must be trying to tell me something, because I’m sure He doesn’t really intend for this to be happening.

As I was thinking this evening, I thought of trust. I’m not trusting God enough to know that He knows I’m not ready for another death to happen and He’s not going to let it happen. Sometimes I do think of this, but then again I think of the other side and justify my worries, saying that it’s logical for me to be worrying. I mean, it seems like it really is. You never know when someone you’re close to could be whisked off this earth, just like a feather in the wind- here today and gone tomorrow.

But I KNOW that my worrying isn’t justified, because I know it’s a sin. Sounds weird, right? But a sin is classified as anything that makes you turn away from God, and by worrying, I’m not trusting in God, which means I’m turning away from Him. It kind of reminds me of the American trust in all Islamic people after 9/11. After that terrible day, Americans just seemed to have the inability to trust anyone who was Islamic or wore a turban. It’s understandable, but of course it’s not right.

So I begin to wonder, how can we put our trust in someone who might not be trustworthy or has broken our trust in the past (say Casey Anthony. She lied to the judges. How can we even try to trust her even though she was convicted not guilty?), but we can’t trust God, the creator of the universe? I’m sure someone has broken your trust before, probably multiple times, but you’ve tried to trust that person again. Am I right? It’s probably a vicious cycle of breaking trust and trying to regain it, and we know that whoever that person is, we just simply can’t trust them again even though we try to.

So my question is, how can we not trust God if He’s never broken our trust before? Take the story of Noah’s Ark for instance. God makes a decision to strike down all human beings on the Earth because all of the humans had created such evil. Everything was a mess, so God decided to clean it up, however He knew that He couldn’t wipe everyone out because if He did, humans wouldn’t exist anymore, so He chose Noah to build an ark for his family and two types of every creature on earth, in order that life could still continue after the flood. After the flood had subsided, God made a covenant with Noah and all humans, declaring that:

“I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me an you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” – Genesis 9:11-13

So, God made the rainbow His covenant to us, and don’t we still see it all the time? Occasionally, after it rains, a rainbow will appear. I feel like this is God saying, “Woah! Don’t worry; I won’t let it rain enough to flood the earth. Check out this covenant!” He stops the rain before it can ever wipe anyone out.

That gives us a pretty good reason to trust God, and this is what I’ve been learning. I have to trust that God won’t let any of my relatives die if I’m not ready. My only choice is to trust Him, because if I don’t, I know that I may be stuck in this dark jail cell of thoughts for a long while.

And as I look out onto the waters of Portage Lake from the cabin porch, I think, how could I not trust Him? Upper Michigan is a place for big thoughts. If you’ve ever been out to Lake Superior, you would know. Even looking out onto this lake makes me think big. I can’t even fathom how wide or long the lake really is because I can’t see that far, nor can I fathom how deep the lake is because I can’t swim that deep, but I know that God knows and understands.

And then I think about the enormity of Lake Superior. It’s the largest fresh water lake in the United States and the largest freshwater lake in the World by surface area. Because it’s so large, it has undercurrents like an ocean. It’s beautiful, powerful, graceful, and dangerous all at the same time. Its depths are unfathomable, probably thousands of feet deep, and its width is the same way. If God created and knows all about the great widths and depths of Lake Superior, then He should be able to know absolutely everything about us.

And if He knows all about us, then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t trust Him with our lives. And this trust is truly what will set us free.

Santa Claus and his Elves

Today, I was reading Hebrews and trying to understand it, when I came across an interesting discovery.

Since Hebrews was becoming very confusing to me, I decided to look up the background of this New Testament book online. The book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians who were becoming very discouraged and were in contemplation of leaving their newfound faith due to all of the persecution they had to endure because of the choice they had made to leave the Jewish faith and follow Christ.

This suddenly made sense with what I had read so far, and resounded with the first chapter of Hebrews, which I had originally found very interesting.

In this first chapter of Hebrews, the author (whoever he is, generally thought to be the apostle Paul) talks about the difference between angels and the Son of God/ His people on Earth. The author goes through a list of comparisons he makes between what God says about angels and what he says about the Son of God.

At the end, the author comes to the conclusion that Angels are all “ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). In other words, angels are a completely different breed from humans and the Son of God.

This is clearly shown through the comparisons the author makes. About the Son of God, he explains that God considers Jesus to be His Son and appoints him to the throne at His right hand. About the angels, God says that they are to worship the Son of God and are to be winds to God’s ministers on earth, who are considered flames of fire.

So, the author’s conclusion is pretty accurate according to what he explained in the first chapter of Hebrews. But, do you realize what this means? Humans will not become angels when they enter Heaven upon their deaths because the two, let’s call them species, are completely different. It’s like a bear and a monkey, or a spider and a cat, or whatever you can think of.

I thought that this was very similar to the legend of Santa Claus and his elves. Santa Claus would represent God, and his elves would represent God’s angels. Just as the elves help Santa Claus make toys for all the little children on Earth, the angels help God spread His word across the Earth to all of His children.

Now think about the difference between Santa’s elves and humans. Elves are really short people who typically have strangely shaped noses and wear green uniforms with caps. On the other hand, humans are much taller and have what we consider normal noses and wear what we consider normal clothes. A human can’t just up and turn into an elf, or vice versa. In the same way, humans can’t just turn into angels upon their entry to Heaven.

This also means that maybe our deceased friends and family members cannot visit us after death, even though we think they do, and can claim that they have. Strange compared to what we have been taught, but it might be true. If those spirits of family members and friends are not angels, then they could be anything. I cannot say, because I do not know, but that’s just interesting to think about.

So in conclusion, angels are here to protect us and minister to us. They are sent by God to Earth, and they help Him bring people to believe in Him. They spread the flames of the ministers (God’s appointed people) here on Earth, and create a forest fire of good news that cannot be stopped.

So, I really just thought this was interesting. No big sermon or whatnot, just a pretty cool discovery, and a small breakthrough to the honest truth that God has in store for us. I’d love to hear your opinion on this!