its Christmas time! can you believe it? only 9 short days until the biggest holiday of the year. kids everywhere will be putting cookies out for Santa, lying sleepless til the wee hours in the morning so they can see just what Santa has brought them this year. They will all be begging and convincing their parents in the next few days that they have been the best boys and girls on earth this year, just so they can get that new toy. This is what we have become. Its not necessarily wrong, right, or in between. It just IS. We have become a world that overlooks deeper meaning. Its what's on the surface, the material things, that really matter nowadays and no one really cares what you believe in or who is underneath the facade we put on in every day life. I believe that this is sad. Its sad that we have friends that don't really care about us enough to know what's going on in our lives day to day. It is disappointing that when being considered for a college, job, or relationship that it doesn't matter the caliber of person you are or your character, only your "stats" or "status." This is not to say that every person out there feels this way. I know you are thinking "I CARE" but do you really?
I've been challenged recently to redefine the way I think about caring, about how I think a true friend should look, and the kind of person I want to be. I feel like God has called me to care. He has called me to invest in other people's lives and by barely scratching the surface in my friendships I have failed. God calls us to love, to be selfless, and to be servants. I can't say that I fulfill that calling everyday, but I want to. I wish the world would become a more hopeful place than a hopeless one.
One of my close friends reminded me of a verse I found at a retreat earlier this year. It was the theme actually. Psalm 37 says "Be still and Know that I am God." Despite the shortcomings of the world and the people in it, we have HOPE in the Lord. HE is our God.
