With all the advice of both well meaning and wise individuals I’ve received on dating and marriage one truth still remains. I’m still not dating and not married. Don’t get me wrong, marriage is in my future. It is not a blind wish, a hope, or a dream. But the truth still remains.

The question I’ve finally began asking God recently with the seeming external pressure from peers in addition to the internal longing for close personal relationship is this, “Am I sinning by being single?”

No. I would be sinning if I were being disobedient. If I were captivated by fear. If I were seeking anything else other than the relationship that He prescribes.

It’s just that simple. For me.

I’m not sure what it’s gonna look like internally when God directs my path into the lifelong path of another individual, but I am absolutely positive that it hasn’t happened yet. And that I am not doing anything wrong by living a radical life pursuing God’s best in my life.

So to single guys out there, You are not sinning by remaining single….. unless you are. Beg God for clarity. And ask lots of questions.

Hope this helps someone.

It seems that in regard to my online presences, there is a definite priority as to which gets my attention.

Twitter.

Facebook.

Then this blog.

Twitter is the easiest to keep up with, what with 140 characters maximum. Facebook is next, allowing me to post a status in a paragraph. But this blog requires much more thought to put together a post than the two prior online presences. Therefore, this gets the least amount of my attention.

Right now, Facebook is even collecting dust.

Sigh.

Look for something interesting here occaisionally, but not right now.

Not sure what else to say about that. Ummm…. yeah.

I remember last summer stopping by the world’s biggest ditch, you may know it as the Grand Canyon. God spoke to me clearly that day, “and this is but a work of my hands. Don’t fall in love with the works of my hands, look for ME in everything!”

Created things amaze me. The Creator is the one that’s amazing.

1 Kings 19, Elijah didn’t respond to the wind and the earthquake, those were created things. Instead, he was looking past all the created stuff and received a conversation with his creator.

Seek and I shall find.

I just stuffed myself at Ralph’s Barbecue off exit 173 on I-95 in N.C. They don’t take cards. I don’t have cash.

The lady politely gave me directions to a nearby ATM. She didn’t want my liscense. I didn’t have to leave anything with her. She just said, “I’ll wait for you!”

Yes, I’m going back to pay for my lunch.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose me in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined me to be adopted as his son through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given me in the One he loves. In him I have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on me with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to me the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

Take some time and read Ephesians in the first person. Remove Us and We, and replace with Me or I. See if that lines up with your relationship with Jesus, because it sure is His picture of the relationship. Here’s some more that I’m wrestling to grasp….

As for me, Jamie, I was dead in my transgressions and sins…  I was by nature an object of wrath. But because of his great love for me, God, who is rich in mercy, made me alive with Christ even when I was dead in transgressions—it is by grace I have been saved. And God raised me up with Christ and seated me with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to me in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace I have been saved, through faith—and this not from myself, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that I can’t boast. For I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do.

When all those lies begin to circle around inside my dome, I just need to come back and camp here. These are painful truths. Tears.

Here’s a soapbox post.

I hate. Yes hate. When people overuse the word, “we”. Let me explain.

Someone will say, “We don’t care about the environment anymore.” You just included me in a generalizing statement that I may or may not agree with.  You are risking your credibility in this conversation by hoping that I am part of the crowd you just threw me in with.

“We spend $10 billion a year on pornography.” Excuse me? I haven’t bought porn since the 90’s. You have just included me in a statement that is false in my case, and therefore makes your entire statement false. You have lost all credibility in this conversation.

Please qualify your “we”.

This is also the case in generalizations in general. “People who go to church don’t read their bible enough.” Well, I read my bible. I’m not sure if it would be considered “enough” by your standards, but then again probably not, if you are that interested in quantifying other people’s interests.

“People drive too fast.” I hate your generalizing statement.

Please cut through the ambiguity and say what you really mean. Your conversational credibility is at stake.

<stepping back down> Thanks!

In the next 10 years, you will probably have over $250,000 or more pass through your care. What will you have to show for it?

Now read Matthew 25:14-30.

I NEED to get serious on a budget.

Collossians 1 – “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness”

Am I ok with suffering? Am I ok with being called names? Am I ok with people mad at me?

Did you know, that if you’ve heard the gospel, someone has been persecuted so that you could hear it? It may be someone you know, maybe not. People have died so that you could hear about Jesus. Sobering if you let that sink in. People have given everything, so that I can give some.

Paul rejoiced in what was suffered for you. That’s the easy part. Then he pretty much said, I’ll take any beating necessary for others to hear about Jesus, for the church.

I love Jesus, and I love His church. But do I love it that much? To welcome persecution into my life so that others may benefit?

I was reading in Colossians yesterday, particularly the way that Paul describes Jesus in chapter 1. A question then popped in my mind that everyone will have to answer someday, “Who do you say I (Jesus) am?”

Now honestly, I was quick to answer something along the lines that Paul wrote. I love how eloquent Paul describes Jesus there.

Then that same voice said that Paul didn’t quote anyone when he wrote that. It was all off the top of his head. He described Jesus based on how he personally had experienced Jesus, not based on what he had read about Jesus.

The question poised to me is without quoting scripture, “Who do I say Jesus is?” Use scripture, because scripture combined with experience will form that picture.

I’m wrestling through that answer and finding that if I am honest with myself, it is not as pretty as I’d have thought it to be.

Ok. So Cookie and I were talking at church on Sunday about blog stuff. I haven’t posted in awhile. She hasn’t posted in awhile. She’s got a better blog, and is a much better writer than me by the way.

And then Russ posted a blog post this week.

So I’m feeling the need to write again. I’m not promising that it’s going to be interesting, or that it’s going to be consistent. I’m still really digging Twitter, and have recently jumped on the bandwagon with Facebook, so a third online presence may be a little much to maintain.

But look for stuff. From me. That may make you shake your head. But it’s what’s going on in mine.

Thanks!