This is a wall full of chewed up gum. I would say this is beautiful in a weird way. Some would say it is a work of art. This wall started forming by someone just sticking one piece of gum on it. The gum on the wall was considered nasty at that point. But, it eventually grew into something amazing. I guess it’s how you look at it. Some situations you are looking at right now look nasty, but try to see it from a different perspective. There is a process to everything. Your circumstance or situation will eventually be a work of art.

i’m not gonna lie. That’s a great way to start off a blog post, huh? Every time I read my Bible it’s not to get out of it what I need. Sometimes I read my Bible because I need my Christian gold stars for the week so I can make God happy. Sometimes I do nice things for people because I want to make God happy, not because it’s the right thing to do. The thing is that no matter what I do, God loves me the same. Get that through your head, Adam. If I start trying to do all these things to get my allotment of Christian points, this whole Christian walk thing becomes work-based and all messed up. You can’t do enough works to buy God’s love.

I pray because I need to. I don’t really pray to make God happy. I do it to make my life easier. Talking to God can almost be awkward for me sometimes, though. You would think that having a relationship with God after all of these years it would just come natural every time.

How do I start today? How do I end this? “Amen”?

Then there’s those days I just don’t feel like talking at all. Maybe you feel like this sometimes.

I want everything in life to be tangible. So, naturally I want God to always be tangible. But, when I talk and prayers aren’t answered immediately, I get angry… Really angry. I think God has left me and then I don’t want anything to do with Him. I do this with even knowing in the back of mind that He’s never left me. That’s the thing. He is always listening.

Well, I haven’t done this in a while. I want to know how you are really doing. You talk and I’m listening. Of course God is listening.

What’s a prayer you need an answer to? Let’s pray for each other. Also, what are some blessings you’ve had in your life lately? I want to hear some good stuff.

the more i try to fix people, the more i realize they’re better off than me.
the more i try to be like someone else, the more i realize we have to be different to make this all work.
the more i try to be healthy, the more unhealthy things keep getting in my way.
the more i try to be a better person, the more i realize i can’t do it by myself.
the more i try to get things that i think i need, the more i realize that the work that goes into getting them is the hardest part.

hopefully it’s worth it.

the more i try…

When things are busy and Jasmine and I are running through life, it’s sometimes hard to think about the important things. Maybe you know this feeling.

Well, last week when we trekked in Utah’s Uintas Wilderness for thirty-two miles, I had plenty of time to think about the important stuff-and the not so important stuff. While on the journey, I thought mostly about the faith I had in a God that I can’t even see with my eyes and where our relationship was at and where it was going. The unseen part is a tough one for me sometimes because I want everything to be tangible. I mean come on, I’m American.

It also brought thoughts of how we made it this far together. Life gets hard sometimes. You know about this, folks.

The beautiful landscape alone had me thinking quite a bit about God’s attention to detail. Matthew 6 came to mind. I know that only God could make something so beautiful. I guess God also made the mosquitoes and the horses that left crap on the trail all the way to the top. Boo.

God’s wonder and awesomeness has been on my mind the past couple of days and maybe it’s crossed your mind at some point in your life.

So, when you first thought about believing in the whole God thing, what was the one thing that convinced you to start believing? Was it creation? Christians love? An altar call? A friend that talked you into it? What was it?

I can remember as a kid I would fib a lot. I would lie about silly things. They were things that didn’t matter at all. Even as I got older I would stretch the truth to make myself look better, feel less embarrassed about things, make the story shorter so I didn’t have to go into deeper details and I would try to dodge things that I didn’t necessarily want to talk about. Looking back on it, I’m wondering if there is ever a situation that lying is ok.

What do you think?

If I do all things “Christian” ONLY in public, then it is to make myself look good. This should not be the point. It seems that character and my true relationship with Jesus is developed and molded when I’m alone with Christ. These are the times that you will never know about. If the most spiritual thing I do all day is retweet @rickwarren or @lecrae on twitter, it is again to make myself look like awesome spiritual guy. Also, that makes me a pretty bad “Christian” if that’s all I do. I need to be able to create my own tweets and writings to describe my relationship with God. I shouldn’t need other’s words to say who Jesus is in my life. Here is a challenge to you. Don’t rely on your parents, girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse or pastor for your relationship with God. Create that individual, personal relationship with Him because in the end, it’s YOUR responsibility.

Thoughts?

I sometimes fib a little to God even though He knows what I’m telling Him is a lie. I tell Him I’m doing ok, when I’m not doing so hot. I do this to actually make myself feel better. But you see, He never leaves me alone or forgets about me even when I forget about Him. This is the beautiful part, folks. I think I know God’s love, but I can’t even fathom it. Tell me something…

God’s love is…

First, I just want to say that I love what church is to me. Community, Love and Encouragement. With that being said, today in church some people had the chance to share some past experiences they had with the church. I heard people talk about their bad experiences and it made me sad and mad all at the same time. I mean from what they were saying, if church is supposed to be the representation of the Body of Christ here on Earth, we are doing a terrible job of showing people that. As you know, their stories are not the only bad ones out there. I’m sure you’ve heard some stories like this or maybe you feel that way yourself. Pretty much when I ask anybody outside of the church about their feelings of church, it ends up being a negative thing. I understand that churches are made up of people, and these people are not perfect. That includes pastors, folks. They will probably let you down at some point because they are still humans. This is where forgiveness comes in. I am actually writing a book on good things that churches are doing. Now I will agree, there are definitely some bad things that are in churches, but there are also a lot of great things. Here’s an example of a good thing: When my parents divorced and when my dad wasn’t there anymore, the church became a second family to me. Here’s the bad side to my church story: I grew up in church my whole life and when I was in my teens, our church actually went through a terrible church split. It messed a lot of people up in the church. But, I had a decision to make there. Was I going to blame people and dwell on that? Or, was I going to forgive and move on? I forgave and moved on as everyone in that situation should. But maybe, people have the view that we are all against each other and are just there to stab each other in the back. Or, maybe they have the view of the unforgiving and the judging side? I get a glimpse of this view on the church because after I read a book by a Christian author telling me that people hate the church, I then definitely know the world hates all Christians. I really would like to think that most people have something positive to say about church, but if you don’t I want to hear that, too. I’m mainly looking for honesty here. So, here’s your turn to speak.

What are your thoughts on the church today? Good? Bad? Whatever it is, I want to hear it.

The question shouldn’t be, “how close we can get to the wrong/right line?”, it should be, “how far away can we get?” I want to be so far in it that there is no doubt. I want people to know I’m a Christian without having to tell them. Actions speak wonders, but it’s not all about that. When I fell in love with Jesus something happened. I changed. Do you know what I’m talking about?

It’s been a while since we did this on jackalopekid.com. This is the part where we actually get to be the church and pray for each other. So, tell me something…

What is something that you need prayer for?