we're in this thing together

There's an air everywhere
Of inconsideration and despair
I don't consider you
And you don't consider me
And it's well understood
That we don't care

How quickly we forget that we don't have walk this road alone.  That God gave us each other for a reason-- to help one another through this crazy thing that we call life and search for Him.  Together.

*Raises hand*  I'm guilty of being anti-social.  I like spending time with myself, weird as it may seem.  I love snuggling up on the couch with a good book and a mug of hot green tea and no one to disturb me.  I love turning "The Best Thing" all the way up when no one's home and sliding around in my socks playing the worst version of the air guitar known to man.  I love baking cupcakes in the kitchen and making a mess with no one to tell me to be more careful.  Yeah, I'm definitely not your typical teenager that has plans every Friday night.  But I think God wants us to "hang" with other people.  Especially other Christians.

Now the large group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.  And the apostles were giving testimony with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.  --Acts 4:32-33 [HCSB]

"Of one heart and mind."  That means instead of being people, we should be like one person.  Now I'm not saying that you should ditch your individuality and become like everyone else.  Nothing like that.  We're all part of the body, and we all have different roles to play.

So the body is not one part but many.  If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body," in spite of this it still belongs to the body.  And if the ear should say, "Because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body," in spite of this it still belongs to the body.  If the whole body were an eye where would the hearing be?  If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

Now there are many parts, yet one body.
So the eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!"  Or again, the head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you!"  But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary.
--1 Corinthians 12:14-18, 20-22

Don'tcha see?  We need each other.  We need to be together.  To encourage.  To pick each other up.  To laugh.  To cry.  To just know someone's there.

You know we don't have to wait until the end of the night
Just to say that something's wrong and maybe nobody's right
We're all victims in a battle we never had to fight
It's okay, it's alright.  Steady now, we're in this thing together
--Steady Now, Brandon Heath

Don't worry, guys.  We're in this thing together.

And I'm glad.

better

"Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken love until the time is right." --Song of Solomon 8:4 [NLT]

Beautiful words that hold truth beyond measure.  "Don't awaken love before it's time."  Simple enough, right?  Simple, it is.  But it's also hard.  Not in the way some of us may think, though.

As a Christian girl, I haven't had much experience with the whole dating thing.  Actually, I haven't had any.  I've never been kissed, never held hands... I don't think I've even been truly alone with a boy (minus my Dad, haha!).  So most people would find me pretty much clueless.  But when it comes to waiting, I'm the expert.

I turned sixteen this past October, and when I did, the privelege of dating came with it.  Obviously I didn't run to find a boyfriend, and there (obviously) wasn't a line of anxious guys lined up at my front door.  But I still found my attention gravitating towards the male species.  I wondered what they thought of me, if they talked about me, if any of them liked me.  It was an ongoing thought, seemingly never ending.

But when God said, "Hey, how 'bout Kenya and teaching kids?" He added, "... and focus on that for a while."  Translation: Drop the boy thing, it's ridiculous.  Then when I read the verse above, I realized I was trying to awaken love before it's time.  Not as vigorously as some girls, but I was.  As much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, I wanted a guy to notice me.  And though some have (and still do), I shouldn't have picked my brain to pieces trying to figure out whether he might be My Guy.  God's got a plan.  And when the time is right, He'll show me My Guy.

Though many chick flicks are simply unrealistic, there's one line that perked my ears.  And surprisingly, I don't think it's a bunch of smooth-talking.  I think it reflects what love is supposed to be like.

"Jamie... she has faith in me.  She makes me wanna be different.  Better." --Landon, A Walk to Remember

Love-- true love-- will make you, well, like he said.  Better.  You'll uplift them and they'll uplift you.  Everyone will know it's right, because it is.  Sure, no relationship is perfect and everyone has bumps in the road.  But overall, both of you will shine brighter individually.  And together in Christ, you'll be genuinely reflecting true Love.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

it's all so meaningless

That girl that just took your seat in world civ purposefully?  Doesn't matter.

Your hair frizzing due to the ridiculous amount of humidity in the air?  Who cares.

Didn't make an A on your English final?  So what.

It's all meaningless.

"So I came to hate life because everything here done under the sun is so troubling.  Everything is meaningless-- like chasing the wind." --Ecclesiates 2:17

Does Jesus want us to hate life?  No, I don't think that's what Solomon's trying to get across here.  He wants us to realize how pointless this life is.  That everything we get angry about, everything we fret over, everything we work for-- it's pointless unless it's for the kingdom.

My youth group had a mini-retreat this weekened-- Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning.  And one of the main things that jumped out at nearly everyone was a thought of the speaker, Mr. Jay.  He elaborated on it, and the more he talked, the more God embedded this thought in my mind-- everything is meaningless.

See, Mr. Jay imagines there's a wall of fire before you get to the pearly gates.  And every person standing in front of it has a "ball of stuff" in their arms.  This stuff is what you've done with your life.  Some people have small balls, while others have exceedingly large ones.  You watched a chick flick last Saturday.  That's in your ball of stuff.  You shared Jesus with a second grader at VBS.  That's in there too.  Everything you've ever done in your life is rolled up in this ball.

Then everyone steps into the wall of fire.  And as your passing through it, you realize the fire's not burning you, just your ball. It begins to shrink smaller and smaller until you're finally on the other side.  You look around to find that some of the people that had those huge balls of stuff now have nothing at all.  But some of the people with the smaller balls of stuff still have almost everything they had at the beginning.

This got me to thinking-- would my stuff survive or would most of it be burned away?

It's all meaningless, friends.  All of it that's not for Jesus means nothing.

".. each one's work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one's work.  If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.  If anyone's work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire."
--1 Corinthians 3:13-15

I don't want to just escape through the fire.  I want my work to have eternal value.  Because people's souls... they don't just mean something.  They mean everything.