Is Change Really A Thing? / Excuse Me For Being Blunt

"People don't change."

I swore to myself that I wouldn't write anything about New Year's Eve or anything to do with change. I see it all over Social Media and it sort of bothers me. We take up Resolutions just to forget about them the second week of the entire year. I find it hard to believe someone when they try to tell me what's going to be different about them this upcoming year. They just don't work. And I used to believe none of us could really change. That we are all so stuck in our shells of selfishness, that it is impossible for us to change. 

Your lack of change is because you lack discipline and self-control. 

You can change. I have stories of friends who did just that. Some of those friends helped myself change afterwards. 

Believing you or others can't change is a manifestation of pride. 

ouch. But I'm not sorry I said it.
I am just like this too.
We all are.
How? Selfishness is the reason we believe that = pride. It really isn't a science. As human beings, we are naturally selfish and prideful, but it doesn't mean we should accept that.

I know someone I met in India who used to be a part of the mob, until Jesus got ahold of him one day and it changed his life forever. I know a young woman who was caught in sex & drugs, but then someone she knew was in love with the Lord and continued to be that light in her life... she finally came to Christ and is clean. I also know another man who was a soldier, came back home from Afghanistan with PTSD, got caught up in alcohol & drugs, found Jesus, and he now is a college pastor and a director for an online Christian organization that deals with addictions - and because of him and that organization, it saved me from my addictions.

Change is inevitable. 

Everyone changes. No one stays the same. We mature... some more slower than others. But we never stop. We never stop learning life lessons and experiences. We're going to change even if we don't try to.

Change really is a thing. So here's that one annoying question: What change are you going to make for 2014? What goals do you have for the future? Tomorrow is your clean slate. The past is left with 2013. The past is the past. After midnight, what are you going to let go of? After midnight, what will you forgive yourself for? After midnight tonight... are you going to move forward? Any goals?

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My Goals:
Graduate Master's Commission
Prayer be my first priority everyday
Overcome some personal things / Forgive myself / Forget my past / Move on
Start planning my future ministry: Orphanages & trips / Schooling

This is Love / India Journal Pt. 1

This is an India series... my thoughts, and experiences I put into my journal - edited, now sharing with you...

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I don't think you will ever get a glimpse of love until you see it on the face of a child's. They literally have nothing else to live for... nothing left to lose. And it's beautiful. All this time I thought I understood "love". Boy, do we throw that word around likes it's just a paper ball of trash. We're eventually going to just throw it away. What a waste. I want to love like it's not something I waste. I wonder if this is how Jesus felt during His ministry - this sense of humility and passionate love for His people. Before turning on the road towards the girl's orphanage in Gujurat, India... God showed me a passage in the love chapter of 1 Corinthians. 

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ~1 Corinthians 13:1-3

I have a confession to make. I haven't loved anyone. I have loved to the best of my ability, but I never loved anyone. I never loved a soul until I saw a beautiful young girl's face in the center of a crowded orphanage building in the middle of nowhere. And she was stunning. Suddenly, I was in India... at this orphanage... not to say I've been to India... but God to do something amazing and heart-wrenching in my life. Suddenly I was India to love on these children. A new found love I've never known before until now. 

I know it's hard to grasp. What love really is, and if I really did find that love Jesus felt while walking down the streets during His ministry. But I know a few things for sure, God is real, love is real, and God is love; and I caught a glimpse of His love at this orphanage I never want to take back. I've never felt a part of something greater than myself...