He Must Increase.

"He must increase, but I must decrease." - John 3:30.

So simple, yet speaks volumes in a self-oriented world.

I believe that pride is the root of most (if not all) sin. We as human beings crave recognition, to be noticed, and to be complimented. We thrive on words of affirmation. Being complimented isn't a bad thing. Neither is being noticed or recognized. It's when we put those things above Christ.

Our main objective is to give glory to God, in all and whatever we do (1 Cor. 10:31). How are we glorifying God in any way when who we point to is ourselves?

I must decrease.

As I was part of a photo shoot & video promotion for the Next Big Thing yesterday, it was hard for some of us to do the things that they wanted us to do. At one point, we even had to say to the camera, "I'm the Next Big Thing!" Which is something we all had to do for the video, but it isn't like me (or really any of us) at all. None of us really felt comfortable with saying that. Even just having pictures taken of me was a bit awkward for me. I'm not a flashy, put-myself-out-there kind of person. Even then, in the back of my mind, a Voice was asking me, "So, Lauren, who's this going to be about? You or Me?"

I have to keep this in my mind for the next month and a half or so. I am now in a position where people will be watching me. Intently. That's kind of a big deal...

So, am I saying "no" to glorifying myself and "yes" to glorifying God?

He must increase.

1 John 3:18.

I think we forget how much we as Americans are truly blessed. Some specifics for me are listed below:

To be able to live in a free country to worship God freely and not be persecuted for it, is HUGE. To have the means to be able to go to a good, Christian university where you have peers/friends who genuinely want to grow in their walk with Christ is rare. To have both parents be followers of Christ and also happily married, with all of us living under one roof (very comfortably, I might add), is also very rare. To have friends and family who would be willing to take a bullet for you, is without a doubt, a great blessing.

And these are only a few of the many blessings I have encountered in my short 19 years.

We forget. SO often.

Our chapel speaker this week was Mike Yankoski, the author of the book titled Under the Overpass, which is about how he and a friend of his became homeless for a number of years as an experiment to see what it was like and how they would be treated. Conviction gripped me as he spoke of the many so-called "Christian" people doing Bible studies at a restaurant where they were sitting, waiting for someone to talk to them, to give them food, to treat them as PEOPLE. Guess what? THESE PEOPLE DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT THEM. Even though I haven't encountered very many homeless people, how many people have I seen from afar sitting alone in the cafeteria, or somewhere else, or someone that needed help, or even a lunch, but didn't even give them as much as a sideways glance? How many people could I have said "hi" to, offered to let them sit at a table with me and my friends, or just asked how they were doing that day? How could I forget so easily that I was once one of those people sitting all alone at a lunch table in the seventh grade? How could I have the audacity to complain about not having enough money to pay for room & board at John Brown University when there are precious, valuable people dying every single day from starving or not having enough clean water?

We have it far too good.

Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment was that we "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" and that "the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:37, 39). Loving our neighbor equates with loving God. If we love others, we love God.

How do we love them? Look at Matt. 25:31-46. Specifically in v. 34-40:

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

How can we love God with our lips, and then turn around and fail to take care of His creation?

However, we need to remember that we shouldn't just do the action and not give them the message of hope. The Gospel is CRUCIAL. It is what separates a true mission trip from a service project. It's what separates love from mere pity. Don't get these things mixed up. The Gospel needs to be intertwined WITH the action. You can't have one without the other.

I admit, I have such a hard time applying this to my life. Mostly because I forget so often how much I am blessed. I need to keep these blessings at the front of my mind, as well as the people I could and should be reaching out towards.

So let us not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. As 1 John 3:18 commands us, let us love in deed and in truth.

Home.

It's so funny how you view things can change so quickly in just a few months.

At the beginning of the semester, there had been some tough things I was going through. Largely because of those things, despite the high that people might get when they go off to college, I was almost literally kicking and screaming the first few weeks of school. Why were things the way they were? Why did God even want me to go to JBU? Why did He have to make this so HARD? Why don't I feel like I belong there yet? Little did I realize that these things can't be rushed, and that I needed to be patient.

John Brown University was the school I wanted to go to, honestly. However, I was fighting with myself, telling myself that the other school would've been better. It was cheaper. I would be on my own in a way. I had family living moderately close to campus that I would almost never get to see otherwise. And a host of other reasons.

The first few weeks, I found friends, new and old, to spend some time with. But somehow, I managed to find myself mentally, socially, and emotionally isolated from them. Why? I still have no clue. Maybe it had something to do with what I had just gone through. Still, I had unconsciously, if not unintentionally, shut others out. I kept telling myself that I didn't belong there, that people didn't want to have anything to do with me, and that I was not worth getting to know.

By the grace of God, I got close to most of my closest friends at JBU all at once. Now that I look at it, I realized that I had met them almost all at once, as well. The first day of spirit week at JBU (Monday), somehow Robbie, Shane, Alisha, and I met up with each other in Walker Student Center. I remember it was PJ day, and we were all wearing PJ's (however, I was just wearing sweats with a hoodie). I had never gotten to spend very much time with any of them and hadn't gotten to know them that well either. We sat around a table talking, and then someone (I can't remember who) got the brilliant idea that we should all dress up for movie character day that Thursday. None of us had any ideas, so we all decided to make an almost last-minute Walmart run that night to look for costume ideas. We decided on being the Pevensie siblings, pre-Narnia. It was perfect.

That night, a deep friendship with each one of them was produced.

After that, we were all inseparable. About the same time that happened, DJ and Amanda joined in with us, and a few weeks later, so did Ariel. Nathan kinda snuck in there for the last few weeks of the semester. :) Of course I have made many other amazing friends besides them and hope to grow closer with each one of them like that (like Sean, Samara, Makayla, Erynn, Laura, Madison, and the ones I didn't name, that means you too!)

All of this to say, because of you guys, and by God's grace and patience with me, JBU has become my second home. I could have NEVER made it through my first semester of college without you guys. Not only do I feel like God brought you all to me, but I think He brought us all together, because we all needed each other. I have never felt so loved, and for the first time in years, I finally feel like I belong somewhere (besides with my family, of course). Not to sound cheesy or anything, but it's all true. To every one of you, please know that you are loved very much!!!

I still don't know why exactly I'm at JBU, but I sure am glad that God guided me here to this wonderful place. Thank You, Lord!

Inspiration, Revelation, and ramblings of that nature.

I've been trying to write another song ever since break started. Every time I go to start writing, however, I give up almost immediately because I just wasn't "inspired" at that time. Same goes for when I try to write a paper or a blog post: I go to write it, and then I give up too easily because I wasn't "inspired."

I've come to realize that it's not just me that deals with this. And certainly not just with writing.

I have a good friend of mine who I talked to a few nights ago via Skype. We were talking about what was going on in our lives right now and what God's been teaching us. She brought up a very good point. The conversation went about something like this:

"God's been telling me that I need to stay put at my house," she said.
I was confused. "Stay put? How so?"
She continued. "Well, He's just been telling me that I need to be here at home and not do anything major until He tells me what to do next."
"Really? Do you want to?"
"Well, no, that's just it. I want to be doing something with my life besides being at home. But God told me that I needed to stay put, and He's teaching me to be content with what He tells me to do."
"What else do you want to do besides be at home? And why do you feel like He wants you at home instead of doing something else?"
"Well... I tried to start a Bible study/seminar for young women, and I knew God didn't want me to, but I did it anyway, and it ended in disaster, and I had to apologize to all these people."
"Do you still want to do something like that?"
"Well, yes, but in God's timing."
That was a valid answer. "Is there anything else you want to be doing right now?"

She went on to tell me about how she wanted to at least get a job besides teaching piano lessons (which were taught at her house) but that she felt she couldn't turn any of the applications in that she had filled out because she was sure that God told her not to.

Finally, I gave her some verses to look up for encouragement, and we ended the conversation.

Before I go on, I'm not saying that God can't reveal Himself to us in places besides the Bible. But honestly, if you want to hear His voice, it's definitely going to come through Scripture.

I think too often, people have a desire to do something specific with their lives or want to find "the one" but they're either too scared/worried that it won't line up with God's will because they don't want to mess up, or they're just too lazy deep down because they didn't hear God tell them to do it, etc. I think we get too caught up in trying to do what God wants us each specifically to do and end up making ourselves sick over it, when really, there are only a few things that the Bible actually commands that we all do.

1. Fear God and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

2. Love God & your neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40)

3. Love & pray for your enemies (Matt. 5:44)

I think that as long as it doesn't go against any of those things, and against anything else the Bible may say, you can do whatever you want to do with your life. If you want to change the world by being a fireman, go for it. If you want to record CD's that give hope to people, then do it. If you want to teach little kids, do it. If you just want to be a stay-at-home wife & mom, do it by all means! All of these things are honorable. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend and if you are both believers, love each other, and want to, then get married! 1 Cor. 10:31 even says, "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." I don't think it's wrong to think about and want to do what God wants for you; I think that's what you SHOULD be doing! However, we have made it into the ultimate excuse not to move forward in our lives, for all of the reasons that I mentioned earlier.

Being too scared is a part of human nature. I understand that. But look at Matt. 6:25, 27.

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? . . . And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" Being worried or scared will get you nowhere. If you don't try, you'll be in the same place that you're in now.

If something falls apart, I don't think that means you shouldn't try to do anything else. It may be God's way of directing you somewhere else, somewhere better. That happened to me this semester at JBU. I tried out for chapel band and didn't make it, I tried out for a play and didn't make that either, and the list goes on. Then, I tried out for The Next Big Thing, and finally made it! Looking back, if I had made chapel band, I wouldn't have time to prepare for the Next Big Thing. If I had made the play, I most certainly wouldn't have been able to put time into preparing for the Next Big Thing. I wouldn't be able to lead the book study that I'm going to lead this semester either if I had made any of those other things.

There's an old saying that goes, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." I believe we have the liberty in Christ to do just that.

So, breathe a deep sigh of relief, take another deep breath, and go out & glorify God with whatever you do in life.