New York City - A Place of Change

Why do so many people come to New York City? People who grew up here ask this question every day. It makes sense that people would leave NYC to venture into something new, but why would people come to The Big City? Why would people want to be caught in the “hustle and bustle?”

It seems that most people move here to start over. In NYC, there is enough going on to forget about our past. We can easily be distracted by things around us and not dwell on the things we do not want to think or talk about. So people move to NYC to express themselves, to start over, to forget about the past. But why?

Why is it necessary to physically move to a new place to start new things? Why do we struggle so much staying in a place of pain? We, humans, are so limited. We feel that we cannot grow or change if we stay in the same place. What about the people who have always lived in one of the five busy boroughs in New York City? Should they move to a more serene place to start over? Perhaps. I came to NYC to experience new things…to get away from the “same.” I wonder why we struggle to start over when we do not literally move. My huge conversion experience happened when God rescued me from one state and moved me to another state. God makes “all things new.”

We make choices every day. One of those choices is living in freedom. Why do we choose to live in bondage consistently? Because it is what we are accustomed to? Jesus says, “The truth will set you free.” If Jesus is the truth, then freedom comes from having an intimate relationship with the only incredible God. How amazing is this whole idea of salvation!

It is not the critic who counts.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” –Theodore Roosevelt

I am pretty sure that I have been the critic more than I have been the person in the arena. How incredible would it be if we decided to not be critics? I am critical, by personality…a huge weakness of mine. I can be critical of anything. I am critical of a dying dog. It really is such a tragedy.

I have decided that being a critic is the easy way out. It is easy to be a skeptic. The hard thing in life is to be the person who is alone, being criticized. It is difficult to fail and fail and fail again. It is hard to struggle, to stumble, and to fall. It is hard to live for a worthy cause. It is hard to know only defeat.

But oh, how sweet when there is victory. How wonderful when you can say for once, “I was not the critic. I took the road less travelled.” This is a challenge for all of us to be “the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strove valiantly, who spent himself in a worthy cause, who knew the triumph of high achievement, and who dared greatly.”

Allison Wells: the legacy living on.

Allison Wells, the most influential person in my life other than my parents. Allison mentored me for three years. After she mentored me, she went to invest in the lives of Islamic women in Egypt. But while she was with me, she poured her entire self into me. She invested everything she had. Even when I wore her out and she was completely drained, she kept giving of herself.

Many other women came in and out of my life. Most made memories, only some had an impact. Allison Wells was the girl for me. She loved me completely unconditionally. When I think about Allison, I think about the time that some of us girls built a life-size tabernacle in middle school. I think about the letters we wrote to our future husbands. I think about the tree house we built for underprivileged children. I think about the covenants we wrote that promised we would not gossip or “give any type of bad report about another person.” She was real. She was influential. She was Allison Wells.

Lately, I have been wondering if I am an Allison Wells to anyone? Am I pouring my life into girls? Am I loving people unconditionally? Am I spurring people on in the faith? Or am I just pouring into myself?

I have challenged myself recently to be passionate about people. Risk being hurt so that others may be loved. C.S. Lewis was the one who said that the problem with love is the pain that comes with it. What do I need to do to be an Allison Wells to people?

The Orchestration of God's Sovereignty

Some of you may be able to see how God used a series of circumstances in your life to do something huge. I have always been thought of as a “passionate” person. Now, this passionate personality is not always a good thing. It is good when you have something to get done. However, it is not good when you keep yelling at the referee at your brother’s basketball game. It is not good once you start talking and cannot quit talking fast enough. Word Vomit….that’s a good description of it. You know, it happens to all of us. In the midst of saying something, we realize that it should not be coming out of our mouth at that particular time and we can’t retrieve it quickly enough.

Passion. Passion can be a good thing. Even though I am a passionate person, I went through an era in life when I was not passionate. But during this passion-less time in my life, God was orchestrating a series of circumstances that would later on make me a passionate person.

My passions right now started years ago, in high school. I can see how God used the painful experiences to make me passionate about finding justice in those same situations. The same memories that God rescued me from made me who I am now. He orchestrated every situation: from what book I read, to what I saw on television, to the people I met, to the testimonies I heard, to the things I saw…He orchestrated to make me passionate about social justice.

What is your passion? Do you have a passion right now? What makes your heart leap? What makes you passionate? God will use that passion.

Love everyone, but move with the movers.

Rick Warren said, “Love Everyone, but Move with the Movers.” How much painless would life be if we could live by this principle? No matter how much my dad repeats this quote to me, I feel like I am not very good at living by it.

I have realized lately that the problem with loving people is the hurt that comes with it. This is not a one-way problem. I am certain that people have loved me ridiculous amounts and I have turned around and hurt them. You could ask my parents, I am sure they could give specific examples.

I don’t think the hard part of living by this quote is loving everyone, but the hard part is moving with the movers. It is even harder when you do not know who the movers are. But even during those times, I have realized they are there, you just have to search for them. Sometimes the movers are the people you would least expect.

Moving with the movers creates an opportunity for a revival. Movers make an impact. Movers change history. Movers are remembered. Don’t just stand waiting for people to come with you. Move with the people who are moving. And if you cannot find any movers, just move….other movers will find you.

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

My mom gave me a mirror recently that said, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” This came at a particular important era in my life…that era being right now. I started asking myself this question. I thought to myself, “What would I do if I was not so scared?” It seems that I would make much more of a difference. Surely, there was more that I could do than just live. I was reminded by Student Life Camp’s slogan, “Here and now” that encouraged teenagers to live in the here and now.

It seemed that I was surrounded by people who talked about being proactive, but were too scared to follow their dreams. For some, the dream was to teach overseas. For some, it was the American Dream. For some, it was to end poverty. For me, it was working towards social justice. I realized that I was one of those people who just talked about making a difference.

Was I going to waste my life because I was too scared to actually do what I was supposed to be doing? I think this is a constant battle that we, as humans, deal with. Fear stops us from making a difference. We are too worried about living a “safe” life. Now is the time to live! The time is now! Now is when we are supposed to invest our lives into people! Every day I struggle with the temptation to be mediocre, to waste my life living happily for myself.

I have a choice today…to live out my passions or continue with the routine of life. Surely there is something more than this. Surely there is more than what we are content with now. If your life were to end tomorrow, would you have followed your dreams? Or are you waiting for a better time? The better time is now!

What would you do if you were not afraid? What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?