Prayed for a verse today. This is what I got, and honestly, this is all I need. Hope it brings little more hope and light and life into your day as well.

Isaiah 41

“Be silent before me, you islands!
    Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak;
    let us meet together at the place of judgment.

 “Who has stirred up one from the east,
    calling him in righteousness to his service[a]?
He hands nations over to him
    and subdues kings before him.
He turns them to dust with his sword,
    to windblown chaff with his bow.
 He pursues them and moves on unscathed,
    by a path his feet have not traveled before.
 Who has done this and carried it through,
    calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord—with the first of them
    and with the last—I am he.”

 The islands have seen it and fear;
    the ends of the earth tremble.
They approach and come forward;
     they help each other
    and say to their companions, “Be strong!”
 The metalworker encourages the goldsmith,
    and the one who smooths with the hammer
    spurs on the one who strikes the anvil.
One says of the welding, “It is good.”
    The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.

 “But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you descendants of Abraham my friend,
 I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
 So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Public opinion is not a bad thing.
Neither is the popular opinion
(not inherently, anyway.)

It's wonderful that we as a culture and
generation
and people
are able to cultivate our own views on life
and love
and belonging.

But...

...if you're like me (a normal human being)
then you've had a time or two
where your opinion is not the popular one.
Where your choice, is the one
condemned by the masses.

I am not a person that easily opposes the status quo.
Not in public,
not in church,
and not in my family.
I value the opinion and outlook of others to a fault:
to the point where what was once just the popular
opinion, has now become my opinion.

I don't think I'm crazy when I say I want to be liked.

I want to make life easier for people,

and I want to be well-received.

And, if you are indeed a human as I am, 

then you know that the popular opinion is a heavy pendulum

that can take centuries to swing. 

Who am I, to go up against such a thing?

Who am I to oppose the status quo?

To resent it?

But I have been resenting it of late, 

and I'll tell you why:

I believe that I was called to this race. 

To this World Race.

I believe that this is where God wants me.

I believe that this is not a mere opinion

up for debate, 

or a simple whim,

 up for consideration.

o·pin·ion

əˈpinyən/

noun

1. 1.

   a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

be·lief

biˈlēf/

noun

1. an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.

This World Race...this is not a view or a judgment.
This is a call,
and I believe in this call,
and I believe in the One whose called me.

Opinions are easy to pick up,
and even easier to drop when they become too heavy,
or too inconvenient.

Not so with a belief. 

I can't simply pick it up and chuck it out the window.

I can listen to your logic, and I can

understand your reasoning,

and I can feel your fear,

and I can hear your protests,

but

I cannot change what is true.

I believe that your're entitled to your opinion:

on me, and on my life,

and what I've chosen to do with it.

But I also believe that your opinion 

is just what the definition says it is:

a judgement.

You may have the best argument in the world

against me traveling this world for this Gospel,

But here's the thing.

I know the Judge,

and He sees things differently. 

The Great Commission

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

To everyone who knows me,
I want you to know that I love you.
Not in the feeling kind of way,
but in the real, deep, true way
that will withstand any opinion
and any judgement that
you might toss my direction.

But to everyone who knows me,
I have to say this:
I am going on this Race,
and I while that may not be the popular opinion
or what you view as the logical decision,
my Judge has already handed down my commission,
and it is to GO.

I believe that with all my heart.
I believe that it doesn't take years,
or months,
or even weeks to change a life.

Only a moment of hearing God's opinion of you, 

can lead to a lifetime of belief. 

I believe in the bible,

and I believe in Exodus 20 and Genesis 3,

in the same way that I believe in Luke 13

or John 16, or Acts 8.

Speaking of Acts 8, let's talk about it for a second.

Acts 8:26-40

Philip and the Ethiopian

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”  And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

In an Acts 8 commentary [click HERE to read it in its entirety!]

[In immediate obedience, with little information but complete trust in the God who guides, Philip sets out. For God to summon Philip from a thriving ministry in Samaria to the wilderness of the Judean hills is not an irrational move. God's goal is not only "quantity" but also "quality," in the sense of an ethnically diverse body of Christ (Rev 5:9). In a day when four of six billion have yet to hear the gospel within their own language and culture, we should not be surprised to see God calling our most effective evangelists to go to remote places. And like Philip, they should obey immediately and unquestioningly.]

So....yeah.
I know.
My decision may not be popular,
and you may not agree with it,
but I love you and would ask you
to believe me when I say,
this is what God's calling me to do.

And maybe, just maybe, God's calling you to believe that too.

To my fellow racers,

I say take heart!

Even if you end up all alone on a see-saw in the middle of the park,

and no one seems to be behind you,

don't let it shake you,

and don't let it change your belief

into an opinion.

Stand up to the masses,

even if it feels like you're standing alone.

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; 

he will never leave you nor forsake you. 

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

-Deuteronomy 31:8

I'm writing this letter to myself, but posting it because maybe I'm not the only one who needs to hear it. Maybe? 

First, some analogy. 

I'm sitting at a desk getting ready to take a test. Someone's given me a pencil, but I've put it in my backpack and forgotten about it. Instead of getting the pencil out and using it, I think, "How am I ever supposed to finish this test?" The task seems impossible. 

Now I'm sitting outside looking at my overgrown lawn. Someone's given me a lawnmower, and yet I don't seem to care. All I can think is man, I wish someone would come and mow this lawn before it gets any longer. 

Finally, I'm standing in front of a door. A closed door, and one that I can't seem to open. I need to get inside, and yet I can't think how to do it. Sure, I know I have two arms, but surely those arms couldn't have been devised for this purpose. Surely they can't mean me to use these arms to open that door. 

Now that we're all sufficiently confused, let me explain. 

"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." 

John 14:26 

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 

Acts 1:8 

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them." 1 Corinthians 12:4 "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." 

Acts 2:4 

"The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." 

Luke 1:35 

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." 

Romans 8:26 

Are you getting it now? Are you seeing the pencil now? The lawnmower? Do you get that you can use those arms to open that doors? 

Too often I sit in the deep hole that is my own circumstance and wonder how I'm ever going to get out. I think to myself, where's the rope that I need? What's the magic word? God, where's the help? 

Well. 

The Help is here, 

and it's always been there, 

and will always be there. 

Even when I'm unable to acknowledge that. 

There is a right tool for the job--in fact, there's one tool for every job, and we as Christians have unlimited access to that tool. To that Helper. To the Great Advocate. Don't complain to the teacher that you don't have a pencil when there's one sitting in your backpack. Don't ignore the lawnmower in your own garage just because your neighbor's seems bigger and shiner. Don't refuse to use your arms in ways they were intended. 

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." 

Ezekiel 36:26-27 

In our holster of faith, we are carrying the right tool for the job--the only thing we have to do now is use it.

The internet can be a mystical place where magical (and not so magical) things happen, and

now that this blog is amongst those "mystical" internet things, I wanted to introduce you to some of my favorite internet things. They are shiny and beautiful and inspiring and life-changing and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

1. Utmost for His Highest
2. The High Calling
3. The Tattooed Missionary
4. The Lipstick Gospel
5. Our Daily Bread
6. The World Race: Bree Rossi [shamelessly plugging my world race blog]
7. Relevant 
8. Jamie the very worst missionary
9. The IHOP Live Prayer Room

Enjoy!