This is currently the same content as the old lay-out, but I am constantly writing and journaling the things that God teaches me everyday. Please visit my devotional journal for more recent writings.

My life is one crazy piece of stuff. And the only constant in my life is the love God has shown me on a regular basis. It is constant and sometimes it is so tangible that I can close my eyes and just feel it wash over me. The grace that comes with it can cripple you. The mercy is completely unheard of.

Joy is not an emotion - it is a state of mind. It is a choice you conciously make. You decide that you will be filled with joy no matter what you've gone through (read the Prison Epistles of Paul for a greater example of such a choice). No matter the circumstances, you have set your heart on living a life of joy. It's not easy to do, but it is necessary to be happy - and happiness is an emotion; something you can not control. But joy is a concious lifestyle.

Just as joy is something you must choose, so is love. You can not choose whether or not you are attracted to someone, and you can not decide whether or not you want to like someone - but to love them is something you must tell yourself to do. Love is what happens when you can see a person for what they are meant to be - and not for what they are presenting themself as. You can look at a prostitute who sells herself for drug money as a struggling human being who is loved by the One who created her - and who desperately wants her to look His way. If you begin to see the world and everyone who shares it with you with the pre-determined mind-set of unconditional, absolute love and devotion, you'd be surprised how much you change.

Faith is the final (and to me the foundation) of these three, and you absolutely have to choose faith. Faith is a belief in things that are not completely tangible to our five senses - whether it be faith in science or faith in love, it is always a choice. "Fact" is not the same as "faith" - Fact is an irrefutable, proven thing - to be sure of fact is to "know" it's true. To believe something is to have weighed the evidence for both sides and to make educated speculation on it's answer. Faith is to believe - not to know.

I made the decision years ago to live a life of joy; not to live a happy life, because I can not control the circumstances that sway my emotions. But I am going to find joy no matter whether it's hard or easy to be me. And even though I don't think I've ever "hated" someone, I have also made the decision, before ever meeting anyone, before shaking their hand or even hearing of them for the first time, to love them absolutely for the amazing and wonderful creation that God means them to one day be. And every single morning that God lets me wake up, I have to make the choice to have Faith. My life is simply amazing and amazingly simple because of three simple choices I make.

God allows me to make those choices for myself, but because of a Man who was prophesied about hundreds of years before He was born; because He loved and made these choices Himself; because He willingly went to a cross and shed his blood for me and for everyone of God's cherished creations. Because he was born, lived and died for these choices, that is why I've succumbed to the ultimate, amazing, furious love of God. And that is why I have joy, love and faith. And that is why I am able to say that there is no other way to live.

go back home