FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDD--- ohi pretty music

you see, I tend to get bored while eating.

only really exciting sandwiches make it better. unfortunately, I don't get really exciting sandwiches often.

durrrrrrrrrrrr

home at last

We stood years apart, yet our frail little hearts kept hoping and hoping; we pressed on on the path that promised love, peace, rest, and best of all, eternal joy. We traveled as one collective mind--with one end goal in our individual minds, though differing in age, size, race, and gender. The path was narrow, the path was hard. It was a race not against one another, but one to finish the race. Many would run, yet many would fail. It was a race full of hardships, trials, pain, and stress-- but in not one moment could there be no soothing effect to be found in the promises and sweet comforting words of the one who awaited us at the end. We learned to keep our eyes straight, to keep our feet steady, but also to look to Him as a child looks up to his father. There were treasures awaiting us, we whispered to one another excitedly. A reward. 

Our efforts were not in vain, nor were the tears and blood that stained the very ground that we walked upon. We would fall, we were told. We would experience weakness beyond imagination, yet still the sweet hands of Jesus guided us and picked us up time and time again as we fell to the ground weak and weary. Not once were we alone; He was always there. He stood and walked and talked beside us, raising our eyes and hearts to gaze and focus upon the saving work of the Cross-- the wooden cross that bridged the massive chasm that seemed endless beneath our feet. 

"I did this for you," He said, "that you may enter in. Run hard this race, dear child; my blood has been spilled for you."

Then...at last. Home. We had done it. We had finished. We had run the race. We had fought the good fight. We had run hard with endurance, raising others' hopes with the everlasting promises found in His abounding grace--for in truth, nothing we had done was in our strength. Each time we fell it was His hand that picked us up, brushing off the dirt and blemish that stained us. And at last, at long last, we had arrived. No sweeter, no more comforting, no more piercing words could have been said as we stood finally face to face with our maker:

"Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter in the joy of your master."

And finally with the multitudes of creation we fell to our knees and raised our voices as one in praise to the King, crying out, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!" 

And so it was, then and forevermore.

beyond the silver glassy sea

no hope.
no love.
no life.

aside from my belief--my faith.
that is what i have. that is all i will ever have in the end, yet the world around me attacks me for it, claiming me to be ignorant, foolish, intolerant. i apparently offend them. according to what i believe, though, it doesn't matter. i'll offend many people in my lifetime, sure. the thing is... i'm not on this earth to please them, no matter how much pressure society places on me.

but one day we'll find out who's right. as of now, they're right in their own minds and i'm wrong. our beliefs, you see, clash; they just can't work together. one day when we pass through this life into the void, it'll be beautiful for one and pure agony for the other.

the past and I

It was like nothing I would have ever expected, yet at the same time, it was exactly how I dreamed it to be. We walked into that huge room together expecting nothing and everything at once. It was silent and empty, but we were happy, quietly content with what we had in one another. We walked on a long silver balcony, staring deep into (or out of?) the glass walls that separated us from the expanse of vast nothingness and darkness that lay just beyond us.

There was nowhere really that we could go, yet the paths to a million places lay at our feet. Life spun in each and every direction. Life itself was in our fingertips at that very moment. It was just me and you and you and me, and I knew that this was where I belonged.

We stood there for hours, staring off into the silent blackness, not at all silent ourselves as our conversation drifted from God to life to love to laughter. I don't know how long we spent there, but to me, it didn't matter-- and when you took my hands and looked into my eyes, nothing else mattered at that moment. 


"I love you," you said. 
I know, I thought. I would never ever let you go-- I love you too much for that to happen. 


Yet now, years later, I hold onto nothing but those memories. As I sit with the sun falling out of the sky before my eyes, I realize one thing; nothing here ever lasts. She's gone. Too far gone. 

lest you fall

Have you ever noticed that it's the smaller things that prove to be the most impactful? It's the short, yet heartfelt encouragements that give the most benefit. It's amazing to see the results of encouragement; it can lift the heartbroken back to their feet, give new life to those who have given up, give wings to the fallen. Even the smallest words aimed to uplift can produce overwhelming results.
We're called to encourage those who feel like they're falling. We're called to build up those all around us. (1 Thess 5:11, 5:14, 1 Tim 6:1-2)

Hm, it looks like I need to mean more with my words. I say too many things that are 1. unnecessary, and 2. inappropriate for that moment. Likewise, I say too few encouraging things to those who deserve them. I need to change.
I pray that I may be a Godly example and encouragement in my actions, speech, and interactions.

never coming back

a smile in the dark,

two hands clasped forevermore,

now a folded flag

it's all gone, she says,

what we never had--and more.

and now it's all gone. 

not alone

Cassie looked up at the bleak skies, warily eying the darkening clouds gathered in the distance. She shivered and pulled her coat closer against the incoming wind, then plunged into the crowds of people around her. Like waves they beat upon each other, not caring what or who was in the way. In the midst of this hustle and bustle of downtown city-life, Cassie felt tiny. Her job as a marketing advisor at a small-scale business didn't really help either. She was nothing, she felt, in the grand scheme of things. She had nothing to contribute to society, she told herself time after time.
It was cold-- the way she thought, the air she breathed in as she walked briskly upon the sidewalk. No, everyone was cold. Eye-contact was inexistent on the streets; eyes never locked upon one another. It was like everyone was afraid... of everyone. Afraid of meeting someone different, unusual, out of the ordinary.

Yet, Cassie thought, in this way, hardly anyone here is different.