On life...under the sun

it seems to me that my general focus is always on the next big thing. the new ipod, the new bands, the new clothes, the new phone. it's almost as if these things define me. and we live our lives out with our new toys. it's no different than when we we're kids. i for one know that all i wanted as a kid was the new G.I. Joe toys, woah, woah, woah let me rephrase action figure. so i would plead for these little toys..that would lose their luster after about a week. however i would spend a lot of that week not even playing with the toy, but just looking at it, taking it to church to show all my friends.

and theres nothing new under the sun. when i got a little older, and i got a pair of nikes i would make sure to clean them every night, so at school i had the cleanest and coolest nikes. so all my friends could see them. so everyone knew that Dakota Zook had some fresh kicks. again in highschool...if you're like a guy i know named Jordan who would come into breakfast every morning and being so very cool he would toss his keys on the table. not in his pocket where keys would normally go...no he needed people to know that as a sophomore in high school he could drive. and he was sooo cool because of it. it's no different. in highschool i followed what seemed to be trendy. i was a touch of a goth for a while...if you can believe that. yes it's true. i did decorate myself daily in my black dickies, my black chuck taylors, and my black band t-shirts. i hung out with all my gothic friends and we would talk about how much we hated shcool, and man we couldn't wait to get out of this town.

that didn't last very long.

i then returned as a skate boarder. and if you've ever seen me...i'm no skateboarder. the thing was i am too simply for those things...so i looked for what was simple, i found myself being best friends with Jacob Frazier...and we were friends. he was my best friend. we would drink the weekends away together(because we had such tough lives...) only to do it again next weekend. and while i still care for Jacob and he will always be a close friend...that scene got old fast. so i moved on to being a gooood christian kid. the problem with that was all my "christian" friends were worse than my "non-christian" friends. and they would often point out how i shouldn't hang out with my "non-christian" friends. i remember my AIM profile...(who doesn't? 8th grade anyone?) and i would put a bible verse in there...only to be approached by my youth pastor who so confidently told me "that's living the truth bro"...is he kidding? putting 1 John 1:9 in my profile made me a living breathing christian? that my readers is popycock. so i never had a balance.

and everything i ever did or tried to do was always what defined who i was. but thats not who i am, and it doesn't define who i will be. putting bible verses on facebook and myspace, and aim doesn't mean you're doing anything for the kingdom...it just means you're making yourself look and feel like you might be. all the while living a life of gossip, and finding yourself worth in your things, and toys. i wonder how many people have had a "G.I. Joe" so to speak? what is it that could be inside of our lives that makes us desire these objects that will all be gone? one of my friends who i wont mention by name, but she is named after a famous singer...who sang songs such as "after the glitter fades", "alice", and my personal favorite "edge of seventeen"...however each of us have these desires that make us who we are...and this friend imparticular wants to get married soo badly...i'm not sure why? but it's like that will finally define her...when i wonder if she knows that she isn't going to be married forever, once she dies...that's it. there's no marriage in heaven. we do and find things to define who we are...and everything under the sun is worthless.

until we are honestly ready to evaluate life under the sun...and realize that saying a prayer isn't going to save us, and putting bible verses on our profiles wont make us more of a christian...and that every toy we pursue is vanity...and step back and look at the big picture for a second and realize that Christ is the only thing that can begin to mold our hearts into what they need to be...and his love is what defines us...then we will never understand the point of this life.

see cause people say Christ said to enter the kingdom of heaven you must be born again...and Christ also said to enter the kingdom of heaven you must sell all you have and give to the poor...ouch...huh? not happening is it? when Christs people are hungry...the church fails. when the homeless don't have shelter...the church fails. when people assume that bible verses on there walls, and a sinners prayer will save them...the church fails. when we define ourselves by what we have on this earth...we fail. life is a breath...hopefully i can start to live that truth.

so here's to christianity...and all the misconceptions it has become

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