Not Noticed.

     I have this new obsession. And it truly is an obsession. One Tree Hill. It's a tv show that has been airing for quite some time. I am not very good at watching shows every week and planning my schedule around it. (I think it's a good thing.) However, my friend has loaned me the entire seasons. So that makes it easy to escape and spend hours watching this show. At the point of the show I am in, they are in high school. And boy, does it make me want to go back to high school.
     That's a big statement for me to say. But really, if I could, I 'd go back at least for a week. And I would eat lunch with the ones who have been left out. I would walk down the hallway with the young man who always gets made fun of, and I'd get to know the slightly awkward girl who never speaks. I would make a difference. 
     When I was in high school, I was wrapped up in how much I hated it that I didn't even look to see what I could do to make it better for someone else. There are students and people that go to school and work who despise their lives. Who go unnoticed. Who miss school for weeks and no one ever notices. They live with pain and depression. And why didn't I do anything about it!? Why don't I do something about it? 
     I don't have to be in high school to change someone's life. There are still lonely people. I want to find them. And I want to love them. Why? Because that's what life is about. Life isn't about the coolest new trend, or having the coolest things..... Life is about making a difference. It's about sharing Jesus' love. 
     I hate to admit it, but I'm not sharing His love these days. I'm in my safe "clique" of Christian friends, I've lost my heart for the lost, broken, and down-hearted. But through a television show, the Lord has opened my eyes to them once again. I sat on my couch and cried for them yesterday in shame. Because my heart had never heart for them like that in way too long. My heart is in process of being broken. Broken for the things it should be broken for. And for that, I am not ashamed. 
     Life isn't about me, life is about Jesus and the hurting. Make a difference. Begin today. 

Isaiah 58 says it best,  ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: 

to loose the chains of injustice 

   and untie the cords of the yoke, 

to set the oppressed free 

   and break every yoke? 

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry 

   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— 

when you see the naked, to clothe them, 

   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, 

   and your healing will quickly appear; 

then your righteousness^[a] will go before you, 

   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; 

   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Stumped Toes & Running into Doors

     One of the things that I seem to do is run into half opened doors, or stump my toe on a piece of furniture that has always been in that exact spot.  Another thing is at my house I have to park on the street, most times I have to turn my car around at the end of the street so I can park on the same side of the street that my house is on. So I go to the end and do a U turn. There are hardly ever any cars on the street I intersect with my turnaround, so I always just stop and go. One day, I stopped and started to pull out and realized that I didn't even look to see if there's a car coming. Don't worry I didn't wreck, I just had to stop abruptly. I had made a habit in my mind that I never have to REALLY stop at that stop sign.
    There are small things in our life that are so normal to us that we don't ever stop to make sure that God is speaking to us about it. For example, with the doors, most of the time the doors I run into are typically never closed, so when they are my mind doesn't register in enough time that it's not open all the way. And then, BAM, I run into it. There are things in our life that have been normal and on schedule that God wants to speak to us about. Or wants to close that part of our life, but we have gotten so used to it that it's become second nature. When God is saying, "Brennen! Wake up, that's not good enough for you any more. Let it go!" "Brennen, you are called to live a life of holiness- that isn't cutting it! Cut it out of your life." "Brennen, proceed with caution, stop and be aware of your surroundings!" "Beloved, this door is shut, but I have a better one open for you! Pay attention!"
     So what half closed doors are you still running into? Any streets you've failed to proceed with caution in? It's time for me to pay attention to the things in my life that I've left God out of and to listen up.