WHEN TRUTH IS THE ENEMY OF TRUTH by Donald Miller

You want to know what "After Midnight Thoughts" actually can be? Wrap your beautiful minds around this one kiddos. Been stuck on these ideas for years.

http://donmilleris.com/2011/03/03/when-truth-is-the-enemy-of-truth/

Remember, never stop asking questions! I promise God has the answers. He is The Truth after all, right? 

Seek Truth no matter what.

 

No matter how scary it might be. 

No matter if it changes everything. 

No matter how hard it is. 

No matter how many sleepless nights.

No matter if it contradicts everything you thought you knew.

Seek it.

Seek Truth! 

 

INSPIRATION: STRENGTH

I found these sayings recently. They seem to be giving me much more awareness of God's strength within me. I have been able to tap into His strength even more than I knew I could, so I knew I had to share them with you. I took the sayings and added them to pictures I love. I hope they help you even just a little bit. 

For all of you with all my love:

IN THE MARGINS AND ON THE OUTSIDE

Being Christian, having an invisible auto immune disease that has left me disabled, losing everything I've ever wanted, etc has left me in the margins of society. I am marginalized. 

Often, this world makes us feel so awful for being in the margins of society. Intead of in the middle of it. I worried for so long about it, and I cant be the only one. You feel like you are missing out on something. You feel lonely. You feel unimportant. You feel like an outsider.

There's something special about the margins in a book however. There is space. To think. To question. To roam. To be, well, whatever you want to be. There's no conforming to a specific amout of space. You don't have to follow life in a line. You can go where you want. Say what you want. Think what you want and believe what you want. There is a freedom in the margins. There is free will. There is Truth--to be discovered, and to live.

Besides the metaphor of a book, which as a writer is one of my favorites, there is this song that makes me feel better about being an outsider. Almost proud even. Insert my gentle smile here.

The Outsiders by NEEDTOBREATHE

  

 

 

 

DEFINE "BEST"

C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily) 6/18/12 10:32 AM #21- We're not doubting that God will do the best for us, we're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. bit.ly/P0OduR

LET GO: CHANGE

Bob Goff (@bobgoff) 6/14/12 7:50 AM God can't change who we're becoming until we let go of who we were. It's Thursday; we can quit being who we used to be

ALL FOR YOU by SISTER HAZEL

Finally I figured out

But it took a long, long time

But now there's a turnabout

Maybe 'cause I'm trying

There's been times, I'm so confused
All my roads, They lead to you
I just can't turn and walk away

It's hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
But words can't say, And I can't do
Enough to prove,
It's all for you

I thought I'd seen it all
'Cause it's been a long, long time

But then we'll trip and fall
Wondering if I'm blind

There's been times, I'm so confused
All my roads, They lead to you
I just can't turn and walk away

It's hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
But words can't say, And I can't do
Enough to prove,
It's all for you

Rain comes pouring down
Falling from blue skies
Words without a sound
Coming from your eyes

Finally I figured out
But it took a long, long time
But now there's a turnabout
Maybe cause I'm trying

There's been times, I'm so confused
All my roads, They lead to you
I just can't turn and walk away

It's hard to say what it is I see in you
Wonder if I'll always be with you
But words can't say, And I can't do
Enough to prove,
It's all for you

It's hard to say
It's hard to say
It's all for you

Sometimes there aren't words to express how we feel, and that's why God invented and used poetry so often. The first 18/19 years of my life I thought I had it all figured out, but I was never trying to tell God how I felt. I never made my life all for Him. It was all for me. It often still is...but there has been a turnabout since 2004 because I am trying, and that's way more than I ever did before I got sick. 

There are so many paradoxes in faith, especially in the Bible, in Christianity: eat with sinners, don't eat with sinners. Be single, get married. Well, which is it Paul? Ya know? We get confused about our faith and about God so often for so many reasons. And we were almost all raised to believe there is this one path that will lead to God, and all others lead away from Him. It used to scare me, give me anxiety. "Oh no! What if this isn't THE path I'm supposed to be on! What if it doesn't lead to God?" 

And then it's suddenly your twenties and you realize you aren't as in control of choosing that one right path as you were raised to believe. You start to question what you were taught. You start seeking the Truth, God's Truth. You realize no matter what you do or what people say God is there, or at least He will be soon. 

You try going left and before you know it you ended up going right, and God is there. 

Sometimes I remind myself He loves me too much to let me run away. It can be frustrating, never escaping from His contant love and attention. Wanting just one moment when He doesnt know the sinful beast of a thing inside of you. A moment where He doesnt know ALL of you because its too dehumanizing, doing the things you know you shouldn't, over and over again. You trip and fall and wonder if you're blind. But I think the beauty of it is that all of life, every single path, God has been aware of from the beginning. He has a contingency plan for every path you take. He will find a way to save you from your own depravity. He will give you a way out. He will give you a clean slate and another chance because He loves you and is rooting for you.

There's always a plan, and He IS the author of His/our story. And I promise you, no matter which way you think you are going, He knows that your story, our story, will always find a way to lead us straight to Him. It's all for Him. And since He is wholly FOR us and our righteousness, and our good, it's all for us too. Once you realize it's all for Him first of course. ;)

It may feel like we can't prove ourselves to Him. It may feel like if you don't go down that perfect path He won't know how you feel. But it's not the big moments, the perfect paths, we should worry about. We should worry about the every day things. Praying. Listening. Giving. Forgiving. Giving radical grace. Loving unconditionally. Dont wait for the big moments to tell Him it's all for Him. What can you do right now, this moment, to show it's all for Him? 

These everyday moments mean the world to Him. He doesn't need some huge gesture from you. He just wants you any time, any where, any how. Even if doing the dishes, don't do them because you have to because no one else in the house will do them and this frustrates you. Instead, put a worship playlist on and do the dishes to serve your family out of nothing but love. And by doing the dishes to serve others and love others, you are serving God and Christ in the process. "Whomever serves one of these..." remember? 

You may not always have the words or the big gestures, but you have each moment to prove it's all for Him, not to earn grace, but to show Him you love Him. And even though you may not always feel like you are always with Him, take comfort in knowing He is always with You. He lives completely FOR us, and He always will. The least we can do is TRY to make it all for Him. 

And we WILL TRY together, ok?

FETCH

I enjoyed making people smile and not just think. I believe life should be a balance of the two. So, seriously, I hope this makes you smile. Why they are both cats when I'm much more of a dog person is yet to be understood. 

Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) 6/11/12 9:36 PM "Fetch." viddy.it/LU7hqn

I mean who doesn't want a cat that can fetch?

PATHS OF WORSHIP

A W Tozer (@TozerAW) 6/11/12 6:23 PM "We can take whatever path in worship we choose, but not all paths will end at the feet of Jesus." AW Tozer

WE ARE NOT ALONE

"If you look close enough to the world around you, you might find someone like you. Someone trying to find their way. Someone trying to find their self. Sometimes it seems like you are the only one in the world who's frustrated, who's struggling, unsatisfied, barely getting by. But that feeling's a lie. And if you just hold on, just find the courage to face another day, someone or something will find you and make it all okay. Because we all need a little help sometimes. We all need someone to remind us that it won't always be this way. That someone is out there. And that someone will find you."

-Anonymous/Unknown

TIME: WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY?

"Evil is whatever distracts." - Franz Kafka

"The greatest trick of the devil is not to get us to do evil things but rather to have us wasting time." - Donald Miller

We are "amusing ourselves to death." - Neil Postman


C. S. Lewis says in The Screwtape Letters that to be in time means to change. God specifically created Time, since He is perfect and need not change, FOR US, so WE can change.

If all we seek is pleasure and comfort and following the crowd we aren't going to change very much. If we are distracted by amusing things all day we ARE wasting time and that is the opposite of why we are here.

So, turn the TV off. Exit out of Twitter and Facebook. Turn Pandora off. Sit. Be. Pray. With God. Listen to Him. And ask how we can better spend this precious little time we have been given. Ask how we can spend time becoming more like Christ, getting to know Him and God better, because that is why we are here. So we can be different, more righteous and Christlike, at the end of our story than we were at the beginning.

Time: What did you do today?






Disclaimer:

I'm horrible at this too. I LOVE TV. I love music. I love Twitter. But we can at least be aware in this moment what we are doing and admit we are wasting what God has graciously given us: Time with Him. And we can encourage one another to seek Him more.

RIGHT NOW YOU ONLY HAVE TODAY

VOICE OF COURAGE

POTSC (@POTSC) 6/10/12 6:54 PM “Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.” -Radmacher

OUR HEARTS

Bob Goff (@bobgoff) 6/10/12 7:52 AM Jesus is more interested in our hearts than our plans. Plan's work out or don't; our hearts define our lives @lovedoes

LOVE, UNCONDITIONALLY

SOME NIGHTS, ART IS FUN.

Every once in a while words elude me. Every once in a while they aren't the art that speaks to me. That feeds me. That slakes the thirst of the beast of a thing inside me, especially at 3:00 am. Sometimes, Some Nights, it's music, television, photography, nature, shadows and light that tell me to Carry On. Every once in a while there are a million other types of art vying for my attention, shouting at me louder than words usually do: "We are Truth!"

Here are two new songs that mean something special to me, and not just because The Format's Interventions Lullabies record was the anthem of our freshman year of college. But because his lyrics are haunting. They speak of Truth, and yet make you rethink everything you think you already know.


His lyrics aren't for the feint of heart. They aren't for people who aren't sure of what they say they believe. They make you think very carefully about what is true and what is false, what is fake and what is real, and what it feels like to be human in a broken world run by the Devil. Now, you don't have to agree. But if just one of these screams or even whispers "I am Truth" to you, then that God and I call a success.

Get lost in them. Feel moved by them. But above all, especially my opinions, feelings, and taste in music: Seek Truth.

 

 

Some Nights by Fun.

 

 

Carry On by Fun.

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SOMETIMES

Sometimes, all God wants you to do today is to laugh with Him and enjoy the day and life He has given you. And sometimes I hope I can do more than vent, rant, and simply uplift or encourage. Sometimes, I want my only goal in a post to be to make you laugh...or at least smile today.

You're welcome.

PEOPLE OF THE SECOND CHANCE

One of the best and most amazing, radical, life altering things that has ever happened to me is finding People Of The Second Chance and learning about Radical Grace, about Gracenomics. Please, please, please do yourself and others the radical favor of going to their website and seeing what they are about. It will change everything. 

http://www.potsc.com

THE PLOTS OF GOD

"If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will...then we may take it it is worth paying." - C. S. Lewis

Free will creates suffering. But if there weren't free will, there wouldn't be love. The choice to love. The love God longs to share wholly and purely with us. 

This war of the Principalities of Darkness vs. The Kingdom of God is worth the choice to choose God and His love to me. It took me quite a while and a few reads of The Problem Of Pain by C. S. Lewis to realize it, but I pray you realize it too. He sees all. He knows all. Trust Him regardless. what is to come makes it all worth it. 

Poe says, "The plots of God are perfect. The Universe is a plot of God." 

I agree. 

GOD IS IN US

"Something of God...flows into us from the blue of the sky, the taste of honey, the delicious embrace of water whether cold or hot, and even from sleep itself.'" - C. S. Lewis

DON'T HIDE YOUR HUMANITY

TWLOHA (@TWLOHA) 6/6/12 10:01 AM "Most depressed people try very hard to be happy. It is exhausting work." wrt.lv/KBsQlc

ARMED FOR TRIBULATION

C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily) 6/5/12 1:47 PM #42 God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain

The Sentient Life

Just when you foolishly think there is NOTHING left to lose--you've suffered through it all...

You're left crying yourself to sleep watching everyone you love most suffer through their own pain and loss and grief...

It's unbearable...

It's unbearable...

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.