An Unlikely Candidate

Yesterday, I started to write down my life's story. I started to do this because I wanted to tell people about how the odds were stacked against me from my birth to be another faceless, nameless statistic of numerous things. I started to recap how difficult my life has been thus far. I started this because I was kind of feeling a bit hopeless to get out of my circumstances. I was feeling pretty sad about losing some important people in my life. I was especially feeling the hole of not even having the person I needed the most to help shape who I am, and how I should be: a father.
As I was writing I started to realize some things: God is great. I am a miracle. He is my Father. Suffering makes you stronger.
I was two paragraphs in when I finally started to realize these things, and so I stopped. I decided to not write anymore about my circumstances because there was nothing I could do to change what I was born into, and what I have been through.
 I remembered the following passage:

"Remember dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important." -- 1 Corinthians 1:26-28

By the world's standards, I am not considered much. But God chose me. He loves me. He thinks I am significant enough to die for. He does indeed have a task for me to do, and has given me the personality, gifts, and talents to accomplish that task. I have a piece of the wall to build (Nehemiah reference). And so do you. God chose you, he loves you, he called you into this glorious Kingdom. You are significant. You are secure in Him because nothing can touch you spiritually speaking. Heart and flesh may fail, but nothing will ever separate you or me from Christ's love. We may have weaknesses, but His grace is sufficient. We may have hardships, but we have His peace through it all. We may waver and stumble, but Jesus is still there.
His promise to us is that He will never leave us or forsake us. His promise is that He will give us everything we need for living a godly life to escape the world's corruption caused by human desires (2 Peter 1:3-4). He has promised us that someday we will enter into eternal rest from our trials and hardships here on earth. But until then we surely need to persevere and fix our eyes on Him. Jesus is the champion and perfector of our faith. Let us hold tightly to Him through everything and anything that we may encounter. Let us have an unshakable faith, confident hope of the future, and an unconditional love for one another.

Depth

Last night, I revisited my old youth group. I have such a great love for the people and teens that are a part of that youth group. Such a great love. But I am starting to get off topic before I even start! So last night, my old youth pastor, Blaine, near the end of his message, referred to a quote by Richard Foster: "The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."
This really, really resonated with me last night, and has stuck with me throughout most of the day today. So much so, that I had to look up the quote, read a lengthy, amazing article, and then write about it. It all got me to thinking about what it means to be a person of depth. Is it just someone who is wise? Someone who reflects on everything that they do, say, or think? Someone who is able to hold a conversation about more than the weather, and other topics of small-talk? Someone who is well-versed in politics? Someone who is philosophical? These are all well and good, but I don't really think that is quite what being a deep person means.
I know so many people who strive to be deep. People who struggle to break free of the stereotypes they have been given. Stereotypes of being poor, stupid, uneducated, shallow, arrogant, entitled, selfish, uncaring, party animals, and much more. Yet, when compared to their accusers, sometimes, they had a better understanding of what life was really about. They had a depth about them. When I think about depth, I think of someone who is incredibly grounded. Someone who has great insight into the things of life. Usually, they are wise due to things they have witnessed, or experienced firsthand. These people had a depth that was not really their own, I would dare say. It was a depth that went down into the deepest parts of their soul. It was a rootedness.
Depth like this comes from someone who is so deeply rooted in Christ Jesus. To me, that is a depth, the only depth, that matters. Knowing the depths of Christ's love for us, and being totally rooted in Him. Unshakable. Unwavering. This is the depth I want to have. I want to draw from a spring source so deep that this world cannot even measure.