Oh, To Be Young

Life has been great! I have a completely new relationship with God now, which has been about 2 years overdue. And this time it's not a "temporary high" that lasts about a day and a half, because it's been about 3 months now. No, 2 months. It's wonderful to find yourself in Christ again. One thing I've always noticed, is that I don't feel like myself when He's not in my life. I feel like I don't know myself when He's not near. The book of Romans speaks of God choosing to give us mercy. We can't work for it, there's nothing we can do to earn it. He chooses to give it to us. That's why I'm growing more and more uneasy about the phrase "accepting Jesus." He accepts US! And we are darn lucky because of it. So it's not like I decided to let God back into my life. He was gracious enough to accept ME back.



Owl City's albums and singles are repeating in my ear. I have a bad habit of moving my fingers to the synth/xylophone. I also do this while I'm walking with my iPod, and that must look weird. I think a big reason I like Owl City so much is because it reminds me of sceneries and colors and abstract skylines that I never captured in the visual part of my mind before until I heard these songs. See, when I think of things.. anything.. I see in color. When I think of San Francisco, for example, I think of the color red before anything else. Everything has a color. Except numbers. But numbers are either male or female. Isn't that weird?! Maybe I should stop talking, I'm beginning to sound clinically insane.



My favorite Owl City lyric is "We'll fill the metro skies with country air." There is NOTHING better than country air. Jussayin'. So Owl City has come out with three albums (only one was "professionally produced" via a big label company, but pshh). I have 2 of 3 albums, and I really want his first album, Of June. But I haz no monies. "Fuzzy Blue Lights" (off the Of June album) is a favorite song. (Go to youtube.com/deahtbythebow, the video is on the front page!)

Lately I have been really holding onto James 5: 15 & 16.

"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

Let's look closer at the "effectual fervent" prayer. Effectual means producing an intended effect. Fervent means "having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm. Hot; burning; glowing." See, I didn't know fervent meant that until I looked it up a few days ago. :-) I thought it meant persistent. But it means desire, intensity, something that's burning inside you (in a good way).

I have been praying everyday lately for three people inparticular. I don't pray for them exclusively. But I never forget to pray fervently for them every day. And what else does James says? It says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." We need to lead righteous and holy lives out of reverence for God. This is first and foremost. We don't try to live holy for ourselves. We do it because our bodies were bought at a price and they no longer belong to us. God's temple resides in us. He demands purity in our lives. But also, when we lead righteous lives, our prayers are more effective. And while I may not always grasp that I need to live a holy life because I was bought by Christ to live for Him, I always grasp the concept that my prayers are not powerful if I'm disobeying Him. Why should He listen to me, if I'm not obeying Him? Would a parent take their child out for ice cream right after the child majorly disobeyed them? Probably not. But a parent is much more likely to do good things for the child and bless him, if he obeys.

Christ died for us while we were still sinners, though. God is not a God who says, "Only when you do this, I will do this for you." Sometimes that is the case. He loves to bless us, but not to the point where it spoils us. He still demands holiness. But He knows we're sinners and we will never be good enough. But our prayers are still going to be MUCH more powerful and effective if we're righteous before Him. So that's what I've been realizing lately. :-)

The title of this blog, Oh, To Be Young, is after a song by The Almost called "Hand Grenade." The lyrics confused me at first, not knowing if the singer was singing to his wife, or to God. But I later realized it had to be about God. Anyway, the lyrics are, "Oh, to be young, it sounds like so much fun. Oh, the long wait for things to happen." Waiting is fun! Because when everything "starts happening," I'll look back and want my waiting days to come back. :-) Speaking of monogamy... (whaa?)

It's funny how some animals are monogamous, and other animals are the furthest thing from it! Geese, are my life inspiration. When you see baby geese, they are ALWAYS (at least in my experience) surrounded by mom and pop. Usually, like when the babies are swimming, one parent is in the front, and one is at the rear of the herd. Pack. Pod. Colony. And they're always together. I have never seen baby geese in the presence of only one parent. If I'm not mistaken, geese are monogamous their whole lives, which is pretty cool. And then you have some animals like the tiger. The male tiger mates, and then basically runs away and never comes back. And then we have insects. I find it so funny/ironic/horrible/weird how female spiders will eat male spiders after they've mated. Male honey bees fall to their death after they've mated. (And a Queen bee mates with about 12 male bees at a time, which is gross. But they're bugs, so it's OK.)

That was random, but it's so nice to see geese and their monogamous ways!! :-) Geese are more moral than us, sometimes. :-P