It didn’t have to end this way…
It’s a sad day in my town.
News spread quickly last night that a young 14 year old girl took her own life. The cause of death has been attributed to bullying.
Bullying.
Now I cannot say that this is the entire cause of death. Did she suffer from depression? Were there other circumstances in her life? I don’t know. But we do know bullying was part of it.
It’s not right.
I know there have been times in my life when I’ve been the bully. I also know there are there are larger portions of time when I have been bullied.
Why?
I didn’t fit into the “proper category”. I was a jock who didn’t live in the gym. I was a nerd who was good at sports. I didn’t go to the cool parties. I didn’t drink or smoke. I was “different” than the people I was around a good deal of the time.
Why is it this way? Why is being different when you are growing up so bad?
We live in a world who adores and worships those who are “different” than the norm. Look at the people who reach fame in reality shows because they look or sound different than the rest of the contestants. Can anyone say “Prince Poppycock”?
Bullying hurts.
Bullying breaks people down and tears them apart. It destroys confidence. It destroys esteem. It crushes hopes and dreams. It begins a downward spiral that many cannot get out of. For some, they fall so far there is only one way out.
Here’s what I want people to know.
It’s not over. The bottom is not the end. There is a way out aside from suicide. There are many people who care for and love you. There is help out there. Friends. Family. Teachers. Professionals. Many people who want you to live and more importantly, they want you to be who you are.
I’m not going to make a big religious post out of this, but know this.
You are loved.
God has you on this earth for a purpose. The world may not see it. The people who are in your face pushing you down, they don’t see it. Your family may not see it. You may not even see it yet. You are here for a purpose. You are here to make the world a better place, and your time will come.
One of my favourite songs is Mercy Me’s “Beautiful”.
Give it a listen. Know that you are not alone in this. People want you to live and love. God wants you to live. I want you to live. Even if we’ve never met, I look forward to seeing how you will touch the world with your gifts.
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Growing Up Is Hard To Do
“Growing Up Is Hard To Do”
Ephesians 4
Paul begins chapter 4 of the letter to the church in Epheus reminding us we are to be one,
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
For those who have accepted this, for those who have come to know the teaching of Jesus Christ, sent by God, we receive gifts of the Spirit. Paul tells us,
“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
Words to the Church: What are you called to do?
Continuing on a series I started this summer that I called “Words to the Church” where I share some things that come to mind when I think of rebuilding the church into the earthly body of Jesus Christ.
Today I want to look at what our primary calling is to be.
Do you know what the primary calling for your church, in your community is?
I’ll give you a hint… it’s the same as every other church.
It’s the same as the church down the street. It’s the same as the one across town. It’s the same as the one in some small village in Africa.
The primary call for the church is to create disciples.
It’s Jesus’ final instructions to the 11 disciples.
On the day of Pentecost, they left the room they were hiding in and began to share and preach and to teach people about Jesus Christ. And when people joined the first church, they were cared for, they were taught, they were led to understand the significance and meaning of Jesus Christ in their lives.
From there, more leaders emerged, and more churches, and more Christians, and more leaders, and so on and so on.
Discipling the focus of Paul’s ministry. He taught, he encouraged and he even corrected the churches he communicated with, all in an effort to grow their relationships with Jesus Christ.
So what is the mission of your church? Is it to keep fundraising so you can keep the doors open so things can remain the same? Is it to keep doing the same things over and over again which hasn’t produced new members in the last 10 years?
Your mission is to build disciples. Your mission is to foster new Christians into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Your mission is to look like the first Christian church after the day of Pentecost (well, hopefully without all the Christian leaders going to jail or being murdered).
Jesus Christ gave clear instructions to those he left behind, the one’s he built this church on.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
How are we doing?
Why me?
“Why Me?”
Ephesians 3
Have you ever had a “why me?” moment? A time when you just looked around at whatever was going on in your life and just wondered, “Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this?”
Or maybe you were picked to do some sort of job that you felt totally unqualified for, so when you’re into the thick of it, maybe feeling a bit overwhelmed as things begin to pile up around you and you start to wonder how you ended up in this position to begin with. What ever gave people the idea that you could ever do something like this?
In reading the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus you kind of have to think he’s asked himself the same question more than a few times.
“Why me?”
Paul is writing this letter in prison to be sent to the church. We know he wrote a number of letters while in prison, and we know he was there because of his unwillingness to relax his attempts to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the people in the region.
Paul starts to say something in the first verse, “This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…” but then he looks like he gets lost in his thoughts. I suppose when you’re in prison, your mind might be rushing to say all it can while it has the chance, so it might be easy to get distracted when something pops into your head. So while Paul has started to say something in this first verse, he quickly jumps to another subject, he gets lost on a tangent for a while.
“For surely you’ve already heard the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you… as I already wrote about above…” read more…
Facebook Frenzy
There’s been a lot of emotion lately around social media. Most of it around Facebook.
Facebook has started making some major changes to its platform. There’s a new interface, with even more changes on the horizon. Which is fine, they own it, they can do what they want. We, as users, have the option to accept the changes or not. Which means we can stop using the service or keep using it to varying degrees. This is the decision being pondered by millions of people right now.
I’ve looked carefully at the changes Facebook is bringing down the pipe. The new user interface indeed does look really, really cool. But they are also introducing the ability for applications, websites, tools, media and many more, to have easy access to the information we choose to share.
I know that everyone in my town knows all about my life. It’s part of living in the fishbowl that is my job. I’m ok with that. I have a certain amount of control over what is shared because I know I am the source of this information, so I only share what I wish to be made public.
Facebook once let you hide the fact you commented on other people’s statuses, pictures, etc. That feature quietly disappeared. I could live with that, because I knew the 400 or so friends I had would be the only ones seeing it. But with the latest changes, now when someone comments all my 400 friends friends will see it in the live ticker.
If my friends average just 250 friends (a very conservative assumption), that’s 100,000 potential people (at least) who now have the ability to see me in the same live ticker. And while I still carefully monitor what I say, that’s a lot of people.
I can’t look past this.
I use social media (twitter, Facebook, Google+) to communicate with family, friends, and colleagues all over the world. I love this feature. I can now communicate in realtime with these people, see what they are up to, and keep in touch, share ideas, collaborate, lots of great things.
But I don’t need to see what music they are listening to right now, nor movie, or tv show. I just want to know how you are doing.
Facebook takes up too much of my time, I’ve decided. So i am scaling back. I’m reducing my friends list. I’m reducing the number of apps that have access to my account, I’m ‘unliking’ a whole bunch of things.
It will continue to be a conversation tool, but that is all. Same goes for twitter and Google+.
If you want to converse with me, you can still do it. If you want to share apps with me, sorry, it’s done. Not going to happen.
Social media is a blessing in how we can daily keep in touch with each other. But I’m afraid of what’s next. I’ve been using technology since the mid 1980’s. I’ve worked for global tech firms. I’ve programmed software that mines, gathers, and transfers data. I know what the power of data means in the hands of corporations.
I’m not trying to convince you one way or another as to your own decision. I’m just simply stating my own thought process that has led me to make my decision. I respect whatever decision you decide to make. I know people will still continue to use the full features of social media applications and get great enjoyment out of it. Go for it.
I’m just not comfortable myself, so I’ll watch from the sidelines thanks.
With over 700 million users, I don’t think Facebook will miss the million or so of us globally who will choose otherwise.
Have fun! Be safe!