Ash & Evergreens

     Grace isn't deserved. What does grace even look like? So often, by human standards, grace is when we don't act too different or indifferent or cold towards someone when they've trespassed against us because that way they still feel what they've done...but we'll still talk to them. Grace is a hard thing to wrestle with and a harder thing to give. What happens when it's your family that's messed up? Your spouse? Your friend? ....What happens then? I feel as though we give the shortest leash to those we love the most, sometimes. You expect so much of them and then when they break it, grace is harder to give.          Grace is not someone wronging you and you tolerating them. Grace is being stirred up by what someone has done and asking God to give you wisdom and the words "I forgive you" coming out of your mouth and heart and still loving them the same.    You Love them the same.      There will be things you have ...

 I try my hardest to let my words and actions match. If I say that I am a Christ-follower, then I try the best as humanly possible to live that out. If I say that I am an athlete, I am going to show that I am an athlete by working and striving to better my athletic skills. If I say that I am going to be there for someone, then I am going to be there no matter what.  I have always found the words in scripture to be accurate in telling me who I am in Christ. And from that, I have found that my actions flow from those words of truth. For a long time, I have been a huge proponent of the fact that I think actions speak so much louder than words.  People say things all the time but when they don't follow those words up with actions, time and time again, those words become...meaningless. Though I do believe that actions still need to follow words, I've learned so much that words really can heal or destroy. That words can drive someone to conquer their fears or buckle under t...

           The other day, I saw something about the term "Living Letter" in accordance with 2 Corinthians 3 and made a mental note to go back and check out what the passage had to say. As my friend and I returned home from church this morning, surviving the cold and CTA card issues, she was talking about her goals for this semester, spiritually. Which then made me think of mine again. I wanted a word or a phrase to use to define what my goals are this semester, but had not found it yet.       When I got back up to my room, I remembered the passage from 2 Corinthians 3 that I wanted to check out. I began to read it and I was just in awe. Starting in verse 2 and going to 3, It says (in HCSB), "You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, Recognized and Read by Everyone. Since it is plain that you are Christ's letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the spirit of the Living God; not on stone tablets but on tablets tha...

   God has a very specific and perfectly timed way of revamping, renewing, reconnecting, retraining, replenishing, restoring, repairing, and refocusing our walks with him. That is what he did for me this past weekend. I am at a lull in my walk. I feel like there are days when I am excited to learn something new or something I've heard a hundred times about the Lord. But I feel the days of not wanting to hear or not being excited to hear have recently outnumbered those days of want. That is a tough place to be.       It is a place where pride begins to creep into my heart and possess my thoughts, reactions, and emotions. It whispers, "you've heard this story a thousand times. You have to go to another chapel and/or listen to another speaker and/or be apart of something that you've done time and time again." It says, "you know it all. You've heard so much of it. Your faith is unquestioning. You are strong." And it screams, "Become complacent! Y...