The Pain That Our Neighbors Are Feeling

I live in a world that is so black and white

And I'm not talking about true or false, wrong or right

I mean racism: failing to love the way He loved

Is just as much my fault as anyone else's

But I look around and I'm frustratingly helpless

White privilege disarms me, it makes me defenseless

Against all the evil I see in the world

I'm part of the problem, not part of the cure

And that's not 'cause I'm white; white men are not evil

But my voice is hushed by the hand of the Devil

"This isn't your fight, it's not anyone's fight!

Shut up and sit down! It'll turn out alright."

But he's lying; injustice is real, all around me

A frightening, sobering, crushing reality

I'm deafened by hate, but they say, "It's okay!

It's based on statistics; you'll see that someday."

Well, I don't want to see it! I don't want to be blind

To the way that my selfishness hurts other lives

We're the children of God, and God's not black and white

He's the King of the nations, and I know I should fight

To tell you that He doesn't care about color

He showed that when He chose to let Himself suffer

For you and for me, for "God so loved the nations"

That isn't just white, it's the whole of creation

So I don't know what Bible you think you've been reading

'Cause race and religion are so damn misleading

Forgive me, I'm 'bout to go off on a tangent

But this is a problem that I see is rampant

The Muslims who wanna get into our country?

They're people too! Let me say it quite bluntly

It's stupid to think that we aren't called to love them

For God loves the world, whether Christian or Muslim

So excuse me for this, but I'm not out for blood

I don't say "Kill 'em!" or "Gimme my gun!"

My God is Yahweh Sabaoth: Lord of Hosts

I think, if He wanted, Islam would be toast

So He doesn't need me to take up the sword

He needs me to love, to live by the Word

Look, I'm not pretending I've got it together

I'm guilty of tons, and I'm sinful as ever

But don't drag the name of my God in the dirt

By pretending He's out to get Muslims deported

Look at me ranting, I feel kinda stupid

Back to the subject (my tangent's concluded)

If God wanted racism, wouldn't He say it?

"Thou shalt choose one race to hate and go hate it"?

But do we see that anywhere in the Scripture?

Uh... No. That hasn't been written!

God doesn't want us divided and hating!

The racism raging has got His heart breaking

With white Christians faking the love that they're taking

From God, who is waiting to see us awaken

To what we've forsaken, the way we've mistaken

How sin has us broken for some sort of token

That black is the problem or white is the problem 

When sin has us killin' and teachin' our children

To raise up their children to keep up the killin'

And God damn the Devil for pickin' that apple

That opened our eyes to the nature of evil

And showed us that evil was tasty (if deadly)

And tasty was better than just being holy

The lies that we've bought have corrupted our hearts

Now we're so good at hate that it's almost an art

And I hate that I hate them who hate them who's different

But I see what they've done and I feel insufficient

To patch up the wound that the white folk have caused

By pretending that racism came from the laws

That allowed them to show us all what was inside

But now they just hide all their hate with the lie

That the poison they spit causes nobody pain

When people are DYING, and the poison's to blame!

Look, cops are just people, but people are broken

And the boys in the blue demonstrate what I've spoken:

That hate is as real now as it has been ever

And until now I've just let myself say whatever

But now I am sick of the sickness that threatens

Us all--rich or poor, black, Latino, or cracker

The air in this nation, the U. S. of A.

Is heavy with hatred, and I hate to say it

But we, as believers, are part of the issue

We say that we love, but then we continue

To hate, while pretending that God will still hear us

When we pray for healing! It's like we're delirious

Caught up in fakery, high off our sin

"Rebuking" the Devil, then letting him in

To feed off the darkness we carry inside

A darkness that, frankly, we're failing to hide

And everyone sees it! Do YOU think we're different?

They say, "Christians hate!" and I'm not indignant

Because I know the truth--what they're saying is true

And I'm desperate to know that it's not me and you

Who are feeding the pain that our neighbors are feeling

Ripping the scabs off the scars that were healing

Following Jesus is not about freedom

Freedom from sin, yes, but not from the Kingdom

We are not ours! We're slaves to the Father

Ambassadors, not simply sons, not just daughters

The life of the Christian is one of denial

We give up ourselves to become His disciples!

"I do not live, it is Jesus in me"

To be slaves of Christ is to truly be free

So put up your privilege, your right to be comfortable

Give of yourselves in your love, though it's vulnerable

Yeah, you might lose friends or status or power

But store up a treasure that lasts for forever

And know that the God who we know as our Father,

If we run the race well, will stand in our honor

"I do not live, it is Jesus in me"

To be slaves of Christ is to truly be free

So put off yourself and put on the Spirit

Let Him take over and silence the bigot

That shouts from inside and fills us with lies

Of how we are better than those who don't hide

Their sin behind masks or in pretty white tombs

If we hide our sin, it just grows in our wombs

And when it is full-grown, it gives birth to death

Not just for ourselves, but also for others

We are not perfect, though we are redeemed

We can return to our sin, though we're free

But brothers and sisters, we bear Jesus' name,

So sin versus righteousness isn't a game!

The hate you hold on to, with which you still flirt

Is one way to drag Jesus' death in the dirt

So let go of hate, and step out in love

Live like you live for the One who's above

'Cause we do! We've been bought with the blood of the Lamb

So let's not behave like the whole thing's a sham

Remember, everyone sees how you live

The love you withhold and the hate that you give

So it's not just a joke, it's a really big deal

The tongue is set fire by the fires of hell

Every decision and every word

Is made for the Dragon or made for the Word

You will serve a master, and now you must choose:

The King who will win, or the Serpent who'll lose?

"I do not live, it is Jesus in me"

To be slaves of Christ is to truly be free

M&M's and the Love of God

Dear friends, please consider the implications of this tweet and of the worldview it represents.

The Syrian refugee crisis isn't about people who live in the United States. It's about people who used to live in Syria, but have fled to escape the violence they daily faced there. They are displaced, scared, weak, and vulnerable. And they are humans, just like we are.

We live in a very consumeristic society. Many people are concerned with what they can acquire to make their lives better and happier and safer. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if we had not begun to also apply this consumeristic mindset to the people around us. I would argue that one of the primary reasons many marriages end in divorce today is that husbands and wives are concerned with their own happiness more than they are concerned with their spouse's. (I understand that there are cases in which abuse is present and forces many wives to escape terrible situations; that is another issue.) We hear words like, "You complete me," and "You make me so happy," and "You make me feel alive." The common thread through all these is that the relationship is about ME: MY completion, MY happiness, MY feeling alive.

We take this attitude so easily into every other area of our lives, and I fear that it has come to poison our perspective on the value of human life. The author of this tweet calls me a "bleeding heart liberal" for holding this perspective, and I approve of his description. My heart aches for the people of Syria. My heart aches for the non-extremist Muslims in the Western world who are being viewed increasingly as threats and as enemies based on the actions of others around them.

During World War II, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put in prison camps because people were afraid they might be disloyal spies for the United States' enemy at the time. Many people would say we are at war with ISIS and other extremist Muslim groups. It does seem pretty apparent to me that they, at least, have declared war on us. But what price are we willing to pay in the name of "national security"?

Dear friends, there are two logical discrepancies that I can see in many people's approaches to this situation. First, people say that we must go to extreme lengths to make sure our country is safe; we must keep out ALL the refugees on the chance that some of them MIGHT be terrorists. Many of the same people, however, would argue passionately that the government has no right to spy on its citizens to try to keep them safe. Second, many of the same people who say that our own personal safety is more important than others' lives claim to be pro-life.

In light of all the above, I would like to answer this tweet's question and then pose one of my own.

Syrian Refugees estimates that around 9 million refugees have fled Syria since 2011. Let's just say, for the sake of this tweet's analogy, that 0.1% of those refugees are terrorists. That means that around 9,000 of these refugees are actually terrorists seeking to infiltrate other countries, but it also means that 8,991,000 of them are NOT terrorists. This tweet asked if I would eat the M&M's. The answer is twofold: first, since we all know what we're talking about, yes. In a heartbeat I would, because of the second part: people are not M&M's. They are not products to be consumed for our satisfaction. Not everything is about how happy or how safe we are. We are talking about LIVES: lives that have been uprooted and cast out onto the wild seas of uncertainty and fear. So yes, I would eat the M&M's, because if I get nine poisoned ones and one ordinary one in my handful, that is still one life that I have saved.

For those of you who may be reading this and are not believers in Christ, you have no reason to listen to me. There is no higher authority to which I can appeal than your sense of pity or justice or generosity. I hope that my words will perhaps trigger some thoughts on your part on the value of human life and the way we ought to approach the difficult situations in which the world finds itself.

To those of you who are my brothers and my sisters in Christ, I want to speak specifically to you. Mark 10:45 says that "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Ephesians 5:1-2 says, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

I don't want to preach. I don't want to act like I'm up on a high horse with the perfect position on everything. I don't want to come across as arrogant and judgmental. But I do want to challenge you. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that Scripture is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." So ignore everything I said in this post, if you like. But consider Mark. Consider Ephesians. Consider Romans 5:8: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The Scriptures are clear that we are meant to imitate Christ, to love as He loved, and to lay down our lives, if necessary, for the sake of others. Jesus Christ, God the Son, says in Matthew 5:44-45, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." And in John 13:34-35, He says, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Finally, in Matthew 5:46, He says, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?"

Christ's love was scandalous, illogical, unsafe, and undeserved; it cost Him everything to love us. Will we now, as those who bear His name and are sealed by His blood, refuse to show that some love to those who most need it?

Yes, it's ridiculously scary. I don't particularly want to have to suffer and die for my faith. We can let the future paralyze us if we think about it. So many things could go wrong. So many people could betray us and hurt us. But Christ gives us this assurance in Matthew 6:25-34:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not show or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solimon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Dear brothers and sisters, I beg you to not let fear keep you from showing others the love of God. Consider the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, where Jesus condemns the goats, saying: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Do we look at the Syrian refugees and see Christ? They are poor, afraid, homeless, and potentially dangerous. Are they not the least? Can we not show them the love of Christ, that our Heavenly Father might be glorified?

Dear World

 I'm thankful for the offer

To join your little game
I merely think the prizes here
Are just a little lame

I don't appreciate it
The way I guess I should
But after seeing all this shit
I doubt I ever could

So go and play with matches
And watch your whole world burn
I'll look for what I won't regret
And count my lesson learned

I can't say that I've found it:
An easy, happy lot
I know I have much more than that
I've all, but you have naught

So tell me that I've lost it
Or have I? You don't know
The price He paid: so I could live,
To His life He said no

So yes, you call me different,
But really, we're the same
And now I write to you, dear World,
To save you from your pain

It's pain that I am free from,
But not by my own choice
He rescued me before I knew,
Or even heard, His voice

"Freedom isn't free!" you say
Of course not! Don't you see?
The Son of God has paid an e-
verlasting debt for me

Dear World, you've tripped and fallen,
But don't give in to shame
Just put your trust in Jesus Christ,
Who died and rose again

It's not some mystic nonsense
To go from slave to free
Your life, your all is what He wants
When He says, "Follow Me"

Believe me when I tell you
He's worth the best you have
So give it all away and find
The very peace you crave

When We Love Money More than We Love People

I read this article today on Facebook, and I must say that I'm very pleased that someone is willing to say such challenging things, particularly since it's something I've been desiring to find a way to say for the past several months. To Mrs. Schmidley's challenging words (which truly need no commentary) I would like to add some of my own inconsequential thoughts. 

Paul wrote in Galatians 2, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Consider the implications of this. Christ does not call us to simply believe in Him and testify about Him with our words; He asks us to allow His Spirit to live within us and to surrender our lives to Him. This is what He Himself says in Luke 9: "If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it."

Consider Christ, our Lord and our Savior. How did He save us? He left His exalted position in Heaven, became a man, lived a difficult life in ancient Israel, was betrayed by one of His close friends, and allowed Himself to be stripped naked, whipped, beaten, and nailed to a cross, where He literally drowned in His own blood. Romans 5:8 says that "God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" There is nothing within us that merited the grace God gave us; in fact, everything within us condemned us as Christ's enemies. Consider then that this same Love--this insane, self-sacrificial Love who cares nothing about whether the objects of His mercy deserve to receive it--now lives within us.

Does this not lend an entirely new meaning to Paul's words above? "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." If we actually stop to think about what this means, it is so much more than a statement of freedom from the death that results from sin. It is a description of how we are meant to live our lives. This is what Jesus Himself says in John 17:18: "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." What does this mean? Clearly we can't accomplish the same mission Jesus already did, since His death was enough to ransom us once and for all. A clue can be found in Christ's words in Matthew 5, during the famous Sermon on the Mount, wherein He says, "let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

We were not saved so that we could go to church, sing songs by Chris Tomlin and Hillsong, tithe our ten percent, and serve in the nursery. We were saved so that we could show the love of God to the world around us; in so doing, we point the world back to God Himself. Paul writes in Galatians 5:6 that "what matters [in Christ Jesus] is faith working through love." Is it loving to ignore the needs of those who do not have what we do? Let me say that again, because I want to make sure I am clear. I'm not asking whether it is justifiable to ignore their needs. Clearly, we who have worked hard and made our money have earned the plenty we now experience; I'm not trying to argue that somehow we don't deserve the money we have. We did earn it! (In my case, as an unemployed college student, my parents earned it, but I still benefit from the work they have done.) I'm asking whether it is loving to then take that plenty and keep it for ourselves, when others have less than we do.

Brothers and sisters, Christ Jesus gave His life for us! Why are we as Christians not willing to give our money and our opportunities for those who have less? Paul admonishes us in Romans 12 to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. If we are to surrender our bodies to God, how much more so those things we own that are temporary?

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes the judgment of mankind in the final days. He says that the King (who is Jesus Himself) will divide up the righteous from the unrighteous--the righteous at His right hand, and the unrighteous at His left. Hear the interaction that the King has with the unrighteous:

"Then He will also say to those on the left, 'Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn't take Me in; I was naked and you didn't clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn't take care of Me.'

"Then they too will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?'

"Then He will answer them, 'I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.'

"And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

I fear for us. Yes, for us, not just for you. I'm not trying to preach something to you from a position of superiority; I am becoming aware of a cancer in my own heart and mind that is very common in the American Church today. Pope Francis pointed to this truth in a 2013 speech when he said, "The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal."

Why do you think Jesus makes a point to talk about money in Matthew 5:24? "No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money."

Brothers and sisters, it is no coincidence that many of the social issues which the vast majority of American Christians most vocally oppose--universal healthcare, welfare, and immigration all come to mind--are those that threaten our finances. Can we actually honestly address the validity of economic propositions when we are so tied to our money that we feel like fellow Christians have no right to talk to us about how we use it? Christ says that we cannot serve both God and money. Money is such a danger to us that God Himself says that caring too much about it will destroy our ability to serve Him! Why, then, are we not just as vigorous--nay, more vigorous--in keeping each other financially accountable as we are in keeping each other sexually accountable?

This hits a nerve. I know it does. I'm a broke college student, and it still hits a nerve with me, because I have bought into the lie of my right as an American to earn my own prosperity. I look around at myself and at the rest of the bride of Christ, and my heart is troubled by the selfishness I see. Jon Foreman's song, "The Patron Saint of Rock and Roll," expresses it in a beautifully poetic way:

"There's a park downtown
Where the homeless get ignored
Where the church next door is a crowd
Singing, 'Blessed are the poor'
Where the Mercedes drive away
Muttering, 'Druggies, drunks, and whores'
Where the bumper sticker displays,
'My copilot is the Lord'"

My dear brothers and sisters, who have we become? Why do we love our money so much more than we love those around us that we refuse to extend to them undeserved mercy (just as God extended undeserved mercy to us)? Money is not made in the image of God. Money does not have a soul that lasts forever. Our fellow humans--yes, even the ones who are trying to "game the system"--are made in God's image. Our fellow humans do have eternal souls.

I am coming to realize, in my own immature stumbling after God, that I idolize my own comfort and prosperity so much. I cannot pretend to know anyone else's hearts, but I do see a Church that is largely populated by those who desire to restrict access to healthcare, access to finances, and access to this land of opportunity with which we have been blessed.

"Don't keep striving for what you should eat and what you should drink, and don't be anxious. For the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

"But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you. Don't be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Make money-bags for yourselves that won't grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Luke 12:29-34)

These are the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and it took the words of an atheistic presidential candidate to wake me up to the way in which I have been ignoring them. I do not know at this point where I stand with regards to politics and economics, but I do know that there is something very wrong with being a Christian and talking about fairness and justice in terms of making sure we are keeping our money rather than of making sure we are helping others be as successful and prosperous as they can be.

Our God and our King has commanded us to sell our possessions and give to the poor. The thought of obeying that command fills me with anxiety, but the God of the universe has purchased me with His blood. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. How can I respond but by striving to give Him glory in every area of my life?

We cannot serve both God and money. I stand before you, brothers and sisters, to confess that I serve money far too often, and I'm sick of letting it control my life. Are you sick of that, too?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible^®, Copyright  © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible^®, Holman CSB^®, and HCSB^® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Common Grace

It's really strange to me to think about the fact that God not only created me but also sustains me. I guess it's weird that I get so hung up on this fact, but the fact that He sustains me even in the midst of my sin and defiance totally blows my mind. It's not like I'm a watch that He wound up and then let go to do whatever I want; no, He continues to fill me with His breath, keeping me alive every moment of every day. This means that, even as I act in a way that is basically a "screw you" to His holiness, He continues to give me the very energy I use to sin against Him.

The Bible says that God causes the rain to fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous, but that's merely a single example of the many common graces He gives to us all. How kind and faithful He is to me, to allow me to live and breathe and walk and talk and laugh and cry in this world! One moment I use my words to praise Him, and He listens with pleasure, knowing even as He does that moments later I will use my words to curse His creation. And every time I speak, it is His breath that I am exhaling, His life that is providing the impetus for those words.

Have you ever thought about the idea of energy? Where do we get our energy from? Yes, I know about the digestive system, about this amazing body I have that converts food and oxygen into stuff it can actually use. But I am not a machine. I am not a series of chemical reactions that results in the motions I intend to make. I have a will, desires that drive me in a hundred different conflicting directions, emotions that threaten to tear me into a hundred pieces countless times each day, hopes and dreams and interests that--partially, at least--make me who I am. Where did those come from? I write these words not because a particular synapse fired in my brain, not because the chicken I ate at dinner provides my fingers with energy, not because nerves carried electrical impulses to tendons that manipulated joints. I write these words because I desire to, because I feel that I have something that I ought to say, to communicate to anyone who might happen to stumble upon my silly scribblings.

This desire, this feeling of ought-ness, this desire to communicate ideas transcends any one particular culture or people group. It is something all human beings have in common, from the articulate President of the United States, to the boy from Malaysia with a cleft palate, to the deaf women gesturing at a fast food counter. Some ideas are mundane, silly even. Others are vast; they carry the weight of a million souls with them and transform the world forever.

N. D. Wilson wrote a book that I am reading: Notes from the Tilt-a-whirl. In this book, he talks about how our world is spoken by God, how we are all parts of a story He is telling, a song He is singing. In light of this, I cannot say that the idea of a spoken world is my own idea; rather, it is an idea that he planted in my mind. But if what he says is true, and God continues to maintain us through speaking, would it not make sense for us, the words, to desire to communicate? That is, after all, what words are designed to do. If this life is a novel, then the things that I say, that I do, that I contemplate are all motifs and themes woven into the body of the book that is the extent of my earthly existence.

Which means that, in a roundabout way, these come from God. Not to say that all our thoughts are godly or righteous: rather, it is simply to say that He breathes life into us, He crafts our minds, He knows our thoughts, and He Himself designs every thread of the tapestry. There is no other weaver, only the One who holds all threads in His hands. So when I look lustfully at a woman, it is another thread God is weaving into the tapestry: an ugly one that, to me, appears to mar the beauty of my segment of this magnum opus that He is crafting. But from God's perspective, this thread and others like it--envy, insecurity, self-harm--will only add to the final beauty of this piece. The story goes by many names, but I think the best one is "Glory be to God." Or perhaps "Praise the LORD." (If you prefer the Hebrew, that's "Hallelu Yah.")

You see, we breathe and eat and poop and sing and swear only because God has designed the breathing and eating and pooping and singing and swearing that fills our days. And the part we can't see is that it's all about His glory, His praise. That's why, when kings conspire with one another, when they rise up and band together against my God, He laughs at them. He knows that all their conspiring, all their defiance comes to naught. They breathe the air He gives them, speak the lines He writes for them, make the plans He designs for them. And ultimately, through their downfall and His victory over them, they bring Him the glory He desires for Himself.

Every disgusting thread Yahweh God uses only adds to the wonder we the audience will feel when we see the extraordinary, unbelievable beauty of the finished product.

The Top Ten Steps to Academic Success

I received this list upon my graduation from high school from a family friend who has worked in the public school system for many years. I wanted an easily accessible electronic version and thought others could benefit if I put it up here.

1.   Make Your Health a Priority
Budget your time to make sure you get enough sleep. Eat well. Make time to exercise. Relax. Cut down on stress. Don’t forget that the trick to success is learning how to balance work and play and still find time to stay healthy.

2.   Be Yourself
Be an individual and make your own decisions. Think and act for yourself instead of conforming to other people’s expectations. Take chances that will help you grow, and accept responsibility for your actions. Above all, do things that make you happy.

3.   Be Patient with Yourself
No one has ever gone to school without making mistakes. You won’t either. Don’t get discouraged, and look at setbacks as part of your success. Be proud of your achievements, and learn from your mistakes.

4.   Get Involved
Join a student organization. Volunteer in the community. Play intramurals. Be part of activities. A large part of the college experience takes place outside the classroom.

5.   Listen to Others
Listen to and learn from advice, criticism, and praise from your counselor, teachers, friends, and family. These people are some of the most valuable resources you have.

6.   Do Not Procrastinate
Break down long-term assignments into smaller tasks and include them in your study schedule. Try not to postpone assignments until the last minute and study for exams prior to the night before. Your teacher will expect you to put more effort into the assignments they give you more time to complete.

7.   Budget Your Time Well
Learn to balance your time. Take a few minutes each day or at the beginning of the week to make a schedule. It could save you stress in the long run. Your planner is a very valuable tool—use it every day!

8.   Know the Rules
Unawareness of expectations isn’t an excuse for not fulfilling them. Ask questions first.

9.   Learn about Your School and What It Has to Offer
Your school is a valuable resource and has innumerable support services to help you in your academic transition. If you have a question or a problem, more than likely there is someone who can help you. Take the initiative to find out from your counselor, teachers, or principals.

10.   Go to Class
Boredom, lack of sleep, and poor preparation are frequent excuses for skipping class. Avoiding these habits and going to class are the first steps toward academic success.

Lord

The world is dark, and full of wonder

Fear and joy go hand in hand

Soothing rain and rolling thunder

Conjured by the same command

King as mighty as the ocean

Healer soft as evening sand

Trumpet call, His shining omen

Heralds death, as He demands

Endless grace but matchless justice

Greets the citizens He rules

He welcomes some into His palace

Throws the others out: the fools

For He is everything and nothing

All for Him and by Him made

Shows the nature of the One King

Who is over night and day

Colorful Cacophony

Blue is an archway, a gate open wide

Red is a marvelous ruin of hope

Together, they're Purple, but Purple is pain:

Sharpened brutality, slippery slope

Green is a poison, sweet as the grave

Blue becomes Grey, Red remains Red

Whispers of horrors imagined but real

Grey is a roiling cloud in its head

Green is rejected, its poison removed

Red walks away, taking Blue, leaving Grey

Blue is a memory, hid in the dark

What was once night slowly turns into day

Grey is a fortress, its gate clos-ed tight

Pink is a child who wants to be grown

Risk is permitted, reward is perceived

No more does Grey keep the fortress alone

Pink is the coast's edge, a line in the sand

Grey is a breaker that wipes it away

Promises spoken but never fulfilled

Pink is a question that asks all of Grey

Grey is still Grey, but Pink is not Pink

A vacuum as Black as the ocean at night

Grey falls and loses it all to the dream

Leaves Black behind and on new shores sets sights

Grey is not Grey, nor yet is it Blue

Now more like Navy, not bright but still new

Cacophony fades, and Navy is still

No longer questions the songwriter's will

The fortress is old now, and covered in silence

Navy remembers erecting its walls

It's now just a home, a comforting palace

Hope echoes out from its hearth through its halls

Silver's familiar, well-known but surprising

Navy is cautious but welcomes a guest

The risk is regarded, but then it's discarded

Far better to wait and be sure than to test

Navy once bright Blue and Silver once Orange

Songwriter painting with colors thought lost

Green, Red, and Purple, Pink turned to Black

Art drawn with hundreds of shades on one cloth

The World is Windy

"The world is windy!" (And I quote)

"Be careful when you go outside!

And when a-sailing in a boat,

Watch out for random gusts of air!"

"Pooh pooh!" said I. "What gusts of air?

I need not fear audacious wind!"

I walked along without a care,

And felt the wind caress my face. 

Then came the gust! I set my face

Defiant, leaning toward the gale,

But when, by chance, it slacked in pace,

I fell upon the ground.