Changing It Up

My blog is now moving permanently to…

http://triumphant-grace.blogspot.com

 

The Return…

I’m going to try and start this bad-boy up again… for better or for worse…

We’ll see what happens… plan on some kind of full/new post in the coming days.

Love you

Thanks for reading
Kurtis

 

Obedience

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:8-9, ESV)

Obedience to God on a college campus can be an incredible challenge. We are faced with hundreds of distractions; from friends, to school work, to clubs and organizations, to new-found freedom, all of these things can potentially cause us to lose focus on what God is doing in our lives. But here it says to meditate on the Word and live out what it says, that THIS is the road to prosperity and success. When we lose sight of what God has shown us in the bible, it’s easy to let all of the distractions become roadblocks.  This is a lesson that I’m still learning, I’m striving to become more consistent in spending my time meditating on the Word and on how God is calling each and everyone of us to live our lives. It’s so much easier to jump on Facebook, or go for a walk, or take a nap (every second of sleep is precious during the school year, am I right?) than to find a quiet place, sit down with your bible and seek God’s heart through his Word. But I’m tired of the status quo, I’m sick and tired of coming to the end of a day and finding hours of wasted time. I’m over it. And frankly, I feel that God’s over it too, that He’s just as sick and tired of seeing His cherished sons and daughters waste their time when He’s got all kinds of awesome stuff lined up for us. And if you don’t think that God’s got something AMAZING lined up for you, you are gravely mistaken. God didn’t send his Son to die for a life of mediocrity! God didn’t go through all the work that He’s done in your life to bring you where you are, just to let you sit and become stagnant. NO! That would be foolishness, God did those things so that EVERYONE would come to know True Love, and as a believer, you have the most important and most exciting role of all.

Obedience.

Your obedience to God will take you places beyond your dreams. Joshua and Caleb, because of their obedience, ushered the Israelites into the Promised Land. Not by being the coolest, or the most popular, but by not being afraid to say, “This is God’s promise, this is what God asked of us, our God will protect us against the people that control the Promised Land, He is not a liar and His promises are true.” Obedience. There have been times where God has put something on my heart, but I didn’t speak it or act on it because I was afraid of what people might think about me. But it says clearly in Joshua 1:9… “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.” When the Lord is asking of us, there is no need for fear, there is no ROOM for fear in this situation. “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Be encouraged! When God convicts you, when He gives you a word for someone else, when He points someone out to you who needs prayer while you’re walking on Palm Walk… Be strong and courageous! The LORD your God will be with you, He will go before you and will bless you for your obedience. 

 

All I’ve Got

I was out on top of the parking structure just praying and worshipping, and started working on a song I had been kicking around in my head…

This is what came out, Enjoy.  

There’s no chord progression or anything written, just the way i think the words should flow…   

CHORUS:

So I walk — to the foot of the cross

With my — Blackened heart in my hands

I lift — Everything up to You

Jesus — Won’t you make me pure again? 

VERSE:

It’s in awe of You

That I’m humbled to my knees

that I’ve found reason to praise

Jesus I wanna give it all that I’ve got 

You’ve overcome my fears

Threw my chains to the ground

You’ve given me new life and

Jesus I wanna give it all that I’ve got 

 

Amazing Love…

“From the depths of despair, O Lord,

I call for your help.   

 Hear my cry, O Lord.

Pay attention to my prayer.       

Lord, if you kept a record of our sins,

who, O Lord, could ever survive?    

 But you offer forgiveness,

that we might learn to fear you.     

  I am counting on the Lord;

yes, I am counting on him.   

   I have put my hope in his word. 

 I long for the Lord

more than sentries long for the dawn,   

   yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.  

  O Israel, hope in the Lord;

for with the Lord there is unfailing love.  

    His redemption overflows. 

 He himself will redeem Israel

from ever kind of sin. ”     

 Psalm 130 – NLT 

 

Discipline

I’m finding more and more that my walk with God is going to require more than just words. More than just saying, “I want to press further into God” and “I want to see what God’s got in store for my life”, or the countless other ‘Christianese’ things one might say in prayer or in conversation…

A relationship with God is like any other friendship or relationship. It requires a huge investment; an investment of TIME, ACTION, and DISCIPLINE. And its humbling to realize, as i have today, that I need some serious work in all three of those departments. As someone who considers himself pretty strong in his faith, being sure that I could hold fast to God’s promises through most storms, its AWESOME and kinda scary too, to know that I’ve got a lot of room for growth. 

It’s as though I’m at a roadblock, an internal glass ceiling…I feel kinda like Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the original, and only good one, in my opinion).  You know the scene where Charlie and Grandpa feel adventurous and drink the soda they knew they weren’t supposed to drink. Well, they started floating, and it was pretty sweet.. twirling in the air, and doing all sorts of floating in the air-y type things one would expect you to do. Then all of a sudden they hit the top, a giant fan that would tear them to pieces. Fun’s over!

Well that’s where I’m at, at the top of a silo with a giant fan looming overhead, eagerly waiting to crush me.

While praying about this roadblock tonight, the word Discipline just overtook my thought and I realized that my roadblock is ME. I’ve been saying all sorts of things but when it comes time to follow through, well, I can just do that later. Know what I’m saying? Getting over those roadblocks on your path becomes a matter of making God a priority. It means setting your alarm 30 minutes earlier to ensure you have time to read God’s Word or pray or just sit in His presence. It means skipping the movie that everyone’s going out to see because you made a commitment to God to pray. You wouldn’t blow off your plans with your best friend to go to a movie with some other folks, so why would you do it to the being that loves you most in the entire universe?! It means making sincere and genuine efforts to create time for God, and sometimes its hard, sometimes you’d rather sleep in, or hang out with the whole gang, but that’s where discipline is truly developed. 

Not only do the words “discipline” and “disciple” look similar, they come from the same origins.. the Latin ‘discipulus’ which means ‘learner’. To follow Christ, or be a disciple, means to have discipline and to seek to learn! 

And now… much like  Charlie and Grandpa, I have burped, and put my words into action and have actively decided to invest into my relationship with God. And I already feel as though I’m floating away from the fan of destruction towards the ground, towards the ultimate Foundation

 

Where The Next Foot Falls

And as air enters my lungs, it feels as though I’m breathing for the first time. I fall to my knees, clear and fresh but so often taken for granted. One time, I thought I knew all there was to know, but now I see, there’s a hidden mystery in this town we live. A speck of dust among the entire universe, now I know that it’s not all for nothing. I’m holding tight to the prospect of this newfound purpose, searching for a definition, a definition for the life I lead, and the impact I shall make. The world around me searches at the base of a bottle or in between the sheets; I’m trying to look within, to read the words, the truth written on my heart. The world around me tells me to love myself and my heart screams to love others, love the world, plain and simple; Love. People. And so I trust my heart, walking blindly. Completely aimless yet set straight towards the goal. For I turned back and found the path because of trust and belief. Now I progress, with no looking back, just looking ahead. The present becomes the past before each and every move. In life it is not the past that defines us but where the next foot falls. Where are you headed? Where will your foot fall?

 

06-13-07

I wrote this earlier tonight… it’s different, but it’s kinda cool too… let me know what you think

Spinning.
Spinning.
Spinning.
Stop, silence.
A silence loud enough to drown out the sound of breaking glass and mangled steel. Deep, steadied breathing begins like second nature. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Cough. “Concentrate,” she says softly to herself, “This is not how it ends, not like this, focus.” Cough. Screams ring out from outside her car, from passersby, witnesses, and from the other car. She reaches for her seatbelt but can’t seem to get her fingers to function. Fear sets in, “focus,” she says again.
She knows her family is at home waiting, if only she could free herself and call, and let them know that everything’s going to be alright, to let them know that she loves them.
Sirens slowly fade into the foreground.
“Are you alright?”
The questions echo throughout the crowd surrounding the car.
“are you alright?”
“Are you okay?”
“Say something if you can hear us.”
She hears them fine, but doesn’t say a word.
Apathetic to anything they have to tell her, she silently waits for the sirens to get closer and the trucks to pull to a stop.
Shock fills her body, it becomes hard to focus her eyes. But help is here, soon she’ll be at home. Soon she can forget this all like the bad dream that it is. I mean, it can’t be real, right? Not her, not now, not today, not like this.
The angels watch over her. The workers carefully pull her out.
Tell her she’s lucky to be alive.
All she can think about is getting home and seeing her family, that is the only thought that crosses her mind..
Then, the blur begins to fade from her sight and something feels wrong.
Something’s out of whack.
She begins to make out the faded green of the other car, the personalized plate…
And then it became real.
Her son.
Laid out.
Being rolled towards that big white truck with flashing lights.
Brace around his neck.
“This is not how it ends, not like this.” Those are the only words she could find
Time stops
Tears start
Sun fades
But the world continues on
Spinning.
Spinning.
Spinning.

 

DISPLACE ME!

There is the State Press article on Displace Me that I was interviewed for…

 

State Press Interview

Hey! I just did an email interview with the State Press (ASU’s school paper) about Displace Me. They’re going to run an article about it next week…

Here were my answers…

1. How did you end up signed up to participate in Displace Me (how did you hear about it, etc)?
I have been following the non-profit organization Invisible Children for almost a year. They are the ones putting on this event and when I read about it, I knew that I had to be there.

2. What made you want to participate in Displace Me?
The Invisible Children documentary brings SO many things to light that are happening in Northern Uganda. And I know I might not be able to go there myself and bring about change first hand but through events such as Displace Me and last year’s Global Night Commute, I can help bring awareness to these issues among the rest of the population and ultimately policy makers. I think it all begins with awareness.

3. How do you think this event is different from other rallies or protests?
It’s different because the goal; the end of the war in Uganda, is completely possible. The people there want peace and they want to go back to their homes. Over 45,000 people believe there is an end in sight, we believe that there is an end to suffering and we believe that it starts right here, and right now.

4. Have you participated in any similar events for the same cause?
I wasn’t able to attend IC’s Global Night Commute last year

5. Have you participated in any similar events for a different cause?
No

6. How do you think your own personal participation will make a difference? How do you think the program as a whole will make a difference?
My own personal participation has already been awesome because it has started conversation with people. When someone sees that my facebook picture simply says “displace me” or if I bring up Invisible Children or Displace Me, they seem to want to know what its about. I’ve been able to talk about the terrible effects of the war with so many people since I committed myself to attending Displace Me.
The program as a whole has so much potential. It serves to show what it looks like when people are forced leave their homes and live in displacement camps. Last time I saw online, over 45,000 people have committed to attending the event in the US, and when it actually happens, I think it will have a huge visual impact.

7. What are you looking forward to about the Displace Me event?
I think its very awesome to see so many young people in support of this event and Invisible Children as a whole. It shows that our generation can truly rally around something bigger than ourselves. And also, if I can make even the slightest bit of difference in the quality of life for people that are suffering, simply by giving up my bed for a night and sleeping at a high school, I’m there.

8. How do you think participating will make a difference in your life?
I think it will be good to see people coming together for something. So often I only see the bitterness and the fighting that goes on between people, but its so amazing and inspiring to see people drop all that negativity for the benefit of others and for the greater good.

9. Do you think it is especially important for college students to participate in these types of events? Why or why not?
I think it’s important for everyone to participate in these types of events. You must be blind to look at the state of the world and think its perfect and running smoothly. Change is possible, no matter what anyone says. Sure, it might be a utopian point of view, but if you never even strive for something better, there’s no chance of it happening.

10. What are your plans for the future in terms of supporting this cause?
I don’t know for sure. I want to do whatever I can, whatever is necessary to see the war brought to an end.

11. Why do you think more people should get involved in supporting this cause versus other issues?
There are so many issues, and they’re all valid. What strikes me about Invisible Children is that they realize that it’s not something we can just throw money at and have it all be magically okay. They have set up programs to create jobs by selling bracelets, and to increase the quality of schools in Uganda. IC sees that the real investment is TIME and not just money.

12. What would you tell someone that doesn’t know about the cause or Displace Me?
See the documentary! That’s where it starts. The LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) has abducted over 50,000 children, tortured and trained them and forced them into roles as children soldiers. Over ten years ago the citizens of Northern Uganda were forced to abandon their homes and live in government run displacement camps. This was done as the only means of providing safety, but now the citizens suffer devastation because of the lack of water, food, and education. Bringing an end to the war and returning the families to their land, and providing them a true sense of security is at the heart of the whole thing. The people of Uganda want peace, and we should be doing our part.

13. What would you tell someone to convince them to participate?
I would remind them that THEY get to return home after one night and sleep in their bed and go back to their life, but the people of Uganda have no alternative to living in their inadequate displacement camps.
What’s one night of discomfort in their life, especially if it can help remove an entire civilization from the disparities of war?

14. What is your full name, year at ASU (freshman, sophomore, etc.), and major?
Kurtis Hayden, Sophomore, Interdisciplinary studies (Sociology/Religious Studies)