Jump-starting Spirituality // 3 Principles

 
     Wake up in the morning. Eat breakfast. Go to class. Eat lunch.  Go to work. Go back to class. Do homework. Eat dinner. Go to sleep. Repeat. That has been everyday of my year so far, and I know that many of you can relate. We live in a an extremely busy world that leaves little to no time to spare. Unfortunately  the time we dedicate to God is only what we can spare; we do it with our time, and very often we also do it with our money. How can our spiritual life survive our busy schedule? What must we do in order to sustain a vibrant relationship with God as we walk through the business of this world?

1. Give God all of it.

     I have heard so many times preachers say stuff like "Make God the first thing everyday!" and if you go to church regularly you have heard it also. While this is not necessarily a bad advice, it makes it easy to compartmentalize our life and give God just the first hours of our day, but we completely take Him out out of the rest. One of the best things we can do is to give Him all. I mean it! All of it! God needs to stop being the first item in our list and He needs to become our list.  If we look at spirituality in a holistic way even in the business of life we will be able to glorify God, and it will enrich our relationship with Him. The Bible says:

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)

 2. The Small Meals Principle. 

     People who are really into fitness often advice that instead of having three or two big meals everyday, one should try do do 5 or 6 smaller meals. Very often our fast-paced life will force us to do this in our spiritual walk. Sometimes creating the discipline of reading the Word of God during the day in multiple, small, chunks of time can do more for our spiritual walk than a rushed thirty minutes in the morning. We have the blessing of easy access to the Bible in most mobile devices. It helps to set reminders to pray or read small portions of Scripture before accessing social media. By doing this not only do we open a window for God to speak to you in the context of your day, but also keep us from starving spiritually. 

3. Make the Sabbath count! 

     If you are a Seventh-day Adventist, the Sabbath can be, ironically enough, one of the busiest day of the week. It is important we give the Sabbath back to God. This day was meant to be an oasis of spiritual refreshment and not a lets-have-every-possible-church-related-meeting day. Not only have we taken the day from God but we have attached to it all of these taboos of "dos" and "don'ts" that have zero Biblical support. As a result we make a burden out of a blessing. Jesus said regarding the Sabbath:

"Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)

     Above all things we must remember that our spirituality is all about keeping a closer relationship with Jesus everyday. It is a mistake to systematize or attempt to create specific "one-size-fits-all" plans to improve one's relationship with God. The truth is that this is a very organic process, and while guidelines and principles are a starting point, the relationship each of us has with God is unique in its own way. The challenge is to not conform to where we are and grow closer to Him as we walk through this world.

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Long Distance Relationships and Jesus

     For the last three years, my fiancé and I have had the opportunity to enjoy the ups and downs of a long distance relationship. Since the moment we agreed to be exclusive with each other in this romantic, emotion-filled relationship, we knew long distance was waiting for us in the future because of our career choices. We had to make a decision at a very premature stage of our relationship. To pursue this adventure or not. We decided to commit to each other and to move on. A few months after, we found ourselves a few thousand miles away from each other with the ocean in between us. Being away from the person you are in a relationship with raises a whole new set of challenges that we just weren't ready for. Going through this experience, we learned things that helped us stay afloat during this time, but they also taught me a lot about how Jesus relates to us.

   In one way or another, every Christian is in a long distance relationship with Jesus. Sometimes we struggle to keep the fire burning and compromise our relationship with Him to follow something or someone else who promises love and comfort for us today. But deep within our hearts, we know that those affairs are only a fantasy and that only God's love can quench our thirst to be loved. How can we keep our relationship with Jesus alive? There are three important tips I learned from my long distance relationship that can make a difference in your relationship with Jesus. They sure did in mine! Here they are:

1. Start the day with her, end the day with her.

   It did not take long for us to realize that in order to keep things going we needed to start the day together and finish it together. When everything else fails, we have something to look forward to. Every morning, we talk about our plans for the day, and every night, we talked about how much we accomplished. This allows Betsy (my fiancé) to give me her input on things before they actually happen and to hold me accountable at the end of the day. We practice this both ways, and it has really made a difference in our relationship.

   Imagine what practicing this can do for you relationship with Jesus—making Him the first one with whom you share your plans every day. If you are someone who does it on a regular basis, then you know the value of practicing this. If you don't, then think for a second how different your day could have been if you would have made Jesus part of it this morning. One of my favorite Bible verses says: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV). God has great plans for your life. I don't know the plans you have for you, but I know this: God's plans are better. Tap into His plan and purpose for your life every morning and every night! Let Jesus be who wakes you up and lays you down.

2. Make her part of your world

   Living in two completely different worlds is very difficult. Different people, different setting, different culture! You name it! Before we realized it, our "worlds" had pulled us apart from each other. We became so consumed by everything around us that we got absorbed by it and separated from one another. It wasn't long before the only conversations we had were those in the morning and those before going to bed. Even then, those conversations were short and dry. We were falling apart. Until one day we decided to make "us" part of our world. That meant small calls here and there, in between classes, and during lunch breaks. Even though I looked silly to some of my friends because of how many little phone calls I made a day, it saved our relationship.

   Jesus doesn't want to give you a blueprint of how your life needs to be every morning; He wants to be a part of it every day. He wants to come into your world and be close and intimate with you. Regardless of where we are or how far we feel, He pursues us desperately. The question is: Are we getting so absorbed by this world that we forget about our Savior? The Bible says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20, ESV). Think about the fact that the Almighty God, the One who created everything we know and see with the breath of His mouth, clears His schedule for you every day, regardless of whether you meet with Him or not. Let Him in! Remember that Jesus Christ gave His life so that you and I can live. Make Him your world.

3. Never lose sight of her love

   Like every other couple in the world, Betsy and I sometimes fight. This is especially difficult over the phone. If your significant other is getting mad over something insignificant, the problem can sometimes be fixed with a hug or a little kiss on the forehead. Well, guess what? You can't hug people over the phone. So every argument had the potential of becoming a big issue. Sometimes, out of frustration mostly, I run the risk of fostering thoughts in my mind that undermine her love towards me. So I often need to remind myself how much she loves me and how she shows me in many other different ways her love for me every day. This is the solution for every bump we have along the road.

   Regardless of what your situation is today, remember one thing: Jesus loves you. Yes, life can get rough sometimes! Yes, things can often be more complicated than we wish they were! But that does not change how much He loves you one bit! I often hear people saying stuff like: "I am mad at God because of _______!" Really? Can you imagine if God actually got mad at you every time you walk away from the cross, where He laid His life for you? Instead, He chooses to love you despite of your shortcomings! When things get rough, don't lose sight of His love for you! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, ESV).

photo credit: SPIngram via photopin cc

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When Mountains Explode...

            On May 18, 1980, Mt. St. Helens erupted. Located in South-Western Washington State, St. Helens had been seen as one of the most beautiful and peaceful sights in the Pacific Northwest. The mountain is one of several large volcanic peaks that make up the Cascade Range. Other prominent peaks include Mt. Rainier near Seattle, Mt. Hood near Portland, Oregon, and Mt. Shasta in Northern California. At its base was a picturesque lake where visitors camped and fished. The mountain was taken for granted, a landmark for people seeking escape from the constant buzz of city-life. It took but a moment for this vision of splendor to erupt in ash and magma.             

            For two months, geologists had known something was coming. Small earthquakes, a visible bulge on the surface of the mountain, and other anomalies hinted at the power stirring beneath the earth. Yet the fury of the final eruption astonished everyone.

The picture of Mt. St. Helens Eruption I remember
from my parents coffee table book.

            Throughout the spring as the mountain had been rumbling, the snow that clung to its sides had been slowly melting, continuing a cycle as old as Creation. The melting snow seeped into the earth. On May 18, as the pressure of the white-hot magma bulged upward an earthquake suddenly occurred and the spring-soft face of the mountain gave way. One of history’s largest landslides released two hundred years’ worth of volcanic pressure and sent a molten cloud of steam, ash, and magma rocketing across the countryside at nearly the speed of sound. It leveled everything in its path and radically changed the landscape. What had once been a peaceful recreational area at the base of a beautiful peak became a post-apocalyptic wasteland in minutes. Trees were leveled for miles, then stripped of all foliage even further away. Pieces of heavy machinery were tossed into the air like children’s toys. The beauty, stability, and majesty of the mountain was destroyed.

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To Trust or Not To Trust?

photo credit: Oberazzi via photopin cc

If we are honest with ourselves, trusting God is probably one of the most difficult things for us human beings to do consistently. It is so easy to trust God when things are totally out of our control, when all human resources have been exhausted. Only then is when we cry out to the Lord, “Help me!” Most of the time we only do this to make sure we have someone to blame, other than ourselves, when things don't go as we plan. Interestingly enough, as humans, we have been doing this since the very beginning. When Adam and Eve sinned and the Lord exposed their sin, the words of Adam were: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3: 12, ESV) The default response of men after sin is to blame someone else for his mistakes. But all of that happened because they decided to put their trust on themselves and their desires, rather than on God and His commands.

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What This is All About!

If you are reading this then you are a very close friend of ours or extremely curious, which I believe are both good things most of the time. "Two Worlds, One God" is an idea the Lord placed in our hearts over this last summer and He affirmed it to us through friends and random people telling us: "Hey you should write something!” So I called Braden and finally here we are. The reason we called this blog "Two Worlds, One God" (which was Braden's idea) is because Braden and I have very little in common other than our God and our preference for Starbucks, but since this blog is mainly about God, we will leave the Starbucks thing for another day. I am sure Braden will dedicate some time to tell you guys about himself later, but I wanted to share just a bit of my story and how God has guided me in my walk through this life.

I was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. My birth itself was a miracle, but I won't tell you much about it since I want to dedicate a post just for that experience. Growing up in a communist country was definitely a challenge for my Christian walk. Every day when I left the house in the morning I knew my faith was going to be tested in some way, but this process helped me to lay a strong, logical, foundation to what I believed and why. However, there was one thing missing; a relationship with Jesus. I knew to keep every aspect of the Law and how to speak and behave properly, especially in church! But no one ever told me about this relationship with Jesus stuff. Don't get me wrong, I was sure that Jesus came to this world, and died for me, and was risen from the tomb, and will come back eventually! But He was just way too busy making sure the universe functions properly to have, or even want, a relationship with a this Cuban, red-headed, freckle-faced, little boy. This all changed in March 2006.

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