Life theses days

Well I know its been awhile since I wrote a blog but today I have a topic a lot of people can relate to. Well I wanted to talk about something that has hit close before with myself as well as friends.

So one thing that comes to mind is that we are run by money. Money is the source of evil but yet we still want it, crave it, we hate it, we despise it and yet we love it with all our hearts. In today's world we need it so bad when we need something. For instance need to go to the doctor, eat, clean clothes, new clothes, and what about transportation. We all have similar needs to get through. (I will say this a lot in my post) We all need money! This world has gotten crazy with the amount of money we need to do things. It is putting people and family's in debt because bills accumulate. I myself personally have a small education loan I am pay off. Now I say its small and let me tell you $6000 is. I have friends who will accumulate with out interest more than $40,000 in 4 years. Now my loan personally will take me about 10 years at the rate I am paying it off. Is this worth it? Is having this much school loans worth it. What I always hear you want a better life and make a lot of money you have to go to school. Well what about teachers or musicians if they go to school look at there debts. There are people that were told they are going to get a job and start your career right out of school. Well I have to laugh at this. I have friends who are engineers there out of school but yet no job. HMMM we all need money so where is it?

My grandmother was a single parent and did the best she could with what she knew how to do. She worked for it! My mom, aunt and uncles needed braces she went to work for guy who could do it. Not a lot of people say they have worked for what they have she could. My grandmother has/had a saying "If someone is sick get them better. Worry about the bills later!" As an adult living with my parents we live by that. We don't realise what are parents really did for us until we have to go through it ourselves. As a kid I always thought the same as every kid "there doing this cause they hate me!" Well they don't hate you just want the best and teach you values and about life without you having to learn the hard way like they did. No one is perfect either our our parents, grandparents, friends, aunt, uncles and significant others. The truth is everyone wants to do it better than the person before them. But if no one says I cant we would have a lot more people doing and coming up with new things.

Back to this topic of money. The one thing I have noticed is a lot of people have to work a few jobs to pay the bills. Well I have talked to a few people lately and some are saying close to the same things. We both work to much, My wife says I am never home, I don't know my kids, and What happened? Its a scary thing that's happening today. People are working so much they get accustomed to a certain life style for there family. Why? "Because we have bills, and my family has grown to this life style." But here is a question. Is it worth your family not knowing each other? Is getting that special game system for your kids worth not putting it into a bill? Think about this if you didn't have those big expenses you might be able to work less, pay off other bills right? If all that goes to plan then that means more time with the family right? The most important time is a kids life is when they are younger right? No they need a parent all there life! Sorry just part doesn't cut it. Theses people who jump off the ship and leave the other parent by themselves to raise kids. Well your a horrible person. Sorry! A kid needs to know who there parents are at all times. There are to many kids now a days whose parents get up and leave cause its to hard or the other person works to much.

I met a guy recently whose wife left him cause he was never home. Well he was never home cause he had work. He is running a pretty large business by himself. But she has the nice car, house and stuff. Well honey let me tell you something you want him home more it might mean you don't have that stuff. Well I want it. Here is the underlining problem yet again "WE NEED MONEY!" I hope one day we all realise money doesn't by happiness. So if it doesn't by happiness why are we working 72 hours a week plus? Where is the time for the kids who need someone to tell them they are loved?

I have kids that I work with that they rarely ever see there parents and they have no idea what job there parents are working at what time. It makes me cry to know that kids have to go through that. Fortunately I had a mom who only worked nights a day our 2 a week after I was born. She hated working still does. She wants to be able to see her kids, her friends kids and there kids. My mom loves kids especially her own. But other peoples kids she can only handle in small doses. My dad who has worked hard and a lot all of his life. Love kids too not as much as my mom. He is the type of person who will tell the parents wow your kid is pretty annoying cause you make them be quite I am trying to watch TV. He is the person I look up to when it comes to anything he worked hard and was there when we needed him. But he did travel a lot but it was because we needed money to live. So unfortunately in this world it is a necessary evil that on this earth. But remember we wont need it when we pass on. But is it worth losing yourself or your kids?

I hope I didn't upset anyone by writing this but I feel like I was suppose to because as I was writing I was noticing things I never did before. Thanks mom and dad for the things I never understand.

Questions

Today there was a question that was asked of my youth group kids who I have been a leader with for about a year now. We asked how do you want to die? You should have seen the look on these kids faces I swear it looked like you asked them the all mighty question that could never be answered as if it was a math problem.  They were confused and quite shocked by the question asked. It was the first time my kids actually knew the meaning of silence.

We got some interesting answers not many though. Then I remembered a book I did a teaching on many years ago. The book was called "since nobody's perfect how good is good enough?" And like it says in this book there in lies the question. At the begining of this book the author and his sunday school kids are having a converation on how you get to heaven. So he asks he kids well wounder if I paint the church, cut the church grass every sunday, volunteer to feed the homeless, go help the elderly once a week, go cook for someone who is ill and the answer all the kids gave for every single one was NO. So he asked then how do you get to heaven? One kid raised his hand and said (Let me remind you this kids are probably about my age now when the book was written or close) "Well you have to be dead!" Well the kid is right you have to be dead. But being the generation I am I ask the question is it even possible to actually know your going there?

So here is my thought wait for it I really dont know. I know heres the thought then why are you writing this blog entry. Well cause I hope that though writting this I can figure it out.

I was having a converation today about how we know what Gods plan is and we dont. EVER. Thats the beauty of this world God has a plan but yet we dont know what that is! But I feel like God puts us on the path we are on to stabaleize our thoughts. God say hey Ryan go this way! I ask why and I feel like I get the do as I say not as I do. Or just do it cause I'm God and thats cool with me I know th power of God I dont try and test it.

So I feel like God has a plan for everything. so I guess what I have realised is that the best way to die is how God wants us to die. Its all part of this master plan he has for us. So I guess after watching the begining of the latest star trek movie I would want to dies knowing I saved people. The greatest honor would be knowing I died to save somone else from themselves. I feel like all this will happen eventually. But in the mean time I want to try and save as many people I can weather or not they are still part of my life for a reason. I feel like some people look at me like im crazy for wanting to help. The truth is I will do anything for anyone as far as I can and that is true worship.

How do you know

I have been in many deep conversation about love and life in the past few days. I have come to realise that only God really knows when everything will happen. This weekend instead of doing what my usaual has been and going to a bar and talking to people and eventually God comes about. Well I decided I was going to see my uncle one day and when I wanted people to call me about things they didnt but when I was busy people were calling me like crazy. It is pretty amazing work of God to be able to let the people who need help get the help. But it brings me to think about the hindu religion and how they believe in good karma. Well I dont believe that it is this so called karma. I believe if you are helping other people when its your time there will be people to help you get through this rough patch in your life. Anyway I am getting off topic.

I have been talking with some friends alot about relationships. I myself just resently broke up with my girlfriend a few weeks ago we were dating for almost 2 years. One of my mentors says he was proud of me. I felt like God was telling me Ryan if your not happy leave so its what I did. I wasnt married or had a child with her and I well the moment I got my chance I took it. One night she called me selfish because she wasnt getting to see me because I was working going to school trying to finish up an intership and just trying to get in the word every day. My internship was at my church this summer. I learned alot about what happens when people are blinded by things. But when she said I was selfish God said Ryan this is your chance to get out of living this sin and this lie you call a relationship. So I did and strange enough it worked and I have never felt so good to get out of a relationship ever.

One of my Mentors is very good at finding people soul mates. I am not lying most of his friends are together because of him. So one night we were out and he introduced me to one of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen (for me). I was stunned by her beauty I couldnt even speak I was in shock. Well ever since then my buddy has been looking unintentionally for me for the past few weeks. He said he met this lovely lady who was a believer in christ and she loved his ministries which is perfect for me lol. He is telling me about her and how she is about an 11 on a scale of 1-10. I was so shocked by this. He said Ryan this one will take time. And I thought but dont we all have to wait for the right person. My problem has always been how do you know who is right for you.

Here is the thought from a guy who has thought he has known with about 6 girls that they were the one. Well we dont really know its all from God. He puts it in our hearts when we see the person for the first time we see things that no one else does. I can tell you that I have been wrong so many times. I have made mistakes about telling someone I was close to I loved them because I wasnt in the right frame of mind. I regret that because we no longer have the close friendship we did and well I know I am dumb. But when that person comes in our life we want to never let that person go. But we know we both have lifes we have to live bills to pay and of course stuff to do. I know what my perfect significant other is like I am just waiting for god to tell me its ok to act and take that person on a date and start courting for marraige. I want to be able to haev a relationship that isnt based on extracuricular activites. Most if not all my relationships have been. I have changed that and understand its Gods will and I have to do what he wants from me. People believe life is about Sex, Drugs, Alchol and sports. Well heres a question if you think that; Why are you taking status and stake in a momentary status? But then a quick response is to have kids and get married. Which God wants us to do!! But he wants it to be biblical. THAT MEANS NO SEX BEFORE MARRAIGE!!! I am guilty of it so dont feel like I am damming you to hell if you did. We are humans when we left the garden of eden we left and open ourself up to the devil. The devil dwells and trys to tempt us all the time I know I have seen it and been through it.

To sum up when ever the question arises "How do you know?" Just think well I dont only God does. But no matter what the sittuation is we can be equiped with tools we need to follow through with things or help people in a situation.  This week has been one of those weeks of was I doing the right thing and I made sure I asked god about it before I made any final judgement on things. he puts things in our lifes because he wants us to understand that he loves us and will help us in what ever we need help with. But we need to ask God is loving and all knowing we need to trust and have the holy spirt with us at all times otherwise we will father in to badness that what needs to be.

Starting over

So for the past few week I have been going though this phase I call starting over. The biggest part was how do I start. Well the first thing I wanted to do was repent for things I have done in my past that I know was against God. I have been trying new and different things that are just something that I have never done.

The first was be in the word every day even if its reading the KLove verse of the day which is pretty cool. Second I started to hang out with a good friend of mine who is one of my Mentors (I have two and I love that God has put them in my life because they are always challenging me to do more that I think I can); I have gone to bars clubs and places that most Christians call the pits of hell or places where the devil dwells.

Well let me tell you about all this it is not an easy thing to do especially when you are young in your faith. God is forgiving because I will admit I have screwed up time and time again. But I am always forgiven because he is a forgiving God. I don't want people to think that I am boasting about the things I do I am not. I want people to try and follow my thoughts because they are not always the same as what comes out.

Another thing I do is I talk to more people then ever before and what does the conversation usually go to you ask? Well I always talk about God but never right off the bat. Even Christians are not receptive to the welcome of do you know Jesus. People can be very turned off or stand offish towards you. One of my favorite things I do is I love going to stores and talking to people about what ever catches my eye. Well I am a guy and we are very stereotypical if we tend to look at girls most guys look in lust others are looking for a soul mate. So like today for instance I was at a Halloween store with a friend who wanted opinions about what she was trying on. Well I ended up talking to the manager who was a very attractive woman and I loved the way she was dressed because her goal was not to make guys go gaga over her. But she had eyes that any guy would if he ever looked at her other than a girl who is a manager at a Halloween store. We started talking about how I needed to be supportive of my friend and tell her what she looks pretty in. I was like um no I am a bad shopper I am not her boyfriend I am just a friend. She went on talking about how she makes her guy friends come with her shopping because she feels self conscious. So I asked her why she really couldnt come up with an answer. (fyi she is a size 0 in most stores)

One thing I have begun to notice with starting over is that the world is not going where it honestly shold be. Her was a girl that was small and pettite but yet she was self conscious about herself. Why does the norm for women be a size 0? What ever happend to marylnn monroe being ideal women. Do people even realize that she was a size 14? The world is a very disterbing place and people need to change and be receptive to hearing about God. And suprisingly the people that dont want to hear it are the ones that are in churches or schools or in the general public. But you know where they are if you make friends first? They are at bars and clubs I am not and expert but I have seen things that some people would never believe in the past few weeks.

The thing that has helped me get through is the fact that I know I can always talked to God about important things in my life. Like figuring out what to eat before I leave lol. But seriously besides God I have some great people in my life that I can not believe are even here with me as a friend it is all done buy God.

I am not writing this for personal gain or just to rant. I know it may look like it but this is what came to mind. I hope I can start some interesting comments on this.

Last social media blog

So here is my third and final blog on social media in churches I have had a great time just talking about this subject. It has become such a blessing for me to step back and really look at what social media in my church has done to some of our church goers at West Ridge Community Church in Elgin. It has been amazing to look and see how the leaders, as well as myself, in the church have used social media.

From what I can tell social media really is the future of not only my church but in other churches as well. As I have posted in previous blogs, many churches have begun using social media as a tool to reach out to their parishioners.  One of our pastors has even started a Facebook page, so that people have a place to go to see upcoming events and other important church announcements.

A recent event at the church was an event that I set up for the student ministries.  I worked with the students for a fundraising event at Culvers restaurant for a mission trip to Detroit at the end of the summer.  I have to admit that if it wasn’t for Facebook and email, many people probably wouldn’t have had any idea about this fundraising endeavor.  So thanks to the use of social media, the fundraiser went off extremely well.

All in all, I believe that social media is not something that churches can ignore any longer, because the pros of using social media outweigh the cons.  I would tell any church leader I know that social media is an absolute must if they want to get their parishioners more involved.  If you need any proof as to how well it works, just look at the work social media has done for the West Ridge Community Church.

Social Media in Churches #3

Here is entry number three on social media in churches. Since I have talked about different churches other than mine, I began to focus more on how my church deals with the social media. My last blog talked about how I use social media with my youth group. I am an intern at West Ridge Community Church in Elgin, IL and this is why I have been writing on social media in churches. I have enjoyed working with the students in this group and keeping up with them on Facebook. With that being said, Adam, the groups pastor, and I wanted to communicate to our students that the power at our cabin was out. ComEd, our power company supplier said that they would send our electric bills to our cabin mail box but, unfortunately, no one checks the cabin mail box. We did not know that ComEd decided to change the mailing address after many years of sending the bill to the church. So Adam and I decided that we needed to make a funny video about why the power went out. We knew the mail box for the cabin had to go and the only way to get rid of it was to take it out of the ground. So Adam recorded me taking the mail box out of the ground to make sure no one ever sent mail to it again. This is the video I have connected with my blog and how we told our youth group students about the tragedy that struck.

Social media continued

            So here I am again talking about social media in Church’s. Last time I talked about why churches are using social media, now I will just talk about my church in particular. My church is west ridge community church. West ridge has been my home church since about 2008. I have watched the church use different form of communication to communicate with people, when I first started their email was there main form of communication. Which we still use email as a form. But for us a lot of our younger parishioners use facebook more than we can imagine. With me being a part of the student ministry facebook is how I communicate with most if not all my students in some way shape or form. Without facebook I would not have any communication with my students other than their youth group nights. But just having a facebook makes me a cool person in their minds because I am someone older that they look up to. It is very interesting to be able to communicate with my students on facebook because I see and hear things that I either do not need to hear or it may be something I will have to bring up to them when I see them. So having and using social media with the church and the youth group is very much a life saver to help not only my students but other parishioners.