Hey, hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season. Couldn't believe it when I turned on the radio and the Christmas music was already playing. But oh well, I like it, so it's all good. Speaking of the holidays, we all know we just had Thanksgiving last Thursday, so of course I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about being thankful!
So I know the cheesy thing everyone always says on Thanksgiving is "Everyone should be Thankful like this all of the time." And it's obvious that people act more thankful for everything on Thanksgiving! All of the Instagram pictures and tweets make it obvious that something different happens in the end of November every year, but why? More than just the common joke, why aren't people more thankful for what they have every day of the year? I go to a great private school and am blessed with the ability to play the sport I love and be surrounded by great friends and an awesome family. Like most people, there are definitely days that I take all of those for granted. We live in a world where we always want the next best thing and never take the time to appreciate what we already have. Think about the Apple store in the mall anytime a new iPhone comes out. The line stretches around the entire mall, and I'm pretty sure that like five people at the most actually need a new phone.
Not appreciating things goes beyond just physical things too. Whenever last period rolls around and I have to walk down to the gym to workout, I always dread it. But wouldn't it be a lot easier for myself if I appreciated the fact that I am able to work out? Or the fact that when second semester starts, we have baseball practice pretty much every day for the next five months. I should be so thankful to be able to drive MY car to the beautiful field where we practice and play the sport that I love for the next three hours. If people across the world would focus on what they already have, the world would be a different place. People would be able to love each other without end, and no one would be disappointed when their gadget is a model year too old. I heard a quote once that said, "What if we woke up tomorrow with only the things we thanked God for today." That one hit me pretty hard. If I'm not thankful for everything that I have, why do I even deserve to have it? Some of the most cheerful people in the world are those people that have the least. Why in the world is this the case?! Why is it proven that, most of the time, a rich person who was once in poverty will give back more than a person who has never struggled? The one who was once poor knows what it's like to have nothing, and they do not take for granted the opportunity they have to help people who were once in their shoes.
Appreciating everything and not longing for what we don't have may be difficult at first, but when we take into mind everything that we as living people are blessed with, it's pretty easy to see that we have a lot more to be thankful for than we can ever know
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Part Three: Everyday Struggles
Hey guys, so I know I missed last week, sorry about that. I just had a little struggle getting all of the information and got weirdly busy during the week. Anyways, as I've said a couple times, this post is about the point of view from another teenager. This one is kind of deep so just try to bear with me.
Alright, so this is about one of my friends that I've the opportunity to grow pretty close to over the past year or so. She is a senior in high school currently. In the past couple years she has suffered from depression and anxiety, and both of them were pretty bad. Sometimes she has trouble going out in public just because she finds is difficult to interact with people her own age because of what she is going through. At one point she was a Christian but has kind of lost her faith over the years. She claims that it's just hard to believe in God when we live in such a cruel and corrupted society. Thoughts of self-harm and suicide live in her brain all day, and she says it is really tough to fight those thoughts and not give in. The biggest support that she has is her family and small group of friends that she feels comfortable around. Even though her family has a very comfortable house and lives in a good part of town, she still struggles everyday. Even though most of these challenges are within herself, they are very much affected by the world around her. The biggest challenge for her is really just feeling like she doesn't fit in. She fights everyday to just be happy and be able to socialize. She claims that since she lost her faith, life has gotten extremely harder. She doesn't have the sense that she has a purpose in this world and is really trying to figure out her purpose here in this world. Even though she has been getting a little better over time, the will to be happy is often very exhausting, and sometimes it just feels pointless to fight for a smile. She is still open to accepting God back into her life, but just hasn't made the big leap forward yet.
This story is a good example of how even someone who looks like they have it all on the outside can still be struggling a great deal on the inside. She says that the only people who even know that she is struggling is the small handful of people she feels comfortable enough to open up to. It's just a good reminder that we never really know what is going on in someone's personal life. You never know when a simple "hey" or a smile can truly make someone's day. I know that sounds pretty cheesy but it's true. One of the biggest reasons that people choose not to be Christian is because of all the people who call themselves Christian, but don't prove it by their actions. If people were to start truly loving each other as much as they loved themselves, I think this world could become a pretty awesome place.
Thanks for taking your time to read this and I really hope that you can come back in a couple weeks and see what I have to write about then!
Alright, so this is about one of my friends that I've the opportunity to grow pretty close to over the past year or so. She is a senior in high school currently. In the past couple years she has suffered from depression and anxiety, and both of them were pretty bad. Sometimes she has trouble going out in public just because she finds is difficult to interact with people her own age because of what she is going through. At one point she was a Christian but has kind of lost her faith over the years. She claims that it's just hard to believe in God when we live in such a cruel and corrupted society. Thoughts of self-harm and suicide live in her brain all day, and she says it is really tough to fight those thoughts and not give in. The biggest support that she has is her family and small group of friends that she feels comfortable around. Even though her family has a very comfortable house and lives in a good part of town, she still struggles everyday. Even though most of these challenges are within herself, they are very much affected by the world around her. The biggest challenge for her is really just feeling like she doesn't fit in. She fights everyday to just be happy and be able to socialize. She claims that since she lost her faith, life has gotten extremely harder. She doesn't have the sense that she has a purpose in this world and is really trying to figure out her purpose here in this world. Even though she has been getting a little better over time, the will to be happy is often very exhausting, and sometimes it just feels pointless to fight for a smile. She is still open to accepting God back into her life, but just hasn't made the big leap forward yet.
This story is a good example of how even someone who looks like they have it all on the outside can still be struggling a great deal on the inside. She says that the only people who even know that she is struggling is the small handful of people she feels comfortable enough to open up to. It's just a good reminder that we never really know what is going on in someone's personal life. You never know when a simple "hey" or a smile can truly make someone's day. I know that sounds pretty cheesy but it's true. One of the biggest reasons that people choose not to be Christian is because of all the people who call themselves Christian, but don't prove it by their actions. If people were to start truly loving each other as much as they loved themselves, I think this world could become a pretty awesome place.
Thanks for taking your time to read this and I really hope that you can come back in a couple weeks and see what I have to write about then!
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Part Two: Everyday Struggles
Hey guys, hope y'all's past couple weeks has been going good. Alright, so this post is the second of three parts to a little series called Everyday Struggles. As I said in the first post, this one is going to be from the point of view of an adult. For those of y'all who go to King's Ridge, this is from Mrs. Volz. For those of you who don't, she is an English teacher at my school who, without a doubt, has an influence on everyone she meets. Mrs. Volz is one person who truly allows God to shine through her as a teacher and a mentor. She loves what she does, but even a life that looks as good as her's from the outside is still filled with struggles that she faces everyday and has to take them on like the rest of us.
Being a teacher, Mrs. Volz is constantly faced with the struggle of having to balance God, her family, and all of the papers that are constantly needing to be graded. She told me that one everyday struggle she faces is having to prioritize everything that is going on in her life, such as school and stuff at home. Grading can pile up as we can all imagine, but she says that she is always making sure she is putting people first, because the grading can wait. Anyone who has ever talked to her can definitely attest to this, and agree that she does a very good job. Another struggle that she, along with everyone else is the world faces, is temptation. Everyone has something or multiple things in his/her life that is tempting, and it can seem impossible to overcome. For Mrs. Volz, it is focusing on seeing the best in everyone that she meets. Trying to look at everyone else like the Lord would look at them, and loving them like God loves her is what she strives for, but as humans, we can all agree that sometimes this is hard to do. We all know a couple people who just seem like they are always getting on our nerves, but we can never forget the fact that we are human as well, and no one is perfect, so we shouldn't expect them to be. Moving on from the little struggles, Mrs. Volz went through something that completely changed her day to day life. Last spring, she had to get back surgery. As a teacher, this meant that she was going to miss a lot of school, and since teaching is something that she truly loves, you can imagine how hard it was for her to miss so much of it. She admitted that it was probably the most difficult time in her life (all 29 years of it is what she would tell you). Because she is someone who is so independent, the hardest thing for her was completely relying on others during the recovery process. She found that not being able to do everyday things for herself was the most frustrating part of it all. She claims that during that time, she truly felt God "working on [her] heart". She says He surrounded her with people who were so good to her. The process definitely helped her with her patience, as it has been a very long process and she says even through it all, she still may never get back to where she was physically before it all happened. When faced with the tough task of answering why she thinks struggles happen to people with such a strong faith, she said that it is probably to test the strength of the faith. Going through these struggles can be seen as a test, and especially an opportunity to bring you closer to God. People who are going through these trials can serve as examples to others, and allow God to shine through them. She says that the most important thing to her is not focusing on the problems that she is still facing, but instead keeping a graceful heart and looking back and realizing how far she has come.
Mrs. Volz's story is a great example of how even people with extremely strong faith go through trials almost every day. Even if you are someone who does not have a very strong Christian faith. or any faith at all, the struggles will still find their way into your life. How you get through these is all determined on what kind of attitude you are keeping through the whole thing, and just staying true to yourself, and knowing that you will be able to make it through is the most important thing you can do. Hopefully this post meant something to everyone, and I hope you come back to read the next post about the struggles that teenagers face day to day.
Being a teacher, Mrs. Volz is constantly faced with the struggle of having to balance God, her family, and all of the papers that are constantly needing to be graded. She told me that one everyday struggle she faces is having to prioritize everything that is going on in her life, such as school and stuff at home. Grading can pile up as we can all imagine, but she says that she is always making sure she is putting people first, because the grading can wait. Anyone who has ever talked to her can definitely attest to this, and agree that she does a very good job. Another struggle that she, along with everyone else is the world faces, is temptation. Everyone has something or multiple things in his/her life that is tempting, and it can seem impossible to overcome. For Mrs. Volz, it is focusing on seeing the best in everyone that she meets. Trying to look at everyone else like the Lord would look at them, and loving them like God loves her is what she strives for, but as humans, we can all agree that sometimes this is hard to do. We all know a couple people who just seem like they are always getting on our nerves, but we can never forget the fact that we are human as well, and no one is perfect, so we shouldn't expect them to be. Moving on from the little struggles, Mrs. Volz went through something that completely changed her day to day life. Last spring, she had to get back surgery. As a teacher, this meant that she was going to miss a lot of school, and since teaching is something that she truly loves, you can imagine how hard it was for her to miss so much of it. She admitted that it was probably the most difficult time in her life (all 29 years of it is what she would tell you). Because she is someone who is so independent, the hardest thing for her was completely relying on others during the recovery process. She found that not being able to do everyday things for herself was the most frustrating part of it all. She claims that during that time, she truly felt God "working on [her] heart". She says He surrounded her with people who were so good to her. The process definitely helped her with her patience, as it has been a very long process and she says even through it all, she still may never get back to where she was physically before it all happened. When faced with the tough task of answering why she thinks struggles happen to people with such a strong faith, she said that it is probably to test the strength of the faith. Going through these struggles can be seen as a test, and especially an opportunity to bring you closer to God. People who are going through these trials can serve as examples to others, and allow God to shine through them. She says that the most important thing to her is not focusing on the problems that she is still facing, but instead keeping a graceful heart and looking back and realizing how far she has come.
Mrs. Volz's story is a great example of how even people with extremely strong faith go through trials almost every day. Even if you are someone who does not have a very strong Christian faith. or any faith at all, the struggles will still find their way into your life. How you get through these is all determined on what kind of attitude you are keeping through the whole thing, and just staying true to yourself, and knowing that you will be able to make it through is the most important thing you can do. Hopefully this post meant something to everyone, and I hope you come back to read the next post about the struggles that teenagers face day to day.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Part One: Everyday Struggles
Hey guys, hope everything has been going good. So this is my second post, and it's going to be part of a little three post series. The series is going to be all about struggles that everyday people face in life, but specifically from a Christian person's point of view. The first one is going to be from my point of view, the second post will be from the point of view from an adult, and the third from students in high school.
So this first post is going to be from me, and if you know me, you most likely know that I had Tommy John surgery. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's elbow reconstructive surgery that is mostly common with baseball players, and mainly pitchers, which I am. I talked about it in the first post, so most of y'all know how if affected me.
So this first post is going to be from me, and if you know me, you most likely know that I had Tommy John surgery. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's elbow reconstructive surgery that is mostly common with baseball players, and mainly pitchers, which I am. I talked about it in the first post, so most of y'all know how if affected me.
Here is a pretty good visual representation of how I felt sitting on the bench during rehab vs. actually being a part of the second championship. Obviously, as you can tell, it was not easy for me, but the wait was well worth it. I'm going to talk about what exactly got me through the longest year and a half of my life.
Without the help of family and friends, I would have never been able to get through this as easily as I did. Obviously it wasn't very easy at first, as the picture shows, but after time it started to get easier. I had the constant push from my friends, especially the baseball players who didn't mind showing off their rings. I wanted to get back out there and be better than ever so I could have a ring for myself.
Obviously my friends and family were a big part of it because I was constantly around them. But the one thing that helped my recovery more than anything was without a doubt my faith. My favorite verse, John 16:33, was the biggest push that I had the whole time. I went through the whole recovery process knowing that God had a plan for me, and to just be patient, because good would come of it. This was a huge worldly struggle, but I had no worries because as the verse says, Jesus has overcome the world, and I had nothing to worry about. Although I could have been freaking out, worrying if I was ever going to recover properly, I knew that I just had to keep my faith and God would carry me through the struggle. If I didn't have the faith that I did at the time, there is no way I would have gotten through the process and kept my sanity. Some people reading this may not think the surgery sounds like as big a deal as I am making it. For those of you who are thinking that, let me put it this way. Think of the one thing you love to do most in the world, then imagine someone taking it away for an entire year. Almost at the end of that year, imagine that one thing that you had taken away becomes very successful and you get to watch happen exactly what you've been dreaming about for your entire life happen right before your eyes. It's like you buy a lottery ticket everyday of your life, but you go to buy one and someone tells you that you can't buy one that day. Then the person right behind you buys one and wins the jackpot right in front of your face, that's pretty much what the whole experience felt like. Because of my faith though, I was able to be happy for all of my friends and knew that God would carry me and put me out on the baseball field again and give me a chance to win another championship.
The biggest lesson I learned through the whole thing was to not take anything for granted, because you never know when something is going to end, or even just put on pause for a while.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope that you join me next time to read about the struggles that are happening in the lives of adults.
Monday, September 28, 2015
First Post
Hey guys, my name is Will as y'all probably saw, and I felt it on my heart to start this blog. As you can probably guess from the name, this is going to be a Christian based blog. If you are reading this and are not a Christian, don't just exit this page! I'm not going to try to push the Bible down your throat like you might assume. Instead, I'm just going to talk mainly about what being a Christian looks like from a first person point of view and simple applications that everyone can use in his day to day life.
So you may be wondering how I got the name for this blog. It came straight from my favorite bible verse, which is John 16:33. This verse says, "I have told you these things so in Me you may have peace; in this world you will have struggles, but take heart, for I have overcome the world". This is just a really awesome verse that allows me to go day to day knowing that God has my back and He will carry me through the hard times.
I don't think any blog, book, or article about Christianity would be complete without the author's testimony, so here it goes. When I was younger, I never really went to church. A lot of my friends did, but it didn't really seem like the place for me. When I was fourteen, I switched from a big public school to a small Christian school. I only knew a handful of kids and had no idea what to expect from the whole Christian school idea. The first year was eighth grade, and that was pretty tough. The school work wasn't too hard, and I made friends pretty easily, so obviously neither of those were the problem. The thing that made the new school hard was the fact that I had no idea how to read a Bible! I couldn't tell the difference between a chapter and a verse, and for the longest time couldn't figure out why there were random numbers in the corners of every page (I finally figured out that it was like a dictionary in the sense that those numbers were the first and last verse on each page). I got through eighth grade at the new school, but heading into freshman year, the whole concept of Jesus was still kind of foreign to me. Not long into freshman year, I started hanging out with a group of people who went to church every Sunday and loved God like nothing I've ever seen. I still didn't think the whole idea of church was for me, but after months of them twisting my arm to come with them, I decided I would give it a try. It was a very modern church that had a 4:30 service exclusively for teenagers, which was refreshing, because the couple times that I did go to church when I was younger, I went to a traditional Baptist church, and I'm not
So you may be wondering how I got the name for this blog. It came straight from my favorite bible verse, which is John 16:33. This verse says, "I have told you these things so in Me you may have peace; in this world you will have struggles, but take heart, for I have overcome the world". This is just a really awesome verse that allows me to go day to day knowing that God has my back and He will carry me through the hard times.
I don't think any blog, book, or article about Christianity would be complete without the author's testimony, so here it goes. When I was younger, I never really went to church. A lot of my friends did, but it didn't really seem like the place for me. When I was fourteen, I switched from a big public school to a small Christian school. I only knew a handful of kids and had no idea what to expect from the whole Christian school idea. The first year was eighth grade, and that was pretty tough. The school work wasn't too hard, and I made friends pretty easily, so obviously neither of those were the problem. The thing that made the new school hard was the fact that I had no idea how to read a Bible! I couldn't tell the difference between a chapter and a verse, and for the longest time couldn't figure out why there were random numbers in the corners of every page (I finally figured out that it was like a dictionary in the sense that those numbers were the first and last verse on each page). I got through eighth grade at the new school, but heading into freshman year, the whole concept of Jesus was still kind of foreign to me. Not long into freshman year, I started hanging out with a group of people who went to church every Sunday and loved God like nothing I've ever seen. I still didn't think the whole idea of church was for me, but after months of them twisting my arm to come with them, I decided I would give it a try. It was a very modern church that had a 4:30 service exclusively for teenagers, which was refreshing, because the couple times that I did go to church when I was younger, I went to a traditional Baptist church, and I'm not
sure that there was one service that I made it all the way through without falling asleep. This new church seemed pretty interesting, so I decided to come back a couple more times. After about four months of regularly attending, our first retreat was coming up. I had a lot of friends going, and I was really starting to get accustomed to this new church, so I decided to sign up. I wasn't sure what it was going to be like, but I knew there were going to be four services in two days, and I wasn't really sure if I was going to be able to handle that much Jesus at one time. I got through the first three, and really began to think about my life. I knew the fourth service was really just about 45 minutes of worship songs, so I decided to really listen to what the upcoming songs had to say. They cleared the entire auditorium of the chairs so it was standing room only, opened the doors, and about 2,000 high school students just like me flooded the room fighting for the best spots up in the front. We got almost all the way through the worship service, and I was feeling pretty good. I learned who Jesus was, but still wasn't 100% sure if the whole Christianity thing was for me. At that moment, another song came on, and it was called This is Amazing Grace. I hadn't heard it before, but it sounded good, so I decided to listen. Actually, I did more than listen, I really took the time to understand what the words were saying. We got about halfway through the song when I realized my hands were in the air for praise, and I was crying my eyes out. It wasn't one of those things where your eyes start to water and you can blame it on the dust. No, this was a real sob, like I had no control at this point. It was at this moment that I decided I wanted to give my life up for Christ and pursue Him with everything that I have. It has been almost three years since that moment, and never once have I thought about going back on what I decided that night.
As I write more posts, I really encourage you that if you are scared, or just don't feel like Christianity is for you like I felt, don't turn away from this page. Read these messages with comfort and know that I am not trying to shove my religion down your throat. But hey, what kind of selfish person would I be if I thought there was a way to eternal life, and I didn't try to share with everyone.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope you make your way back here every other Sunday when the new blogs will be posted.
As I write more posts, I really encourage you that if you are scared, or just don't feel like Christianity is for you like I felt, don't turn away from this page. Read these messages with comfort and know that I am not trying to shove my religion down your throat. But hey, what kind of selfish person would I be if I thought there was a way to eternal life, and I didn't try to share with everyone.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope you make your way back here every other Sunday when the new blogs will be posted.
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