Band

So today was my first day of band practice with The Drifts.
Not bad, not bad at all.
They are all really friendly AND talented guys.

And the style...
Imagine Beiruit meets The Decemberists.

Kind of like my dream band actually :P

I really think this will be an awesome opportunity to glorify God
outside of the worship scene and play with people who are passionate
about music (although 2/3 other guys are passionate Christians so there is some
commonground there, not that it really mattered to me as far as playing with them).

Also, I love a chance to make some new friends :)

I really think this will be good for me.
www.myspace.com/thedrifts4

How are you all doing? I miss seeing you college people!
Jonathan

Beauty

No other could ever be as beautiful.
No other could ever steal my heart away.

Beggar

I have been reading Crazy Love.
There is one part that goes like this:

God tells the priests that if they don't want to give Him Excellence, others will. God says His name will be great among the nations. Right now a hundred million angels are praising God's name; He certainly doesn't need to beg or plead with us.
We should be the ones begging to worship in His presence.

That caught my attention. I should be begging to come in His presence.

Now, I do think that God is approachable. I mean, he did humble himself into a human and became a servant. Little children ran to him. That seems pretty approachable to me. But God is also this incredibly powerful and overwhelmingly mighty. I tend to miss out on having a certain reverence for such a being.

I also like this part:

I want you. And even if I don't want you, I want to want you.

I also think that is a cool idea. Because in reality, I do not always want God every day. But I know I cannot let that stop me from chasing him ever day. I want to want him every single day of my life.

I am going to be with my brother now :)
I hope you are all doing well.
Jonathan

Gold

You know, being in a relationship really makes this whole God thing click some more.

It really does.

I mean, the simple pleasures of holding her hand or laughing until I cry, or simply being with her are spectacular and it makes me think I understand God's love for me. But the incredibly beautiful thing is that any love in my heart pales in comparison to God's love for me.

Think about it. If I think it is so awesome to spend time with her, try to fathom the magnitude in which God takes pleasure in simply being with me.

Think about it this way: God is the creator of hate, and he hates what he hates more passionately than any other being because, as the creator of hate, he knows the full magnitude of what hatred can consist of.

Thank God he doesn't hate us.

In fact, you can just replace all of those hates with loves.

So in short, no matter how passionately I may ever think I love somebody,
God's love ultimately will be a million times more intense.

Anyways, I was not writing this for the sake of making some sappy thing.
I hate that sort of thing.

I am actually being serious, though. I was thinking about it recently.
I really think God really made marriage a metaphor with our relationship with him.
It gives us an slight idea of how he feels about us.

I was just making some connections, really.

I hope that made sense and you were not like:
Seriously? I Do not want to read about your friggin girlfriend.

Jonathan

Trust

God has been consistently intentional about telling me one thing this semester:

Trust him to have a plan.

Seriously, in the past week alone I can think of three encounters with people pointing me that way.
Aaron had a talk on it, Jake and I talked about it, and Chelsea today was talking about God having a plan in her life.

It is kind of crazy really.
In two ways:
1. How faithful he has been.
2. How unfaithful I have been.

I am not perfect, but I am working on it.

Really trust is the theme of my semester.
I have been working on figuring out my purpose in this speck of time I have on a place I call Earth.

I have it narrowed down to two things so far...
1. Live for God everyday.
2. Trust that he will do something with your life.


Sorry I blog so much. This is just kind of my journal, so I have been
really trying to document all of this the best I can.

”And if I saw that star
Shining bright
Walking at night
You know I’d run as fast as I can

And I’d send you a clue
Of what to do
So you won’t feel
Like I do”
You & I by The Cobalt Season

I kind of want to play this at Altaer sometime for moment of truth maybe.

Everything

There is this song that goes like:
Let everything that has breath praise the lord.

That song comes from Psalm 150.


Here is everything it says to praise God for:
1. For his acts of power
2. For his surpassing greatness

Here is everything it says to praise God with:
1. Praise him with trumpets
2. Praise him with harps and lyres
3. Praise him with tambourines
4. Praise him with dancing
5. Praise him with Strings
6. Praise him with Flutes
7. Praise him with Cymbals

I think the point is that Gods glory and power is enough to offer him everything we have,
whether it is music or dancing or painting or through humility, etc.

Let everything that has breath praise the lord.

Jonathan

Begin

I felt like I came so far.
I really did.

But now I am back to the same square one.

Trusting God is hard. It really is.

Preachers make it out to be easier than it is.

They always talk about how God has a bigger
picture than I do, while in the meanwhile I
feel like I am stuck in a dark hole.

It is funny how ideas feel much softer than reality.

I am not mad at God or anything.
I just wish I had a clue sometimes.

There was a point where I came far from
trusting God and not feeling so hopeless in everything.

Crazy how one day can push me back months.
Crazy how pulling one card can put me back three spaces.

And giving a round three at college did not really help, either.

I actually felt more alone than I have in a while.

I realized that I do not have any mentors who did/is doing the college thing
who is not great academically. What was really scary was when I turned to God
on that one, I had to realize that he knows everything :P
Nobody.

I was talking to Kelsey, and she asked me if I actually trusted if God has a purpose for me.

I do.
I just am not sure if I will find it.

Actually. That is it.
It is not a thing of college necessarily. I just want to do what God wants me to do, which
could be one of three trillion things and I have it narrowed down to one of 99% of those things being it.

I do not really write these for the sake of you guys reading about my problems.
I mean I am open about it, but I hope you do not think I am just rambling for the sake of rambling.
I really am just trying to organize my thoughts and I type faster than I journal.
Although I not mind if you care :P

Jonathan