September 24, 2013

This morning in prayer, I couldn't help but become geeked as I reminisced over my life and how God has blessed me with amazing friendships outside of my immediate family. Three, to be exact. I wasn't very pleased with myself growing up. I had been through enough emotional trauma by the age of twelve. During the latter years of my teenager-hood, I met three people who have stuck by me through thick and thin and gave me some space to find out what potential God put in me.

I thank Jesus so much for them and that they allowed Him to love me through them! I was so happy this morning I told them so and I cried at the end of the texting. It's just so beautiful! Sniffing around for a scripture that could match their impact on me, I found another blog post in which the writer shared how replacing the word "love" in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 with his name gave him a paradigm shift. Well, by substituting the names of my dear friends with "love," I can describe perfectly how God loves me through them.

My friends are patient and kind. They are not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. They do not demand their own way. They're not irritable, and none of them keep any record of being wronged. My friends do not rejoice about injustice but rejoice whenever the truth wins out. They never give up, never lose faith, are always hopeful, and endure through every circumstance. (Adopted from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT)

Now only one thing remains to be determined: is this how people describe me? Am I living the love of Jesus Christ in an unmistakable manner? If so, how can I become better? If not, I better do something about it quick-fast-and in a hurry!

You see, no matter who they are or what's their status, people hurt and only love can heal. God is love. Loving people is essentially introducing the Hurt to the Healer. You can do so much good for the people around you by putting your name (or "I," to create a mission statement) in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and abiding by it. Maybe, one day, you'll get a text or a letter or a phone call from someone who, in tears of unspeakable joy, will say, "Thank you so much for letting God love me through you!"

September 13, 2013

Letters To God, a movie from 2010 about a courageous and loving young boy who's devotion to God touches the lives of thousands of people just before he's called home. I wonder, why are most inspirational movies about people with "deficiencies." Cancer, paralyzed, tumors, rape, emotional trauma; anything dramatic, the protagonist suffers from. Yet, these characters give the most of themselves to others.

They have a dying purpose instead of a dying wish.

That made me think, what if people who will be alive for many years lived with the exact same enthusiasm as those who know they won't see life after 3 to 6 months? Yes, it would be a totally different world. However, the better question is, would they live with a positive dying purpose? A villian would wreak the most havoc possible as a dying purpose and that would not help anyone! What would be my dying purpose? Would I want to touch people for the better? What would I literally do to make that happen?

We don't ask ourselves this question enough, if at all. I asked a friend this question and they gave me the saddest answer I can imagine. They don't know. They can't even make something up. Maybe the fact that we aren't considering that one day, we really won't be here is a part of why so many people live so selfishly and wandering without direction. What about you? Do you have a dying purpose?What is it?

To live in pursuit of a dying purpose will make your life better. It will make the global community better, and we may find death more welcoming when our times come.

-Brittany K.

Sept. 11, 2013

I'm not going to worry myself to make introductions just because this is a new medium. Frankly, I believe that will be even more unnatural than beginning this post by saying I will make no introductions. A natural first post would either sound like the first chronicle of anything, or like a continuation of what is already set in motion elsewhere.

The latter is how I describe this blog: an extension of things already set in motion elswehere - a second chronicling of my personal journals. Even more, this is a place for me to share some of the thoughts and arguments that are suitable for publicizing. A private journal is not called "private" for nothing! However, recently, I find myself wanting to discuss deep topics with other people. Ideas and feelings that I would otherwise count as taboo, I am now more inclined to make known abroad. Unfortunately, I'm yet fishing in the shallow end of the pond; only catching small thinkers who aren't interested in deep conversation. Perhaps this blog will attract other people who are apt for the discussions I probe each day either with a friend, or within the pages of my journal. I highly doubt that I want to engage in these discourses over the Internet (cyber fights and such), but I do hope to stimulate thoughtful consideration.

Of course, now I've already violated the blog description. None of the above is in a journal. I don't remember what I originally intended to write. And, this post is an introduction. Great, another failed attempt at blogging. Nevertheless im glad it failed, this post is more fun to read. I hope this sort of blogging will show itself again periodically.

~Brittany Aly

September 11, 2013

Hello! I'm only writing this post to get a feel for how my page will look. Instead of typing nonsense for ten minutes, I'm going to post my favorite chapter of scripture. Quickly, I'll explain why; I love this chapter because it shows the love and for thought of Jesus for believers. He begins with petitions directed toward his apostles, then their disciples, and us. Today, the Christian church is made up of people who believe on Jesus Christ because of the apostles' testimony. The fact that Jesus considered us and prayed for us before he went to Calvary just goes to show how loving, and thoughtful, and understanding He is. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy!

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:1-26 KJV)