6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Phil 4:6-7
So, I’ve got to say that I’ve been having a hard time in life lately. Several months ago I got some strange ideas about prayer in my head and basically stopped asking for anything. I stopped asking for needs to be met, I stopped asking for the healing of others, I stopped asking the Lord to talk to friends of mine. My attitude is, “God is good! He’ll get it done if I don’t ask for it anyway, so why ask?”
Since then, things have been pretty rough. Finally I happened upon some articles and devotions that talked about prayer that set me straight. I decided to test it, because you know, I’m a Thomas and just can’t leave things on Faith.
There’s this DVD I’ve been wanting for a while now. I’d followed the production very closely because it’s based off of one of my favorite one-shot comics. I was very excited about the release but its release week has happened to coincide with one of the worst financial periods of my life. I’ve just recently moved out on my own and just about the time that I did so my employer suddenly cut me down to about five hours a week. When you’re making just above the minimum wage line that’s pretty pathetic. I’ve got a great deal on rent because I live with two wonderful friends who make way more money than I do, but I’ve also got other bills that need to be met.
Clearly, there was no way on earth I was going to get this DVD any time soon. So I sat down with all this stuff on my heart and said, “God, I feel really stupid about this. You’ve got so many better things to be doing than this and I know it’s a selfish request, but there’s this DVD I really want. You know what’s on my heart and you know what’s in my life and if you could just find some way…”
Long story short the next day one of my wonderful friends calls me up and says, “Hey, I know you’re having a hard time so I thought of you and bought you this present…”
Look, I’m not advocating the prosperity gospel. I think the life of the Twelve is proof enough that being in with God is not going to make life easy but if you’re having a hard time take it to God. Instead of struggling to fill a need or fill a want, give God the chance to fill it for you. If He doesn’t, maybe he’s just saying that now’s not the right time, but if He does… well, take a look at the birds and how God takes care of them and just think about how much more He loves you.
Bible Stuff:
Matthew 7:7
Luke 11:9
James 4:1-3
Attention Christian Publishers, Authors, and Literary Agents! If all you can think to put on your cover is a picture of the author in a slick suit showing off his wealth I will immediately distrust you! A book cover is supposed to display a kind of visual summary of what you will find inside and what I see when I look at your book is a snake-oil salesman. I see liars, I see cheats. I see men seeking only their own profit. I see men taking God’s name a stepping on it to make a buck. I see every thing that is wrong with the Church today embodied in your author.
And the contents of these books don’t often do much to prove me wrong, either.
Yours Truly
Darwyn “Stranger” Caufield
Welcome to my blog. This is a place for my musings on Christianity, religion in the world, religion and my age group, and just current events in light of Christianity. My name is Darwyn. I’m a 24-year-old student in ministry. I’m a United Methodist, but I say that only to explain that some of my perspectives might be unusual: unusual for Christianity, unusual for my denomination, unusual for my age bracket. I’m just exploring here. I don’t think denomination is important and we should be identified as Christians first and by our denominations last – if best, we shouldn’t even actually bring it up!
My hobbies are video gaming, role-playing, reading, writing, and drawing but I have to tell you that I’ve not really done the last in a long time. I don’t identify with a political party. If you want to know the truth I’m not impressed with the republican’s use of religion, and I don’t think that many of the democrats express Jesus’ intentions much better. That said, I think we need to vote, and my prime candidate is Obama. He’s the first guy in this election, and the first guy in years to push the idea that America could be something better than it is. It’s the hope for the future thing – that is a very Christian perspective.
Were I not to become a minister there are several things I’d like to pursue. I’ve wanted to become a video-game journalist for a while now. It’s a topic I’m interested in and it’d combine two of my favorite activities. Some friends and I have tossed around ideas for a local Comic Book shop. Also, just got to say this, when I watch Ace of Cakes I get really jealous of their job. That would be a lot of fun.
If you’re going to read my blog I want you to know that I’ve laid down a few rules. I want to try and follow these rules, so this is a kind of promise, a contract between you and I.
Blog Rules
1. I will always try to tell the truth (beware of objectivitiy)
2. Opinions will happen. This is my own personal blog and there will always be my opinions and my takes on things
3. I promise to try and do my research before posting.
4. I promise to try to post at least once a week and warn the readers if I will be unable to
5. I promise not to take myself too seriously! I know this seems silly but I know one tiny blog on the internet is not going to solve all the problems of humanity, nor do I really expect to even try. This represents my personal thoughts, musings, and reactions. I’m not that serious of a person, so I promise to try not to take myself too seriously.
So, that said what’s the point of this blog? Like I said, I’m going to talk about Christianity, current events, and just anything in between from the perspective of a particular 24-year-old male university-attending Christian. There are a couple of regular “columns” that I’d like to try and give you every week. On Thursdays I’ll give a small article or essay about some theological issue or another because I like knowing stuff. This is either something I wanted to know about or something that I just learned that I just think is cool, so I’ll let you in on it too. Feel free to disagree with me, but hey there you go.