Crumbs of Mercy

At Remedy we’ve been going through the book of Matthew for a long time. I mean WAY before I started going there, and we’re only in Matthew 15. But one thing that has stuck out to me over and over is the idea of what it means to have faith. For the longest time I’ve thought the answer was based on how much I believe in God. With the Lord’s teaching (through Phud) I’ve come to realize more of what it actually means. Obviously I believe in God, that He is an actual being that exists and created everything. But it’s not like there are certain levels of that. Technically you either believe in Him or you don’t. It would be silly for me to wake up tomorrow morning and say “I really need to believe in God more today.” So in Matthew, he talks a lot about having great faith (in the cases of the centurion and the gentile woman) and having little faith (in the cases of Peter and the disciples). What I’ve been seeing through reading these particular stories is that the faith Jesus talks about here isn’t dependent on the measure of faith that I have, but the object of it. It’s not a question of, “Is my faith big or small?” necessarily. The better question is, “Is my faith based on something little or something great?” Great faith means I’m dependent on and the object of my affections is Christ. In Matthew 15, the gentile woman had great faith because the object of her affection, her desperation, was based on Christ and not on her sick daughter or her circumstances. She didn’t come to Jesus with a heart of entitlement; she came begging for crumbs of mercy. If I only believe that Jesus was an actual guy that lived a long time ago and did some cool stuff and learned some facts about him, that gets me no closer to anything. Having great faith (so I’m learning) is trusting and committing my life to something great, not just nodding my head at something I believe is true. I love learning from stories that I’ve heard a thousand times. And the more I read it and the closer I grow towards Jesus, the more I realize that like that woman, I’m a beggar whose appeal is based solely on Christ’s mercy. Good stuff.

quote of the day

Tom Bell: "Eating mac & cheese is like eating a little hug!"

quote of the day

Grace: "Sometimes you have to lie and sometimes you have people trying to murder you."
Me: "That's my motto."

quote of the day

This is what happens when the catchphrase in the game Catchphrase is "Lost and Found."

Eric: "If I misplace my Bible, I would go here."
Chris: "Hell!"

Summer Games

Usually the summer months are a sad time for me in regards to sports.  It's usually that stretch of time where only 500 baseball games are on tv, and other than the few good Red Sox/Yankees games that are on primetime espn, the sports world doesn't have much to offer.  Luckily for me the summer of 2012 has stepped it up.  The Gamecocks are going for their 3rd straight College World Series win, the Euro Cup (that's a european soccer tournament) is in full force over the month of June, the U.S. Open is this weekend, and the uconn women's basketball coach is in the middle of some sort of lawsuit for sexual harrassment.  Way to get women's sports on espn, coach.  There is also the NBA finals between the Thunder and the Heat.  The battle between these two natural disasters is not just one game that no one cares about, but will probably last through all seven games.  This may make me a bad sports fan, but I just cannot bring myself to care about Labron James.  I don't care how many points he scores, why he wears those big fake glasses, how much money he makes, or why he hasn't won a championship.  A lot of people have never won championships, so let's just leave it alone.  So while we suffer through the Labron Circus for a few days, let's all be hopeful that the Olympics start on July 27th and the National Youth Soccer Tournament will be live from Rock Hill, SC (no big deal) starting on July 25.  Hit me up if you want to be there.

A Duo Wedding

I feel like all I do is write about weddings these days.  But I'm not even mad because it is wedding week for the other half of the Duo, Amanda Mathis!  Amanda and I have been friends since the East and West side middle schools combined at Gaffney High School in the early 2000's.  I don't remember a specific time or place that we started our awesomeness, but I do remember thinking "This kid is cool.  We get each other."  For the past twelve or so years we've mostly agreed on everything, I've never been mad at her, and we seem to make any situation fun and hilarious.  My favorite times were when we would sneak over to college park at night to hang out with the cool kids or when we knocked down a mailbox in Casey's mom's expedition or sitting at GHS football games and not having to explain the game to her.  We did some crazy crap back in our high school days. We also did some really stupid stuff that could've/sometimes did get us in trouble.  Now fast forward eight years and we're still best friends. I'd like to think we're a little more mature than we used to be, but that's probably not true.  We still agree on pretty much everything and we have a lot of the same opinions (example: we think everyone is stupid).  It may be sad to say that our love for pop culture hasn't changed much, it's just that those important life questions have changed from which Backstreet Boy is the cutest to which Pretty Little Liars character do you most want to be like?  My answer is Spencer, by the way.  Bottom line is that I can always count on Amanda.  To make me laugh, to be there when I need to let off some steam, to agree with me even when I'm wrong.  When Mom was in the hospital, her and Laua went all the way to Spartanburg to bring me food from Moe's because it's my fave.  So I'm VERY excited to get to stand beside her on Friday while she gets hitched.  I've gotten to know her groom-to-be pretty well over the past few years and when he talks, he's awesome.  Justin perfectly balances out Amanda, he treats her so well, he's a Gamecock fan.  What more could a girl want?  But Amanda, he will never be the other half of the Duo (sorry Justin).  The Duo is specifically reserved for those girl moments when the Biebs comes out with a new 3D movie or when "A" finally gets revealed or when that next hot rap song comes out on the radio and I need to know who sings it.  I'm so blessed to have such amazing friends that make good life choices and that I get to be there when they do.  Gaffney has some good people.

Our entire relationship is summed up in this one picture. straight G.