Last night I was reading through the story of Jesus' death and resurrection in the gospel of Matthew, and for some reason the story really hit me hard. Maybe it was because I was tired and especially emotional. Or maybe because I have been trying to imagine what it would actually have been like to be the people in the Bible as a read it. But whatever the reason was, I was crying my eyes out as a read the story of Jesus' death, and as I read it, something struck me. Jesus did all this stuff for us. He came down from paradise, suffered so much pain and felt God turn His back on Him, for us. He did all this even then we are no where close to deserving it. Yet, my life, I am not willing to do the simplest things for Him.
I hardly spend any time reading my Bible because I am too busy doing other stuff. I don't want to speak out for Jesus because I am afraid of being ridiculed. I don't want to witness to people because it is uncomfortable for me. I don't put others over myself, like He asks me, because then I don't get to do what I want. He went through all that pain to save me, and I am not willing to give up a little of my comfort for Him. He loved me so much, and I chose to ignore Him because I am too busy watching Youtube videos.
So, on this Easter, God has really convicted me. I need to strive to do more for Him. Not to pay Him back, not to try and get even. But because He loves me and I love Him back.
-Nat
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Updates on Tournaments and Such
I haven't posted in awhile, obviously. So I figured it would be a good idea to let you all know that I am, in fact, still alive and that I have not been abducted by aliens or been subject other such occurrence that would prevent me from posting. Nope. Hey, have you ever noticed that half of the time when you read blogs the post contain long apologies about why they haven't posted in awhile because they've been busy? Well, I suppose traditions are supposed be followed so...I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've been super busy.
So here is an update on what is happening with pretty much the most important thing in my life right now, debate:
At the qualifying tournament in Lincoln got 11th in debate, 1st in dramatic, 7th in impromptu and semifinalist in apologetics. I also received an honorable mention for the spirit award. I'll take a moment here to explain what the spirit award is to those who don't know. The spirit award is an given to one male and one female competitor who exhibit the fruit of the spirit, the person gets nominated for this award and then the leadership decide based off of those nominations who should get the award.
Although I credit God with all of the awards I have won, this one more than all the others is because of God's amazing grace. You see, even if it were possible for a person to achieve anything without God, I would not have gotten this award. This is because I am not not bent toward the actions that got me nominated. The nominations talked about how I was talking to and encourage others, how I would go up to people in the halls and ask how they are doing, and how I had a positive attitude even if things didn't go my way. But that is not me, at least not without God. Naturally I am a very selfish person, I don't like to think of others first, I am also rather reserved and don't like putting my self out there with people, and I hate not succeeding.
But getting this award made me realize the amazing changes God has made in me. Although I am still very selfish, I can see myself putting others first. Because of God I am growing in this area. Even though I still am kind of shy, God has helped me gain a great deal of confidence in myself through acceptance of the completely weird person I am and trusting in Him instead of worry what others think of me. Finally, God has helped to be able to let go of success. I no longer look to that as a goal, or feel like a failure when I don't achieve it. Because of God's working in me instead of success I focus on having fun, learning a lot, growing as a person and bringing glory to Him. God is so completely amazing and I look forward to seeing the other changes He has in store for me.
Moving on now to the qualifying tournament in Minnesota. There I got semifinalist in impromptu, 4th in dramatic, 3rd in Team Policy (TP), 2nd TP speaker and 1st in persuasive. I love sequential awards. ^_^
And even here I can see God working in me. This speaker award was the first speaker award I have gotten all year, and because I hadn't been doing as well in speaker points I decided to really work hard at improving my speaking, and it payed off. Also, it was so amazing to get first in persuasive that I had written a couple of weeks before the tournament, memorized the week before, and not expected to break in.
Also, debate people are just the most awesome people on the planet, so I have been having so much fun at these tournaments! I will be so sad to not see them all next year.
So yeah, debate has been pretty awesome and God has been even more awesome. Now I should probably go do something like prepare for the regional debate tournament.
-Nat
P.S. I said I would post more pictures from our MI trip, so here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1northstars/sets/72157626562239286/show/
Also, I am doing this thing where I take a picture every day. So here is a link to what I have done so far:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1northstars/sets/72157626563037446/show/
So here is an update on what is happening with pretty much the most important thing in my life right now, debate:
At the qualifying tournament in Lincoln got 11th in debate, 1st in dramatic, 7th in impromptu and semifinalist in apologetics. I also received an honorable mention for the spirit award. I'll take a moment here to explain what the spirit award is to those who don't know. The spirit award is an given to one male and one female competitor who exhibit the fruit of the spirit, the person gets nominated for this award and then the leadership decide based off of those nominations who should get the award.
Although I credit God with all of the awards I have won, this one more than all the others is because of God's amazing grace. You see, even if it were possible for a person to achieve anything without God, I would not have gotten this award. This is because I am not not bent toward the actions that got me nominated. The nominations talked about how I was talking to and encourage others, how I would go up to people in the halls and ask how they are doing, and how I had a positive attitude even if things didn't go my way. But that is not me, at least not without God. Naturally I am a very selfish person, I don't like to think of others first, I am also rather reserved and don't like putting my self out there with people, and I hate not succeeding.
But getting this award made me realize the amazing changes God has made in me. Although I am still very selfish, I can see myself putting others first. Because of God I am growing in this area. Even though I still am kind of shy, God has helped me gain a great deal of confidence in myself through acceptance of the completely weird person I am and trusting in Him instead of worry what others think of me. Finally, God has helped to be able to let go of success. I no longer look to that as a goal, or feel like a failure when I don't achieve it. Because of God's working in me instead of success I focus on having fun, learning a lot, growing as a person and bringing glory to Him. God is so completely amazing and I look forward to seeing the other changes He has in store for me.
Moving on now to the qualifying tournament in Minnesota. There I got semifinalist in impromptu, 4th in dramatic, 3rd in Team Policy (TP), 2nd TP speaker and 1st in persuasive. I love sequential awards. ^_^
And even here I can see God working in me. This speaker award was the first speaker award I have gotten all year, and because I hadn't been doing as well in speaker points I decided to really work hard at improving my speaking, and it payed off. Also, it was so amazing to get first in persuasive that I had written a couple of weeks before the tournament, memorized the week before, and not expected to break in.
Also, debate people are just the most awesome people on the planet, so I have been having so much fun at these tournaments! I will be so sad to not see them all next year.
So yeah, debate has been pretty awesome and God has been even more awesome. Now I should probably go do something like prepare for the regional debate tournament.
-Nat
P.S. I said I would post more pictures from our MI trip, so here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1northstars/sets/72157626562239286/show/
Also, I am doing this thing where I take a picture every day. So here is a link to what I have done so far:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1northstars/sets/72157626563037446/show/
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