Faith Without Works?

I was listening to one of my favorite songs on youtube: Who Am I? By Casting Crowns when I noticed the first quote shown in the video from the bible. It is the probably one of the most quoted versus in the bible. It is Ephesians 2:8-9 saying: "For it is by grace you are saved, through faith... not works, so that no one can boast. For me it raised the age old question of "Are works required to enter the kingdom of heaven?"

Before we begin, some definitions I'm using that will help understanding of my writing:
1.) 'Faith' means claiming to believe: 'Jesus is my Lord and Savior'
2.) 'Works' means spreading the Gospel with words or actions, making your faith in Christ known in the physical realm.

And I think I've answered it in a way that would actually make both sides of the arguing happy. Let's see if it makes sense once I write it... (and if it is unsatisfying or inaccurate, please tell me!)

Problem Solving via Stream of Consciousness

For some reason, I am constantly surprised when I tend to react the same way every time when I go on vacation. After being ecstatic for a break, I immediately hit a wall and start doing nothing... Unfortunately I've never planned to do nothing for a break so I feel disappointed... which makes me not plan, do nothing, and feel more disappointed!!! Whoot! Lol. Fun freakin times... haha.

Sooooo... WHY IS THIS?!?!?!

***Now I'll stream of conscious write and see what I come up with. I apologize because my stream of conscious tends to jump around and not make a ton of sense... :) ---> After writing it, I think it made sense and will offer insight into life. Make it to the end, the conclusions are pretty solid. :)

Oh life... :)

A friend of mine wrote on her blog how she doesn't know what decision to make from all the different stresses falling on her. "A vacation from her vacation." And wishes "that a lot of her decisions didn't affect so much of everything else!" I laughed reading it because I have recently felt the same thing! And the funniest thing was that I thought of a potential solution, but for some reason I couldn't think of a solution when I was trying to figure it out for my own life. Have you ever noticed that in your own life? That you can easily offer advice or suggestions to other people but couldn't advise yourself the same way? 

I can see why my mentor Carlo Cipollina doesn't actually answer most of my questions anymore. He knows that if he literally just asked me the same question I ask him that more often than not I can answer it myself! It's just one of those weird things I guess... 

But now for the actual advice that I need to apply for my own life that I could only think of when trying to help her. Don't take yourself so seriously. Recently, I've been overanalyzing myself, my actions, and my life to the max. It is getting kind of ridiculous. It's something I repeatedly struggle with, the idea of permanentness in decision making. There are very few things that are the end of the world or the end all be all. Just pick something and go with it for a while. See what happens. :)

That 1 Thing

Yesterday I was challenged. The challenge was extraordinarily straightforward. It sounds easy. It was a mere question. In dreaming about all the things that we want or are striving for in our life, there is an oft forgotten or avoided question. This question I was asked to take action on is my current hardest challenge. For the last 2+ years, I have struggled with it. It is so PAINFUL that I have tried and failed and given up a myriad of times. My struggles are comparable to those who "just can't seem to keep it off" when it comes to weight.

The question was: "What is that one thing that if you would do it, that it would dramatically improve your life?" And "What are you not willing to change that you have to in order to get what you want in life?"

Getting out of the Grind

I have been painfully reminded of perhaps the most important thing to plan for my life and anyone's life on a weekly basis. Pretty much, I got caught up in life with responsibilities. Probably never happened to you before, right? WRONG! I can't believe how easy it is to get caught up in our lives and forget to do the most important thing in our lives (which I'll get to in a minute).

So this is what happens if you forget that oh so important idea... I bet this will be TOTALLY unfamiliar (ok It'll probably be really familiar... it just happened to me today for crying out loud!). You wake up barely on time and make it to class and go through your day jumping from one commitment to anther and slightly stress out about a future/past event instead of being in the present. And then bouncing from one thing to another, you end up coming home fairly late and don't have time to really time to do anything because it is bed time. Then you wake up and repeat the process...

But this is what you gotta do... (and yes I'm going to make you press the more button to find out!)

Develop your own Study Regimen!

"My father taught me always to do more than you get paid for as an investment in your future." - Jim Rohn

The reason why I haven't been blogging as much recently is because I'm immersing myself in reading, listening, watching, and learning. If you couldn't tell, we live in the most abundant period of time that has ever existed. Never before has there been so much easily attainable information on virtually every subject at so many of our fingertips. The vastness of the internet and printed word is truly incomprehensible. Therefore, we can truly learn and become masters of any subject out there. All we must do is decide what we want, develop a plan to achieving it, and then go to get it. :)