Hey God

Praying is one of the things that I love to do. Yet, at the same time, I am self-conscious about it at time when I pray out loud in front of others. Now, I know that I shouldn't feel self-conscious because after all, a prayer should be just a conversation between you and God. Yet I have always felt that at times, my prayers just aren't good enough.

An example of this happened just the other day. As I was about to pray over someone, one of my friends whispered in my ear, "don't start out with 'Hey God'. It's inappropriate." Now, at first I was thrown off course because if you have ever heard me pray before then you know I almost always start it out by saying 'Hey God'. That comment really got my mind racing through thoughts and questions that I had. It made me feel like I had been right about my prayers not being good enough. Not to worry, my friend later apologized and explained to me what he really meant. Yet, it had sparked that curiosity to know.

Yet, God works in awesome ways and when He wants to know something, He makes dang sure that you know what it is. I have never been one to make fanciful and wordy prayers just cause I feel like it's not necessary. After all, you're just having a conversation with your Dad. Not only that, but one of the things that annoys me the most is being legalistic. Jesus hated it and preached against it. I hate it when I catch myself being legalistic and I hate when Christianity being represented as a high form of legalism.

Legalism means an excessive adherence to law or rule. Christianity is not based on law. That's what sets it apart from any other religion. It's core concept is LOVE. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to LOVE God and LOVE people. If you do those two things, then everything else will fall into place. Now, I'm not saying that it is wrong to pray a certain way that is different than the way I pray. What I'm saying is that you shouldn't feel like you need to impress God by having these 'respectful' prayers and following all these random rules because the reality is that YOU CAN'T. No one can. We are pathetic, imperfect humans and He is an awesome, perfect God. We will always fall short of His glory.

God already knows what's on your heart, so there's no need to not say something out loud. Of course, there are times where saying certain things is inappropriate to maybe those around you but NEVER to God. He is the BEST friend you will ever have so why not treating Him like one? He knows everything about you already.

Rule-keeping like being 'modest' by saying "dear Heavenly Father" in a prayer because you think that being informal with Him is inappropriate is not necessary at all. You do not need to make yourself look good before Him. Be broken and on your knees. As Christ-followers, we have been crucified with Christ. Our ego no longer matters. We are no longer divinely driven to impress God because Christ lives in us. It's that LOVE that makes us righteous before God, not our own deeds.

As Galatians 2:20 puts it, if living a relationship with God could come by keeping rules, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Love - pt. 1

What is love?

This is a question that many philosophers, scientists, psychologists and people in general throughout history have struggled to answer. The answers that have surfaced have only led us to even more questions. The truth is, defining love is an extremely hard thing to do.

Psychologist Robert Sternberg developed a theory, called the Triangular Theory of Love, in which love can be classified into three different types:

• Intimacy - the feeling of closeness, connectedness and bonding
• Passion - romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation
• Commitment - pretty self-explanatory; the drive to stick together for an extended period of time (most of the time being the rest of your life)

Now, according to Sternberg, any combination (including each one of them by themselves) of these results in different types of 'love'; e.g. a combination of intimacy and commitment makes up the love that best friends have for each other, infatuated love comes from a love that is full of passion and a combination of all three make up a consummate love; the 'perfect' love.

Many theologians and pastors have also come up with a similar theory explaining love. This past weekend, the pastor of Lifepoint Church, Jeff Kapusta, talked about this. Coming from the terms that the ancient Greeks used to describe love, it is also composed of three different types:

• Eros - the passionate and intimate love; the erotic love.
• Phileo (or Philia) - the brotherly, companionate love; the BFF love.
• Agape - the unconditional and selfless love; the Crazy Love.

Eros and Phileo love tend to be the easiest to achieve and show. They are embedded into our human nature and are the most common in our lives, thus explaining why we can show these with such ease. Agape love is a whole 'nother story.

In short, Agape love is a love that lacks any condition or requirement and is completely altruistic; an unconditional and selfless love. The best everyday example of this can be seen in the love that a parent feels for their child; they will always love and be there for their child, no matter what their kid does. Yet, still, this is not true for everyone, since many people view their father or mother as someone who they would just rather forget.

The average person might view this love as nonsensical, irrational and crazy and they have a point; who in their right mind would care enough about someone else without there being the incentive of receiving something back in return. After all, we all have selfish desires and it would make sense to do something for someone expecting something in return (money, attention, recognition, fame, love, etc.). Yet this Love, this Crazy and nonsensical Love, is the very essence of what true Life is.

This Love tells the story of a Father. A Father who unconditionally loved his only Son. A Father who considered his Son the apple of His eye, the Light of His world, His everything. Yet this Father was able to enact the ultimate sacrifice. He selflessly gave up his beloved Son in order to save a people who were suffering due to their own harmful tendencies. He did what no parent in their right mind would ever do: let his Son die so that others would be spared. This irrational Love proved to be the most powerful form of love that humanity has ever seen. This was indeed a Crazy Love.

This Crazy Love comes from a Father that selflessly loves each and every single one of His children. A Love that reaches those who know Him and those who don't know him yet.

A Crazy Love that God pours out onto His people every second of every minute of every hour of every day. A Love that we can barely even begin to fathom. A Love that is Life itself.

So, how in the world, as mere humans, are we to handle this Crazy Love?

Is this what love is?

Coterie Confinement

Cliques are everywhere. They are an inevitable part of human nature. We are wired to be attracted to those who share similar interests, beliefs and thought processes. We want to accepted by a group of peers who will view us as equal.

Yet, many times, this makes us fall victim to many vices like prejudice and judgmental attitudes towards those who are not in our in-group. It can create scenarios for belligerent situations. Prejudice and shunning of other groups or individuals (whatever type it may be) are also bound to happen at times, the degree of it varying depending on the situation.

Sadly, this results in people getting their feelings hurt, avoidable violence, and even missed opportunities to get to know someone who could become one of your best friends. Our behavior is dictated by the ones around us. Whether we shape ourselves to blend in with the crowd or we try our best to the one that goes against the flow, it's all due to what we assume people expect out of us (or what we want people to expect out of us). We confine ourselves between the walls of our coterie, our own little exclusive club of friends. This makes us fall victim to the stereotype threat and, at times, the bystander effect.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that having friends is bad and I know that being in a "group" is pretty much unavoidable, yet we must look past that. We mustn't enclose ourselves to only hanging out with a certain 'group'. Instead, we must look past the sociocultural expectations of the people around us and break that mold of uncomfortable awkwardness that surrounds being outside one's zone of comfort. We must look past our veil ignorance and start to show respect and love to others that may need it. We can still have our 'group' of friends and take part in activities with others that may share OTHER similar interests that we may have but that aren't as talked about in the other group.

The point in this is that you shouldn't imprison yourself within the boundaries of your own little 'group', 'family', 'denomination' or whatever you may want to call it. We shouldn't shun people who want to join in and partake in the activities we tend to do with our group of friends. Instead, we should by the ones to reach out and lend a hand, even if it's just smiling at someone who's walking past you in the hallway, because in truth, love wins.