Pilot

After a lifetime of avid journaling the old fashioned way, I decided it was time to start blogging. Partly as a release of some of the junk that I've gone through this past year and partly to start interesting conversations with people I currently only have casual ones with. I'll also share my new art work, things I'm reading and great music I'm listening to.
Currently I'm going through the Bible from Genesis all the way through. I've read most of the Bible, but as my faith grows I have recognized the importance of every word that God has given to us, which is why I started with the toughest part for me to "get through," The Old Testament. I now see the need for me to understand the Bible as a whole recognizing patterns and trends as much as knowing single verses by heart. And the amazing thing is how much God has shown me even while reading what I thought would be boring; things that I didn't understand the importance of and thought were useless and outdated details. But really, how could anything be useless or boring when it is a direct communication from our Lord?! The God of all creation chose these things to write to everyone. For example: in Exodus when God gives Moses the directions for building the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, the priests' clothing, etc, God gives such exact instructions, except for certain times He says have someone who is skilled at (sewing or metalsmithing) make such and such designs or fashion this object. There are parts that He leaves up to the artist. I find that so interesting and encouraging that importance God gives the artist. When the Bible says that we are made in God's image, I truly believe that it means that we have tiny aspects of His character. God really is the ultimate artist, everything that we do is a copy or an interpretation of His amazing creation. Even work that claims to be completely non-objective comes from a person, and that person has a lifetime of knowledge and experiences, views and biases. And yet, even our mediocre attempts please God; He recognizes the need to be creative beings and I really feel like He honors our attempts.
Anytime I start to get healthier, physically and spiritually, I find myself longing for those healthier things more and more. As I read and study God's word, I long for it and to continue growing in closeness with Him. Lately I've completely cut out soda and for the most part I've only been drinking water. I started this for two reasons. First just to be healthy plain and simple. The second was a more recent passion of mine. I've been hearing a lot and reading some more about people all over the world that don't have access to clean drinking water. People die everyday from the inability to reach clean water. Or a large part of their day is consumed with the task of fetching clean water. Then I started thinking about how spoiled I am. I drink other things like soda and juice because it tastes better than water. It just made me really disgusted that something that people die because they can't get enough of it isn't good enough for me. So this Christmas my family has decided that we are all contributing to this cause, to help people gain this necessary nourishment, and I'd love anyone else that can feel for this cause to join in.