Weirdly, my favorite band right now is FM Static, just because their songs have been speaking to me lately. (although I’ve been listening to Nevertheless the most, I think) It’s strange because I’ve never particularly liked this group (although they are talented) but I listen to these songs all the time because I can’t get enough of their message.

I think that my life theme song right now is ‘The Unavoidable Battle of Being on the Outside’ by FM Static. The song says this:

It’s hard to fit in when you’re on the outside
Feels like someones get into my head
Was it something I did, was it something I said?
I’m not an idiot, but I feel like one alot
‘Cause every time I try, I end up here
Right where I started, just feeling unwanted.

Then He said, ‘Take your time, take what you need to
Peace of mind should never leave you
You’ll be fine, just let them see you
On the inside
Hurt takes time. Don’t be afraid of what you’ve got
Show them what you’re made of
You’ll be fine, just let them see you
On the inside.

This song has just really been a blessing to be as I’ve been going through just a lot of time of waiting in many different areas in my life. This song just reminds me that God’s behind me one hundred percent, and that I can do all things through him.

The other song is ‘Take Me as I Am’.

This time I finally see the reason why
I can’t do this alone
It took some time and concentration
To believe it, this I know.
I need to build my faith sometimes
But I am so comfortable in line
I’m up there’s no more time,
To try to mess with this design

Take me as I am cause I’m going
I was too scared to start now
I’m too scared to let go
Take me as I am, cause I’m growing
but its so hard to tell when I’m not used to this soul
Take me as I am, cause I’m going
I was too scared to start now I’m too scared to let go
Take me as I am, Cause I’m growing
but its so hard to tell when I’m not used to this soul.

I hope that these bless you.

A while back, a bunch of little boys moved into the house next to me, and let’s just say that their family life wasn’t the greatest thing since the invention of sliced ham. It’s more on the poor quality (like the invention of dry turkey without gravy). Their parents all went to church back when they were younger, but my guess is that they haven’t had a lot to do with anything that they learned for a long time.

I’ve been able to minister to the four year-old in particular these last few months who I just love and who follows me everywhere. I brought him to my Sunday school class which he got really excited about and started learning all about Jesus and God and all the stories in between. I bought that child his first Bible, the easy-to-read kind with all the pictures, which he loves to throw into my lap and have me read to him.

Children are such blessings and it is so beautiful to care for those who need your care. I think that one of my hugest blessings in life will be this opportunity that I’ve had to share with this child that God loves him very much and that God will always take care of him, even if his daddy is in jail far away.

So if you ever think that there is no place for your love, know that Jesus resides in the least of these, begging to be cared for. I promise you that Jesus is fatherless somewhere in your neighborhood, and that Jesus is hungry and alone nearby, and that Jesus is crying in bed next door. Look for those faces and you’ll find them. Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.

Plenty of people don’t get that far in their thinking. Most of us chase after that goal without thinking about what good being at the top will actual do us. Answer me this: If you have everything, what are you looking forward to? If you never lack, why will your money matter? If you never want, what happiness will having everything bring? If you never know an enemy, how can you understand the worth of a friend? If you never serve anyone, how can you comprehend the beauty of being served?

SERVICE
The concept keeps following me around like a continual whisper from God in my ear, a prodding that won’t leave me alone. I’m reminded of it in my own shortcomings, in my flaws, my anger and selfishness. When I become so incredibly frusterated at not being the first, the image of Jesus the servant is ever before me. When I take the shortcuts or make the unkind remark, a gentle Jesus quietly shows me the better way. When I am so hasty to be proven right or too busy to care about the person next to me on the subway or the lady ahead of me in line (the one with million groceries who’s taking forever to pay exact change), a humble Jesus stands in sharp contrast. And when I serve, a joyful Jesus encourages me and fills me up.
And so he teaches me in my weakness.

Imagine that you have a free day for once. Imagine that you totally and completely have nothing to do. Imagine that you grab some couch and order a pizza, pop open a Pepsi and sit down with a tub of ice cream and watch a 24 marathon. You work your way through the pizza, a liter of Pepsi and the quart of ice cream and move on to the potato chips and pretzels. You fall asleep all bloated and happy with smile on your face.
But imagine that the next day, you do it again. And again. And again. And again. If fact, you’ve been eating and watching TV for so long, that you’ve forgotten how good accomplishment feels. Labor is your private picture of hell and ‘work’ is a four letter word. Got my point yet?
As always, I’ll just spell it out to you-

When you’re always serving yourself, you forget to serve for yourself.

Since when did it become a bad thing? Since when was serving someone better for the other person than for you? Don’t you remember how good you felt when you did something really great for someone else? Who cares if they appreciate it? If you need a reason to serve at all, then serve selfishly. And when you’re done with that, serve because Jesus your Lord and Savior served you.

And trust me…I am the worst at this. You don’t know how well God is showing me this.
And you wouldn’t believe what a slow learner I am.

Everyone knows that ‘someday’ we’ll all die. Death is inevitible, but for some reason, we put it out on a shelf or a calendar like a date seventy years in the future that we think about every once in a while. We live as though we are all entitled to some minimum amount of years, as though everyone lives to eighty-one and that life is somehow cruel if we’re denied that much time. But how much control do you have over your ‘someday’? Who knows if you’ll go to bed tonight to never wake up again? Who knows if you’ll be hit by a car or gunned by a killer? Do you have any idea? How many more days will go by before any of us become a stat on a chart or a front page story on Yahoo?
Don’t stress out…I’ll just tell you.

You have NO idea.

Horrible things are happening online these days. The most horrible aspect about them is that they are preventable.
Right now, everyone’s going crazy because of all these Craigslist killings, because of Philip Markoff and this Minneapolis guy. Just because the crime is out in the open suddenly makes internet murder a big deal.
Well I’ve been warning people against this kind of stuff for years. What do you think the responses have been like? “Gee, thanks, Jace, I’ll remember that before I splash my life all over MySpace next time.”
No, actually. How about,
“Get real. Stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life.”
Well folks, it’s happening now. It’s been happening for years. Just because the cover got blown and we’re all peering into the icky garbage can of super-sneaky internet crime that we’ve all been trying to ingore for so long, everyone suddenly has a new big worry. But why now? Shouldn’t we have thought of this already??
Let me just reenforce my point. It’s always happened. It’s happening now.And it’s happening on a Website where personal information is kept at a minimum. It’s Craigslist for goodness’ sake! You phone the number, talk about the job, the cost of the item, whatever, hang up and drive to go get it! How much more do you think stalkers can track you when your internet presence is huge because you’re constantly sharing everything about yourself to anyone anywhere?
Please.
Think about it. Make changes. Be careful.
Over and out.

If for nothing else, watch this movie to see Aragorn fight

Addiction is a heavy topic. It’s a heavy thing to watch. It’s a heavy issue to address and it is a heavy temptation to avoid.

Two days ago, I flipped on my mini, battery operated TV (I try not to use electricity. Fight the power, literally) and saw that The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was playing on Hallmark. After a long mountain bike ride and a peace rally down town, I had three hours to relax, so I watched it.

I hadn’t remembered the message of the movie to be so powerful. Never have I seen such a clear representation of the power of sin and how beneficial it can really seem on the outside. The creature, Gollum, is seen a lot in Two Towers. We often criticize his obsession of the Ring or we get creeped out by this hopeless, pitiful thing.
But think.
Isn’t that how most of us look on the inside? Aren’t many of us struggling on the inside to fight sin? Many of us have given up to it! Or how many of us are like Frodo, who has to bear the burden of carrying sin with us, or like Sam who has to watch his dear friend suffer under the weight of it? How many really believe ‘that there is some good in the world, and it’s worth fighting for’?

This movie trilogy has a special place in my heart. It stays true to its original literature which perhaps makes it wonderful in and of itself. The actors are talented and the script is well done. The plot is thrilling and the battle scenes masterfully done.

But I realized on Wednesday that there is another reason that I love these movies: It clearly depicts evil in a way that blows my mind. It gives an example of all kinds of people in the world and their response to greed for power.

For these reasons, I urge you to watch the Two Towers. If you understand nothing else and take away nothing else, you will see the allegories to Biblical truths.

(I strongly advise that children under the age of eleven do not watch this movie. It is filled with gruesome battle scenes and images that might disturb children.)

I was jogging today out on some obscure trail through a nearby national park (I live near the Redwoods) when I was just overwhelmed with the bigness of everything I saw. The bigness of the trees, the bigness of the sky and the smallness of me. It was like I was being held under a magnifying glass and was able to see everything up close and clear.

I live to have moments like that…Moments to just stop and think and take it all in. God is so big out there and I’m so super-tiny, like one out of two billion ants in an ant hill, but he still has me under that magnifying glass, observing and loving me. Seems so disproportional, don’t it? That the God of the universe cares about the little ant named Jacie? It’s enough to blow my mind on your average week day.

And that’s why I so despise technology: because it takes an eraser to discovery like a rainy day washes your lovely chalk drawings right of the sidewalk. It’s suffocating! I mean, how many times this week did you make time to just get out and sit with nature? Why do you think it’s there? So we can point to an itsy-bitsy green spot from a plane and say, ‘oh look, it’s Central Park!’? Yeah, I think not.

So here’s what you do: (and I don’t care if you live in a bum back alley of Chicago or the rural plains of Kansas) Just go outside today. Open up that rusty backdoor and sit in a chair, on your deck, in the grass, in a tree, I care not. Just go! Sit and close your eyes and listen to every small thing that’s going on around you, whether it’s the wind in the trees or the annoying barking of the dog next door. It will do you good to feel that sun (and no, you won’t get skin cancer from five minutes) or that delightful cool breeze and just ponder on the greatness of creation.

Can you do it??? I want you to tell me if you do, otherwise, I just wasted twenty minutes writing this thing.

When will the madness end? When will the invisible chaos of radio, internet, television and cell phone waves cease to exsist? Are we all nothing without it? I hardly think so! Call me a hippie, but I would rather be a true has-been rather than a virtual sensation in the now.

Does anyone hear me???