day 1

My LIFE group is taking a 25-day fast from Facebook so we can focus on God more. Without distraction. And I'm sure it'll be helpful, because what consumes my heart and mind are definitely the things I spend the most time doing... (I nostalgically reflect on freshman year when I could be found sitting in a bathroom stall for half an hour staring at floor tiles - which were no longer tiles but falling Tetris pieces complete with rotations and cleared lines)

Today, we're to write:

1. A prayer request for the rest of the semester
   I wrote something down yesterday but I don't remember what it was. I have a lot of prayer requests this season. But to pick one: the strength to consistently love and pray for my parents.
2. A lesson we picked up from our Bible study on Ephesians 1:3-6
   My lesson was that... God decides who His children are, not me. It's not up to me to tell a family that their adopted son is not their own. They're the ones who decide who they adopt. And it has nothing to do with how well-behaved or hard-working the child is, and it has everything to do with the character of the Father. Reminds me of an article I once read about how a couple with an adopted daughter longed for the day when their daughter would rebel against them. Because that would be the day that their daughter understood that it wasn't her merit or submissive nature that drew them to love her, and that she could express her opinions and frustration, completely secure in her parents' love. And all of this adoption, the way that God makes much of us, the way that God chooses us and loves us and cares for us is so that He will be praised. The passage begins and ends with a single-minded aim - that praise will be to God the Father.

Follow the diagram from top left, to bottom left, to bottom right, to top right.

It starts with God loving people. And so people are significant. I am special. This is undeniably true. But it doesn't end there, as it so often seems to...

Then I praise God. And that completes the whole picture. Anything else is but... a broken machine.