The #GratAttChallenge

I had an idea to create this challenge, and I welcome everyone to join me. For 30 days, I will be posting something that I am thankful for to my Twitter page under the hashtag #GratAttChallenge.

I have a feeling that this will help me be more positive, and I would love for you to try it too.

Make it an awesome day!

(Re-blog) Anime and Christianity

Ok... I am going to take a slight left turn from the genre of my other posts and venture into the realm of nerdom for just a moment. If you have zero interest in anime, just bear with me and humor me for a moment...

Back in May 2015, I blogged on my previous blog, By The Mercy of the Thorns, about the why many Christians enjoy anime. Seeing as it's been almost a year since writing that post, I thought it would be cool to touch base on a few more connections between what inspires us as anime watchers and our faith.

In that post, I explained that anime (action anime in particular) typically contains three common elements: action/adventure, a conflict, and someone to fight for or rescue.

1. Action and adventure - A protagonist who fights and goes on an adventure to get to his/her objective.
2. Conflict - An antagonist (or group of antagonists) who stops at nothing to thwart the efforts of the protagonist. This conflict may also be an inner conflict that the protagonist is having with his/her self.
3. Someone to fight for or rescue - This could be a love interest that the protagonist has to save, a family member who is captive, or a protagonist fighting on for a deceased best friend.

We all want our lives to have these elements. We would like our lives to be cinematic, and we are always convinced that they are not. We get bored and think that our lives are dull and event-less. This bored feeling eventually gives way to things like pornography addiction in men and promiscuity in women, creating nasty strongholds against us!

God meant for us to live with purpose. He has a huge plan for us that cannot be condensed into any 2-hour-long Hollywood hit. We may not be able to see that from our here-and-now vantage point, but nevertheless, our lives are better than any anime or action movie. We must actively seek out that adventure and God will see to it that we find it. We have to trust Him and allow Him to lead us into it, knowing that He will be right there beside us the entire time.

Ask God what adventure He has in mind for you. Listen and let Him lead, and go live your adventure!

Make it an awesome day!

Static Truth in A Dynamic World

We live in an ever-changing world, which goes without saying. Things have gone completely topsy-turvy with laws being passed which declare evil good and good evil. People are cold and mean to each other, and political correctness trumps what it is right and wrong as declared by God. It can be so easy to be sucked into it all and get upset and frustrated. (I am guilty of this quite often, though I'm working on keeping my focus on God.)

Luckily, we don't have to pay attention to everything going on in this world. We need to lean on these truths whenever we feel overwhelmed:

1. God is in control. (see Proverbs 19:21)
2. God is still on the throne. (see Hebrews 12:2)
3. If you kneel before God, you can stand before any man. (see Ephesians 3:14)

The world may be severely messed up (and it is!), but we have to remember that it was also really messed up when Jesus walked the earth. And He overcame the world once and for all (see John 16:33)! Let's block out all of the noise and remember that we are citizens of Heaven passing through the world for training.

Make it an awesome day and God bless!