Fellowship: Example 1- Being there for one another

The other day, I called up one of my church members (we're kind of friends). I call her up to ask her why she hasn't really been coming out on Fridays and Sundays to Church. Well, she tells me her reasons for not coming. For Fridays, she has had a job and didn't tell us about it. Then, for Sundays she told me some BS reasons and a couple of legitimate ones. By BS, I don't mean she is lying, I mean that she is being unwise in her motives, but I won't go into explaining all of that. Her legitimate reason was the fact that she didn't want to go to Church because the people there are fake, which I totally agree with. They call each other friends, yet they do not care to call or notice when someone did not come to Church, they do not uplift each other to become better Christians, instead they gossip, and they do not reach out to the shy or new members of the Church, instead they stick to their own comfort zones in their own clique of friends. Most of the friendships are very shallow and easily dropped once a person becomes disagreeable, annoying, sensitive, depressed, etc. My friend said that she didn't want to come because, even though she likes her friends, she knows that the Church should not be like that and was discouraged from going.

     Then, she was discouraged from RETURNING because nobody called her until I did, which was after she had missed Church several times (could have been anywhere between three weeks to a couple of months, I don't know.) So when I called, she told me all this, and I realized, as a Christian, I should have noticed that she was missing Church and contacted her WEEKS before that day. That would have been an act of fellowship that our Church lacks so much. She started crying and we talked for a while over the phone. I told her that I would be, for her, the friend she wanted, a true friend. I basically told her that I would be committed to fellowshipping with her, being there for her, making sure she's okay, helping her when she is not. Friendship is a big committment, not to be taken likely, and I made it to her.  It was a little corny how I told her that I would be her friend, but I'm glad she didn't call me out on it.

Studying: what the heck!

My brother was back from college for a while recently and he saw that I was slacking off on my studies as usual. So, he tried all these different ways to get me motivated to study. There was the classic yelling. There was also encouragement (which is new for him), telling me how hard my parents work, telling me that he has given up on me (then he completely acted as if he never said that and told me to get to work and stuff). After all that, he tried something new: he told me to go watch a certain korean drama. Now, I was a little thrown off by his doing this because Korean dramas are known to be highly addictive, but it looks like he knew what he was doing. The drama was called 고부의신 (God of Study, in english).

God of Study

This drama INSPIRED me to study. There were SO many parallels my brother pointed out and I drew between the drama and my life. That was a week or so ago. I have completed watching all sixteen episodes today. It's a little to early to say for sure, but I think my diligence is finally coming out in my studies.

Also, this drama talked about why one should study. It explained that one will, without studying, be taken advantage of by the rules of society, which were created by the higher people, the smarter people, and the richer people. To not be a victim in life, one must study to change his situation and circumstances. Now, I don't know this for sure, but I feel that God is calling me to do big things. What those big things are, I don't know, but I feel that He is calling me to climb the social ladder and become someone big, that my studies have purpose and that is my direction in life.

I'm glad my brother is in my life to be able to look after me and to make sure that I am on track with my life. I thank God for him.

The Path to Diligence

Alright, so I decided to turn a corner in life and stop fooling around in my studies and get in to, as my brother put it, the "Do or Die" attitude. I've been watching a drama called the God of Study and it has been motivating me to study (also getting me addicted), but diligence is not something you just easily pick up on your way home. I am trying to work hard, but I am having a hard time focusing and staying awake. Right now, I know what I am doing wrong. I am trying to do this on my own. I'm leaving God out of the picture. I need His help and, now that I think about it, I have not been really spending much time with Him recently. What was I thinking? After a life time of laziness, I tried to turn diligent without God. How stupid.

Laziness: One of the World's GREATEST Inhibitors

Laziness is like a river narrowing down to become rapids. The longer you do not swim against it, the narrower the water gets and the harder it gets TO swim against it. Also, the opposite is true: the longer you swim against it, the further away from the rapids you get and the easier it becomes to fight it. Let me give you an example. When, at 3 o' clock, I come home from school and I relax until five o' clock, I want to relax until six o' clock. By six o' clock, I know I should start working on homework, but I want to relax some more so I relax. By 6:30, I say, "Why not just start at 7?" Then, at 7, I stress out about starting and then just do nothing for half an hour or more, then I start my work around 8. I can't finish by 10 usually, and, by then, I like to sleep so I just set my alarm early to do my homework early the next day. I can't get in any SAT studying in there usually. Now, if I had started working at three, things would have gone much differently. I would have finished by six and had more time to study SAT or for my midterms. Not only that, but I have noticed from experience that it is harder to START working when you've been procrastinating and it's easier to CONTINUE working when you have not. It's just the way it is.

Speaking as one who has, not only seen, but been to both ends of the river, I must say that being in or close to the rapids is a terrible feeling. Personally, as a student in high school, I feel that God has made me for "bigger and better" things, academically speaking, but I cannot seem to reach my full potential because of my laziness. Also, this laziness affects generally the rest of my life as well. When I am lazy in doing homework, I start to become lazy in other aspects of my life such as spending time with God, practicing drums, practicing singing, etc.

This year, I have one New Year's Resolution and that is to STOP BEING SO LAZY. I want to live life the way God has intended for me to live it and I know that I cannot do this by my self so I ask for prayer on this topic from anyone who reads this. I just really need diligence and wisdom. So please pray to God for me.