Recently in Faith Category

On my walk this morning, I noticed the words "if only..." printed on the pathway. Someone had neatly written these words with blue sidewalk chalk a short distance from the playground. It got me thinking.

A lot of us tend to view our past through glasses of regret, and view our future through the telescope of evil forebodings. It's okay to admit that, because it's human nature. Thinking positively is good, but it has to be tempered with reality.

I imagine there are many people with a lot of "if only's" in their lives. If only I was younger. If only I was older. If only I had a spouse. If only my spouse hadn't left me. If only I had a job. If only I had a job I actually liked. The list could be endless.

It can be difficult to see where our lives are taking us. Questions of predestination aside, what control do we truly have over our lives? Can we change who we are, and if so, how much?

A short-term perspective cannot yield a long-term solution. Yet we try so desperately to imagine what tomorrow will be like (i.e. I can't imagine my life without x, I can't imagine my dream coming to pass).

I am glad that I am serving a God who works outside of time. My immediate surroundings only tell me where I am in life right now. It informs me of my lack and abundance. It provides me with a set of unreliable data derived from past experiences. I either think in terms of favor or bias, which is ultimately pointless.

Yet, hardship builds character and endurance builds faith. Yes, there are unspeakable tragedies in this world, and I am not here to justify or defend those things. But I do believe that God can turn everything around. He can take something ugly, hurtful or untrue and turn it into something beautiful.

Maybe you can't see how you're going to survive the next two months. Maybe you find yourself in the midst of financial trouble. Perhaps you have lost all hope in life.

What you may have forgotten is that life is not built on your past. If, like me, you believe that Christ died on the cross for your sins, and you have accepted Him in your heart, you have reason to hope. He gives you a fresh start. He gives you as many chances as you need. Your past is not important to Him, and besides, He is willing to take it and make it into something beautiful.

You've probably heard the saying, "don't start what you can't finish" before.

Earlier this year, I became interested in pixel art. I've always been artistically inclined and creative, but it wasn't until recently that I thought it might be fun to try.

I decided to start working on a couple of projects to learn the ropes. I had done a bit of pixel art with Mario Paint and other game development software in the past, but this was the first time in a long time that I had done anything with it.

I often find that you start to figure things out pretty quickly when you dive in the deep end. The first project I did came out way too small, so I learned that I would need to make subsequent projects larger in scale.

My second project was of course larger, but the thing you have to realize with pixel art is that it is very time consuming. This project was taking a long time, and therefore sat in a folder on my desktop for a long time.

Fortunately, I finally got around to finishing this project in the last few days. I believe that if you finish what you start, it can really simplify your life. For whatever reason, this pixel art project was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about things I hadn't finished yet.

It's easy to start a million projects, but it takes endurance to see them through. When the initial excitement wears off, it's easy to talk yourself out of it. Even if you do carry through with it, you don't know if there will be any reward other than the satisfaction of knowing that you completed it. It takes tenacity to believe for more.

The image you see at the beginning of this post is the pixel art project I completed today. I realize that it may not be much to look at, but at least I finished it, and I know there were a couple of people that showed some interest in it.

If you would like to view some of my better artwork (I promise it's better than this), please view my DeviantArt page.