God reminds even fools.

I think way too often we get in the habit of hearing and not listening. Redundancy is important. Too often we hear the same things over and over and over, but they don't actually sink in. Like, I love you. Just because someone tells you that everyday doesn't mean you get it.

I started thinking about this because this morning I didn't wake up when my alarm went off. I got so used to the noise that it didn't affect me anymore. It became a clanging I could just tune out.

The beginning of another school year always seems to affirm me of Christ in my life. My old pastor wrote a book on the Bema seat and around a decade ago i went to a Teen Mania production of the book. Recently, i found a revival Teen Mania did of this play just last year and have been watching it online. It is such a good reminder of the power of God. You see, however human we are, when we walk in the Spirit, God will use however much we give of ourselves for his glory.

One of the things I love most about it, is the reminder that our struggle with sin will one day be over! I've never been imprisoned by some court here in the U.S. or elsewhere for that matter, but I have felt the bondage of sin. I imagine my first breath of free air being like that f the Count of Monte Cristo when he escaped his wrongly imprisonment and stood on that cliff side breathing in deeply.

I learned a lot in New Zealand, but part of me was thinking a lot about the 1000 years we'll all be back on a perfected earth. I was thinking of how I want to take my family to hike fox glacier and see bluer waters than I had ever before imagined. I was thinking about how I want to go with Mai to see Tokyo as she could show me where she lived and I was thinking about how I could retrace Paul's steps all over Europe with him and he could retell his story of God blinding him. Sure, the mountains and everything I experienced in New Zealand were beautiful, but it was nothing to the beautiful hearts of the people I met there.

There is a line in the Teen Mania production that struck me coming from the main character to his school mate, "I realized, that becasue she loved him, she had loved all of us." I only pray that I could do this reflecting Christ to those I meet.

What a difference one day makes.