A fun playlist. Check it out!

Check out this awesome playlist! Some music i like.
-Dave

Some call it Hope.

Today I found myself walking slowly through the cemetery staring for long periods of time at names and dates of people i have never known. I wondered about them. 

Colice Hancock was one name. Her dates were 1886-1986. She lived 100 years. I could not keep from pondering. Who was she? What did she do? What did people admire her for? What did she do that she wanted no one to know? What was she afraid of? What did she love? Did her heart break over a sour relationship? What made her laugh? What made her cry? Who was this woman?

What are things like for Colice now?

Frankly, this woman died before most of my piers and I were born. Although most of us would love to answer these questions about ourselves, we don't care at all about the answers Colice Hancock would have given. Heck, most people wont ever even have the option to care.

 Thats the strange truth.

Then I looked and I saw the almost endless number of tombstones. Every one of those people had so much life in them. So much.

As I was looking around i noticed something eerily humbling: 

My own footprints in the melting snow behind me.

I dont think I need to explain the metaphor there.

I began to ponder. What it is going to be like to die? I continued to think about a doubt i have been having these last few weeks: do i really believe that once I die there is something afterwards? Really? What is it like? Is it the ideal, baptisty "heaven" I have been taught about since my infancy? That seems too easy.

I am not afraid of death, as much as I am amazed and in awe and wonder of it. I will repeat my brain-rattling question: what is it like? It is such a huge mystery and it is knocking at the door of every one of us.

Looking at all those dates made me pretty sure that I would someday join them. All this talk I have been hearing lately about the Lord returning soon, and the "end-times" stuff has begun to make me forget one potent truth. Most everyone who has ever lived...has died and was forgotten. I will probably die. In fact, it could happen any day. Any moment. There are no promises and no guarantees that I get to make it to tomorrow...or even to dinner time! That isn't a morbid thought. It is an honest one.

But as I was walking back to my dorm I think the Sprit may have put a thought in my head. It was definitely a still small voice but I am not going to risk taking the Holy Name of God in vain by saying "It was God telling me..." in a boastful attempt to sound spiritual. (Sorry...thats a whole other big thought i may touch on in another post)

Anyway the thought was, as I looked around the JBU campus, and at my hands, "But David, remember, you are here now."

So what do I do now?

As my dad says, "What do I do with this deep thought when I wake up and put my pants on and go live tomorrow?"

Well I just opened my Bible and it flipped right to Psalm 91. Funny. That same reference stands out to me as a verse on one of the grave stones I just looked at. When I saw it I somehow thought it was significant. Now that I have read Psalm 91, i see that it is. I would post the whole thing right here, but I think the length might scare readers away. So I would ask that you click on this: Psalm 91, and Go read it for yourself.

Have you read it? ok good. Now we can talk about it :)

All i will say here is that the first verse seems to do a good job explaining what we are to do right now. We will abide in the shadow (rest in, be protected from evils, find our home in the presence) of the Almighty (of the One who is over all things and cannot be fathomed or beaten. He IS truth. He IS love. He IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Him. His Words bring eternal life) when we dwell in the shelter of the most High.

Seek JESUS. That is the answer to what I am to do now. Nothing else matters. He is the one who can guarantee Life after this short puppet show is over. (Ok i don't know why i said "puppet show" there, besides the fact that i think it just sounded cool)

We have been given Hope! His name is Jesus! We must seek His face.

Nothing else here will last. 

Now, although I am saying this, I know and am disgusted by the fact that i don't live this way. 

No-sir-ee.

 But Seeking God does not imply arrival to God. that would be foolishness. It implies expected arrival to God. 

Some call it Hope. (Romans 15:13)

So lets run to Him in this short and fickle life and believe that "He rewards those who seek Him."  (Hebrews 11:6)

What else matters? the way I see it, our lives are like footprints in the melting snow.

-Dave

sometimes the most beautiful things are the most obscure.

As I was listening to the "Beethoven" Pandora radio station, I realized something. I have not come close to witnessing all the beauty that is out there. These songs with titles like "Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major" by Franz Schubert may only be familiar to an elite few music nerds in our world. My chances of ever having heard it, or even of hearing it again are slim. But it is out there and it is beautiful. 
Sometimes I think I have seen all that is beautiful in this world.

Sometimes I act and hypothesize in such a way that I assume that God's love has limits. That grace only goes so far. 

but there is no much I don't know.

Psalms blatantly repeats that His Steadfast love endures forever.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV) 

 At times, when I see the beauty of His creation, I am reminded of the jaw-dropping fact that He loves us. And there is no lack of evidence of it.

All else will burn, but the eternal One has promised a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Christ in His resurrection brings eternal life.

How then ought we to live?

16 Pieces of Life

1. God loves us with an everlasting love
2. I love my family
3. I don't understand prayer very well at all.
4. I am still learning how to read the Bible.
5. God still loves us
6. God is the gospel
7. Love is a huge deal.
8. God is Love
9. I want to know Christ above all things.
10. 2 Corinthians 5:7-10 (ESV)
    
    
    
    

     "For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil."
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. I think everyone needs to be around kids often. They bring you back to reality. We were made to trust.
12. This is not meant to be a deep post, i'm just trying out new blogging methods.
13. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs is a great cartoon. I found it to be hilarious!
14. I disagree with a lot of what was said as factual in the early 1990s film Sleepless in Seattle (I watched it tonight with my sister) but i enjoyed it for two reasons.
1. The music
2. It made me think about love in a fresh and analytical way.
15. We Need Love
16. Psalm 46:10 (NASB)
    
    
    
    

     "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
    

    
    
    
    
    

I was lead back to love

Well it has been quite a while since I blogged last. Around two months I believe.

I will try to be a little more consistent in this from this point on.

I suppose I will start my blog life back up with a story.

One of the most precious moments I have witnessed in my short little life took place during Christmas morning. The LaGue family was trapped in our house due to the literal blizzard the night before, and we were taking our time enjoying each other and opening our presents. These were sweet moments.

Now, I would like to think that we LaGues are a happy bunch. I think we are. I feel as if I was placed in the most wonderful family on this colorful globe. But life is messy and it is messy a lot.

Through this past year, we have been tried. We have gone through some tough stuff. We have seen tremendous suffering among those we love. As mentioned in the previous post, nasty realities disclosed their heads that I had never seen before. Now, we are very blessed. I am not saying we had the hardest time of anyone in KC, because we didn't. This year was filled with the evidence of God's amazing love.

But it was still hard.

But in spite of all of the failure that happens in this world, on this beautiful Christmas morning we had a time where all the kids presented gifts to the parents. Each of us had written them a letter. My mom and dad read them out loud and we cried. We saw a small yet overwhelming picture of God's love. Something about that moment was very thick. In a good way. It was a culmination of sorts. All the pain and perseverance of the past year seemed to collide with the reality of God's faithfulness. I sat there and was floored at how precious those people were to me. I love them so much. From my view, we all felt that way. We got a glimpse of God's love.

 For reasons I can't explain on this lame little blog, that moment was full of beauty. Real beauty.

And the tears were brought on by love.

Love.

Love is hard. It is  full of sacrifice and extremely risky. We willingly invest love in people and they invest love in us, but how brave we are!

These people can be gone in a moment. They can die. They can change. They can reveal that they are not who you thought they were when you gave them your precious love. They can use you, and abuse you. They can simply not return the love. You can love things and they wear out.

In a world where all we see is dying, we stubbornly love the stuff we see.

Love is absurdly risky.

But it is what we are fueled by. It is what we were made for. Without love we will die. Babies need to be held, and loved, or they have an extremely small chance of reaching childhood alive. We need role models to look up to. Me and my young-adult friends are beginning to join the frenzy of people who are desperate to find someone to commit the rest of their lives to. We CRY OUT for this love. we need it. People will do anything for it.

A friend of mine and I were talking a guy in Barnes and Noble last  night who didn't know what he believed in at ALL. He was reading up on every religion he could. He was a seeker. He asked a lot of questions and so did we. Both sides listened to the other very well. It was a great philosophical discussion. But the end of the conversation revealed something unexpected to me.

"Are you looking for truth? Do you believe that there is one truth or do you believe there can be many truths?" We asked.

"Well...actually, I don't believe in truth at all. I am not looking for truth. I am looking for love."

He didn't say it cheezily or with a sappy tone. It was really want he was looking for. It was deep.

I can see this young man's cry all over the world. On the news. In the movies. In my friends. and in my own heart. We are dying to get love. We need it.

But we have no idea what it is. We have perverted love to make it something about us. That is not love. That is the opposite of love: Pride. We are told to follow our heart. And this seems right and feels good, but it only leads to a mindset of survival of the fittest. This leads to death and love is lost. We are too stupid to pick up love like we so often do. Like a toddler with power tools, we have no idea what we are doing. We are bound to get hurt.

Love. I made it mine. I made it small. I made it blind. 

I followed hard only to find it wasn't love.

Love of songs and pen. Love of movie endings.

Takes out the break. Leaves out the bend. Misses love.

Love not of you. Love not of me. Come pick us up, come set us free.

Not as we know it, but as it can be. 

Love.

-Sara Groves

I don't claim to have this down. I don't. I do claim to want to want this. And in a very cold Kansas City home, on Christmas day, in that toasty room laden with wrapping paper and ribbon and kids in African pajamas (a whole different story), I swear I saw God's love. In a world where all is perverted and everything will fail, lets not be stupid and try to grab what we see and claim it is love. God is love. We MUST turn to Him. He has loved us with an EVERLASTING LOVE. 


I have to put these praises from of old up here.
I hope this is seen as a statement that I have seen a small glimpse of His love. It convicts me. It inspires me. Lets cling to Him. Let's abide with Him. He loves us and wants to be our home. 

Psalm 32:10 (English Standard Version)

 ^10(A) Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

   but steadfast love surrounds the one who^(B) trusts in the LORD.

Psalm 36:5 (English Standard Version)

 ⁵Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,

   your faithfulness to the clouds.

Psalm 63:3 (English Standard Version)

³Because your^(A) steadfast love is better than life,

   my lips will praise you.

Psalm 115:1 (English Standard Version)

 ^1(A) Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,

   ^(B) for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

So lets not forget.

God loves us.

Jesus IS the bread of life.

His Spirit IS our counselor

What are we treasuring?