Sunday, November 23, 2008

Warning: Do Not Read This If You Are Content With Your Life Right Now!

I guess i don’t usually write a note unless something is truly heavy on my heart. So I guess I will apologize because if you were wanting to read something entertaining or something that is light and fluffy that is not what this is. I pray that this will help all of us, myself included think deeper about our passion! Once again, I apologize if I ramble too much! :)


—There is no life, no life without its hunger.
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly.
“You Raise Me Up” Josh Groban


I was recently playing this song on the piano. Suddenly those words written above struck me as incredibly true! Life is nothing without a hunger. Life is nothing without a passion. A true passion!
What comes to mind, when you think of the word Passion? Many people will think of love, is that what you think of? Maybe you think of a dreamer. Dreamers are passionate individuals, and they rarely attain their dreams unless they stay passionate. My question to you is not what are you passionate about, because I believe that each of us is passionate about something, whether it be good or bad. There are those of you who are passionate about sports. Some of you are passionate about partying. While even others are passionate about their schooling. Too many of us are not passionate about the things that truly matter– the things that bring a richness, a depth, and a true excitement to life. My next question is what do you do about that passion?
Are you just passionate, or do you really live out that passion? The Bible says in James 2:14, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” And then the Bible says in James 2:17, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” I believe that the same can be said of passion. What good is it my brothers, if someone says he has passion but does not take actions to fulfill that passion? Or, so also passion by itself, if it does not have works, is dead! It is worthless if all we do is say that we are passionate about something, but don’t actually do anything about it. This is where I make myself so frustrated!
I claim to be passionate about so many thing! I claim to be passionate about running, and yet so many times I am lazy and don’t take the time to run and lift weights to get better. How can I truly claim to love running if I don’t have the actions to show that I love it. I seem to be a hard worker in my school, but so many times I don’t do my homework, or I just copy it from someone else when I get to school. Most importantly I claim to be passionate about God, and yet I rarely put any effort into trying to grow closer and more in my walk with God! How idiotic is that? Am I so stupid as to assume that one day it is just going to click and I am going to be a great runner. The day that I walk onto my college campus I’m going to be this hard working, straight A student. When I get married and become the physical and spiritual leader of my family, am I going to suddenly be this man who understands the Scriptures, and knows what he believes? I DON’T THINK SO!!!!
I have no right to presume that I am going to be able to accomplish anything that I am passionate about without hard work! Yet this is how I live my life most of the time! I would be so bold as to say that that is how many of us live our lives. We are perfectly willing to talk the talk, but don’t anyone ask us to walk the walk. We are a generation that is perfectly willing to be second best. We need to step up and become a generation that takes responsibility for their actions and doesn’t just sit on the fence, but takes the actions to fulfill their dreams!!
I know that many of you will roll your eyes and think that I’m just a sentimental, weird person when you read this. I pray that just one person will read this and be uplifted and be driven to pursue their passion. Remember the verse in I Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

God Bless,
Anton

Monday, May 5, 2008

wow, so now that it's been about half a year since I last posted anything I don't really know what to write. Life is crazy. Right now I'm laying on my floor on my stomach because my back went out today. I was stretching before a track workout and BAM! Oh well, I guess this is all a journey. God knows what he's doing.
Track has been pretty intense so far. I have been running the 3200 meters which is approximately equal to two miles. My best time is 10:21. That's decent but not great. I've got a lot of improvement to go. I've got Conference on Thursday so we'll see how everything pans out. I'm sure there is way more that I could say but I can't really think right now.
At least you guys know I'm still alive though right Lisa and Aunt Cathy