What Matters

 

       I can not honestly say that I don't care what you think. I care very deeply. I care for the deepest part of your soul. The inner thoughts, desires, and even fears. I do not however care what your opinion of me is, save for the fact that if you think less of me you may not listen to my words or counsel. I care for you to be loved, and to know the only love that will never fail you in this life or the next. I care for you to know the love of Jesus.

 

       I have no desire to make you look a certain way, to dress or act in a certain manner. I do not have any strong attachment to a way of acting that I feel is more upright or proper than another. I don't desire for you to be rich, educated, and successful. I do desire for you to be fulfilled with life that brings joy. Life that brings you a feeling that scoffs at happiness for its brevity. 

 

       I am not foolish enough to think that a list of behaviors of things you either do or abstain from doing will grant you a life that is full. Only God and a relationship with God alone can grant you that fullness. I also, however, have no doubt that things that you choose to do can lead you in a direction away from that relationship. If you feel a void in your heart where you know or wish a relationship with God would be there is a reason for that void. It is not because God has taken the day off, is testing you, or isn't real. It is because you have separated yourself from Him.

 

      God sees into the future. He knows what things you do that will bring you harm, and what things you do that will bring you life. God like any truly loving person cares enough for you He will not stand holding hands with you along your path to destruction. Sin separates. So although I personally care very little of behaviors or deeds, I do not deny that certain deeds will lead you to a place where you yourself have made God inaccessible. 

 

 

 

  

       I can not help you. I wish that I could. I wish that I, Richard Demsick could help. I wish that my relationship with you mattered. I wish that even without God psychology, self help, counseling, healthy living, or my relationship with you would make the difference in  the end. I know, however that when the rubber meets the road, when the night gets dark, and the day is done, how well you know me, is not going to matter. It isn't going to make the difference how your journey ends how many counseling sessions you have gone to, or how many friends you have. All that is going to truly matter is how close you are with Jesus.

 

        I am a shadow in dim light. A poor excuse for a reflection of something that does matter. When you hear my words, and see my actions of love, they do not come from me but from God. Without God I would not know how to love, nor be capable of loving you to the depth that I do. I would not feel in the depth of my heart a willingness to die daily for you. When you receive my love, you are receiving a taste of God's. But my love will not get you there. My love will not give you life. My love will fail you. If there was anything I could do to make my love enough for you, I would have already done it. You need the love of God.

 

        God understands and He forgives. It's not too late, it is never to late to open up your heart to Him. You can tell Him you are sorry for the things you have done that have lead you away from Him, and turn from them. You can ask for Him to enter your heart and for you to experience the true love that makes all the difference. There is no where else to go for true life, and true peace. Don't waste your life looking for answers where there is none. God alone saves. If you turn to Him and don't look back it will change your life in a way that is beyond anything you have experienced, because He will constantly bring you into a new place. It won't always be easy, but God doesn't give you a limited amount of continues. Start afresh, start anew, but above all start with Him.

A So Real Christmas

           Life is hard, and people aren't perfect. In fact people are far from perfect. People are bad. We lie, cheat, and steal, but that's not the end of the story. There is Love. Not the fairy tale kind, or even worse the movie kind. No, there is real love. Real love isn't as glamorous as we are told to believe, but it does cover over a multitude of flaws. Real love is Clint Eastwood in a cowboy movie, it is Bruce Willis in Die Hard, no matter how beaten down it gets it will rise again. When I started this blog, of which I have given very little attention, I wanted it to have a name that would encompass most of what I would post. That is why I choose the name Reborn, that is what love is, that is what true life is, a Rebirth.

          For many Christmas is far from the happiest time of the year. It instead is just a reminder of what they wish they had and the fairy tale their life isn't. In a year that has brought in my life more difficultly than ease, more strife than peace, I still celebrate Christmas. I don't do so in a bubble, pretending that there is nothing bad, difficult, or scary in life. I don't put on my Sunday best and fake a smile, but I do put my worries aside. Not because of appearances, or a desire for even one day to be perfect, and unfortunately not because I have forgotten the hard things in my life. I put them aside because today, more than any other day I remember there is something greater. Something so beautiful, and majestic it shines through the dirtiest of lenses. I am of course talking about the son of God who we celebrate in this season how He reached out to all of us, but I am not only talking about Him. I am also talking about love.

          Yesterday my greatest Christmas gift was celebrating love, the love my brother +Doy Demsick  has for his, as of today, fiancé Emily. We are going to be soon adding another Demsick to the now female populated Demsick family. I couldn't be happier, I love my brother, his bride to be, and I still love...love. I love that it comes in different shapes and sizes, that it can be given in many different ways. I love that it can be shared, and that it spreads. I felt like I was getting a gift when Doy shared with me about his engagement. Not just because I was getting a sister but because his joy spread to me. I love that it surprises you, and out of no where lifts your spirits. My favorite thing about love is that it isn't in a vacuum or found in empty halls. It isn't for the perfect, it isn't a thing of perfection it's a thing of redemption. So to those who don't believe in love, feel they don't deserve it, or aren't a recipient of it, remember what love is. Remember that love is more about giving, not the receiving. Remember that God wasn't ignorant of the filth of this world when He sent His son to die for it. Remember the goodness in life that endures the dark days. I don't know what this new year we shall soon begin will bring, but I know love will be there; enduring. I know that we can bring the love, even when others don't, and I know that ultimately love wins.

A country that bleeds together

Most of our initial reactions to things are wrong. We are quicker to anger than patience, quicker to lie than face the truth, and quicker to run or stuff than deal with issues. Still, not all of our initial reactions are wrong. In light of the events in Connecticut, I have seen heartache, concern, prayer and a desire to help. Maybe some anger and outrage but that isn't unjustified. Even though most of us have little to no connection to those directly affected, we mourn together. This is family, and this is good. Joy is not the absence of sorrow, or pain. It isn't achieved in a vacuum devoid of difficulties or injustice.

The world may not be fair, or all together good, but love can conquer even in the darkest of moments. That doesn't make the darkness okay, and certainly doesn't mean God willed it to happen, but it does mean that it doesn't have to end with only pain. We win, we are family, when we share the pain together, with prayer, and acts of kindness.

Later reactions may come to our mind, feelings of need for revenge, to blame, or fear. We must push past those emotions. The reality is there is nothing we could do that would stop all tragedy from occurring, it is the cold sad fact of a world with broken people. What we can do though is share love, loving each other stops the cycle, it creates peace amidst the storm. When we choose love we heal wounds, and become peace makers, it is the best prevention policy that we will ever have. So I commend you who have mourned, prayed, and looked for ways to help, you make our country a better place, and despite the darkness of the evening, you bring about light.

Christmas Time

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! Nothing consumes our lives and thoughts more. We may shop for ghoulish costumes before Halloween, and cook for what seems like days on thanksgiving but the entire month of December (and parts of November and January) are taken up with thoughts of the Holy holly jollies. We have countless movies reminding us the true meaning of Christmas, unfortunately they are interrupted by commercial breaks distracting us from it once again. We get mass emails reminding us once again of its meaning but web advertisements asking us to buy more stuff (sometimes included on the same email). Caught in this pull between the possibility of greater things (GIFTS!!) and the reflection of glorious things (Christ) the mass find themselves torn apart. 

    

      Who would have guessed that those wise kings two thousand years ago would of caused such a stir? There is a dark illusion about Christmas, a false hope of toys and family. We expect that we will be surrounded by a perfect loving family who will just for this one day, not fight, or argue, but sing fahoo fores, dahoo dores, welcome Christmas around a tree. Even in the Grinch a story about how Christmas comes without ribbons! without tags! without packages, boxes or bags, they end up celebrating with all those presents! 

        Maybe that is why people too often end up more depressed on Christmas. They feel like if they don’t have the presents, or the family to share it with they are missing out on Christmas. I have some shocking news for you. Christmas is not about presents, nor is it about FAMILY (at least not your earthly family). Sure we all tend to gather as a family to celebrate and its a great time to express our love for each other, but Christmas is NOT about family. It IS in fact about Jesus. It is a celebration of not only the fact that He was born, but a celebration of why He was born, and what that means for us.

    

        Christmas shockingly is about Christ, and He is there just the same for every man women and Child. We do not have to be good or “nice” to earn his love, and we do not have to be rich to celebrate it. We do not have to have either a perfect family or one at all. We are NOT celebrating the fact that we were born to the man we call father and the woman we call mother. We ARE celebrating the fact that a baby was born and they call him Emanuel which means “God with us”.

    Now we have a family, that we can celebrate this glorious event with. They have almost as many buildings as Starbucks. There is one on almost every church corner, and there is type built for every kind of man, woman, and child. It’s church, and not just the building but the gathering of those who celebrate Christ wherever they may be. My family celebrates Christmas in our home by reading the incredible story of our Lord and singing songs to honor Him. However you choose to celebrate, remember that it isn’t only not about presents, it’s also not about family. It’s about Jesus. It’s about a love story. A love that was so strong for each one of us, that a savior was born. A little baby, a king, a warrior, God with us, and time has never been the same.

Free Falling

       Working in Youth Ministry is more than a job, it's a life, head ache, a heart ache, and about the best job that anyone can have. When I decided to make the uncommon move from working in "adult" ministry to "youth" ministry it was in some ways like jumping from the edge of a cliff, once you jump there is little control left over the direction you choose.

        In some degree I feel like Steve McQueen in Magnificent Seven, when sharing about a guy falling from a ten story building. Each floor the guy passed people could hear him saying "So far so good". So far so good.

       I have unfortunately never been skydiving but I already know the feeling. The feeling of letting go control, giving yourself to the air, and feeling more alive than you have before. I know the feeling because that is exactly how walking with God feels.

      It really doesn't feel like a walk most days it feels like a flight. Or even more accurately it feels like a pattern of flying and falling. At moments you feel on top of the world, gazing at the wonder beneath, and moments later you are plummeting back to earth. The thing that only experience with God can teach you, the thing I didn't understand 100 battles or so ago, is that we can enjoy even the falling.

    Even speeding towards the ground at a mile a minute we can breath deep, and enjoy, cause God is gonna catch us every time. He always does, and always has, always will. Some people try to fight the fall when things start to go wrong. They stay crashing toward earth like before but now they are flapping their arms wildly as if they may be able to reverse the gravitational pull of the earth. All that happens instead is they start spinning out of control like someone who jumped out of a plane but forgot a parachute.

     God is our parachute. He is our safety net, keeping us assured we won't hit the ground. There is nothing more beautiful then a skydiver  who knows what he's doing. He is like a ballerina of the air, enjoying the decent. Why wouldn't we be just as confident in our parachute? After all, there is no margin of error when it comes to God's faithfulness.

- R. Daniel Demsick