What We Expect.

I am often surprised what God does in my life and in the lives of those around me. I'm often shocked over the plans He has for my life because so often they are not what I expect. This has always been the case. For example, freshman year when I was sitting in Culture Diversity, listening to a speaker talk about the homeless in L.A., the children...I knew God was telling me to go. Yet, I couldn't help but think, "No, not me." I didn't feel like I was capable, I didn't feel like I had the skills to go and do what He asked. I thought, "I'm just me. I'm just Kassie." I'm shocked...I'm hesitant when He tells me where to go, what to do. I feel like I couldn't possibly accomplish what He wants...that I couldn't possibly do good. That's not the case however... that's not the truth. The truth is, we shouldn't be surprised or shocked, but instead we should simply be in awe. We should be thankful for what God calls us to do. We should be thrilled that God knows us so well, believes in us so much, that He is calling us to something great. And that's what He is doing... calling us to greatness...calling us to stand out...calling us to do something amazing. I also at times, not only struggle with feeling like I'm not good enough to do certain things God has called me to, but I also struggle with not understanding why He doesn't call me elsewhere. Maybe that's prideful and silly, but I have friends going to amazing places...friends in Thailand, Ukraine, and possibly Cambodia. Those are great, exciting places, where there will be much adventure and I often wonder why not me? When I have these thoughts though...I have to remind myself...God has called me to do certain things, that are fitting for me..He has called me to places where He can use me and my skills and my heart. For that I am thankful... for that I will follow Him, no matter where He tells me to go, even if its just next door or in the next town. And no matter where He sends me, I will know, He is doing it with love...and I am not JUST me, I am not JUST Kassie. I am his daughter...dearly loved.

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Onto something else I was thinking about today. I watch a lot of tv, which isn't always good for my soul, especially when it comes to the news or celeb gossip, yet I watch because I am intrigued. Sometimes when watching these things or even reading such things on the internet you come across people who call themselves Christians and maybe they are, but somethings they say about people...whether it be about someone in the news who committed an awful crime and they want to give their input or about a celebrity who did something they consider to be stupid. Well, today I was on the internet reading about a woman on The Hills MTV show. This woman, recently had a ton of plastic surgery done...at least ten surgeries done in one day. As I was reading about this, trying to understand why someone would do such a thing, I came across something that stated she had recently received an email from a stranger saying, "Plastic surgery is against God's will." This bugged me. Obviously this person disagrees with plastic surgery and believes that God looks down on it as well, but saying such things is not helpful. We look at people, we look at their actions, their words...how they live their lives and we judge. We say, God doesn't love you because you had plastic surgery...God doesn't love you because your gay...God doesn't love you because you had sex before you were married...God doesn't love you because you did this and you did that. We cut people down, we say cruel awful things. Yet, we wonder, we honestly wonder why people despise Christians! We wonder why more people aren't being brought to Christ. No, not all Christians are like that, but I believe that those people, who call themselves Christians, yet speak like this, hurt people like this, stick out more than the other Christians, that truly love and want to show God's love. To this, I say, think before you call yourself a Christian...think before you say you love Jesus and His people...and that you want to live for Him and show people Him...because when you do these things, when you say these things, you are saying and showing otherwise.

Jesus is all about love. He loves no matter what we do. He loves no matter who we are. He LOVES. It's that simple. All we have to do is have a relationship with Him. Nothing else matters...and that's what makes His love great. It is never ending. It is not bound to anything else other than loving Him above all else. How great is that?