"I cling to Jesus with every fiber of my being because He is unfailing, He is absolute, He is steadfast and His grace is deeper and wider than my imagination can even fathom. In Him and Him alone is where I’ve discovered a hope more bright and beautiful than words can possibly describe."

(Source: owlcityblog.com)

My best friend of 15 years is getting baptized this summer! She sent me a very rough draft outline of the public testimony she’s going to share in front of probably more than a thousand people, and it made me cry. I have prayed relentlessly for her for years, and now my heart is so full of joy.

“We have all been down similar dark paths and the only thing that’s important is that we were lead to the light.
I have been tested and failed, I have ran so far I got lost, and at one point blamed it all on God because I couldn’t grasp how one person could lose so much. Back and forth between church and long nights spent in a haze, I was torn and divided. After my best friend’s many attempts to pull me back, I heard Chris Pasik say that suffering shows what our hope is in and that God plans for our suffering so that we cling to Him and in that moment every wall I worked so hard to build, crumbled. I gave it all to the One that laid down His life for us.”

Here I am, one year later. I am alive and I am well. I am strong, though I had once crumbled. I have grown, but I am still growing.

One year ago, I was paralyzed by fear, anxiety, and worry over my health. I literally could not function normally. I barely got out of bed for three weeks, couldn’t go to work, couldn’t eat, couldn’t carry on. I lost ten pounds in two weeks, the anxiety and worry made my stomach so sick and consumed so much of my mind that I had to force myself to eat bread or whatever I could tolerate every day or so.

I was making weekly trips to different doctors, getting whatever I thought was a terminal illness or cancer checked out. I would wake up in the morning so ridden with anxiety that I would immediately call off work and go to the doctor. I missed so much work, in fact, that I made $11,000 less last year than I had the year before that.

I was put on anxiety medication, and I honestly only remember bits and pieces from those few months. My head was in a constant fog, and I still worried consistently. I thought I was dying, I thought something was wrong and that the dozens of doctors and emergency rooms I had went to were somehow missing it.

Here I am, one year later, one year after this all began. I am stronger. The devil is trying so hard to kill me with worry and anxiety again. Even though I doubted, prayed, screamed at God for a year, He was always there. He held me in His hands when I truly could not move.

I barely made it through last year. But this year, I am fighting back. Fighting the thoughts, ignoring the devil, dealing with my issues and concerns, which there are way less of, and moving forward. I have not been dwelling on them. I am moving forward. I am learning. I am growing.

I am almost me again.

"We can get all excited about missions but do you witness to the guy sitting down beside you?"

(Source: laurenmccarty116)

"Is something driving you crazy, making you sad or stressing you out? Tell God. That’s it. That’s prayer. You don’t have to pray about big world issues or the eternal salvation of someone’s soul. It’s simply your chance to talk about what’s bothering you to your Heavenly Dad who loves you with an unending love. The more real and raw and honest and unscripted it is, the better. The more ‘you’ it is, the better."

Why are you the most perfect, attractive, beautiful, hilarious, adorable, exciting, passionate boy that loves Jesus that I have ever met and my heart explodes with joy when I see your face and why can’t I have you.

"True friendship is a sacred, important thing, and it happens when we drop down into that deeper level of who we are, when we cross over into the broken, fragile parts of ourselves. We have to give something up in order to get friendship like that. We have to give up our need to be perceived as perfect. We have to give up our ability to control what people think of us. We have to overcome the fear that when they see the depths of who we are, they’ll leave. But what we give up is nothing in comparison to what this kind of friendship gives us. Friendship is about risk. Love is about risk. If we can control it and manage it and manufacture it, then it’s something else, but if it’s really love, really friendship, it’s a little scary around the edges."

(Source: livedesperately)

There are few things I love more than worshipping Jesus with my best friend.

Bryce Avary in Detroit on 4/1. Such an incredible, awesome, amazing, one of a kind, passionate individual who puts on an equally fantastic show. My hero.

There was nothing GOOD about Good Friday. An innocent Man suffered. The only Righteous One paid, the Savior died. But, that is the GOOD NEWS. That the Son of God suffered, paid, and died for us…in our place. This is our hope and salvation.