The Love That Carries Me

So as you can this picture is me with Jim Kelly taken on the last day of Kingdom Bound (huge christian music festival in western New York) on August 3^rd, 2005. It was an awesome experience. I was standing up front right after Jeremy Camp performed and I saw Jim walk past. I ran up to Him and asked him if I could get a picture with him. He was so nice. He was with a group of kids that I assume he brought as a youth group or something. I took the photo and said thank you. He was courteous and made a joke about my camera before we both parted ways. On August 5th just two days later his son, Hunter Kelly died of Krabbe Leukodystrophy, an inherited, fatal, nervous system disease. This kind of makes you think a little bit. I have this picture of him being happy and enjoying himself at a concert and then two days later he experiences the toughest thing he's ever experienced. It makes you think. Life really is short. We really don't know when our time is. We make plans and we spend years of our life trying to prepare so we can have a good time in our later years. I'm here to tell you that making plans is a waste of your time. As human beings on this earth there is absolutely no reason we should make plans because the plans for our lives are not our own. In James 4:13-14 we read this:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

We don't know when we will die and people tend to push the thought of death to the side. Well guess what. Ten out of ten people die. We don't know when we will die or when we will get a phone call and hear someone on the other line say that our closest loved one is gone. We just don't know. There are horrible things that happen to everyone all the time and we live in a world fueled by sex, drugs, violence, and DEATH. We are at a time in history where the line has been pushed so far that it is commonplace in a houshold to see a topless girl on television and think nothing of it. Or to hear so and so was raped and think nothing of it. Or to find out mom and dad are getting a divorce and think nothing of it. Well i'm here to tell you that yeah the line may still be pushed, but i'm not going to follow. Life is too short. I am a firm believer in God and His son Jesus Christ and I know that my plans are not my own. They are His. I believe that out of billions of people since the begginning of time that i was put here at this exact location at this exact moment in time to fulfill a purpose. I probably don't know what that purpose is but i do know what i have to do everyday to fulfill it. People especially teenagers are searching these days. And if you're reading this don't tell me you're not searching. Don't tell me that you're not trying to fit in somewhere or be accepted. Don't tell me that you don't have hurt inside and that you don't feel a void in your life. I'm here to tell you that someone does love you. You have bad things in your life and you have skeletons in your closet. You probably do bad things all the time. I'm not saying i'm perfect either because i screw up just as much as the rest of us. But i'm here to tell you that thats ok. Because 2,000 years ago a man climbed up on a cross and died for us. He knew all the hate, all the hurt, all the sin, and all the pain that we feel right here in 2007 and he said it's not worth it. He died for us so that we didn't have to experience all the hurt anymore. He told us "Come to me all you who are weak and burdened and i will give you rest." Jesus died so that we may live. He took away all the hurt and pain 2,000 years ago. All you have to do is ask Him to take it away from you. Just ask Him to forgive you and i promise you that if you really mean it, then you will feel a huge load lifted off your shoulders. It is a free gift so don’t believe you’re not worthy. Because none of us are. I guarantee you that Jesus will take away your pain and He will make you a new person. You never have to feel that pain again. I'm not saying this to try and force a religion on you. It's not religion. In fact I hate religion and Jesus did too. I'm saying this so that you can have a relationship with the one who Gives life. Jesus Christ. Whether we want to admit it or not we are living in the end of days. The Bible tells us that at the end of days children will disobey their parents. Men will crave sin. Nation will rise against nation. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. There will be famines and earthquakes. People the time is now. It is my responsibility as a christian to tell you of the love of Jesus Christ and what He can do. He has radically changed my life as well as millions of other people. He conquered death so that i may live. Today in society that line keeps getting further and further and many times christians keep stepping further and further behind the line. We won't go as far as the line because "we're different." But we will keep creeping up on the line and i'm here to say i'm sorry. If you are a christian and you're reading this i'm telling you if the line is moving forward then we need to be moving in the opposite direction. We are called to be the light of the world. If you are not a christian I beg you to go back and read this again and seriously consider what I said. If you are a christian then I encourage you to not be like this world. Live so that people don't ever see you, but God shining through you.

To learn more about Jim Kelly and Hunters Hope foundation please go to http://www.huntershope.com.