Limitless

This movie came out on DVD some time ago and I was never really interested in watching it, until a friend suggested it...

The movie is about this guy Eddie, who is a loser, not going anywhere in life, just going through the motions of everyday, until he is presented with a pill, that supposedly expands the full capacity of his brain, in other words, makes him really intelligent. I know, I know, sounds strange... But that's what happens, he becomes really smart and his life completely changes after that.

Fiction aside, what I really liked about this movie is the idea of how much a person can do and achieve in life when he just THINKS! The problem with many of us is not that we are not smart enough, is just that we are too lazy to think sometimes.

There's something the guy said in the movie that really stuck to me. As he was explaining the effects of the pill, he said 'my shyness, my fears are now gone'. Because he started thinking more, those things could not hold him anymore. How true is that?

If you THINK about it, shyness, doubts and fear are things of the heart and not of the mind. When you follow your reason and not your emotions, you can overcome those things; you can see that they just don't make sense and will never get you anywhere.

We should start thinking more and feeling less. That way we will achieve much more in life, much quicker.

All in all, a very nice movie. It certainly made me want to THINK more...

If only...

God had a plan, one specific plan: To save the people of Israel from starvation. And so He chose a man, at the time just a boy, for the task. He chose Joseph.

God chose him among all his brothers and gave him a dream as a sign that one day God would make him great and exalt him in his household. Since the time God chose him, everything went from bad to worse. He was envied and hated by his own brothers and if that wasn't enough, we was sold as a slave and sent to a foreign land, away from everything and everyone he ever loved.

He probably thought and prayed that someone would come for him, that that would not be his life. But no one came and no answer came. God seemed to be silent. The only good thing was that everything he did was successful, he was promoted as the overseer of his master's house. He finally had some peace and some respect out of the whole mess his life had become. He  was probably praying and planning a way to be set free from slavery so he could go back to his own house, to his father. Right when everything seemed to be working for him, life gave him another blow. 

He was accused of something he never did, nor did he intend to do. All he was trying to do was be right in God's eyes and live according to the principles he was taught. Because of that unjust accusation, he was sent to prison. Nothing ever really worked for him, what was the use... he tried to do everything right, he kept using his faith in God, but it didn't help him when he needed the most.

He was given more work and more responsibilities. Now he was the overseer of the prison... what a joke! What good was that to him?

"And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper." Genesis 39:23

Again, what good was that, to have your work prosper when you can't use it for anything? When you are bound by your problems?

God still seemed to be with him, but not enough to take him out of that situation. But he kept his faith and his integrity and allowed himself to be used by God even knowing there was nothing in that for him. After helping two of Pharaoh's officers, he specifically asked one of them to remember him once he was out of prison and mention him to Pharaoh, so he could leave that place too. I'm sure he thought that was his chance, who knows if now was the time he would finally have his freedom... This is what happened:

"Yet, the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." Genesis 40:23

Two entire years had passed and he was still there. I'm sure that the dream Joseph once had was now very dim, almost entirely gone from his memory, just a dream of a dream. Did he still have any hope?

But you see, all this was part of that first plan. How could God use someone greatly and give him a very serious responsibility if that person does not have any skills, or if he easily gives up on his faith, or if he leaves the principles of God as soon as there is any sign of trouble? He can't! And that's why God allowed Joseph to go through all that and He used every circumstance to shape and mold him into the man he needed to be to fulfill that plan.

Are you using your faith but have not yet seen the results you expect? Have you been trying everything you know to solve that problem you have but it's still there? Welcome to the club! 

It doesn't matter that you don't see the whole plan yet, it doesn't matter if you don't feel capable or appreciated. It doesn't matter if things don't seem to be working right now, it doesn't matter if you've tried before and failed. All that matters is that you remember the dream and you keep your focus on that. GOD WILL NOT FAIL IN WHAT HE PROMISED YOU, no matter how bad things seem to be right now. If you persevere in your faith and faith only, not what your eyes see or you heart feels, faith only, then like Joseph, you will have the realization of that dream, you will have what you've been fighting for all this time...

Or you can just accept things as they are, give up, rebel, follow what you feel and stay in that prison for the rest of your life, just wondering what it would have been like if only...

Pretty little liars

I have been in the church for 16 years now and I have learned many things throughout all these years. I've learned to be who I am, to be open about myself before God and before people. But I wasn't always like that...

I remember a time in my life where I knew everything I was supposed to do and I did it so 'perfectly' that no one ever suspected that it was all just pretense. I liked God and I liked the church, especially the Youth Group, but I also liked the friends in my school and the exciting life they seemed to live. And so I did both. I'd faithfully attend church and 'wholeheartedly' participated in all activities there, but whenever I was not in church or among my church friends, I'd behave just like everybody else in the world. 

I knew how to lie and I knew how to pretend...

And that's how I know that many young people who go to church, pray, talk about God and the Bible, who are even taking part in the 21 days of Fasting are actually... lying. Lying to themselves, lying to others and thinking they are also lying to God.

They raise their hands and seek the Holy Spirit and sometimes even cry - just like I did many times - but everything is just pretense. They will talk to the pastor and to God about all sorts of things, except about what truly matters.

They never receive any answers to their prayers, neither do they see any results from their faith because there is something they are hiding, something they don't want anyone to find out. Something they've done or are still doing. They are so concerned about what others might think when they find out the truth that they forget that the Person who should NEVER know about their secret, already does. The One who should never find it out, already HAS.

You pretend because you fear that people will get disappointed at you, you fear you might lose a certain position you hold in the church, you fear embarrassment, you fear rejection...

"But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" Luke 12:5

Do you want to keep pretending? Do you want to pretend that you never read this post or that it has nothing to do with you? Very well, but you know where these lies are leading you...

P.S.:In case you want to do like I did many years ago and vomit what's been chocking you, feel free to use my bucket.