first blog in half a year!!!
i had a bunch of ideas... just couldn't put them to paper...
one of my favorite songs by as i lay dying is called "confined"
the lyrics that caught my attention were these:
"how quickly i forget...
that this is meaningless.
in a world passing through my fingers...
i still chase the wind."
this year, i decided to drop out of my school's "International Baccalaureate" program... basically, you have to take the hardest classes possible, do a ton of community service, take a bunch of extra, expensive tests, all for some stuff that looks good on your college application... it just felt like too much work and it wasn't worth it... i still have to take the same classes though... anyway...
my decision was reinforced wednesday morning at about 9:50 (late start day). i walk into AP US to find the whole class talking about the district's budget cuts, which plan to take away the whole IB program... its not final yet, so tons of kids are writing letters to the district office and sacramento with reasons, as well as some threats, as to why the IB program should stay... to everyone in the IB program, school is basically life. some of the comments i've heard include:
"im gonna have nothing to put on my application"
"what's the point of trying anymore?"
"all this work for nothing!"
"There goes my ticket to college!!"
in most of my classes, we spent the whole period talking about the future of the program, and our school in general... if you haven't heard of our district's cuts, you can check out the website, but basically:
-no IB
-no more JV sports teams
-no more librarians (everyone liked this one)
-no more library
-no more custodians
-considered cutting all freshman social science classes...
for me, i guess im not as panicked as my fellow classmates, not only because im not in IB any longer, but because God has told us that this life is temporary, and that many things we value are truly meaningless... (this is where they got the song lyrics)
Ecclesiastes 2:11
"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."
in the band's music video of this song, theres a guy drawing something (im not sure what it is) out of chalk... i have plenty of memories of watching my chalk masterpieces disappear on the sidewalk when its raining, and that's what happens to this guy's drawing... the rain came and everything he had done was meaningless... one day, God's gonna test us with something to really see if what we are striving for is really meaningless or if it really has eternal wealth...
for me, knowing that this earth will seem like a blink of an eye in eternity's perspective gives me a different look toward everything we strive for, and everything we strive to be... im not saying that school is meaningless, though i would have to agree with that statement on a few levels, but when school starts competing with God on your priority list, its time to start rethinking things... are we really using our time to honor God or are we just busy chasing the wind?? everything on earth is meaningless compared with an everlasting relationship with Jesus Christ...
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5 comments:
That was great Curtis...It's nice to be reminded that our earthly endeavors are meaningless unless we kingdom build and make something eternal out of them!
wow. That was well worth waiting for half a year! Good job man! Ya, I heard about that budget cut... no jv teams... Oh well, straight to varsity! hahaha
yeahh man, I quit wrestling for the same meaning. When I look back in 20 years I'd rather know that I did teen ministers and did work for the lord than that I was on the wrestling team.
Hey Curtis, it's your cousin Daniel here.
It's awesome to see that your priorities are straight, and that you can see past the illusion of temporary success in school/sports. I just remembered that you had a blog earlier this evening and read through a couple of your posts- great job on them, you have some really insightful things to say. Keep it up.
...same person (daniel)
I just wanted to add this verse, which I remembered right after I posted the last comment.
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ– the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
Philippians 3:7-9
Everything is worthless if you don't have God first.
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