I am so tired of dealing with unbelievers... I don't necessarily mean non-Christians. Only people who have allowed the world to tell them that they can't climb that mountain, swim that ocean, make a difference, or whatever it is that that person dreams of doing. The most frustrating to me is the lack of belief in the power of God. I think we as people have learned so much about how God's creation works, that we forget that He put it all together, actually continues to allow it to work as I sit here and type this, and can take it all away in the blink of an eye.

A friend from high school passed away a couple of days ago,one of the greatest men of God I have ever known from the time he was quite young. He just got it. His entire purpose for living was to glorify God and to show others God through the simplest things like his infectious joy. When I found out, the only emotion I really experienced was feeling dumbfounded. Apparently he was lying on the floor praying (as he often did) and just.... died... of natural causes. No one knows what killed him... he just stopped being. Now, I do not pretend to know what happened, but I was snubbed by a family member when I suggested that maybe God just took him, because a "healthy 22 year old doesn't just die!" Well, yes they can. God doesn't need to give you some disease, cancer, or hit you with a car to end your life, and for some reason it made me pity her disbelief in God's power. If you are a Christian, do you NOT believe that God created the world and everything in it, that He sent a great flood that covered the earth, that he took Elijah to heaven in a chariot of fire, that Elisha prayed and the servant's eyes were opened to see the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha, that God sent Jesus via VIRGIN birth (wrap your head around THAT one... REALLY!) There is no reason for the stories of the Bible to be untrue, so why do you have such a hard time believing that they are? And if you truly believe that they happened, how can you not trust that God will take care of your needs now? (I deal with that every day, no judgement here!)

In the same way, but on a different (and slightly less significant) level, I get outraged over people stomping on other's dreams. I am NOT an idealist. I'm not, I know people who are. I don't believe in a basic goodness of man, Utopia, or the idea that we will ever be able to live at peace with each other. I hate to be called one. Maybe I am an idealist, or maybe you have become so cynical that even hope feels like an idealist notion to you. I don't have to be an idealist to believe that God can and does work miracles and that He will do great things in me and in you also.

The movie Finding Neverland sums up my sentiment on crushing dreams so I will end with this and be done with my venting:

Peter Llewelyn Davies: This is absurd. It's just a dog.
J.M. Barrie: Just a dog? *Just*? [to Porthos] Porthos, don't listen! [to Peter] Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's *just* a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just.

Don't mistake cynicism for wisdom, they're not the same thing.

Jen