Ed Christian's World

Life Is like a highway where you make turns and stops along the way to learn about you. What is your vision and how has it changed over the years?

I remember asking Grandfather how I can determine my purpose in life. We all have a purpose, how do I go about finding my purpose?

Grandfather responded by saying: “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

At age 8 that stopped me in my tracks. How does one go about looking at ones heart? It took me a while to realize just what Grandfather was telling me, we all have a path to follow which helps define us as we grow. The choices we make in life follow us throughout our life and as we grow, hopefully we begin to make better choices spiritually as well as physically.

This is where our Faith in God and ourself meet. It is then when we can actually look into our heart and see what that our vision is really God’s plan for us.

Each of us are unique in that God’s plan for each one of us may be different, but as each plan unfolds we begin to see where in the universe we fit in. We find there is a lesson in each and every stumbling block we encounter and how we accept these lessons form our little niche in the puzzle. We also learn that no matter how hard that lesson is, something positive comes out of it. So live your life searching for these lessons, both good and bad. The universe is immense, but there is a place for each and everyone of us. Find where your piece fits!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

What You Are…

Grandfather once told me: Your theology is what you are when the talking stops and the action starts.

We’ve all known people who talk a lot but never follow through and maybe we have been guilty of it ourselves. It’s really nothing but being human, or is it?

Grandfather would say otherwise and he would be very pointed about how he stated it: You are only as good as you follow through with what you promise or more to the point your actions speak louder than your words.

There lies the problem, people seem to separate their everyday life from their spiritual life as if they are two separate lives. In reality they are the same and we are being watched by everyone we cross paths with. Our spiritual life and daily life are one and the same.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in business, a everyday worker, a minister or, like me, just an old retired person the life you live reflects your spiritual values along with your personal values. So face it, you can’t be one person on Sunday and another person the rest of the week. It just doesn’t fly.

We talk about Faith, Hope and Love in respect to God, but then forget these same values extend to everyone in our daily life. Grandfather used to talk a lot about the many faces of God, reminding me daily that all people are created in His image then added a simple message:

God resides in our hearts so remember when you look at yourself in a mirror and then look at everyone you pass, you are looking at the face of God. So live your life accordingly because when people look at you they are seeng God at work. Don’t make Him look bad!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

After writing about Faith several times, many comments have come in asking for a more defined meaning and explanation of what it really is and how do we utilize it.

This could present a problem since I, at first, offered Faith as something individual to all of us. It is this and so much more.

Hebrews 11:1 Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Over the years, I have found, faith to be a personal thing and that almost everyone has their own way of defining and measuring it. To have faith is to defy logic. It takes faith to think positively. It takes faith to believe that there is a loving God who cares deeply about our pain. To believe in life, the universe, or yourself after numerous failures is to have courage. Faith is an act of courage. It is choosing to get up in the morning and face our fears and believe that God will help us. Faith is choosing to believe that even though we may have failed one hundred times before that we can succeed the next time. At the same time I’ve discovered that Faith should also unite us not divide us.

Watching what is happening to our nation and some of our churches, I wonder just where our Faith is taking us. Some churches are teaching the doctrine that their way is the only way and our politicians are doing everything to keep the country divided. Needless to say this is not the message Jesus gave us.

If we follow God’s word, Faith, Hope, Love and Charity should be forefront in our daily life, with love your neighbor and yourself and as I have loved you.

I am going to answer the question as to what Faith really is this way:

Faith is Love, just as God is Love and it is intended to unite us all, regardless of who you are or what you believe!

We, as humans, tend to forget not everyone is the same, believes the same, looks the same or even acts the same.. but be assured each and everyone of us is made in the image of God, by God and He loves us all. Why can’t you?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Heartbeat Of The Miracle…

One morning in early fall Grandfather and I took a walk in the canyon. After a while we sat down on two large rocks to rest. He then reached down and picked up a small rock and handed it to me saying “What do you feel?”

“A rock” I responded,”nothing else.” He then instructed me to put my hand on my neck and asked me if I felt anything else. “My heartbeat” I responded.

He then said “But the rock had no heartbeat.”

“Of course not” I responded.

Here is your lesson for today:

The rock exists as a rock with no heartbeat. It retains is shape, it’s size, it’s consistency with no need of a heartbeat. But you have a heartbeat. Every moment of your existence hangs on a heartbeat. The moment it stops, your existence is over. That’s the difference between a rock and your life. God ordained it! Rocks just exist. But life never just exists. Life must strive to exist, fight to exist. Your heart must keep beating every moment of your life.

Even if you do nothing, your heart beats. Even when you sleep, it keeps beating every moment so that you can remain alive. If you waste your moments on earth, it still beats that you can waste your time. When you sin, when you gossip, when you covet and hate, it still beats while you do so. When you weep, when you give up hope, still it beats so that even in your despair, it still fights for you to live and to be able to cry.

The difference between your existence and that of a rock is your life doesn’t just exist, it strives to exist. Your life is a miracle. Your every moment is a miracle. Your joy is a miracle. Even your tears are a miracle. Your life is a gift from God. Every moment is sustained by Him. Every moment is a miracle.

So one must ask how does one apply this?

You cease taking your life for granted. You stop wasting it, mistreating it, treating it as something less than the miracle it is. You cease to allow your life to be given to sin and what is less than God’s will. You treasure the existence with which you were entrusted. You stop throwing away your moments. You treat your life and time on earth as a treasure. You treat your every moment as if there was heart beating behind it, striving for that moment to exist.

In short …you live a life worthy …of every heartbeat.

Life is a miracle, live it as one and shine your light everywhere you go just to show others the miracle we have been given.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed