good people

My parents always monitored who I was hanging around when I was growing up. They knew what I did not know. The reason you are known by the company you keep is because you generally fall into doing things with the people you hang around that you may not do otherwise. It could be good things that your good friends draw you into, but more often than not, it's the stupid stuff you wouldn't do on your own that friends convince you will be fun. I know I never would have sneaked outside to shoot toys with a BB gun without the encouragement of my friends, but then I never would have taken that sweet ride in the back of a cop car back to my friend's house. So now I get it. Friends can make you do stupid things.

I'll make enough mistakes on my own. I don't need encouragement from anyone else to screw up, and I really don't need to take the blame for someone else's mistakes. If I keep company with other great, Godly people, I will be better for it. I think Jesus modeled this for us. Obviously, He didn't surround Himself with good people to keep Himself from messing up, but He wasn't noted for doing things to benefit Himself anyway. He was always doing things for us and modeling things that we could follow, cause He loves us. That's why He's in my inner circle. Actually, so is Josh. He was one of the ones that encouraged me to go outside with the BB gun. "It'll be okay," he said. Whatever. At least I didn't shoot my eye out.

Do you keep an inner circle? Are you better at picking one than Ulysses S. Grant or perhaps Kwame Kilpatrick?

don't sweat the small stuff...or do

I had a fatal motorcycle ride home on Saturday night. Obviously, it was not I that was killed. How can you tell? You'll have to take my word for it. I was coming home from a UFC watch party, and I was pretty nervous about deer. It was pitch black on the roads, and visibility was very limited. So I was constantly scanning the area in front of me for deer. Meanwhile, a raccoon sneaked (snuck is not a real word, for those that are wondering why I didn't use it) out into the road. I didn't see it, because I was too focused on the possibility of deer. Fortunately, I was able to avoid him with my front tire, keeping his and my blood off of me. He wasn't very smart, though. He doubled back right under my back tire. It caused me to fishtail back and forth a little. I thought I was going to join him, bleeding on the pavement. All this, because I was focused on not hitting a bigger animal.

You can probably tell from reading my blog that I am super spiritual. So of course, I spiritualized my experience. And for those of you that really are super spiritual, you're probably way ahead of me on this, but I'll type it anyway. I was thinking about how I have lived my life the same way. I keep my eyes out for the "big sins." I focus on not doing certain things that would completely derail my life, and take pride in the fact that I haven't done them. Meanwhile, I slowly start fading away in other areas of my life. I might miss spending time with God one day, but I don't mind. It wasn't a big deal. Next day, I might do it again. Next thing you know, I haven't really spent good time with God for a month, maybe more. I didn't do anything else major (pick whatever you find to be a major sin, God hates all sin anyway), but I am a spiritual mess. I've crashed and burned. There were no spiritual deer in the road, either. I just ran over a raccoon that I wasn't even watching for.

Maybe we should start sweating the small stuff. Jesus didn't just die for adultery, murder, child abuse, etc. He also died for our laziness, our moments of disbelief, our selfishness, our occasional curse words, and everything else we think isn't that big of a deal. If He cared enough to die for it, maybe we should care enough to keep our eyes out for it. We should be wary everyday of what is going on in our lives. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." (HCSB) So the renewed mind is the key to being able to discern what's right/wrong while you're keeping watch in your life.