The Right of Passage

In different cultures, the right of passage takes on many forms. (None of this has been researched so do not quote me to friends.) The youth would have to survive in the wilderness alone, kill a buffalo on their own, swim across the ocean, or other life threatening events to prove they were worthy to enter adulthood. In America, we put our youth through college.

So far, college has done nothing for me but stress me out and drive me crazy. I know I'm a smart person, but I don't always learn the way we are required to here. I'm given 100 questions worth of material and somehow I'm supposed to remember the 15 questions worth of material they test me on. How does that prove to anyone that I've learned anything? Maybe if I truly understood the topics I learned about, I could handle 15 questions. But a lot of the information just involves memorizing terminology. There is nothing to understand there. Even if I do understand it, they test on a scenario that I have never seen before. Somehow out of lack of information given to me, I’m supposed to come up with a solution with resources I do not have. Does that sound fair to anyone else? I get that life is full of situations that will not provide me with all the information I need, but at least I will have resources to solve the problem.

I went to a business open house on Monday. A wonderful business (I am hoping to get an internship in and future job) allowed students from different schools to have a tour of their office and introduce them to people in different departments. Everyone there told us that what we learn in school is nothing like real life. That doesn't make me feel like all my/parents' money was wasted or anything. What is college really preparing me for if it has nothing to do with the life I will eventually live?!? Part of me wants to print out my own certificate of graduation with no cost besides paper and ink.

Somehow, my entire future relies on a number and piece of paper that will dictate the job I get. Unfortunately, that number and piece of paper will not reflect anything about me or actually help me in my career. So glad I only have two more years of this. *Rolling my eyes*

Thanks, America for having an outdated schooling system that's expensive and useless for me in my future career. Thanks for trying to force me to learn like everybody else and become another statistic.

For all those suffering through college like I am, hopefully, some day they change this messed up system. Hopefully, our children or future generations will go to college and be prepared for real life. Maybe their piece of paper will mean something.

Back to my Roots

Recently, I had to take a trip back to my roots. I have been raised in a Jesus loving home; and I have been raised on the teachings of the Bible. After my uncle passed away in March, I became very angry with God. I threatened Him that I wouldn’t believe in Him anymore and yelled at Him. How could He take another person I love away from me? Why did my family have to feel so much hurt again?

Last week, I saw the movie “The Shack” with my family. My blog is a small shout out for the movie, but it is mostly about how that movie helped me shape a better image of God. In this world, there are a lot of broken images of who God is. This movie helped me fill in some cracks of my own broken image.

I’ve grown up singing “God is good all the time.” I’ve song “Our God is an awesome God He reigns,” but sometimes it is hard for me to believe that. Why would a God so good allow bad things to happen to good people?

The truth is, I don’t know what “good” is. What I think is “good” are things that benefit me and the people I love. A world that is “good” is all about me, but that’s how a lot of people feel. Sometimes what is “good” for me might be “bad” for someone else. Example: I got the job someone else wanted. Sure, that’s good for me, but it isn’t good for them. Then some people say, “Well maybe there is something better out there for them?” That can be true, but I’m sure it still didn’t feel “good” for them to not get the job they wanted.

God is good. He is love. When we allow God to sit on the judgment throne of what is “good” then life can be good. We can trust that a God that is so good will only do things for our good.

Now don’t get mad at me yet, I know what you may be thinking. If God is so good, why are there rapists and murderers? Why do innocent children die and horrible people live a long life? Why doesn’t God just get rid of all the bad people? These are real questions. They were hard for me to answer before watching The Shack, but now I understand the heart of God better.

Parents out there, if you had to pick one of your children to eternal damnation in hell, which one would you pick? Would you pick the child who never listens to you? The one that doesn’t behave themselves? Would you pick the one who is always getting in trouble?

I would hope you had a difficult time deciding which child you would damn forever. I would hope that you believed that your child was worthy of love and that you would take their place instead. That’s how God feels about the human race. It doesn’t matter your age, gender, color, ethnicity, we are all God’s children. He loves us whether we choose to love Him or not. For the children of His that do bad things, it breaks His heart, but He doesn’t love them any less.

Maybe it is hard for you to believe that God would love wicked horrible people, but that is what perfect love is. It is not based on what we do, but solely on who God is. God is good. We can never fully understand the mystery of His goodness because we are so egocentric. Fortunately, that does not change who He is.

When I began to understand that this life is not all about me, I felt lighter. Yes, of course, I miss my uncle. This life will not be the same without him, but God didn’t take him away despite me.  God has not changed His love for me just because this life is not easy for me. I live with the hope that one day I will fully understand why I went through the things I did and why I am here.

So, if you struggle with the belief of God because you think there are too many bad things in the world, then watch the Shack. The movie may be fiction, but its ideas are beautiful and full of hope.