passion

i’ve promised to say something about Perpetua… i enjoyed the book thoroughly. might be too spiritual for some… but what book about martyrdom isn’t uncomfortable for everyone in one way or another? http://www.relevantstore.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=101
I won’t say anything that will ruin the book for you… just in case you decide to pick it up. It’s a story based on the true events of this young woman's life… go ahead… google Perpetua… you’ll see. She was a real person- a real martyr. have you ever truly thought that you might give up your life for something or someone? ever loved someone that you would give your life for?? have you ever risked loving someone or something that much? it’s a huge step… and it can be a hard one to make. i hate when i get “poetic” and “deep” sometimes… oh well. the thing is, Perpetua is a book that’s for the courageous & passionate people alone. this young woman knew that she had no life without Christ. when she met Him and invited Him into her life as Lord, she finally found her life… and she loved living more & more everyday… with Him. it didn’t take her long to realize that she would be forced to give up one of two things: her life or her Lord. which, you must understand, she hated the thought of her life without Christ… to her, there would simply be no life at all without Him. it was easier for her to make the decision of giving up her life than giving up her Lord. that’s how it is when you love something or someone that much… make sense? can i get an amen? she knew long before she was martyred… she had already made her decision, already knew how it would all play out. then she lived her life with no regrets… doing everything in her power to see to it that other people would have this same opportunity as her… the opportunity to truly live and not die.
speaking of passionate people, i hope that i am like my grandfather. i want to be the type of person who my neighbors and friends will talk about 20+ years after i’m gone. no joke, there have been times, when i’ve spent time in the town that my parents are from, that the people in the town have taken the time to tell me stories about this man who they all loved. i feel like i know him because of all of the stories i know about him. i hope that my grandkids would be able to say that about me. i have had wonderful grandparents on both sides that were all amazing people. i wish that i could have known all of them. i know that my grandpa invested time into other people… why else would these people invest time into me to tell me about him? it’s cool to see the “memory light” come on in people’s eyes when they meet me and find out that i’m his granddaughter. i met one of his bestfriends a few years back… my dad introduced me to him. he almost started crying when he shook my hand & told me stories… i feel lucky to have had experiences like that one. lucky for me that i have family members that still live there so that opportunities like highschool graduations have created these meetings and memories for me. one of the town people once told my dad that they thought that he walked like my grandpa… i love the “little” stuff like that. i’ve included a pic of him from WWII. i like this pic a lot. i know him from this pic… what i mean to say is that this is the most familiar pic of him to me… it’s this young face of his that i think of & associate any & all stories. he didn’t know that when someone snapped this shot of him that it would be this smile that his granddaughter would hold on to… he didn’t know he was smiling for me… but he was. man, am i a romantic or what?
anyway, back to passionate people, there’s a lot of us in this generation… we are a generation of mosh pits, tattoos, brandings, extreme athletics, so on & so forth. those are passionate things… some(old farts) might call those things stupid… but they scoff at what they do not understand. am i right? to me, all of those things require a certain degree of endurance, courage, and/or passion… if you’ve never participated in a mosh pit then you probably have no idea what the heck i’m talking about right now. ever been shot by a paintball gun? ever been shot by a real gun? ever been skydiving? ever been bungee jumping? tattooed? branded? moshed? headbanging? cliffhanging? we’re a generation of thrill-seekers & risk-takers… what in the world could be next for us? what are we to do with ourselves now? :)