Strangers: You Never Know

Wow. This is a truly amazing video! It really gets you thinking on how much impact for good you have. Yes, you! I hope and pray that you, too will have a Christian influence on the people around you.

~Photobug

"Godspeed, John Glenn!"

So I don't have a lot of time this morning to write a big long article on one of my favorite astronauts...but I would like to point out that fifty years ago today, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth! I think that's really cool. About a year ago I read his autobiography--I highly recommend it! I really admire him for the good choices that he made, choices that not everyone else made. Read my review of his autobiography here. And here is a really cool interactive feature on this anniversary of the historic flight.

So anyway. Don't have much time to write this morning, but I thought you'd enjoy knowing that today is the fiftieth anniversary of John Glenn becoming the first American to orbit the earth!

~Photobug

Better Than Google

The other day I Googled myself.

You know what I'm talking about, don't you? I'm fairly Internet-savvy, and put out quite a bit of content. I got to thinking, Really, how much is out there? What is out there? 

So I Googled first my real name, and then the fake name that I use just about anywhere else on the Web. Was I ever surprised! YouTube, Geocaching.com, Picasa, the list was endless. Honestly, I had no clue how much of my personal information was "out there"!

That got me to thinking. What could a crook do with all that personal info? OK, so I really didn't need to go down that train of thought, but still, I needed to think about what I was putting "out there". For example, I had pictures on Picasa (which I had taken four years ago!) public so everyone could see them. I hadn't known that! Quickly I changed the settings from "public" to "only me". Ditto on several other websites, and in the process I convinced myself (again!) why I shouldn't give away too much personal information!

One of the things that I had been most amazed at was how everything--everything--that I had put "out there" was recorded when it had happened, even down to the tiniest little second! Whew! Boy, was Google sure accurate at remembering everything! Then that got me thinking...God has an even better memory than Google! God doesn't just remember what we did when we did, He knows the motive behind every act and all the background, too. He knows everything.

Now that's a scary thought!!

I don't know if I want God to know everything I've done! I mean, I like to think of myself as a pretty good person, but to be honest, well, um, let's just say that there's some areas which could use improvement! I don't know if I really deserve to be called "Christian"! And sadly, there's no option to switch my personal info from "public" to "only me".

This idea certainly could be a scary thought--if God does know everything we have done, and nothing is hid from Him, will we get to Heaven?

Quick answer: no, not by ourselves at least. We have no claim to fame, no righteousness in and of ourselves to merit an entrance into Heaven. God has seen everything, including our (many) sins. According to His law, no sinners are allowed into Heaven.

"For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23)

Death is our fair punishment, since we have trespassed His law. But glory to God, that's not where the story stops! He couldn't bear to let us die and not come to Heaven to live with Him. Thus, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to step into our shoes and bear our punishment, while we stepped into Jesus' shoes and got what He deserved.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

And so, Romans 6:23 doesn't stop with the quotation above! The verse continues:

"...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Gift! Eternal Life! God has miraculously, wonderfully provided a way through which we can again have a chance to live forever with Him. All we have to do is accept this totally free, no-strings-attached gift! And when we do accept this gift, God will cleanse us from all unrighteousness and sin:

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Isn't that just wonderful?? And I promise you, there are absolutely no nag screens or catches involved! When we ask Him, God will "forgive and forget" all our sins:

"You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)

When we ask Him, God truly will "delete" all that personal information about our sins. If we ever "searched" God's "database", we could spend as long as we wanted but never find even the slightest record of our sins. That's better than Google! How about you give God a chance today?

Tag! You're It!

A couple weeks ago I had the coolest experience. I was "tagged"! Okay, okay, let me explain...

I'm edging ever nearer to college, so naturally lately much of my time has been given up to thinking about what I want to do with my life. It's really a deep subject! So many possibilities, too. Biology, history, library science? There seems to be no end.

Well anyway, a couple weeks ago I had scheduled a late morning interview with the head librarian of the university at which my dad works. My appointment was at 10:30, and I was already going in to work at the  university cafeteria (I've told you about that before) at noon. So, my mom and I decided that I would just take a sack lunch and eat between the time when my interview ended and my work began. Fine.

After talking it over with my parents, I decided on a particular spot in which to execute my mid-day food consumption process (otherwise known in layman's terms as "lunch" ;D). I didn't realize until I arrived at this pre-selected location that it was located at the end of a busy hallway, in which students almost always came and went.

So with great interest I began eating, thoroughly enjoying my opportunity to observe a multitude of college students. Suddenly, a girl came up to me.

"Hi, my name is Angela*," she excitedly introduced herself. "May I pray with you?"

"Sure," I replied, knowing that I can never have too much prayer! I told her my name, and then,

"What can I pray for?" Angela inquired.

"That my work will go well." I briefly told her about my work at the cafe, and while the people that I work with are always super nice the shift can get long at times.

"Dear God," she prayed as we both bowed our heads, "thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to meet Photobug. Thank you for giving him a job at the cafe so he can earn money for college. Thank you for the wonderful people that he gets to work with. You know, Father, how long the shifts can get sometimes. Please give him the stamina and strength to do his job well, and help him be a blessing to others today."

"Amen!" we both concluded at the same time. As she left, Angela left me with a little card. What did it say, and what was it with this card that had prompted Angela, a complete stranger (albeit nice college student) to come up and pray with me? This was definitely worth checking out.

The card was about the size of a 4x6 photo, and had a drawing of some hands folded in prayer. The card said something about how we should never cease praying (a reference to 1 Thessalonians 5) and three easy steps written in the middle. The steps, to my recollection, went something like this:

1. Tag someone with this card

2. Pray with them

3. Give them this card, and have them repeat these steps

"Keep this card moving!" stared out at me, the words eating away at my courage. Sure, I'm a Christian and am all for praying with people, especially college students on a Christian campus. But God, I complained, I can't do this! You know what time it is (it was at least 11:20am or later), God! I gotta eat and bolt outta here, so I can be to work on time(which would be about 11:45am)! God, you want me to be to work on time, don't you?

(I should insert here that I was eating just a stone's throw away from the elevator, which would take me to the cafe.)

I looked at the card again. No contact info whatsoever. I knew that I couldn't do it, I mean, how funny would it look for me to be praying with one of my co-workers at the cafe?

And God, I continued, besides looking hideously funny, everyone there at the cafe is doing a job! They're on the time clock, not to mention me! We can't just stop like that for a moment of prayer! We have work to do! 


Besides, I'm not gonna meet hardly anyone between here and the elevator to the cafe!


If my memory serves me right, I think I threw in a promise to God that went something like this:

God, if you really want me to pass this card along and pray with somebody, you'll have to bring them to me. And give me the courage to do it. Amen.


I felt pretty smug with that. Who would come up and talk with me? After all, I'm just another not-even-yet college student. Two people had already come up and talked with me; what were the chances of there being more?

Several minutes elapsed, as I eagerly crunched and chewed my sandwich and thought about that prayer encounter.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Byon! What's your name?" A friendly-looking professor sat down to eat his lunch a few feet away from me.

"Hi, I'm Photobug!" Our talk ran quickly, as we introduced ourselves and I explained my almost-a-college student status. Since I was already wearing my bright green cafe uniform, our discussion shifted to me working at the cafe, and all the wonderful people that I have met there. But I could feel God prodding me.

Photobug, pray with him. If you don't, you'll just take that card home, and it'll haunt you every single time you see it.

I hesitated. Really? Pray with a religion professor?

You've got to be kidding, God.

But just at that moment, I saw an escape. One of Dr. Byon's students came up to him, and asked him a question about his class.

Wonderful, I thought. God, I can't interrupt this guy to pray with him! He's answering an important question that one of his students has!


They continued talking for quite a long time, as I continued eating the Chex Mix that my mother had given me. I changed my attitude slightly. God, I tried! I argued without much belief in my words. I really was about to pray with him, but now I can't. Oh well God, I tried! Smugly I tried to think that I had really tried, although I knew that I hadn't. However, the good side of my brain won and I decided that if anyone else happened to engage me in conversation (like that was really going to happen), I would be more courageous and really pray with them.

The seconds on my watch continued to race faster than ever. It was almost time for me to go to work, and I hadn't prayed with anyone. Oh well, God, I started to say...

But then--

"Photobug!"

A college student excitedly came at me.

"How are ya, Photobug?"

"Bob?" I questioned, hesitant to think that it might be my former co-worker from the cafe.

"Yep, that's me!"

We chatted for a few minutes, and then I knew that it was now or never. God was giving me way too much evidence to ignore!

"So Bob! You having a good day?"

I wanted to test the waters, per se, to see how Bob was doing. Then I could know what to pray for.

"Hey Bob! Can I pray with you?

"You sure can," he replied in the affirmative.

"Dear God," I prayer, both of our heads bowed, "Thank you so much for letting me run into Bob today. Thank you so much that he is having a good day today. Please bless him in all that he does today, and help Your light to shine through him. Amen."

Before we happily parted ways, I gave him that card. "And Bob, I thought you might like to have this card..." I smiled. Who knew how many people could be blessed that day, or how many prayers said, and started by just that one card?

I'm sure you see the point of this story by now. Pray to God for courage, and go out and do something bold for Him today!

*: Names have been changed