Another 101 Things I Have Come To Understand
204 It is alarming the way time passes.
205 Humility teaches the teachable. Reality teaches everybody.
206 If you are not challenged, you will die.
207 If you find a way to get in touch with someone you haven’t seen in a while, take it.
208 Vlasic pickles are way better than Best-Maid.
209 Tattoos are regrets that you don’t regret yet.
210 God doesn’t save you because you are bad and He certainly doesn’t save you because you are good. He saves you because He is good.
211 MREs are quite delicious if you don’t hold your expectations too high.
212 The Christian does not have to wear medals and carry a rifle, but he must wear joy and carry a cross.
213 Sometimes the things you want most just don’t work out. They may have been good things, even godly things, but failure doesn’t mean your life is over. It just proves that you are living in the same fallen world as the rest of us.
214 Don’t ever be afraid to start over, even if you already have a hundred times already.
215 Look, if we were supposed to be living in the future, we’d be there by now.
216 You really will find what you seek.
217 Ice cream is delicious and people who don’t like it make no sense to me at all.
218 Bad things can happen to people who mean well, and all kinds of good things can happen to people who are terribly wicked, but the Judge of all the earth will do right.
219 You need Christ every hour. Every single hour. Go one moment without Him, and you’ll find yourself weighed down in countless troubles and sorrows that you have brought upon yourself.
220 Compromise is an easy place to go if you never had ground on which to stand.
221 You can either be a thermometer or a thermostat. You don’t have to be shaped by your environment, but you can change the environment around you.
222 When you’re building something for the Lord, you are at times going to have to fight for it.
223 It’s staggering to look back and find out how many times I have been wrong. I’m grateful the Lord has now granted me grace enough to admit when I am.
224 Feeling follows action. Action follows belief.
225 God is a gentleman and will not save anyone against their will. You have to let yourself be saved if you are going to be saved.
226 Fading out to someone being read their Miranda rights is probably the number one worst way to end an episode of a crime show. Seriously, was there no other option?
227 The whole world is not going to fall down around you because you went to Freebirds instead of Chipotle. Exceptions exist if Whataburger is involved.
228 Do not get so caught up in living life that you forget the living Christ!
229 Writing a screenplay is really hard. Producing it is a billion times harder.
230 Faith is based on real knowledge of a person’s character, not simple blind trust. This makes faith logical and real, not merely emotional, and most definitely not blind.
231 Having a pet spider is insanity! That’s like having a pet demon! What are you idiots thinking?!
232 If you cannot keep your mind out of bad places, consider your input. What you put in will not only find a way out, but, good or bad, also has a way of lingering.
233 Not wanting to believe that Hell exists is understandable, but not believing that Hell exists is unacceptable.
234 A couch is at its best in leather.
235 Don’t make important decisions when you’re tired.
236 Nothing will sting more than when a person says to you, “I didn’t know you were a Christian.”
237 A walk with God takes sacrifice.
238 Stewardship of the planet is important (in fact, it was the first responsibility God ever gave man) but people are prior to nature.
239 Frappuccinos have got to be one of the top reasons why America is becoming obese and diabetes-ridden. I don’t know how you can drink one of those and not get the shakes.
240 Unnecessary acronyms are just that: unnecessary. Why does the average person need to say ASAP in a non-emergency? Are you on a wartime walkie-talkie? Did I hear a niner in there?
241 Don’t seek comfort if you want peace. Comfort is merely the absence of any given conflict. As the Prince of Peace, Christ is the only source of true and real peace in the universe.
242 A lifestyle that revolves around sin will result in destruction and tears. You can’t go against the way the universe is supposed to work and expect to make it through unharmed.
243 It is one of the greatest pleasures to see those you love begin to earnestly seek God.
244 Better to live on your knees before God than to die on your feet in pride and wake in Hell.
245 We all long for not longer life, but better life, abundant life.
246 Obedience is more important than victory.
247 I don’t know what I would do without sideburns. I don’t know how I made it all many years without them.
248 There is such a thing as having too many vitamins. It is remarkably easy to overdose on the fat-soluble ones. Remarkably easy.
249 You are not going to enjoy pain at the moment it takes place, and you shouldn’t pretend that you do. You should, however, be grateful for the fruit that comes of it in the same way that you enjoy a delicious piece of fruit or a hearty vegetable. Just because it is nutritious and great-tasting does not mean you have to enjoy eating the fertilizer that allowed it to become the very things you like.
250 Others’ walks with God will never make up for your lack.
251 Apple’s decision to include a microphone and control buttons on their headphones - low quality as the sound may be - was an excellent one. It made a huge difference in my routine exercise.
252 Take care not to confuse who you are with what you do. What you do is a product of what and who you are, not the other way around.
253 If you don’t know someone, you cannot speak for them.
254 Formal performances have their place, but music is most fulfilling when it serves a function.
255 You must understand the permanence of your decisions. You must. I don’t know that any of us truly comprehend the far-reaching implications of the choices that we make.
256 The real tragedy of legalism is that it does not produce holiness, but instead robs you of it.
257 As fantastic as inner city living is, you do start to miss the country.
258 “It’s not about me!” sounds nice, but it’s not entirely correct. The gospel is not about man, but it is for man, so a gospel that does not acknowledge man in the context of what Christ has done for us is no gospel at all. Making man the center is dangerous and heretical, but restoration of man to his right place - in fellowship with the Father - is the whole point.
259 The Lord’s action in our lives is limited by our willingness to receive.
260 Most of us are too young to be nostalgic.
261 It is more important to be concerned with a person’s future than with their feelings.
262 Solitude devoid of God’s presence will poison your mind.
263 I’m finding that cash registers aren’t my archenemy.
264 Almost all vanilla flavored protein powders are the worst flavored protein powders in existence. I don’t care who makes it. I have tried a decent number of them and by themselves they are all severely gag-worthy.
265 A worldview is like a lens for a camera. The camera can only go as far as the quality of the lens put upon it. It doesn’t matter how good of a camera you get, if you put a cheap - and thus insufficient - lens on it, you’re going to get bad images.
266 Telling people to just believe in themselves is at best a ridiculous thing to say, and at worst is a dangerous encouragement of the self-will.
267 Bidding farewell to someone you have loved but has drifted from reality is hard, but it may be the one last chance at rescuing them. If they remain satisfied with a goodbye, then you had already lost them.
268 You have got to learn to defend God’s rights and forget your own.
269 White shirts have taught me to fear colorful foods.
270 There really is something deeply wonderful about flowers, but what it is I can’t exactly say. All I know is that they somehow lift your spirits.
271 You do start to appreciate the quiet with every passing year.
272 I am absolutely the worst person to have around when you are attempting to study or research. Something about my presence prevents anything academic from getting done.
273 Houston gets a lot of grief for its climate, especially in the cooler months, but at least my car always starts in winter.
274 The Helvetica R is all that the letter R could ever hope to be. But then Helvetica truly is a glorious typeface. Unfortunately, many of you probably aren’t seeing this in Helvetica.
275 Love and laughter plow hard hearts.
276 “Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!” yelled frantically is hilarious by itself, but the more moving parts there are, the funnier it gets.
277 There’s room enough at the foot of the cross for everyone, so there’s no excuse to not show up.
278 Cooler weather makes for significantly better running.
279 Beware heartless theology and headless religion. Christ is Lord over both the head and the heart.
280 Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will rip your heart out.
281 You write what you know.
282 Having successful and generous alumni makes for a noticeable difference on a university campus.
283 Loneliness is powerful. God uses it as a lighthouse, Satan uses it as a snare, but in the end you are the only one who will be moved.
284 If Kevin Sykes announces that he’s going to bed, he’s probably not.
285 A banana isn’t ready until it’s ready. Green really does mean stop.
286 How great is my need of Christ! In examination of my life to this point, I see in every moment how I have benefitted in His presence and like Peter in the waves, fallen without Him.
287 Shock value is dead. It is essentially impossible to shock a people who have seen practically everything.
288 If your hope does not last, then your hope was not in something lasting.
289 Space travel is and will always be exciting.
290 In a city that gets the kind of rain Houston does, you’d think that the drivers would somehow be used to it.
291 God allows so much hurt and suffering to enter His heart because a real relationship allows for the risk of getting hurt. Getting to have you in His life is worth it to Him.
292 It’s a sad to see wondrous things meant for the Lord’s glory used for passing pleasures.
293 Sports enthusiasts are nerds. They eat junk food in front of the television, obsess over fantasy games on the internet, and can easily recall obscure trivia and statistics from memory. If that’s not a significant sign of total geekery, I don’t know what is.
294 It’s okay to be from Texas.
295 If you’re not praying, you’re not getting to know God and you’re not letting Him have you wholly. It would be spectacular if I could learn that once and for all.
296 Both cold temperatures and rain have a directly proportional relationship to how creative I am. Of course, they also seem to share a similar correlation with how lifeless and sad I feel.
297 Don’t fight with people, fight for people.
298 Sometimes I wish I were noticeably clever and had a sharp wit, but I know for a fact it would get me in so much trouble.
299 Living in southeast Texas turns you into a cold-fearing pansy.
300 God deserves our attention.
301 Three in the morning is a terrible time to think anything over. Wait for the daylight.
302 You can’t rightly judge a worldview by its abuses; you have to look at the life of the founder.
303 Some people like bags of potato chips. Others enjoy boxes of cookies. I prefer packages of saltines. Don’t judge me.
304 The Lord never promised more tomorrows. If you don’t live to see the end, you’re going to die someday. Make today count for Him.
305 I do what I can.
