It’s a Cover-Up

It’s a Cover-Up

 Elevation Church: It's a Cover-Up

            When we describe the world, Earth is our surrounding body. We are encircled by people, buildings, bodies of water, and space that no one has ever explored. We live a life on a human scale. When I say that, our problems are on a scale that we can relate to. When breaking that down into the view God has, our problems are on a scale of a garden with plants and flowers. When we come across an issue, we identify whether it is large or small and whether we should take flight or fight the problem. In God's view, our problems are comparable to plants that are growing. We can observe the process of a plant growing just as we can observe the process of an argument building up between two people. God created us to tend the Earth and be gardeners; pulling the small, destructive plants up before they can override us and become a larger issue. Why wait for harmful things to grow so big when they can just be conquered while they are small dilemmas. We must communicate and find a solution to small problems before they grow too big. It is as simple as speaking, acknowledging, and solving.

            God acknowledges that the greatest cover-ups are the ones that are planned in advance. God knew that there would be evil in this world and he planned ahead for the benefit of us. His plan was sending Jesus to cover our sins, guilt, and shame because He loves us and forgives us.

            God can only cover what you uncover. You must be able to admit your flaws, wrongdoings, and sins to yourself. Nobody in this world is perfect and we must acknowledge that we should not strive to be perfect because it will only bring upon more ill-reality. You must live a lifestyle uncovered. You must be able to admit your sins to God and be able to confess. You must be able to admit your sins to someone else that you committed a wrongdoing and let those around you love and pray for you.

God:

• Calls you.
• Comes to you.
• Covers you.

  

           We all sin, find ourselves in feelings of guilt and shame, but if we admit our wrongdoings and sins to God and those around us, we will be covered and forgiven.  God calls us to follow His message. He calls us in new directions to learn. He comes to us when we are in trouble. He comes to us to teach us that perfection is not achievable. He covers us when we sin, and when we pray for forgiveness. But, we must understand that like a relationship or marriage, the road travels two-ways and the effort put forth must be equally represented by both parties. Therefore, we must be able to admit to our sins if we expect God to forgive us. We must communicate with our friends on issues-at-hand before they become too destructive. Essentially, we must be open with ourselves, open with God, and open with those around us. We must accept our imperfections. We must not dwell on our mistakes. We must admit to our flaws and pray for direction and learning, so that we can continue to grow and live a life we love with the people we love.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Life is Unpredictable

Life is Unpredictable

            We live our lives every day, not knowing what is going to happen next. We live each second in the moment, riding along the roller-coaster of life as it takes us up and down. To an extent we have control over situations, but essentially, there are too many outside forces that control what happens to us. However, we do have the ability to control how we react to life's curveballs and the attitude that we emit to the world and public eye. 

            Because we do not know what will happen next in our lives, we sometimes get lucky, we sometimes fail, and we sometimes succeed beyond measures. We prepare ourselves for obstacles by practicing and learning. We grow through our failures if we make changes after making poor decisions. We fail to grow if we believe in making the same mistake again or fail to realize something was a poor decision. Growing means that you are experiencing and then learning from those moments.

            We are going to fail. We are going to make poor decisions. We are going to live a life that is not perfect. What we must understand is that God does not need us to be perfect because He knows that nobody is. The more we strive to be perfect, the more we will not be. The more you try to be something you are not, the farther off the path you stray. If we admit to our flaws and accept our imperfections, we are illustrating a sign of maturity. If we can admit that we have failed and acknowledge that we will continue to educate ourselves and devote ourselves to growing, we will grow. If we fail to announce our flaws, then we will stay in a hallucinated, unrealistic world of thinking we are perfect and never changing. 

            Life is full of surprises and full of conflict. We will find ourselves in good situations and we will find ourselves in tough situations. The question that needs to be answered is, 'how can you learn from this and how can you become a better person, while helping those around you become better as well'. The first step in any situation is identifying if it is good or bad. Then, you must take initiative and analyze how the situation happened. Next, you must determine how to make the situation better. Finally, you must be able to tell yourself that the situation happened, and you must continue to live as the person you truly are, but know that changes need to be made to become a better person. We are always coming into new situations, new experiences, and new discoveries...so how can we not learn then? You will always learn if you are living. What separates those that learn more than others is that those who learn experience more, fail more, and live more, and are open to changing who they are for the benefit of not just themselves, but for the people around them. Those who are willing to change for someone are the ones you want to be with because they are illustrating their love and commitment, showing you that they will give up themselves and their lifestyle to meet you halfway.

            Life is unpredictable and we have to respect that. We are on a journey that will have both high and low moments, but we must realize that just because we may be in a low moment does not mean that life is worthless. I say this because a couple hours ago, life could have been at its highest for you, and a couple hours later, it could be at its lowest for you. But, does that low moment take all the good moments away...No, it does not. You cannot let one situation determine the end result for you or the direction in life you take. 

            If you truly want something in life you will not let a situation take that away from you. Life does not end for you when you make a mistake, so why give up on life? God gives you another day. God gives you another chance. God gives you your character and the person you are in strength, so that you can withstand the pain life has, but overcome the obstacles thrown at you if you care enough to do so.

            Nothing in life is what we expect, and life is unpredictable, but you must understand that it is all a test; A test to help you discover what and who you care about, the degree to which you care, and how devoted you are to learning, growing, and sharing the world with those who you care about.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com