A Glimpse of Lin

Living in America makes it so easy to get distracted when you set your mind to anything. As a Christian, you're definitely distracted by everything trying to pull you away from God. As a student, social media seems to call your name more than ever. As a husband or wife, worries seem to come into play along with everything trying to come in between you and your spouse. As a driver, everyone seems to text you at the worst time. As an athlete, the mistake that just happened moments earlier keeps playing in your head. You get the point, right? Distractions are alive and well all around us, heck, you might even be reading this as a distraction to whatever it is you were doing. I unfortunately don't have the solution to get rid of certain distractions. I'm currently supposed to be working on a few papers for school but I can't seem to get my rhythm going, but thankfully it's getting there little by little. So I'll keep this blog as one of my shortest yet and let me ...

How can I feel so alone, Being surrounded by all these church folk. They tell me to leave everything in the hands of God, And I’ve tried but I keep getting ran over by my thoughts. It’s not that I feel worthless or that I’m not good enough, It’s not even the fact that life has been rough. But it’s a feeling that I can’t even comprehend, Like an emptiness that doesn’t want to come to an end. No, I’m not in a dark place, I still believe and have my faith, I still pray and read my Bible every day, But something in my life just went away. Is this what it feels like to be depressed? To be surrounded by loved ones yet still have an emptiness? Is this God showing me what those around me feel? If that’s so, I wish it wasn’t real. A common question we ask anybody we see is “how are you doing?” And the easiest answer to give is saying “I’m doing good” But how true is that answer that we give? Or would you rather not say that you’re struggling with a certa...

I've learned this the hard way, one too many times. There are moments where I feel like I need to get so many things done with school, with ministry, with work and not to mention my social life, that I forget to take a step back and breathe. Thankfully, I've never had to deal with a mental breakdown, unlike others who have unfortunately made it to that point. The classic verse that comes to mind is found in Matthew 11:28 (If I may paraphrase) Jesus is speaking and basically invites people who are tired and carry heavy burdens/issues to go to Him so that they may find rest. It's so easy to go on social media and vent your life away to anybody that will listen. You'll post a huge paragraph on Facebook, a meme on Instagram that describes your situation, you'll get on Twitter and post up 10 tweets back to back in order to vent, you'll get on snapchat and tell your whole story, but when do you ever go to God before any of this? I've never been one to post a...

In this society we feel the need to know the answers to everything. You know how as kids we used to ask why? Well, we still do so except we’re not as annoying about it. The most difficult time I’ve had is waiting for God to answer those “why” moments, and He’s answered a few but others I’m still unsure about. One question I tend to ask a lot is why do some people go through depression in their life? What causes them to feel that way? I’ve never been in that situation where I could say I’ve been depressed but I’ve been feeling some sort of way recently that is a bit scary. I don’t know how many people will actually read this or who’s actually been in a place of depression, but recently I’ve been praying more to God and I’ve felt tremendous joy, but then suddenly I start crying out of nowhere, and it’s not tears of joy. I begin to feel pain in my spirit, and I don’t understand why that is. All I can do now is continue to pray, even through those moments of pain. I don’t know why God is ...

It's easy to say you're a Christian, and it's also easy to get caught up in going through the motions. I'm talking to those who actively serve in ministry, to the volunteers and to the leaders. Are you distracted in serving? I had to ask myself this same question after service on Sunday. Ministry is a blessing but at the very same time it can truly mess us up. I'm not saying to give up on ministry and drop it, but more so to check your heart right now. Are you putting so much time in serving your church that you're leaving God behind? Are you active in church but not active in studying the Bible? I gotta be honest and say that I've slacked off in my studies but God always has His way of grabbing my attention to get back on track. This might be it for you, this might be the Holy Spirit trying to shake you up and remind you that it's not about serving in ministry at church, it's not about being super active with people at church, but it's about you...

It’s so easy for us to get sidetracked with everything in life. We begin to worry about providing for our families, we worry if we forgot to do something at work or at school, we worry if we have enough time to finish all our errands, we simply begin to worry. I used to worry about a lot in life, but it wasn’t until God shook my life that I was able to understand what it meant to leave it to God. Leaving things to God doesn’t mean you drop everything and do absolutely nothing in life, leaving things to God means that everything that is out of your control is given to God. Keep working hard at what you do, always put your best effort, but the worries in life leave to God. Seek Him, of course, let Him lead you in life, and you’ll see that everything will begin to make sense because of your obedience.  We will never know the answers to everything in life, but God is so mighty and powerful that we need not to worry about some of those questions in life. Have faith in God, live...

Everything should still run smoothly. I am not an expert when it comes to ministry but I can simply share what I’ve learned in the past 8 years of being a leader in different aspects of ministry, which I hope can be helpful to you both in ministry and outside of ministry. Some people will say that a good leader is someone who is respected by others and leads by example. While that is true, what can ultimately determine if a person is considered a good leader is in the time of their absence. I’ll keep this short with an example: let’s say that you are leading a team and you feel you’ve done a great job but one day you have to step out of that leadership position for whatever reason to take some time off and have to leave your team in charge of getting things done, what is going to determine if you’ve been a good leader is if your team is successful at running things as if you were never gone. In ministry, we focus so much on getting things done for God that we forget to put our f...

“Leaders are responsible for the agency, but leaders are not responsible for a person. I gave him a gun, I gave him a badge, I gave him the training but if he didn’t have the heart to go in, that’s not my responsibility.” Sheriff Scott Israel I have held my tongue on speaking on anything with regards to the Parkland, Florida shooting. I didn’t want to waste my breath or get people angry and start up an unnecessary debate, but more news has arised in the past couple weeks that got me really frustrated. Now, I am not a military member nor am I a law enforcement officer (although I’ve always wanted to seek this type of career at one point), therefore I can only base this on opinion and what I’ve spoken with friends who have taken on that type of career. It came to my attention by different media outlets that there was at least ONE to FOUR officers who were at the high school while the shooting was taking place yet none of them entered the building immediately. I don’t want to spend so...

Is a term too many of us have labeled ourselves at one point or another. The reasons behind why we feel that way are too many to list out, but somehow we fall back to think that we are worthless. It’s this “ugh” feeling in the pit of our stomach and as much as we try to get rid of it or ignore it, it seems to keep coming back. I was all too familiar with this feeling as a teenager, key word, WAS . I was able to move past this feeling, move past this moment of “worthlessness.” It wasn’t from one day to another, rather it was a process that hurt but I found healing. No, it wasn’t medication, it wasn’t witchcraft, it wasn’t weed, it wasn’t alcohol or any other drug that did the trick, it was the love of God. To those who believe and follow God will understand what I mean, but to those who see God as simply a supreme being or higher power are probably skeptical as to how this “love of God” can take away feeling worthless. There’s a book in the Bible called Hosea that you should check ou...