Loving God

Today as I was coming home from Dallas, thinking and preparing myself for camp next week, I was reading in my bible when a verse caught my eye. "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your mind.'-Matt. 22:37
As I was reading this, thoughts ran through my mind and I'm going to share a few of them with you. And if you're going to be out at camp this week or next you might hear them again. So this blog is going to be more spiritual and less philosophical than my usual blogs.
Matt. 22:34 is a familiar passage to many of us, but I think very few of us fully understand what it really means and can carry this verse out. Christ said in the verse that we not only have to love him, but also love him with everything we are. We have to focus our minds on God, since it is now your nature, because we are called to love him with our
minds .
I know that a lot of times thoughts cloud my mind that shouldn't and reflect on impure thoughts or ideas. But by doing that are we really loving God? No, God deserves our love and so we should concentrate on him. We have to let the words we say, the thoughts we think, and the feelings in our hearts glorify God to the best of our abilities. David addresses this subject in Psalms 19;14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." David was a man after God's own heart and I think his verse shows us one example of why. Even though he didn't always do the right thing, David had the desire to glorify God. I think that we should allow this Psalm to be our prayer and philosophy this week, and the rest of our lives. Pray that the Holy Spirit will turn your thoughts toward God and that God will give you a love beyond human comprehension. And if you are like me sometimes you are discouraged because you don't know exactly what to pray or say to God in certain situations in our lives. One verse I have found that directly addresses this problem is Romans 8:26-27, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words can not express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance to God's will." So even though at times and situations in our lives when we don't know what to pray the Holy Spirit is able to translate our prayers to God so that he is able to see what in our hearts we are praying for.
But like I said just a few thoughts I was thinking about. I'm planning on doing a blog in the near future about heros in our lives and what makes someone a hero in our lives. I plan to write and post that one in about 2 weeks when I get home from camp.

June 11th

June 11, 2005: I was in Monte Vista, CO. I was on a youth group mission trip with my church and we had done this for several years. As everyone showed up to the church early in the morning we were informed to meet in the auditorium, not aware for what was about to hit us. Once everyone was there my dad, who was a sponsor on the trip, told us about the death of Jacob. It seemed like hours that we all just sat there crying, holding each other, and praying. It was one of the hardest days of my life, knowing that the person who truly taught me how to live life not matter what happens had taught me how to leave this world living life to the fullest. That was the first of only a few nights that I have actually cried myself to sleep.

I didn't know Jacob that well when he first got here but quickly heard stories and witnessed his amazing attitude quickly. One time he kept giving one of the teachers the wrong phone number so that she couldn't call his parents to tell them about him acting up in class. He was always making people laugh and even in the darkest times he was making everyone around him smile. The love that everyone in Anton had for him is unlike anything I have ever seen. When he was at school in a wheelchair I saw some of his friends pushing him around and making sure that he was as comfortable as possible. Jacob never was serious when you asked him questions and I only saw him serious and look scared once when I was sitting with my sister at a basketball and he was telling me about a trip to Houston. But after being diagnosed with cancer he still had the amazing joking attitude and maybe even had a more positive look on life. There are to many stories to tell about Jacob but one story that makes me smile was about one time when he was in the hospital. There was a nurse trying to put his IV in his arm and kept missing, instead of getting mad or something he simply asked the nurse if she should be doing this and that maybe she needed to be flipping burgers.

Jacob was an inspiration to everyone he encounter and changed every ones lives. He is the reason that I try to enjoy every moment of everyday and try to live life to the fullest. He overcame odds and did his best to prove all the doctors wrong. When the doctors told him he would never walk he told them he would walk the stage at graduation and he worked for that goal. Not only did Jacob walk the stage he walked down the rows of seat, up the stairs to the stage, across the stage, down the stairs and back out the door all on his own power. He not only met his goal but he proved the doctors wrong and proved that with God all things are possible. He knew that he could either hate life and be upset about what was going on in his life or he could do what he did and live life to the fullest and make sure that he takes advantage of everyday!

Even people who didn't know Jacob personally were touched by him. I remember our church giving him a "prayer pager" so that every time someone prayed for him they could leave their number and Jacob could know that people cared and were praying for him. It started as just the people locally praying for him and as his story spread there were people all over the nation praying for him. He and his family would even look up all the different area codes in amazement of what God can do and the good in people spread.

Jacob Williams is my hero and inspiration in life. He not only taught me how to live life to the fullest but to die with no regrets. I know that he is looking down on every single person that he influenced and seeing the impact that he had on my life and everyone elses. Everyone that knew him was lucky to have known him and I know that he has had the biggest impact on me that anyone ever has and has taught me a lesson on how to live life.

A few years ago i wrote a song about Jacob titled "Never Goodbye" it can be found on my Myspace page at www.myspace.com/calebloskas . There are two songs on there a funny one title the Oreo Song and then the song about Jacob titled Never Goodbye. The quality sucks on the song and my singing is horrible since I recorded this 2 years ago. So don't listen to the singing to closely. I know that my prayers are going out to the Williams family and everyone who was touched by his life as we remember and celebrate his life 5 years later. We love and miss you Jacob and out lives will never be the same!

Living Life To The Fullest

"It is crazy how certain little things can make you think about life. Make you realize that you might not be living your life to the fullest. And make you realize that you just need to live life because you never know when you won't be able to. Just look for the positive things in life and don't worry about the negative. Learn from mistakes, but never regret."-Cale Bloskas

I have posted this as my status on Facebook a few times in the last few months as different things in my life have reminded me of this. It might have been someone that i knew that died or maybe just thinking about how thankful I am that someone is in my life. I'm reminded every single day and sometimes several times in one day about just how short life is and how we never know how much time we have on this earth. Everyday I have a bracelet on that reads "Alex Marie Brown †12-29-91/11-10-09†". I'm constantly asked what my bracelet says and who Alex was and I am reminded and have the chance to tell them who she was. This just reminds me what I have to live life to the fullest and not take advantage of any opportunity. There has been a few people in my life that have made a huge impact in my life and died at an early age. This has left me to wonder if it really is true that the good really do die young...
I have always wanted more than anything to make an impact in peoples lives and when I'm gone to be remembered as a great person. I have always tried to never regret anything I have done because i honestly don't think I would be the person I am today if i would have not made the choices I have made. I have realized that everyone who is in my life is in it for a reason and the people that are not in my life are not meant to be there. I know of several people who have made a huge impact in my life and I know if they weren't in my life I would not be where I am today. I have a lot of interesting and crazy things happen to me and it seems like every week I have a new story of something that has happened to me that has inspired or humored me in someway. I will tell you about something that happened to me this past week at Op Camp.
As you might remember there is a kid that I talked about in an earlier blog about him being abused at home and how he told me about it last year at Op Camp. Well, this year I tried to make sure I was his counselor because I felt that I had a connection with him and thought I could make an impact in his life. It turns out that I spent a lot of one on one time with this kid over the week because of several experiences and ended up growing very close to him. This kid respected me and wanted to hang out with me as much as possible. For example, one morning I was putting up the flag as all the kids went into to eat and it took longer than it should have because I had a few difficulties. To my surprise when i came into the dining hall there was the kid I was talking about sitting on a bench waiting for me because he didn't want to eat or get in line without me. This inspired me and made me realize that I had in fact made an impact in a young kids life that is not as blessed as I am.
I was sent to this camp to make a difference in these kids life, but could it be that these kids were sent to the camp to also make an impact in my life? I honestly believe that everything happens for a reason and every person is in my life for a reason. People spend so much time worrying about little things in their life that we don't realize all the good we have in our lives. I think that if we focused on the good in life and the good in people in our lives we would live a much happier and fuller life!!! If everyone was not selfish, and actually thought about each other we could have a difference in the world. We live in a cutthroat world where you are suppose to do anything to be the best and look out for yourself. But i think that it should be the opposite and we should try to impact other peoples lives because we are in there life for a reason and they could end up having a bigger impact in our lives than we could ever expect. I have always believed that if i was faced with the chance to jump in front of a bullet for someone I would. Because not only would there be a better chance in both of us living because the chances of me only being injured would be greater but also, if I was to die i would be dying in the way that I would want to do it and be making a difference in several peoples lives and would die a hero.
I have been blessed with several people in my life that I have tried to be the best friend i could be. I have a friend who is abused that knows i will come pick them up anytime and have done it before. I have a friend who is slowly dying of a rare illness and I'm enjoying everyday as a gift that they are still in my life. And I have several friends who have been there when i needed them most and I have also been there for them. I would not change any of these people in my life for anything because of what I have been through because of them has taught me more than I would have ever learned on my own. I try to be the best person I can and be the best friend I can to the people in my life and I think that if the world had this mindset it would be a better world.
But some of the greatest leaders and thinkers that have walked the earth have thought this exact thing and it has not changed the world. But i believe that the world does not have to do this for me to have a better life. I think that if i try my best to do this I can make a difference not just in my life but in the lives of the people around me. I'm sorry if some of this blog jumps around i honestly just type what pops in the head as my hand hits the keys. Trust me this made a lot more sense in my head and sounded better. But that's okay maybe someone will benefit from this, please tell me any comments you have and God Bless!!!!