3/26/2020 - Check Engine
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless of course you fail the test?” – 2 Corinthians 13:5
Yes, I am alive. It has been a while. I am so nervous typing this out; I got knots in my stomach. I currently feel like I am about to facetime the girl I like for the first time, again (yikes). This is an incredibly weird time that we are in. We are living in a real-life Black Mirror episode and this one sucks; this will probably be something our kids's kids will learn about in history class…Corona with no lime that took out 2020. All sports have been cancelled, work has been cancelled, and life has been cancelled; the cancel culture canceled the cancel. We are all trapped in our houses for only God knows how long. The crazy part is the fact that 2020 was already an off year before COVID-19 hit us, RIP Kobe. Right now, as I type this these two guys are working out next to the dog park because all the gyms are closed, this is the thing that hurt me the most. However, I have been just watching a lot of Anime (One Punch Man and My Hero Academia) and it is giving me about the same kind of pump. But this is not why I am here.
2019 was a rough year. “But we are 3 months. Almost 4 into 2020. Why are you talking about 2019 now?” Shut your face up this is my blog and I am little late to the party…I am sorry. It has been awhile since I posted last; I wrote half-way a long essay about Kanye, but never finished it. Maybe I will finish that during the quarantine, even though it is kind of outdated but YOLO. I have been doing a lot, a lot of status checking. Constantly trying to figure out where I am and what I need to do.
The last couple years have been rough. It has been rough in the good way and rough in the bad way. God has challenged me and he has taken away things. I have also taken away things and have challenged myself. I have gone against God’s will and I have tested him (if you know if you do this it really does not go well for you – which it did not). Matthew 4 talks about how the Spirit led Jesus into the woods in order to be tested by the devil. I feel like I have been in those woods for a couple years. Jesus did it for 40 days, I did it for close to 730. However, I do think that I have crawled out of the woods, and I am think I am finally in a season of true prosperity and peace.
I am not a big car person, not even close to one but I am going to use two car analogies. Most of us have a car and/or know the basics of a car. The one thing we can all tell and know is check lights and oil changes. Most of us hate these things and if you are like me you tend to just ignore them. This is what I did to myself. I worked myself into the ground. I overloaded my plate; I worked two jobs (stupid hours) while trying to write, podcast, lead Bible Talks, draw, study, and research. I barely had time to rest, and towards the end of it all that is all I was doing. I could not do anything other than sleep or lay there staring at the ceiling. I could not work the energy to do anything. My check engine light came on, but I ignored it. I kept it pushing. This led to some old sin and extreme exhaustion. I did not get anything I wanted done, I took steps backward instead of forward. I was not living, I was just there.
There is a place, that many of us know and some of us call a second home, called AutoZone. The cool thing about AutoZone is when your check engine light comes on, they will tell you the problem and the way to fix it plus the urgency of that fix. They give you a little report. They do all of this FOR THE FREE. All you have to do is go into the store and tell one of the associates that your check engine light is on. They go outside and they plug in this device into the car. There is no reason to ignore it. We all have a spiritual AutoZone (well we should), this is the Bible (most importantly) and your leaders, mentors, and friends.
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
This is why the Bible and fellowship is important. We cannot do this alone. You cannot win a war alone. The Bible is said to be sharper than any double-edge sword and has the accuracy to able to divide soul and spirit, as well joint and marrow. We are going to get a little scientific up in this piece. Marrow is a soft fatty substance in the cavities of bones, in which blood cells are produced (we need bone marrow in order to live, without it it is super difficult to live). The marrow is in the very center of the bone. The joint of the bone is where one bone and another are connected. There are three parts to a bone, on the inside you have the marrow, which is than surrounded by bone cells, which is than by the bone membrane. The membrane is a very hard substance that is called the periosteum. So, the verse depicts that it is precise enough to separate the inside of the bone from the outside of the bone, separating all three parts that are FUSED together.
At our spiritual AutoZone we need also need fellowship, a fellowship that is filled with leaders, mentors, and friends. These are going to be the people to plug the device in our engine. They are going to check in with us and see how we are doing. They are going to be the people that are going to challenge us and help us grow. This illustration is quite literal, when you are sharpening an iron knife you use another piece of iron to do it. The banging and the compaction harden and sharpens the iron. This is what the fellowship is supposed to do to us. They help us, encourage us, challenge us, and sharpen us.
Another light that we hate is the oil service light and getting the oil change. I have personally experienced this. The second car that I ever owned was a used Chevy Equinox, I got it right before the baseball season started. Common sense tells that I should get an oil check and change. Well I forgot to do this. Hey, you live, and you learn. There is a lot that goes into this story, kind of funny one, but too much for this devotional. With not getting the oil change my engine seized, thankfully it only locked and did not blow up. The bad part is that my car warned me, the oil light was on and the fact that my car was not acting right for close to a week. It would stop and it would shake. However, I just ignored it; I just kept pushing. Meineke says the importance of a routine oil and filter changes helps remove particles and sludge and keep engine at peak condition. It also improves gas mileage. If you have poor engine lubrication it can lead to increased fuel consumption. This is why it is important for us to get an oil change, because if it does not get done our engine will explode or lock up on us. We become stagnant. This is not what God wants for us. He wants us to be moving and changing ourselves for the better.
For those who have read a blog post or two of mine before know that there have been a few changes. The logo, name, and website are all different. Yes, yes that is true. These are some of the things that I have been working on and figuring out during the time in the woods.
Logo:
There were a couple different changes that I made to this logo. The obvious change is the center pieces of the logo. I took out the thorned infinity and switched it with a Flying Nimbus. On the new logo I added the name of the blog, as well added a red ring around the world. The “campaign” is still the same and will always be the same with Matthew 28:19 (“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”). The red ring around the earth is the alternate of the thorned infinity sign. Red to me is important color in scriptures with it being the symbol of Jesus’s words, as well as depicting the blood that was shed for our salvation. I went with the ring because a ring is a circle and a circle has no sides and it is infinite. This keeping it simple and getting the point across. The big change being the adding of the Flying Nimbus. The Flying Nimbus is important to me in a numerous of ways. In a lot of my previous drawings and projects I use to always have a Rubik’s Cube with the colors depicting a cross as a kind of an Easter Egg signature, now I signature it with a Flying Nimbus. A Flying Nimbus comes from the anime/manga, Dragonball Z. In Dragonball only the pure of heart, mind and soul can ride it. This is something that one day while watching the anime I heard a voice say, “If you had a Flying Nimbus would you be able to ride it?” Being pure is something that we are called to be (Matthew 5:8, 1 Timothy 4:12, 1 Corinthians 6:18, Psalm 51:10, Colossians 3:5 just to name a few). This is also one of my biggest struggles, having a pure mind and heart. Being able to ride a Flying Nimbus is something I strive to be able to do, something we all should be striving to be able to do. This is also why I went with the name change as well.
Name of Blog:
The next two parts are not as in depth as the logo change. I changed the name of the blog from “The Truth Behind the Word” to “The Flying Truth.” I did this to emphasis the striving towards purity, as well of just keeping it simple. From a business aspect “The Truth Behind the Word” is long, hard to say, and hard to remember; “The Flying Truth” is fun to say, short, and easy to remember. It sort of rolls right off of the tongue. In the end not a lot of people know this, but I want to combine everything I do. I want to combine all my art, writing and leading together. One of my biggest dreams is being able to own my tattoo shop. This will a Christian tattoo shop that will be a safe place for people to come hang and build a culture around Jesus and art. This is where the business side of me is thinking “keep it simple stupid”.
Website:
I switched from Google’s blogger (http://theflyingtruth.blogspot.com/) to now posting on my personal website (https://www.vertedartwork.com/the-flying-truth). This was simply just to make it easier on everyone, keeping everything in the same place. This was so I can promote my artwork with the blog and promote the blog with my artwork. This is just the baby step to combining everything.
2020, even though has been a weird one, I am personally doing great. It has truly been a year of change and growth. The last couple of years I lacked faith in the idea of New Year’s Resolutions and did not believe in the “new year, new me” persona. Going into the year with that perspective is what the devil wants, and he got it from me. I believe this is one of the reasons why I think the last couple of years have sucked so much for me. Just remember that each day is a new battle and another opportunity to change, prosper, and grow; we have to take advantage of that beautiful awesome gift. We have to be willing to fall and fail, but always ready to jump back up. If you told me at any time in the last decade especially during my high school years that I would make it out of the last decade alive, I would not believe you. Believe that change and growth is possible, and it will be. Do not write off or cancel this year just yet; it has only just begun. Even if it’s just a “scratch”, still do not write it off. Learn from it and grow. Remember, history always repeats itself. Check your engine and make sure if you need an oil change to get it done, do not ignore the signs.