No, my strength comes from God... whether or not I choose to recognize it.

At the end of the day, where do you turn?
As the rise of the sun, where do you look?
When the world falls around you, what holds you up?
When there seems to be no hope, what gives you peace?

Psalm 121 (The Message)

A Pilgrim Song

1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

3-4 He won't let you stumble,
your Guardian God won't fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel's
Guardian will never doze or sleep.

5-6 God's your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.

7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.


This for me is more of a confession than anything. How often do I look to my friends, or my guitar, or my computer, or the internet, or anything else before turning to God? God should be the first thing that I turn to, not my last resort. I need Him more than I need anything else, and yet I turn to everything else before I turn to Him.

God, the all powerful, the almighty, the creator of the universe, my last resort.

Help me to be like you, Jesus. Help me to turn to the Father for all aspects of my life. Help me to come to Christ with the good things and the bad. Help me lean fully on You.

My Story

I'm working on filling out an application and it asked me a simple question:

Describe your faith journey. Who or what has influenced and inspired your faith?

It took me quite a while to think and write down what I thought was important, so I figured I'd post it here as well.

I was baptized and raised in the Lutheran church, but for most youth, that doesn’t mean much. It wasn’t until seventh grade that I actually began to witness the works of the Lord. We were on a weeklong missions survey in downtown Seattle, where we did different service projects throughout Seattle. The last night of this trip, we invited a bunch of people from the community to a worship service at the church we were staying at. That night, something about the message and seeing people from so many different walks of life worshipping together made me realize that God accepts us as we are, where we are, and that he loves us regardless of what we’ve done. This is when I gave my heart to Christ. I still wasn’t fully sold out to God though. I refused to recognize that God is in charge of my life, and that he is sovereign over all creation.

My final year of high school, I had a girlfriend. We decided to go to the same college so that we wouldn’t have to deal with long distance relationships, but then ended up breaking up even before graduating from high school. She hurt me a lot, and I couldn’t see how a god that loved me would allow me to go through such pains, and why he would allow me to be in a relationship that would hurt so badly once it was over. It is still painful to this day, even though I now know why it was that God allowed me to feel the pain.

Because of this event, I ended up going to Western Washington University (WWU). This is where God would fully reveal his power and grace to me, and show me His love through the community of Christ. When I arrived at WWU, I found out that my next door neighbor was a friend from high school who was a believer. Within the first couple of days, two college students came to our doors and invited us to join them for a night of worship with some other Christians in our dorm. After that night, they invited us to come to Friday Night Fellowship with Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF) and to join them for a bible study called Core. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I joined a brotherhood that would change my life for ever.

In Core, I met men whom I can always turn to for guidance, comfort, accountability, and wisdom. Through this bible study, it was revealed to me that, though I am saved by grace, and grace alone, we are saved by grace to do good works. There is more to being a Christ follower than just attending a bible study, or going to church once a week. Being a follower of Christ is a life style. One night, while walking a friend back to her dorm late at night, I started talking to God. He revealed to me that though I was saved, I wasn’t being effective for the Kingdom. That night, I sat down on a brick ledge and told God that I was going to change. I was going to live my life for His glory and purpose, not my own. I surrendered my life and my actions to Him. A part of that was the decision to lead a Core for the next two years.