Welcome
Welcome to sagraco.com, my online portfolio where I display my art, writing, photos, and music. My blog, which I call chromatic heart, is where I like to explore thoughts and ideas, as well as write about events in my life. While you're here, read a story or two. Look at my visual art. You can even listen to my music while you browse around. I hope you enjoy your time here!
God Never Hurries ; January 17, 2012
I read something very thought-provoking today, in The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer:"How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves. For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs and licks their hands. The foe of the old human race becomes the friend of the new, and the stars in their courses fight for the man God delights to honor. This we may learn from the divine infinitude."
I only have one week until I get on the plane to Ecuador. It sure feels like a deadline. It feels like there is still a lot of scrambling to do to get ready. My mom and I spent 4 hours yesterday shopping for last minute things like a rain jacket and good walking shoes. And I have yet to start packing. That will take a lot of time.
But it's a good reminder that it's not really a problem at all. I don't have to worry about getting everything done because God is on my side... time is on my side. God isn't in a hurry, so why should I be? God has no limitations, so all I have to do is trust and depend on Him. My life is already hidden with Christ in God. It's time for me to set my heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1-3.) He's in control... and my life is now embedded within His eternal, infinite, self-existent life.
Still, it doesn't feel quite real that I'm going to South America for 3 1/2 months. I keep thinking it won't feel real until the plane takes off... and that's probably true. :)
Did You Learn To Love? ; January 9, 2012
This is such a lovely song... the song on my heart right now! I saw them perform it at the Onething conference a week ago in Kansas City. I love Misty Edwards's worship leading and her message of complete devotion to God.
On another note, I'm working on changing my blog layout a little, to make it easier to navigate. That includes adding a sidebar, putting the blog archives in the sidebar, adding a way for you to subscribe to my blog via email, and adding a link to my new music website (that's right...soon you'll be able to buy my music!). Why these changes? Because I'm going to Ecuador! :) And I promised at least 20 people at JBU that I was going to have a blog and update it regularly, to keep everyone in the loop on my adventures in Quito. I was considering making a new blog, but I decided it would be a lot less time-consuming to just use the one I already have, but spruce it up a little. So, it will soon be fully functional! I'm glad I told so many people I would have a blog, because it will keep me accountable for actually writing blog posts regularly... and get me out of this weirdness of only writing a post every 4 months or so! :D
You may have also noticed that I renamed the blog to "chromatic heart"... this is because I also decided to sell my music under the name "chromatic heart," so I wanted continuity between them. :) I will soon add a little snippet to the About page explaining why I chose this name.
Signing off for now... 15 days till I fly to Quito! :D
Rising to the Call ; September 22, 2011
This semester, I am one of several Honors mentors for the freshmen entering the Honors program. Right now we are reading a book called Rising to the Call by Os Guinness. I read this book for this class when I was a freshmen (=ahem= most of it), and now I'm reading it again. The first two chapters have brought up some interesting thoughts about calling.The main point of the first two chapters is that there is no calling without a Caller, and the Caller is God. Our primary calling is to God - it is God calling us to Himself. Our secondary calling is to live and act for Him in everything we do, and this involves vocation/work. Guinness's point is that there shouldn't be a dualism between these two callings. We shouldn't focus on our spiritual life so much that we push out work and think work is unimportant (what he calls the "Catholic Distortion"), but we also shouldn't focus on our work so much that we don't leave time for our relationship with God (what he calls the "Protestant Distortion").
I totally agree with this, but I think that just by making the distinction between the two, there is a danger of thinking they are separate. When Jesus answered the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" He gave us two. Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor. (Matthew 22:34-40). He didn't say just one or just the other; He gave us both, and said there is no commandment greater than these—no commandment greater than both together. You can't have one without the other, and that's where the distortions come from. They are meant to be joined together, fused together in how we live and how we love, to the point that they are hardly distinguishable any more.
I was just thinking about my calling. I know God has called me into missions. When I was a freshmen reading this book, I just knew I wanted to go to Latin America and help bring God's kingdom... by loving orphans, widows, the poor, anyone and everyone, while spreading the gospel. Now that I'm a junior, I think I have a little clearer direction on my calling. Now I'm a TESOL minor (teaching English to speakers of other languages), and I didn't know I wanted to teach English until my freshmen year of college was almost over. Now, I still anticipate going to Latin America to do missions, but I think that will start by me teaching English to people there who have a need to learn the language. I marvel at how God has worked in my life to bring all the gifts He's given me into what He's called me to do.
But here I am talking about my "secondary calling," as Guinness calls it. But the point I want to make is this: there doesn't have to be the distinction. Our primary calling is to God, absolutely—it's to love Him and be with Him and praise Him with everything we do. But that's the key. We must love him at all times—both when we are spending time with Him in the Word, praying, and worshiping Him, and when we are working, doing homework, talking to friends, walking to class...... It is possible to be pursuing God in every moment, no matter what you're doing. It is possible to have your heart, your spirit set on the reality of God, on the presence of God, while you are writing a paper or sitting in class.
So when it comes to my calling to missions, I think that in the future when I am teaching English, when I am working with people from another culture, when I am feeding the hungry and meeting the needs of the poor and the orphans... I will be loving God, pursuing God, and answering His call by doing those things. I will both spend time with God in the secret place, in His Word and in prayer, and I will be loving Him by doing the things He has called me to. It's the same as right now, in college, I can love Him in my quiet times, and in my homework and classes. There doesn't have to be a distinction.
Salvation & Sanctification ; August 4, 2011
Here are some of my thoughts about salvation and sanctification, that I wrote in response to another person's blog. :)I believe we are saved by grace, through faith. It is God's grace that allows us to believe - without this prevenient grace we would be incapable of even having faith in Him, because we are totally lost in our sin and pride. But it is faith in Him, faith that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died on the cross and rose again to bring us salvation and to inaugurate the kingdom of God, that saves us and gives us eternal life. John is full of verses that say this, and Acts (like Acts 2:38-39, 10:43, especially 13:38-39). When we believe in Christ, He forgives us of our sins, imputing His righteousness to us. We are sanctified by faith, but sanctification is also a lifelong process of becoming like Jesus in holiness and obedience to God. It is obvious that we all sin even after believing in Christ, but the gift of God is that He forgives us, and His mercies are new every day—we are made righteous in His sight (Romans 3:22-24). In my mind, the great gift of salvation is that God gives us the grace to be able to become righteous in this life—He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, to lead us and guide us towards obedience to God. I believe Jesus' command to "be perfect" (Matt 5:48) was not just a hopeful wish, but a command, a command that we can only obey by God's grace through the Holy Spirit.
Salvation is just as much about eternal life right now, in this present life, as it is about eternal life in heaven. Jesus said, eternal life is to know Him (John 17:3). And we can know Him right now. (though not fully until we see Him face to face - 1 Cor 13:12)
Jesus said that the ones who obey His commands are the ones who love Him (John 14:21). And His commands are... to love God and love others (Matt 22:37-40). Being a Christian is not as much about believing in a set of ideas, as it is about loving a Person (and loving other people because we love what He loves.) It is the loving Him and obeying Him that brings us the knowledge and experience of Him - which is eternal life.
The Constant ; May 21, 2011
I just added a new short story to my portfolio. It's called The Constant, and I wrote it in February 2009. It's very short, but even two years after I wrote it, I still like it. It's a metaphor, but it is, literally, the story of my life. :)Click here to read The Constant
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