Shock Value

The below post was not written by me but rather by someone I know. Her name is Sarai and she is an amazing girl. I've known Sarai for a very long time and she is a God loving woman, beautiful, inspirational, and very talented...she writes her own music and you can check it out here.... http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=25504187.

Here is Sarai's post from facebook. It really made me think and I hope it does the same for you:

Shock Value. An interesting addiction that lingers and lingers becoming more powerful by the second. It controls minds, hearts, emotions, thoughts, decisions, actions and consequences. It contains you’re darkest secrets, your deepest fears and has the power to break you. Most of you reading this will probably stop here because it has nothing to do with you. I’m afraid you’re wrong. I have researched the depths to which this illness, addiction or wound if you may, has crawled and the results blew me away. It is something that is in us the moment we are born and whether its card is played or not is our decision.

What exactly is shock value? The dictionary will tell you the word shock means …“an unexpected, intense, and distressing experience that has a sudden and powerful effect on somebody's emotions or physical reactions..” I was shocked to wake up after overdosing…alive. I’m sure you can insert your own shock here. The meaning of value…“the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to somebody.” I value love from others towards me and from me towards others. I value my faith no matter how distant it can seem sometimes. And you? What do you value? Take a minute to answer this question.

With these definitions combined we see Shock Value as this, read it slowly: An unexpected, intense, and distressing experience, that has a sudden and powerful effect on somebody’s emotions or physical reactions caused by the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to somebody.
Read it again…

Think about this. Is it possible that we are so overwhelmed with the possibility of our worth to something or someone that we have to drastically test it? Is it not enough to love and be loved and simply accept love’s existence? Shock value, ladies and gentleman, is what we create it to be. It has no general preference to its appearance, it does not affect only the “broken” but the pioneer brave enough to test the lengths of his or her value.

But God…the amazing, spotless, perfect being…cannot be shocked. He cannot be scared or surprised and he will not react at our greatest attempts to do so. I wonder why so many of my friends have turned their hearts away after being so engulfed in their faith. Disappointment came running in when they realized there was not a catch. No agenda with what God had to offer when he sent Jesus to save our dramatic back sides. It was simple. Love. A love that cannot be tested to prove its strength. Jesus proved it by doing what no man could EVER duplicate.

What are you testing in your life?
Are you cutting to test the strength of your will? If you have the will to do it, you are stronger than you think..
Are you hurting other people to test the love of your parents who just aren’t around as much as you want them to be?
Are you dousing your body with toxins every Friday night to test your “church” friends to stop you?
Are you crawling out of the backseat of a car, or from under the sheets or from off the couch with someone to test if your purity actually exists?
Or maybe, you are being as bad as you can possibly be to prove you can do it…

I’ve spent ¾ of my life trying to shock love out of people because I couldn't accept its reality. And to this day I have to fight with my own mind to refuse its calling. You and I can shock and awe the entire world, but we cannot shock Jesus and we cannot shock God and no matter how hard we try his love is what it is and will never change. I’ve cried and cried at the realization of this…after 12 years…I can finally stop trying to prove myself. The shock value factor ends here. We’ve heard it a hundred times but it has never seem clearer than now:

Romans 8:38-39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor ANY powers, neither height nor depth, nor ANYTHING else in ALL creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

My resolution. And I pray yours. Happy New Year….Sarai

John 16:22
"For now you have sorrow, but I will come back for you again and in that day your heart will rejoice and I will give you a joy no one can take."