What's important to you?

Brett Greenwood was a walk-on football player for the University of Iowa but soon began to take over the field. After graduating he came within one step of making it onto the Pittsburgh Steeler NFL team.

However, he didn’t was cut this fall and returned home. On Sept. 9, the dedicated player was working out to not lose his edge. On his old high school’s football field he collapsed during a workout.

Greenwood had developed an abnormal heart rhythm, which caused his heart to stop. He lay in the University of Iowa Hospital for about a month in a medically-induced coma as doctors figured out how much neurological damage had been done.

According to the newly established Brett Greenwood Foundation, he is recovering and working to regain his strength and mobility.

People from throughout the state - those who went to high school with him, those who played Hawkeye football with him, those who simply watched him play Iowa football - have banded together to raise money for him and support him and his family during this hard time.

Even football games were dominated with green shirts while he was in a coma.

Greenwood was an acquaintance of mine. Although I didn’t know him well, I think I knew his personality. Even when he was younger, he was the type of be committed to his sports 110 percent - if that’s possible. He rarely smiled and seemed to think everything in life serious.

Greenwood had great success in his college football career, and I’m sure that getting cut from the Steelers at the last minute was like a shock to the heart. I’m sure it seemed like football was the only important thing at that moment.

However, as he struggled for his life and now struggles to get back to a life he remembers, I bet football doesn’t seem anywhere near as important - if not to him, then at least to his family.

It can take serious situations for people to realize what’s important.

Sports, work, hobbies — people have different priority lists. I talk to people who are so busy that they can’t find 15 minutes in a week to talk with me for an interview. I never want to be that busy, at least with activities other than spending time with my family.

Many people fly from work to play practice to Bible study to the computer to check on work and then head to bed after saying hi to their family.

I want to make sure that people are the most important part of my life for my whole life, and that if something serious happens to me or my family that I know I’ve had my priorities in line.

I’m not saying that Greenwood’s priorities were out of whack. I just think that situations like this give us a good reminder to remember what’s important in life. Are you treasuring it like you should?

To find more about the Brett Greenwood Foundation, visit brettgreenwoodfoundation.com.

The little nagging desire

I've never really thought I had a problem with jealousy.

I grew up with a lot of friends who were wealthy - at least their parents were - and I never thought that I wasn't as good as them or didn't have as good of a life because I didn't have everything they had.

I often think to be jealous of someone, you have to want whatever stuff they have - their big house, their nice car, their expensive clothes. I didn't want any of that, so jealousy wasn't a problem in my life.

However, I am starting to realize that I am jealous a lot. I covet a lot of what people have - although most of it isn't material possessions.

There are things in my life that I wish I had and I just don't yet. Much of my life I have felt OK with not having things because I knew that I could work toward what I want and eventually get it. However, there are things now that I can't work toward. I just have to wait until they happen. That is hard for me.

And when people get what I want without having to wait as long or work as hard, I start to get jealous and I covet that. I just want it. Why can't I have it?

I've had things like that for a long time, but I never really pinned it down as jealousy until this week.

Then we were singing a worship song in church on Sunday - I wish I could remember which one - and it talked about the importance of the cross.

Sure, the cross is important.

Yet, when you think about it. The cross is the only important thing in life. We get caught up wanting what we want, when we want it. When we don't get it we get jealous and covet and mad and upset. Why Lord why?

Yet, he already gave us all we need. He gave us a savior who died to fix all the mess-ups we've ever done, EVER!

Those nagging little desires, they seem important in the grand scheme of things. But compare them to the importance of the cross. All of the sudden even the most important desires in our lives seem to pale in comparison.

That doesn't mean I'm going to stop wanting things. However, I need to remember the ranks of how important those things are compared to how important God is to me.

Striving for perfection

Everyone wants to look perfect in someone's eyes.

Some people want to look perfect in everyone's eyes.

On Sunday, a couple different ideas about perfection came up at church, and I wanted to address them here.

One idea was how people often seek out fault's in others to feel better about themselves. I am so guilty of this.

For one example, I don't think I have a perfect body. I have admitted on here before, that I am often unhappy with how thick my thighs are, and I often check to see how much pudge is on my stomach.

Sometimes, I go on Facebook and check out photos of people that I think are really pretty, or used to be really pretty in high school. I try to find photos of their whole body so that I can compare mine to theirs and see if I am thinner.

It's awful; I know.

Somehow though, I wish bad on other people so that I can feel better about my own life. Although that doesn't really give me any lasting satisfaction. I might smile for a millisecond, but then I am again looking at myself in the mirror and thinking about how much I need to get in shape.

Some people look to others to make themselves feel more perfect. Others cover up their imperfections so that people will think they have it all together.

Even though people will admit to themselves that they have faults, they don't want to admit it to others. We put on a smile and don't talk about our failures, because we don't want anyone to know that we don't have it all together.

I often cover up my shortcomings, one because I don't want people to judge me. I was the "good girl" growing up, and I certainly don't want people to think that I have gone astray and am no longer "perfect."

Some also think that they will give God a bad name if they admit that even Christians falter in some places. People think Christians have to act perfectly, and we sure don't, because we sure aren't.

It's great to strive for perfection, because that means we are striving after living the way God wants us to. However, we are never going to actually reach that goal and we should never act like we have. It's a lie to act like we are something that we aren't, and we should all just loosen up and tell about our imperfections. Then we should all help each other in those areas instead of judging one another to make ourselves feel better.

Instead of comparing ourselves to each other, we need to start comparing ourselves to God - to the person God wants us to be. Although God wants me to be healthy, he doesn't want me to compare myself to others to make myself feel better about my body. He wants me to appreciate what he has given me and to make the best of it. Also, I should prioritize the things in my life. Is the shape of my body most important or should I be spending all that time working on my personality and spiritual imperfections instead of being concerned about a little extra pudge? I think that answer is obvious.

Just so you know, I do see the imperfections in my life. By confessing them here, I'm not condoning what I do. I know I need work, and I want to get better! Hopefully by seeing my imperfections, you can see some of yours so that we can all get better together!

Worth it

This film is a half-hour, but if you take the time to watch it I think you'll find it's worth it. The time just flew by as I watched it.

I'm a prostitute

This blog could really be called "Confessions of a Prostitute."

That’s right, I’m confessing right here and now, I’m a prostitute.

No, I’m not standing on street corners agreeing to payment for sex. However, I do whore myself out quite a lot.

You probably do too.

In Sunday school yesterday, we heard the story of Gomer and Hosea. If you’re not familiar with it, you can find it in the first two chapters of Hosea in the Old Testament.

God called Hosea to marry a prostitute, or an adulterous woman in some translations, who would have illegitimate children. Gomer had one child by Hosea and also children that were not his. She eventually left him and started sleeping around and was sold into slavery by a lover.

God still told Hosea to go buy her back and love her like a cherished wife.

Sounds wrong, doesn’t it?

We might want to identify with Hosea - we’ve been used and abused and had to put up with a lot of unfair stuff in our lives.

However, we can identify with Gomer just as much, if not more.

You see, God asked Hosea to do all this to make a living example of what Israel was doing to God. God’s people, which now includes all believers, were prostitutes - selling themselves for earthly pleasures. They were whoring themselves out to things that felt good at the moment instead of clinging to their betrothed love, God.

I think I put myself on quite the pedestal if I think I’m like Hosea. Really, I’m just sleeping around with all the things of this world, trying to have some fun.

Thank goodness we have a loving husband, a God, that takes us back time after time. He doesn’t just take us back - calling us names, making us feel guilty about our actions - he loves us with an unconditional love. He forgives us for being adulterers.

Even better than Hosea, he does it without anyone making him.

My apologies

I'm wondering, do we apologize too much or do we not care enough in the first place that we have to apologize?

Let me explain.

I have a friend that every time I go over to her house, she apologizes for how messy it is. It never bothers me. She has two kids and works full-time, so there's not much more time for housework.

Well, today she stopped by unexpectantly and saw how messy my place is at the moment. I get so embarrassed when people stop by without notice, because I admit that most of the time my apartment is not as neat as I want it to be.

I wasn't going to apologize, because now we're even that both our places are messy. However, I wanted her to know that I wasn't proud of my messy place so I said I was embarrassed that she saw it!

Then I start thinking, should we really apologize too each other for messy places? Is it really that big of a deal? Who cares if our houses or apartments are messy? Cleanliness is great, but is messiness that big of a deal sometimes?

Or instead of apologizing, should we really just take care of our stuff better so that we have no reason to apologize. Our house growing up wasn't messy, like ever, so I don't think my mom ever had a reason to apologize for it. Should we all just start caring more about stuff ahead of time so that we don't have to apologize for it later?

What if there was no heaven? (Part 2)

What if there was no heaven?

This was honestly a hard question for me to think about, and I don't exactly know what my life would be like then.

My initial reaction to the question was, I wouldn't act like a Christian if there weren't any consequences, if heaven weren't real.

However, I started to think about how I would live my life differently, and I don't really think there would be much that I would do differently. I might not feel guilty when making mistakes, but I wouldn't probably do much different.

The ultimate reason for accepting Jesus was to save me from my sins, so that I could spend eternity in a beautiful place of worship and love instead of eternal damnation, solitude and burning. However, my Christian life offers me a whole lot more while I'm still here.

When I have a problem, I get through it because I have someone much bigger than myself to rely on. I'm a natural worrier, but the only way that I can have peace and stop worrying is because I give it up, stop thinking about it and let God take care of it instead. I wouldn't really want to take on the problem's of life even if there was no heaven.

Some problems I can't take care of - illness, relationship problems among friends - I can't take care of myself. These are things that are beyond my control. However, I know that all things work together for good, because God is in control. Even if there was no heaven or hell, I still would want to believe that God was in control.

What if there was no heaven? I don't really think my life would be much different. However, I'm thankful there is a heaven so that this lifetime is not all I get. It makes life so much more hopeful.