Broken

First off, I know what you're thinking: another Jack Johnson blog?  Well, music is something that I can relate to.  I've been playing music ever since I can remember, and plus, you can never have too much Jack Johnson.  The song that I want to talk about this time is a song called Broken.  The song talks about Jack and another person, although it is never revealed who Jack Johnson is talking about.  We can get a lot from it by a line from the chorus though.  The chorus is: "Without you I was broken, but I'd rather be broke down with you by my side."

The question is, who is the 'you' that Jack Johnson is talking about?  Without out this person, he was broken, but even if he is broken, he'd rather have this person there.  So I ask myself who am I broken without?  Well a few answers come to mind: my family and friends are two big ones, but those only cover some aspects of my 'broken-ness.'  The one person that we are all truly broken without is Jesus Christ.

We are completely broken without him.  Acts 4:12 reads, "..for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."  It is only in and through Christ that we can return to live with God.  Even with him in our lives, we will still face some "breakdowns."  It's inevitable.  But remember, without him we are broken, but we'd much rather be broke down with him by our side.  When we have those breakdowns, He'll be there to lift us up and to help us through it.  May we always strive to have him by our side.

The Edge

A man needed a driver to give him a ride through a dangerous mountain path.  To ensure his safety, he wanted to find the best of the best of the drivers.  The man asked the same question to four different drivers: How close can you get to the edge and still feel comfortable?  The first driver said, "I can drive one foot away from the edge and be comfortable."  The second driver said, "I can be 6 inches away from the edge and be fine."  The third driver said, "Give me 1 inch, and there's no problem."  The last driver that he asked said, "I don't know, I stay as far away from the edge as I can." 

This man knew exactly who to choose.  No matter how skilled the driver was, getting close to the edge just isn't smart.  He chose the fourth driver.  The further away from the edge, the better.  What does getting close to the edge prove anyways?  The Lord doesn't care how close we can get to the edge, in fact, he wants us to stay as far away from the edge as we can.  Christ, in his Sermon on the Mount, taught, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon."  (Matthew 6:24).

Getting close to the edge is, in a way, serving two masters.  It's saying, with our actions, that we only want to do the bare minimum to stay on the path.  But think about it, the closer we are to the edge, the less room there is for error.  One faulty step could be our downfall, literally.  When we stay away from the edge, we leave room for our mistakes, which are unavoidable.  Then we will be able to correct ourselves and continue going.  May we all strive to stay as far away from the edge and choose this day to serve the Lord.  It's only then can we reach the end of the mountainous path safely.

The Comfort Zone

The Comfort Zone, not to be confused with the Twilight Zone...okay, terrible joke.  Everyone wants to be comfortable.  Whether it be in comfortable clothes, around comfortable people, or on a comfortable couch, comfort is always on our mind.  I'm not going to lie, I like to be comfortable.  As I've been on my mission, I've had to step out of my comfort zone countless numbers of times.  It's made me appreciate those times. 

Think of life if it were always comfortable.  Would we live life to it's fullest?  Would we reach our maximum potential?  Would we even be happy?  I've thought about this a lot of times.  Why is life sometimes uncomfortable?  We have to be put in situations where we're not comfortable in order to learn and grow.  If everything was the same all the time, we couldn't advance in life.  We have to step out of our comfort zone to expand it. 

Think of a muscle.  The only way for the muscle to get stronger is to strain, test, and try it.  In other words, get it out of its comfort zone.  It may be tough at the time, but the strength recieved from it will benefit you for the rest of your life. 

Escaping our comfort zone gives us happiness in this life.  Think of a time when you were doing something that was very difficult.  It could be learning a new song on guitar, beating the next level in a video game, beating your personal best time in a race, or earning an A in a class at school.  Do you remember how happy you were once you reached the goal?  The more difficult the task, the more satisfying the reward.  One of my favorite quotes is, "I never said it would be easy, I only said it'd be worth it."

Nothing in life that's worth having comes easy.  To be able to enjoy life to its fullest, we have to step out of our comfort zone.  We're not alone when we do it though.  Our Savior Jesus Christ is always there with us and will always be there to help us, but it starts with us.