it would be cruel to watch someone die, while holding the cure for his sickness in your hands.

The main thing God convicted me of on the senior retreat was how I hold back way too often. After hearing so many testimonies from people whom I barely knew, I realized that it is way too easy for me to by this bubble around myself and my friends. You know, we always say that we want to love people, and whenever we hear a convicting message about love, we make a mental note, but we do absolutely nothing. I really liked what Sam Wolfe said. "If I'm not building you up, I'm tearing you down." In the same way, we can't just sit around and wait for depressed, discouraged, weary people to just plop themselves on our front steps (but sometimes God does do that). People like that don't seek out help because they're just too afraid of being 'naked and ashamed'. Very rarely did those kinds of people make the initiative with Jesus; he was the one to seek out the lost. We need to take the first step and be bold in finding those people. We need to be intentional in getting to know others. There are so many more layers to people and so much more depth, but we're so easily satisfied with the surface because we're just not willing to deeply invest. Just because someone's personality or actions don't appeal to me doesn't give me any justification for not pursuing them. People that I care for are not in any more need of grace than the quiet girl in the corner, or the loudest person at school. Everyone equaly needs God's grace and they need to know that it is sufficient for each and every thing in their lives. Our obedience to the life of Jesus will glorify God, and it may just play a part in saving someone's life. Our disobedience will disgrace the name of Jesus and may have been the one thing that played a part in someone's death. I know, it sounds pretty harsh, but when you think about it, it's inhuman to be surrounded by dying people and not do anything about it.