Making History

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. Life got really busy with the end of the semester. Plus, I got a second job (which I no longer have - more on that later).  But since I'm up way before I need to be, I figured I could get some thoughts out. My heart has been heavy the last few days.

A couple days ago, Moore, Oklahoma was hit with a massive tornado. Winds of 200 miles ripped through the city, flattening about 36 square miles. As of now, there have been 24 confirmed deaths, and I know that several of those were children. I watched live news feeds shortly after the tornado happened, and it left me in tears at work. I prayed probably more in one sitting than I ever have before. 

The tornado got me thinking about history. When someone says the word "history" I think of the past, usually the far off past. As in, before I was born. But this made me realize - history is TODAY. We are making history every single day. Holy moly! That's kind of a lot of responsibility. Not only are we making history, but we are shaping the future. 

What's interesting about this, is that society doesn't really focus on those who will be shaping the future. The youth of today is ignored a lot of the time. For my religion class we had to read this book: 

It was such an amazing book! Patel focuses on the fact that we need to focus on the youth and help to shape them in the right way. He gives several examples of how things could have been different if young people had been given the right influence. He talks about the London Bombers, Osama Bin Laden, and many others. Just reading it made me want to go out and make a change. The same ideals can be shown in a different way in this movie:

For those who haven't seen this movie - FIND IT AND WATCH IT. I watched the first half of this originally in my Corrections class, but finished it with Matt. It's raw, it's real, and it's relevant. The ending of this movie could have been totally different had the influences been different. The story revolves around Danny and his older brother Derek. Derek ends up in prison for killing a couple men, and the movie shows how that has influenced Danny. It's really an amazing movie. It may be from 1998, but it's so good.

Basically, what I'm saying is that we need to watch how we are shaping our future and how we are making our history. One of my favorite things I've seen lately is a quote about the debate on same sex marriage. I can't remember who said it originally, but I know they were on the supportive side and they were talking to those who are against it. They said, "You're going to find yourself on the wrong side of history."

Don't find yourself on the wrong side of history. It doesn't matter if it's about same sex marriage or otherwise, but make sure that you're doing your best to make the world a better place than how you found it.