Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Tuskegee Airmen

"Why'd you join the air core, boy?" "This country has enemies sir, and there are people who need protecting from those enemies." "What people, nigger?" "All people, sir. To my knowledge the Germans aren't sparing the colored." "To my knowledge the colored aren't up to fighting the Germans, let alone beat them." "Max Schmeling ( a German boxer who was defeated by a black boxer named Joe Lewis) found out differently, sir." This scene was taken from the movie The Tuskegee Airmen. The movie focuses on four specific men who begin flight training in June 1941. One commits suicide by crashing his plane after he learns he's being kicked out of the program for performing an unauthorized stunt. The other three obtained their wings, becoming part of the first black squadron. Although it took the 99th squadron awhile to participate in active duty, they eventually were transferred to active service. During the time they were in North Africa, one of the three pilots focused on would be shot down. The 99th then found out that they would be transferred to Europe, where the main action was. There they would become bomber escorts. Another one of the pilots focused on would die while protecting his bombers. Knowing he is going to die, Billy "Train" Roberts starts to sing the 99th fight song. His best friend and partner, Hannibal Lee, accepts that Train is going down and comforts him by singing along. The white bomber pilots are listening through the radio, touched by this display of bravery and friendship. Later they ask specifically for the 302nd to escort them on an important mission, knowing that they are the best escorts around-despite the color of their skin. The movie ends with these facts. Between May 1943 and June 1945, 450 Tuskegee Airmen were awarded more than 850 medals-something Hannibal and Billy were convinced would never happen. 66 Tuskegee airmen died in battle. And the 332nd (the 100th, 301st, 302nd, and 99th) Fighter Group never lost a single bomber to enemy action. They were that good. But why were they so good? I think it's because they had something to prove. They knew who they were, and they knew what they wanted to prove. They had been pushed to limits most white airmen weren't pushed to. They would gladly give up their life to serve their country and those they escorted. They were the best. And so should we be. As Christians, we are apart of a larger kingdom, a kingdom that is not on this earth. We are ambassadors for a God so powerful he formed the world with words. Can you imagine that? Smiles put down a quote that sums it up pretty well. I won't repeat it, but you can go back and read it. As ambassadors, shouldn't we be the best? And how do we become the best? Through training ourselves, through being in contact with our boss, and through being in contact with other ambassadors. There's also another point I would like to make. The Tuskegee airmen faced many problems and difficulties. They lost friends, were accused of laziness and bad work habits, they had congressmen wanting them to fail, they had prejudiced commanders and fellow pilots, but they faced the trials and came through swinging. Trials enrich us, strengthen us, and purify us. When true gold is heated up and melted, not burned, the impure substances float to the top, allowing the goldsmiths to remove it. The more meltings the gold goes through, the purer and purer it becomes. Which is what the author meant when he wrote "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials . These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine (pure) and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:6-7. You see, trials are there for a reason, much like exercise. Trials exercise your faith and makes you stronger, richer, and purer. Whatever your going through, face it bravely, with the knowledge you'll come through, even better than you were before. Sometimes you have to face the storm to be able to sail at all.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

A Street Sweeper

Howdy, I am one of the young ladies who is going to be posting on this blog. My name, Smiles, is something you would understand if you knew me... :) I had a hard time coming up with a name, but I finally found one that describes me! ha ha


The subject "What am I going to do with my life?", is something that has been on my mind and is on allot of other teenagers minds as well.


There is a great quote (which is one of my new faves) by Martin Luther King Jr. he said, "If it falls on you to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music.... Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well." I think that it is very important to do things with our whole heart. In Collossians 3:23 it says, "and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men."

As teenagers we are imagining our selves as different roles in life and some of us already have an idea of what that may be. I know that in my life it has been a topic on my mind. God has called us to do different things in life. Just because were not a pastor (or a youth pastor) doesn't mean that we can't have a ministry and minister to people. God places us here to be a light in whatever role He chooses for us in life. I encourage you to seek God in times of decision making, because he already knows what you're going to do (kind of scary, huh?) Just remember whatever you do, do it with your whole heart, and not to men, but to God!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Friendship and a Pool of Water

Alright folks, I'm back. Today I went skiing in this wonderful, fresh spring air. I had been sitting in my house, lamenting over the fact that I had nothing to do today. Now don't get me wrong, there's a lovely thing in listening to music, reading a book, drinking a snapple, taking a walk, and just hanging out through a day. But I'd been doing that for the past few days and I wanted to hang out with a friend.

And so I had been thinking about calling a friend and seeing if she wanted to hang out, but I didn't. I was extremely surprised when a good friend texted me asking me if my sister and I wanted to go skiing. I was ecstatic. Now Toast (my friend), Hallee (her younger sister), Tipsytoe (my sister), and myself were surprised when we arrived at the hill to find out that a there was going to be a competition that day. What was the competition? It wasn't a race. It didn't involve jumps. It did involve a pool of water that was announced to be twelve feet long. It also involved skiing across this pool of water. Don't worry, the pool was 102 degrees. Never mind the ice chunks floating in the water. At this point you may be asking what in the world was going on, I would. The point of this competition was to try to ski across this pool without falling. I'd say about 75 percent failed. It wasn't pretty, but it was funny. Only in Minnesota would you go skiing across a pool of water that is in the middle of a ski hill in winter for fun. Yeah, that's what Minnesotans do for fun, what else do you think we'd be doing? Tipping over cows? Okay, we only do that on the weekends, haha, just kidding.

Now, as much fun as that was, the real fun was hanging out with my friends. It's a special thing in life, being able to laugh and have fun with someone. Totally free of all pretensions, no artificial flavoring. That's why God created friendships. He understands the importance of something called "fellowship". It's one of the reasons we go to church, for fellowship with your fellow Christians. So if you're reading this right now, remind yourself of the importance of friendship. Call up someone you haven't talked to for awhile. Tell your friends how much you appreciate their friendship. They might look at you weird, but at least they know, right? And it doesn't hurt to invite your friends to go do something fun, like skiing. You never know when our friend will praise your name in a blog because of it.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Welcome

Hello all to Our Guts readers! To be clear, Guts stands for God Understands This Stuff. How did we come up with the name? Pure accident. My lovely sister was trying to explain why she exclaimed guts as we were trying to figure out a name for this blog. You know, Ramona and Beezus. Well, with my very creative mind (and charming personality, but that's beside the point) I said, "Yeah, God Understands This Stuff." And there you have it folks, the home run.

But what is this blog? And who is writing this post? And does she have a phone number? Okay, maybe you're not wondering that, but I wouldn't tell you anyway, so it's all cool. To answer the above questions, this blog's purpose is to shine a light in today's world. We (our church youth group) want to give a Christian teen's perspective on life. Also, we hope to convey a message of hope to whoever reads this blog. To help show you that God does understand this stuff, he knows what every teenager is going through, and he wants to help.

As for who I am, well, I'm just one of the teenage writers you'll see posting on this wonderfully hip blog (yes, I know wonderfully is not a word). You'll see a bucketful of different topics broached on this blog, with a bucketful of different viewpoints and perspectives. Sometimes you might see interviews of us or of different people. Sometimes we'll all discuss one topic. At other times we'll each post something for the week, or someone will "take the blog" for a week and you'll only see her posts. In whatever form these posts appear, we hope they will amuse you, charm you, and most of all, challenge you.

Welcome To Our Guts, we hope you enjoy.