Abortion, from my perspective

Elections are coming up fast, many people have even taken advantage of the option to vote early, and have already cast their vote. I will be voting early as well, since I’m going to be out of the country on the 4th. Now on to the topic of this post.

As with every election, one of the hot topics is abortion.
Pro-life on one side pro-choice on the other.
Some people base 100% of their voting decision on this one issue.
Groups spend tons of time and money fighting for their side. Pro life people want it made illegal, pro choice people want to make it easily available.
But here’s the thing, everyone is missing the point, focusing precious resources on the symptom not the problem.
The problem is not the procedure. It is the demand for the procedure.
Think about it, it’s just like any business, no demand means no facilities needed.

At this point some of you may be thinking “Ok mark, you’re talking in ideals. but the reality is, there is demand”

So here’s what’s going on, take a look around, look at the society we live in, glance at the entertainment. We live in a society that says, sex outside marriage is great, everyone is having sex, enjoying it, having a good time, wear a condom and you’ll be fine.
Find a more dramatic show where a girl actually gets pregnant, and society and cultural norm pipe right up saying abortion is the best option, just take care of the problem so you can continue to live your life.

Why does no one tell the girls that when you have sex with multiple partners, her body will begin to release less and less of the natural chemical that is designed to bond her to her husband and deepen her love for him(this is the same exact chemical produced when a mother nurses her child. Which bonds her to her baby.)
The result of this is sex begins to have very little significance to her, the rush of that chemical slowly goes away, and before long sex=nothing. And when she eventually get’s married, her feelings towards sex stay exactly the same, and the marital relationship suffers.
The world leads the young to believe that the only possible consequences are STDs and pregnancy, and turns right around and says, but if you use proper protection you’ll be fine.

Why does no one tell the young that yes, sex is great, it’s a gift from God, but pregnancy is not the only risk, having pre-marital sex will rob them of the joy that it is supposed to bring in your marriage.

Sex has become so taboo in christian circles, resulting in no one talking about it, the truths are not taught. And the kids are left with few options to answer their questions, so they accept the worlds ideas, and learn about it on the internet, and they end up with a perverted truth about sex and what it is. and cheap pornographic ideas about what it should be like.
And all they hear from the church is “don’t have sex before marriage”
without any deep reasons or convictions that doesn't hold up against the pressure of the world for long.

Come on church, we are the body of Christ, and we’re not doing our job.
You never saw Jesus shying away from tough and challenging topics.
Most christians live a watered down existence, staying away from anything that in their mind might offend someone, or “push them away from God.”
But the reality is, people are starving for something real and genuine, they see right through the soft christian facade most churches front, and they see a bunch of baby immature people, who have little to no reality or genuineness about their relationship with God. And they come to the conclusion that christianity is nothing, so they move on to other religions till they find something real that fills the need they have inside.
And you know what, these starving people are not just people who grew up with no beliefs. statistics say that 80% of people leaving high school and going to college, stop going to church with zero plans of going back.
Do you hear this? These starving people that are searching for something real, are our own kids, kids that grew up in the church.
And if the church doesn’t wake up and start behaving like the body of Christ, this is going to continue.
And the next generation in their search for truth will accept the worlds perverted truths about every area of life.

You want to make this country a better place? Start focusing on the problems instead of wasting valuable time trying to fix a symptom.

the state of my life

Lots of thoughts going through my head at the moment, hopefully this won’t be to difficult to read.
The image above is my room, as it is right now, as you can see the entire surface of my desk is covered with things. I have allot of things. A list that would take a long long time to write out. So why is it that it’s so easy to focus to much on the things I don’t have, the next item on my “to get” list. The list does have a end, but I get the feeling that the closer you get to the end of the current list, the more the list grows beneath that. I’ve discovered I’m amazingly good at spending, basically everything I make. Every expenditure of course has a good reason behind it.
You see, I have allot of interests, just look at my website, and I’ve managed to turn most of them into businesses, which of course all require certain things(equipment) to do well. In essence, I work to buy things to enable me to work more. I do enjoy what I do, so I look forward to all this.
This brings me to something I’ve been thinking allot about for awhile. God has given me allot of talents, probably more than I know of.
So I’ve been thinking allot about why, why has he given me all this, and how should I be using them. And you know what I’ve come up with….i still don’t know. But here’s what I do know, my purpose in life, I never thought I knew this before, I always thought it would be something along the lines of a job description, like “my purpose in life is to paint beautiful images that capture the attention of the viewer and awaken their imaginations.” While that does sound pretty nice, I’m learning that is not my purpose, that may be part of what I’m supposed to do, I don’t know, but it’s not the underlying purpose.
It’s so easy to get caught up worrying about specifics, check out matthew 6:25-34 that whole thing is good, here’s the part that’s really hitting home with me right now:

“What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

So what’s my purpose? My purpose is not about me, I have to quit living a life for me, focused on me. My purpose is not inward focused, it’s outwards focused, to love my God with everything that’s in me, to love others with the same kind of love God has for me.
If I simply do this, and follow His direction through this life of love, I will fulfill my purpose, and use all of my talents as He intended for them to be used.

6/2/08

So
I’m 22
Almost 23 (aug 21st, in case you were wondering)

I remember sometime awhile ago I told a friend, if I’m still living at home at 23 I need to seriously re-evaluate my life. Here I am, less than three months away, no where closer to being financially independent than I was when I said that. So I’m thinking maybe I should go ahead and start that re-evaluation.

I thought about going and getting a job, maybe somewhere like a music store, that would be cool, regular hours, regular income, around instruments all the time.
But now thinking about it again, how irresponsible would that be, I already have a list of things that I haven’t done, that need to be done, what kind of character would be to say to those people “sorry I haven’t done that for you yet, but hey I just got another job and I’m busy so it’s going to be even longer.” So in that way getting a ‘regular’ job would look responsible from one angle and irresponsible from another.

Hmmm…responsibility: the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.

The problem becomes clear, it’s me, my complete lack of being responsible, keeping my word in a timely manner. I can name several projects off the top of my head that should have been done months ago. How can I sanely expect higher levels of income, when my work habits are exactly the same as they’ve always been, which in essence comes down to “oil the squeaky wheel and as long as nothing is squeaking then it’s all good” the squeak usually being a email.

So, why am I posting this for the world to see, (possibly including clients past/present/future, and my boss.) the answer to that being accountability. When everyone knows your habits, everyone knows the reasons things are the way they are. And they know when to call you out and challenge what you’re doing.

So here’s what up, I need to change, I need to get my life on track, this involves going against the grain of deeply rooted habits, aka, not easy. But completely necessary if I want my life to expand beyond the 8 walls of my room(my room isn’t exactly square.) and making about 1k a month.

So, look for changes to start happening, if you don’t see anything, send me a email markATbymarkcollinsDOTcom, or contact me in any other way you have access to.

thinking right

so this image you see here is actually the logo i designed for new generation entertainment. the concept being thoughts and ideas coming from God.
i'm realizing more and more that this isn't just a better way to create entertainment, this is a better way to live life.
so this image is now the wall paper on my cell phone, to remind me that i need to stay connected up to God.
check out isaiah 55 especially the first half of the chapter.
the point being, life spent thinking Gods thoughts instead of your own, i believe this is the best way to live.
i'm using this logo to continually remind myself to keep my mind in line. you're welcome to do the same.

some thoughts on business

the following is some excerpts of things i wrote from a IM conversation i had a little bit ago, i was sharing some of my thoughts on business, and thought i'd post them up here in case they're useful to someone else.

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12:00
Something i've learned is that having your own business takes allot of time and effort spent learning and choosing the best options for your business. if you don't have the time to put into it, it may be hard to make it successful
12:05
the thing i see people try to do is just do the same as others they see. when really everyone you look at does things differently. for example pictage may not be right for me, but sarah seems happy using them. and she's been pretty successful. of course that's her full time job, she has lots of business flowing through. i on the other hand am doing a whole bunch of varied things and not a high volume of weddings.
12:17
what's fun is each one of us has a different set of skills and talents which makes us unique, this is why you see such a huge variety of ways of doing the same business, two people may do the same business in completely opposite ways and both be very successful and happy with how things are.
so the reason i'm always pointing at ways of learning the answer to your question instead of just giving you some answer. is cause i know for you to develop your business into something truly successful, you're going to have to spend time learning what things are best for your unique business.
12:25
i hope i'm not discouraging you in any way. i just felt it important to point out that there aren't any formulas or presets to make your business take off. i've seen people who waste of ton of time and money trying to find those formulas, and never make it very far. for example i'm willing to bet that there are people out there who try to do everything exactly the same as david jay, and are wondering why it's not working.
12:26
of course take all i say with grain of salt, as i've only booked and shot one wedding on my own.
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financial responsiblility

isn't my credit card awesome. they started a thing where you can get your own image on the card. here's a link to the image.

ok on to the point of this post.

spending is so easy these days, fill in a few fields of information, click a few buttons, and just like that something new is on the way, and more money is spent. sure the next credit card bill will be 12 times the amount you have in your checking right now...but you'll get enough pay checks before that bill is due....right.

it's a fine line between spending responsibly and getting closer and closer to developing spending habits that will end up in debt that you can't pay.
especially when the credit limit nears a few thousand and your wish list could easily spend twenty thousand.

i wouldn't go so far as to say this is something i'm dealing with....at least not yet.
i am working on reversing this progression....so i guess i am dealing with it, in the positive sense.

sometimes i find i have to take a step back and look at my life, look at the trends and habits i have. cut some back, build on others, refine my life.