“There is profit in hard work, but mere talk leads to poverty.” –Proverbs 14:23
My name is Keegan Ragan and I live in Banks, Oregon with my mom, dad, younger sister and younger brother. I go to school at Banks Middle School although not for much longer, since I’ll be a 9th grader fairly soon. I like to hang out with friends on a good day outside, play video games such as Minecraft or Pokémon, and watch some YouTube videos. My plans for high school are to not get entirely overwhelmed by the workflow in the first year or two and enjoy my senior year. After which I hope to go to college and be in debt for 3 decades so I can get a decent job.
I believe that God watches over us all similar to how a parent does to a now teenager. He believes in us enough to let us go out into the great universe and be a little bit risky, but would stop us somehow if we went too far. I believe that Jesus is the embodiment of that 3 am push to turn your life around for the better. Trying to motivate others to do some good in this world. And the Holy Spirit is the little voice in people’s heads that tell them to just be a good person no matter what.
Baptism shows your devotion to God and your faith in him. And also since baptism is a community thing, it feels good to be part of that community and be baptized as well. I want to affirm my baptism to become part of that same community.
To be a follower of Jesus Christ today is sometimes tricky. There are unfortunately some people who take religion to extreme lengths and become outright rude and offensive towards other groups of people, which may cause a bad representation of that religion. I believe that if you don’t make it the absolute center part of your life, then you can be a follower and a good, all accepting person. In the past the Christian Church did do bad things such as racism, homophobia, and violent colonization. But the key word there is “past” we’ve changed and are better than that. But some things become set in stone and it’s very hard to change that.
I think the mission of the church is to change the negative stereotypes given by the louder voices of the past and provide some sort of safe place for anybody. No matter who they are and what they do. Because in the church, all are accepted.
I do question how closely God is watching us, especially in years like 2020, with an all loving and powerful God, why wouldn’t they protect their creation from terrible fires and illness? Nevertheless we powered through it. And I think it could have just been God testing our resilience. Another faith question which may sound trivial, how do we pronounce God? Is it G-o-d as we have been pronouncing it, or is it J-o-d? I would hate to mispronounce someone’s name.
I plan to nurture my faith by going to church and working hard to make the small part of the world around me better.