One thing that is hard for Christians to understand sometimes is how to treat sin, when God has called us to a life of holiness. The problem is that sometimes we reject the sin and the sinner at the same time. But God doesn't reject people. In fact, Jesus said that He came to heal not the healthy but the sick. (Mark 2:1)7
John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
“พระวาทะได้ทรงบังเกิดเป็นมนุษย์และทรงอยู่ท่ามกลางเรา บริบูรณ์ด้วยพระคุณและความจริง เราทั้งหลายได้เห็นพระสิริของพระองค์ คือพระสิริอันสมกับพระบุตรองค์เดี่ยวของพระบิดา”
Quote: “Jesus was 100% grace and 100% truth, not 50% grace and 50% truth. He made sinners feel sinful, yet they couldn’t keep away from Him!” – Randy Alcorn, The Grace and Truth Paradox
If anyone could be both, it was Jesus.
Jesus was holy, yet He made sinners feel loved. This is part of God’s glory. Can you believe that? The One who can judge us has mercy on us!
What is grace? – receiving something we don’t deserve
What is truth? – reality
(You don’t have to say aloud.) Have you ever had a situation where you had a friend you really loved, but this friend was doing something you didn’t agree with (and possibly it was because what they were doing was hurting them)? What would you do?
God is holy. Yet I think one reason that God hates sin is that sin hurts us so much. God loves us so much. Sin hurts us. Sin hurts God because He loves us. (Gal. 5:1 – freedom, and John 10:10 – life to the full)
Christianity is not a religion of rules, but of love. Yet this does not mean condoning sin. Sin is NOT okay.
How do we show we love people and yet not accept what they are doing?
Jesus was called by His enemies as a “friend of sinners”. Let’s look at some stories of Jesus when He associated with people that His society considered sinful (or unacceptable, like Samaritans).
Luke 7:36-50 – Anointing of Jesus by the sinful woman
Luke 19:1-9 – Zaccheus
John 4:1-30, 39-42 – The Woman at the Well
John 8:1-11 – Scribbling in the sand
(Note that the Pharisees, the religiously strict, wanted to reject these people!)
How did Jesus treat people so that He showed them what they were doing was not right, and yet He did not reject them?
Now let’s talk about love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
And then, “The greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13)
Love is faith
Love is hope
Because love is believing the best in a person, giving them the benefit of the doubt.
There is a quote from a song: “Why did they nail His hands and feet? His love would have held Him there.” Jesus loved us that much.
And, 1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
I like to think that the best way to make a person behave is to make them feel loved – not demanding love, but free love.
What do you think?
Babies die when they don’t feel loved, when they don’t receive enough hugs and care.
Love is like the breath of life. Withhold love, and people will wither. (หัวใจฟ่อ)
Not loving hurts people.
Sin hurts people
That is why we must love, yet not accept sin.
I am not perfect. I have failed many times, with my family, friends, even people I don’t know – to show love. Yet God shows me GRACE as He teaches me His TRUTH. I think this lesson is one I might spend all my life learning, because it is so important.
Even for a wicked person we don’t know, we must have compassion. We are called to love our enemies. Hate hurts us too.
How can we love our enemies?
“It is the greatest feeling is to be fully known, and fully loved.” – if we can help give that to a person, we can help them to grow. “The One Who knows us best, all our weaknesses, even, loves us the MOST.”
We may say we don’t agree/don’t like what someone is doing. BUT Jesus calls us to love them. He did it for us.
family
coworker
friend
person we don’t know
What does it mean to love the sinner and not the sin?
Jesus said for us to forgive, that our Heavenly Father might forgive us as well. I have this idea that unforgiveness may be the unpardonable sin (I don't know, but it could be) - if love is like the breath of life, then I think that is why it is so important for humans to have forgiveness and God does not withhold it from us. We need it to live!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
I feel terribly stressed, completely tired and freaked out. I had a terrible dream early this morning. Then I felt better later, and then worse again.
I think I have not been interacting with people enough. The problem with this is that if I get a streak of solitude, then I really don't want to see anyone anymore, lonely as I feel...and much as I may need it.
It seems like people are busy right now...and the good friends I can really talk with are so far away...ah, cursed globalization...so that a good deal of my close friendships are on the Internet - and I rather wish it weren't that way because I should have more of a life in the REAL world. But they are very special friends...I value their friendship so much. But then, they are also busy and having fun visiting other friends, attending social gatherings... Also I work alone at my office most of the day because my boss is gone for summer break...the maid comes in the morning and then she's gone by lunch because there's hardly anything to do. I think I'm slowly languishing. I have another month of "solitude". I guess some of it can be a good thing...sometimes we need time "away" but if I get enough time "away" then I almost don't want to see anyone anymore.
This is why this blog is filled up this month and probably will continue thus in the month to come! I need someone to "talk" to.
I feel a bit burned out too...there are all these little requests to do this and that, and they add up. :P And I lack focus at work because there is no guidance and I'm not good at pushing myself to do stuff with no motivation from outer sources. I guess it is time to learn!
A lot of the stuff people ask me to do is enjoyable stuff, but when it starts to add up it's just too much. :P :P :P And if I'm not doing too well in the first place...and also I can't seem to help stressing about it...even when I tell myself it's not a big deal and I don't have to do it perfectly...
:|
I think I have not been interacting with people enough. The problem with this is that if I get a streak of solitude, then I really don't want to see anyone anymore, lonely as I feel...and much as I may need it.
It seems like people are busy right now...and the good friends I can really talk with are so far away...ah, cursed globalization...so that a good deal of my close friendships are on the Internet - and I rather wish it weren't that way because I should have more of a life in the REAL world. But they are very special friends...I value their friendship so much. But then, they are also busy and having fun visiting other friends, attending social gatherings... Also I work alone at my office most of the day because my boss is gone for summer break...the maid comes in the morning and then she's gone by lunch because there's hardly anything to do. I think I'm slowly languishing. I have another month of "solitude". I guess some of it can be a good thing...sometimes we need time "away" but if I get enough time "away" then I almost don't want to see anyone anymore.
This is why this blog is filled up this month and probably will continue thus in the month to come! I need someone to "talk" to.
I feel a bit burned out too...there are all these little requests to do this and that, and they add up. :P And I lack focus at work because there is no guidance and I'm not good at pushing myself to do stuff with no motivation from outer sources. I guess it is time to learn!
A lot of the stuff people ask me to do is enjoyable stuff, but when it starts to add up it's just too much. :P :P :P And if I'm not doing too well in the first place...and also I can't seem to help stressing about it...even when I tell myself it's not a big deal and I don't have to do it perfectly...
:|
I have this key on my keyboard that's not working too well...it's the number "1" key...the interesting thing is that if you strike it with normal force it just doesn't work...it won't budge and it acts stuck. But if you know where to press, and you press gently, it works quite well. I think people...a lot of people...may be like that. Lol.
Wow...I wish we didn't have to be skeptical, pragmatic, and circumspect to navigate life and relationships with other people. It would be nice if being naive, innocuous, giving the benefit of the doubt and believing the best in others could always be the rule of thumb....but - and I don't mean this in bitterness - I think it is part of wisdom to be a bit wary. I guess this is part of sin. We cannot live life totally unaware; we must be "gentle as doves, shrewd as serpents" (Proverbs). I guess I wish all the good things I imagine could be true, but then I would be divine -I would have the power to make things happen. Well, I wish I (and the world) were wired so that that could be possible.
One of the things I look forward to each day is taking in new data about the world. But sometimes the data is very depressing. I am so depressed...how am I going to share in cell group tonight?
So it turns out I need a new cell phone. Maybe it is okay to dally about getting it. At first I thought I should hurry, but maybe peace and quiet for awhile would be nice.
One of the things I look forward to each day is taking in new data about the world. But sometimes the data is very depressing. I am so depressed...how am I going to share in cell group tonight?
So it turns out I need a new cell phone. Maybe it is okay to dally about getting it. At first I thought I should hurry, but maybe peace and quiet for awhile would be nice.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
My brain is completely overactive lately. I know, because otherwise I wouldn't be posting so much. The thoughts just need somewhere to go! But the problem is I am so distracted too...instead of being able to concentrate on things I should be doing...
My perspective on life flips over at least a couple times a day. I think maybe it has something to do with having an empathic mind. As soon as I step into another person's shoes then life looks and feels different. I have to learn to do this and still be myself...empathy and sympathy are not synonymous but if you make them so it will get you into all sorts of sticky situations emotion-wise.
It is such a wonderful thing when a person becomes the person they could become...when they fulfill their potential. It is a wonderful thing also to see this happening when a person comes to Christ. You see them more peaceful, more confident. Suddenly you see a glimpse of the work that Christ will one day complete in them, and it is so exciting!
My perspective on life flips over at least a couple times a day. I think maybe it has something to do with having an empathic mind. As soon as I step into another person's shoes then life looks and feels different. I have to learn to do this and still be myself...empathy and sympathy are not synonymous but if you make them so it will get you into all sorts of sticky situations emotion-wise.
It is such a wonderful thing when a person becomes the person they could become...when they fulfill their potential. It is a wonderful thing also to see this happening when a person comes to Christ. You see them more peaceful, more confident. Suddenly you see a glimpse of the work that Christ will one day complete in them, and it is so exciting!
Maybe it is time to learn to trust my own intuitions a bit more, rather than going with the opinions of other people (who don't necessarily live their lives the way I would like to live mine personally - I don't mean they're doing something wrong, at all...just - I need to live my own life)...which - I need to learn that it is okay to disagree, and that maybe my own intuitions have
So much of my mind's guidance about living is intuition...only sometimes I don't follow my intuitions - which is maybe why I am a very confused person sometimes. :o But I have started to learn that my intuitions are actually right and good a lot of the time. They tend to be a combination of subconscious observation/realization and reasoning that runs pretty deep or else pretty far into the future - so that my conscious mind isn't always inclined to listen to it, with its focus on the present and pragmatism and what is "known".
I wonder if at times following intuition could be faith. I mean, it could be the opposite too. But what I mean is that the world generally doesn't justify following intuitions; it is mostly hard logic and pragmatism...but the truth is a lot of the time God calls us to do things that defy hard logic and pragmatism. And although we are called to seek the counsel of those who are wise, sometimes the people who fill our heads with their counsel are not wise. Too often I have found that "advice" is personal prejudice, preference, bias, or judgmentalism.
I feel like I need some sort of rule of thumb for when to follow intuition (lol - an unintuitive guide to following intuition), but the truth is, in the end (and the beginning) it is God who we must go to. "He is the first and last...before all that has been, beyond all that will pass..." (Steven Curtis Chapman song, 'God Is God') Whether it has to do with following intuition and feeling or pragmatism and logic, I think that one is not more "right" than the other. The question is, "What does God call us to?" - "a man plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps..."
One last note - the heart is also the first and the last thing to evaluate in a situation, whether it be your own heart or another person's.
So much of my mind's guidance about living is intuition...only sometimes I don't follow my intuitions - which is maybe why I am a very confused person sometimes. :o But I have started to learn that my intuitions are actually right and good a lot of the time. They tend to be a combination of subconscious observation/realization and reasoning that runs pretty deep or else pretty far into the future - so that my conscious mind isn't always inclined to listen to it, with its focus on the present and pragmatism and what is "known".
I wonder if at times following intuition could be faith. I mean, it could be the opposite too. But what I mean is that the world generally doesn't justify following intuitions; it is mostly hard logic and pragmatism...but the truth is a lot of the time God calls us to do things that defy hard logic and pragmatism. And although we are called to seek the counsel of those who are wise, sometimes the people who fill our heads with their counsel are not wise. Too often I have found that "advice" is personal prejudice, preference, bias, or judgmentalism.
I feel like I need some sort of rule of thumb for when to follow intuition (lol - an unintuitive guide to following intuition), but the truth is, in the end (and the beginning) it is God who we must go to. "He is the first and last...before all that has been, beyond all that will pass..." (Steven Curtis Chapman song, 'God Is God') Whether it has to do with following intuition and feeling or pragmatism and logic, I think that one is not more "right" than the other. The question is, "What does God call us to?" - "a man plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps..."
One last note - the heart is also the first and the last thing to evaluate in a situation, whether it be your own heart or another person's.
I was having some fun with the new blogsearch.google.com feature and testing to see whether my name would generate any results. It did one!
Apparently I posted this in the Third Culture Kids Everywhere group on Facebook quite some time ago. I had forgotten I wrote it! Someone quoted me in their blog...so I'm stealing it back now, because I haven't thought about this for a long time - but it is true, and it is still affecting my life...it kind of relates to what I said a few posts earlier about feeling non-grown up and old at the same time. :-)
I think TCKs tend to appear very mature in some areas and very naive in others. As a result it is hard to judge our age. Do you think this is true? Sometimes we feel very old and mature and other times very young and naive, and we also come across both ways to others. I have observed this in myself and in other TCKs. My explanation is that it is probably because we have been immersed in many cultures, but never fully immersed in one. So we are “fuller” than other people in one dimension and less so in another.
Interesting that someone else agreed enough to re-post in their blog and say they agreed and use it as a discussion topic! I would say this used to be very obvious to me when I thought a lot about TCK-ness, but nowadays I haven't thought about that topic much and I had forgotten! Lol. I guess even a couple years later after posting it I still haven't lost the quality of being both mature and naive...SO true. :P
I have not had as much TCK experience as many other TCKs. I just my life pretty equally split between Thailand and America. But I do think a lot about what experience I have had...
Apparently I posted this in the Third Culture Kids Everywhere group on Facebook quite some time ago. I had forgotten I wrote it! Someone quoted me in their blog...so I'm stealing it back now, because I haven't thought about this for a long time - but it is true, and it is still affecting my life...it kind of relates to what I said a few posts earlier about feeling non-grown up and old at the same time. :-)
I think TCKs tend to appear very mature in some areas and very naive in others. As a result it is hard to judge our age. Do you think this is true? Sometimes we feel very old and mature and other times very young and naive, and we also come across both ways to others. I have observed this in myself and in other TCKs. My explanation is that it is probably because we have been immersed in many cultures, but never fully immersed in one. So we are “fuller” than other people in one dimension and less so in another.
Interesting that someone else agreed enough to re-post in their blog and say they agreed and use it as a discussion topic! I would say this used to be very obvious to me when I thought a lot about TCK-ness, but nowadays I haven't thought about that topic much and I had forgotten! Lol. I guess even a couple years later after posting it I still haven't lost the quality of being both mature and naive...SO true. :P
I have not had as much TCK experience as many other TCKs. I just my life pretty equally split between Thailand and America. But I do think a lot about what experience I have had...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sometimes when you realize someone loves you very much, it hurts...because you wonder how to return it (I don't mean "repay" but sometimes you just want to love them back but you don't know how to express that you do love them back too) - I guess the answer is just by loving them - but it is just so very special to be loved (just...loved - non-romantic). It just makes me ache when I think about it.
So apparently I am a neurotic but not a complete neurotic. I am trying to figure this thing out. For example, during the evening in my room I saw a big cockroach sauntering toward the rubbish bin. So - I hadn't seen any cockroaches for the longest time...a real blessing! but there used to be loads of them in the bathroom...it was such a problem when we first moved here...so that I have become sort of neurotic about cockroaches. This was the first one in a long time. Well...I was like, I should be freaking out...but I guess I went into denial? I don't know...but I knew there was a cockroach around there. Then later I was eating dinner and I went to the sink to wash my hands and I knew it was close by...sure enough, it was lurking in the shadows. So I decided it was time and I grabbed a long-handled broom and starting smashing him. Then he hid behind some boxes and so I started moving stuff around and whacking and then I started screaming too...because I was getting freaked out at the thought of the cockroach being close to me and also that it was injured and I had injured it was freaky. So my roommate came over and finished him off and calmly disposed of it...(all the while talking on the phone w/ a friend). Meanwhile I scream a little bit more then I wash my hands and go back to dinner and calmly finish dinner...
This is why I say I am neurotic but not a complete neurotic. My roommate said I was cruel. I asked why. She said because I was so freaked out but I was killing it anyway.
This is why I say I am neurotic but not a complete neurotic. My roommate said I was cruel. I asked why. She said because I was so freaked out but I was killing it anyway.
The weather in the evenings has been so beautiful lately. The sun takes its time going down, and there is a cool, fresh quality about the air...maybe from the plants rejoicing in the cooler weather of this month.
I do not think I can stay in Thailand for much longer. I enjoy the culture, and I love the place, but I cannot live life as one long extended hang out phase. I need more meaning in life.
Now that I am thinking of moving, I think perhaps it is time to buy a new camera. Besides being pretty beat up and not functioning so well, my camera has joined the multitudes of cameras that make people look bad in pictures. I can't stand that. I think people are so lovely...but most cameras do not do them justice, and some cameras should be locked up forever - like mine. Now that I have saved up money - that was the only thing I ever really thought of saving up a whole lot of money for - a really good SL camera...like a Nikon D70 or 80...(the only thing I've ever really wanted to be rich for is to visit the people I love who are scattered around the world)...maybe I will go out and buy a camera. But maybe it won't be an SL after all...I don't want to deplete my savings. I just want a camera that makes people look nice...as close to real life as possible - and that captures the beauty of color. And maybe now I think compactness is a factor to look for. I used to like photography enough to carry a really cumbersome camera around for good shots, but now I just want a camera with good features where you can adjust lighting and have several modes but that isn't huge...
I think I get on the Internet way too much. I am thinking that maybe I need a project...so that whenever I think of getting on the Internet, I work on this thing instead. In a month or so, instead of hours wasted online, I'll have something beautiful to show for my time. :-)
I think that probably I will struggle with depression all my life. I guess it has something to do with openness and sensitivity to beauty...because then you filter less...leaving the door wide open to take in beauty also means a lot of other things steal in too...and you're just as sensitive to the things that are not beautiful in life.
I freak out when I think about change...like people aging. Maybe that's why I want a camera to capture the beauty of the moment...how a person looks just at this point in life. Oh, the next moments will be beautiful in their own way, but I hate to think about change...enough that sometimes I think I would rather die now than live to see it. If only I could realize - the things we no longer have when we are in heaven...will be replaced with things infinitely greater. But I have trouble imagining infinitely greater - so maybe C.S. Lewis was right to write about things just a bit greater than what we know here on earth, so that we could catch a glimpse of what heaven might be like (rather than having to imagine something beyond our imagination and rely on logic).
I wonder if I will ever feel grown up. Somehow I doubt it. I thought I'd feel grown up three years ago, at twenty - and I still do not now. Maybe that is actually the case for most people (like some song I heard last week, "You're not the only one who feels like the only one..."). But then, feeling grown up and feeling old are not the same. I felt old a long time ago. Maybe it is when I actually grow old that I will feel young - because then, I will have been exposed to so much that much of it won't matter anymore. That is perhaps when we recover the spirit of youth...the bliss of ignorance, or perhaps in this case, informed ignorance. How much do most things really matter? Not THAT much; in the light of eternity only some things stand the test of time.
I think life is like a bell curve. During the first twenty years or so, things matter more and more to our conscious mind as we age. (I think it's the reverse for the subconscious...for the first few years of our lives, what is ingrained in our subconscious is going to affect us the most for the rest of our lives.) Then for the next 40 or so we learn to let things matter less, and maybe the last 20 we start to return to the state we were born in (never completely, and not in the same way...but: "I have LEARNED one thing - that I know nothing.").
I do not think I can stay in Thailand for much longer. I enjoy the culture, and I love the place, but I cannot live life as one long extended hang out phase. I need more meaning in life.
Now that I am thinking of moving, I think perhaps it is time to buy a new camera. Besides being pretty beat up and not functioning so well, my camera has joined the multitudes of cameras that make people look bad in pictures. I can't stand that. I think people are so lovely...but most cameras do not do them justice, and some cameras should be locked up forever - like mine. Now that I have saved up money - that was the only thing I ever really thought of saving up a whole lot of money for - a really good SL camera...like a Nikon D70 or 80...(the only thing I've ever really wanted to be rich for is to visit the people I love who are scattered around the world)...maybe I will go out and buy a camera. But maybe it won't be an SL after all...I don't want to deplete my savings. I just want a camera that makes people look nice...as close to real life as possible - and that captures the beauty of color. And maybe now I think compactness is a factor to look for. I used to like photography enough to carry a really cumbersome camera around for good shots, but now I just want a camera with good features where you can adjust lighting and have several modes but that isn't huge...
I think I get on the Internet way too much. I am thinking that maybe I need a project...so that whenever I think of getting on the Internet, I work on this thing instead. In a month or so, instead of hours wasted online, I'll have something beautiful to show for my time. :-)
I think that probably I will struggle with depression all my life. I guess it has something to do with openness and sensitivity to beauty...because then you filter less...leaving the door wide open to take in beauty also means a lot of other things steal in too...and you're just as sensitive to the things that are not beautiful in life.
I freak out when I think about change...like people aging. Maybe that's why I want a camera to capture the beauty of the moment...how a person looks just at this point in life. Oh, the next moments will be beautiful in their own way, but I hate to think about change...enough that sometimes I think I would rather die now than live to see it. If only I could realize - the things we no longer have when we are in heaven...will be replaced with things infinitely greater. But I have trouble imagining infinitely greater - so maybe C.S. Lewis was right to write about things just a bit greater than what we know here on earth, so that we could catch a glimpse of what heaven might be like (rather than having to imagine something beyond our imagination and rely on logic).
I wonder if I will ever feel grown up. Somehow I doubt it. I thought I'd feel grown up three years ago, at twenty - and I still do not now. Maybe that is actually the case for most people (like some song I heard last week, "You're not the only one who feels like the only one..."). But then, feeling grown up and feeling old are not the same. I felt old a long time ago. Maybe it is when I actually grow old that I will feel young - because then, I will have been exposed to so much that much of it won't matter anymore. That is perhaps when we recover the spirit of youth...the bliss of ignorance, or perhaps in this case, informed ignorance. How much do most things really matter? Not THAT much; in the light of eternity only some things stand the test of time.
I think life is like a bell curve. During the first twenty years or so, things matter more and more to our conscious mind as we age. (I think it's the reverse for the subconscious...for the first few years of our lives, what is ingrained in our subconscious is going to affect us the most for the rest of our lives.) Then for the next 40 or so we learn to let things matter less, and maybe the last 20 we start to return to the state we were born in (never completely, and not in the same way...but: "I have LEARNED one thing - that I know nothing.").
Monday, July 28, 2008
Oh...this is a very good verse for this moment!! It was from "Daily Bible Verse" on Facebook... sometimes those are very good!
" Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hebrews 12:1
With this thought, I am going to call it quits for tonight and get a good night's rest. :)
Six more posts and I will have exceeded the number of posts that I made last July. I know there is a lot of random struggling through life here, but hopefully there is also some meaningful stuff mixed in along with it all. That is what life is like...you struggle, and you learn...the learning is all mixed in there.
My cell phone is not charging...I think the problem is with the phone. :P This should be a good excuse to buy a new phone (I have such an old model) but I don't feel like spending the money...also I had just bought a new cover for it - a beautiful shade of blue...and Isra had given me a little silicone jacket for it for my birthday (such a sweet, thoughtful gift...he is so good!!). I'm a bit attached to this phone!
My cell phone is not charging...I think the problem is with the phone. :P This should be a good excuse to buy a new phone (I have such an old model) but I don't feel like spending the money...also I had just bought a new cover for it - a beautiful shade of blue...and Isra had given me a little silicone jacket for it for my birthday (such a sweet, thoughtful gift...he is so good!!). I'm a bit attached to this phone!
It is so bad when you feel lonely but instead of talking to people you avoid them even more. Tonight isn't a very good night. I should be used to saying good bye to people, but I am not - the world is just too big! :P Also I am starting to feel the itch to move on...it seems like once I've been about 2 years in one place then I feel like I need to move. :P Hmm...seriously - it starts to feel claustrophobic. The world is so big - how can you stay in one place for more than a year or two? Okay - not to panic. Change can be good.
We cannot control other people's lives...we so cannot control other people's lives. If we try we will fail or else muddle things up dangerously.
The first characteristic about love is that it is patient. But we must have wisdom about where to love with this quality (although we must also let it permeate our lives). "But the greatest of these is love..." Love is patient because love is faith, and hope.
I think humans can derive great joy from the act of loving...or from being loving. To give - without expecting things in return, but just to give - to show the other person how special they are...even just little presents...to understand... - brings great joy.
It is part of being made in the image of God, who is love. We do have a great capacity to love...we derive great joy from loving.
But these are very simple reflections. I will admit there are complexing factors...like sin and our fallen human nature.
The first characteristic about love is that it is patient. But we must have wisdom about where to love with this quality (although we must also let it permeate our lives). "But the greatest of these is love..." Love is patient because love is faith, and hope.
I think humans can derive great joy from the act of loving...or from being loving. To give - without expecting things in return, but just to give - to show the other person how special they are...even just little presents...to understand... - brings great joy.
It is part of being made in the image of God, who is love. We do have a great capacity to love...we derive great joy from loving.
But these are very simple reflections. I will admit there are complexing factors...like sin and our fallen human nature.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Okay, I'm going to start writing...and say that I really don't know where I'm going with this. I'm just going to write. I think I cannot sleep because I did not eat enough today. :P I kind of forgot...I wasn't hungry and now I am. But what can you get at nearly midnight...I don't feel like going out.
I feel a little bit ashamed right now...just thinking about how limited my perspective on life can be. I really limit the world to what I know, even if in my knowledge I acknowledge how much there is I do not know. But somehow it seems like I don't take the implications of my acknowledgment into consideration. The world is so big, so vast, people so complex, their experiences so varied. Just think - within one day, how many different situations one person meets...take a composite of a year's worth of those situations, then twenty years' worth if the person is twenty, plus the number of years above twenty if they are older than twenty...
Seriously.
I take so much in and react so much via intuition. The problem with this is that you know so much and you know nothing at all. Maybe I need to learn to acknowledge intuition.
Maybe the hard thing about intuition is that it is not very bounded. It is easy to get overwhelmed...or maybe it has to do with being an "open" person, like on the "OCEAN" personality test...how it is hard to acknowledge how vast things really are because just the small amount you do know for sure is already enough to overwhelm you.
Does that make sense? It makes a lot of sense to me.
Goodness - there are so many thoughts floating around my head that really affect my life but that I never take the time to acknowledge...I live my life by them, but I don't always realize it - because they are such givens to me.
I think I have had enough excitement for one day...so many different conversations, all meaningful. It is wonderful to interact with people...but it always gets me a little overexcited - you realize...there is so much to life.
Maybe that is part of what it means to be made in the image of God (it hit me today that falling short of the image of God is falling short of holiness...holiness is glorious!) - that is why we must interact with people. Because there is that boundlessness about people. Inside every person is a universe - I have said this many times...but truly - people reflect God in their diversity, their limitlessness - every person has these qualities to them.
Maybe some people just want to see more of the world, of the universe. Well, you have not if you have not talked to people...(of course, there are the closed ones...closed-minded people - who might actually shut you in more)...
This is getting ridiculous. I think maybe the thing I started taking for my mood isn't working...or is working too well. I'm not necessarily excited about anything in particular or unsettled but I can't calm down...and it is frustrating. There must be some sort of balance...
But seriously - there is something about going out and seeing the world, meeting people, doing things...that is very meaningful.
I feel a little bit ashamed right now...just thinking about how limited my perspective on life can be. I really limit the world to what I know, even if in my knowledge I acknowledge how much there is I do not know. But somehow it seems like I don't take the implications of my acknowledgment into consideration. The world is so big, so vast, people so complex, their experiences so varied. Just think - within one day, how many different situations one person meets...take a composite of a year's worth of those situations, then twenty years' worth if the person is twenty, plus the number of years above twenty if they are older than twenty...
Seriously.
I take so much in and react so much via intuition. The problem with this is that you know so much and you know nothing at all. Maybe I need to learn to acknowledge intuition.
Maybe the hard thing about intuition is that it is not very bounded. It is easy to get overwhelmed...or maybe it has to do with being an "open" person, like on the "OCEAN" personality test...how it is hard to acknowledge how vast things really are because just the small amount you do know for sure is already enough to overwhelm you.
Does that make sense? It makes a lot of sense to me.
Goodness - there are so many thoughts floating around my head that really affect my life but that I never take the time to acknowledge...I live my life by them, but I don't always realize it - because they are such givens to me.
I think I have had enough excitement for one day...so many different conversations, all meaningful. It is wonderful to interact with people...but it always gets me a little overexcited - you realize...there is so much to life.
Maybe that is part of what it means to be made in the image of God (it hit me today that falling short of the image of God is falling short of holiness...holiness is glorious!) - that is why we must interact with people. Because there is that boundlessness about people. Inside every person is a universe - I have said this many times...but truly - people reflect God in their diversity, their limitlessness - every person has these qualities to them.
Maybe some people just want to see more of the world, of the universe. Well, you have not if you have not talked to people...(of course, there are the closed ones...closed-minded people - who might actually shut you in more)...
This is getting ridiculous. I think maybe the thing I started taking for my mood isn't working...or is working too well. I'm not necessarily excited about anything in particular or unsettled but I can't calm down...and it is frustrating. There must be some sort of balance...
But seriously - there is something about going out and seeing the world, meeting people, doing things...that is very meaningful.
Friday, July 25, 2008
"This is what the LORD says, He who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it--the LORD is His name: 'Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'" - Jeremiah 33:2-3
However, as it is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." -- but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
However, as it is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." -- but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. - 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I have to say I really think my posts last July were much more worth reading! So now I'm wondering what was going on in my life at this point last year that made me write things that uplift me at this point when much seems meaningless. But then - perhaps they have the grace of a year's age to flavour them...(to quote Elnora from A Girl of the Limberlost). It always takes me awhile to accept my posts. Also those posts sounded a bit philosophical. This year I think I'm turning mystical. :-)
Actually I know the answer. I've been rather self-focused lately in my posts. Also, I haven't taken the time to chase down the complex thoughts...because it does take work to record the random thought-workings of your mind each day...to trace how you got to each epiphany. Or sometimes stuff is so complex you just don't feel like thinking about it anymore. I think I have been lazy...I haven't wanted to think about the hard things enough to come and really write about them. I remember I had something worth writing and then I just kind of dismissed it in a fit of feeling overwhelmed with life...or else maybe just thinking I was getting too excited about things. I think I won't be so lazy anymore. I just realized it is so very good to have some thoughts recorded to look back on and encourage you when you feel down. And now I remember one of the significant things I wanted to post:
Unforgiveness may be the unpardonable sin.
More on all that later.
Actually I know the answer. I've been rather self-focused lately in my posts. Also, I haven't taken the time to chase down the complex thoughts...because it does take work to record the random thought-workings of your mind each day...to trace how you got to each epiphany. Or sometimes stuff is so complex you just don't feel like thinking about it anymore. I think I have been lazy...I haven't wanted to think about the hard things enough to come and really write about them. I remember I had something worth writing and then I just kind of dismissed it in a fit of feeling overwhelmed with life...or else maybe just thinking I was getting too excited about things. I think I won't be so lazy anymore. I just realized it is so very good to have some thoughts recorded to look back on and encourage you when you feel down. And now I remember one of the significant things I wanted to post:
Unforgiveness may be the unpardonable sin.
More on all that later.
:| I definitely avoid the truth when I don't like it...or don't know how to deal with it. And meanwhile I grow more and more miserable and frustrated and upset as the sense of "mai sabai jai" increases...
I wonder whether it is more important to explore inside ourselves or to explore the universe. Somehow I think neither will solve any problems. Most explorations don't help unless they bring us to a better understanding of truth (that which is) and we cannot come to an understanding of truth unless we are honest with ourselves.
Funny how we can have two sides fighting it out inside of us...how we can be aware of both voices. Who is the third one who "hears" the voices? So maybe we are three inside of us. :-)
I want to try and say something meaningful tonight. Well, maybe I will let this article I found online at http://hbcprotocols.com/misery.html say it for me...
I wonder whether it is more important to explore inside ourselves or to explore the universe. Somehow I think neither will solve any problems. Most explorations don't help unless they bring us to a better understanding of truth (that which is) and we cannot come to an understanding of truth unless we are honest with ourselves.
Funny how we can have two sides fighting it out inside of us...how we can be aware of both voices. Who is the third one who "hears" the voices? So maybe we are three inside of us. :-)
I want to try and say something meaningful tonight. Well, maybe I will let this article I found online at http://hbcprotocols.com/misery.html say it for me...
Studies Suggest the Mind Makes, Breaks its Misery Brain research indicates that people are hard-wired for empathy, and that faith affects the experience of their own agony and that of others.
Feburary 20, 2004
Pain, like beauty, is in the mind's eye. It is altered by empathy and tempered by faith, three new brain-imaging studies suggest. The bewitching effect of belief can alter directly how strongly people feel pain, causing measurable changes in brain cells and synapses whether the torment is theirs or a loved one's. The new findings, made public today by independent research teams at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, UCLA, and University College London, offer the strongest evidence yet of how the brain thinks about pain.
Mapping the neural anatomy of pain, the researchers documented the ways in which the brain created a world of its own from the raw material of physical sensation. Using medical imaging scanners to monitor brain activity, researchers at Michigan, UCLA and Princeton revealed that simple faith in a placebo could alter the neural circuits that process pain, easing the agony.
In a separate experiment, the researchers at University College showed that the brain was a mirror of suffering, reflecting through many of the same neural circuits the pain that others feel, much as if the sensation were its own genuine torment. Indeed, the brain's ability to share another's response to pain at such a fundamental cellular level may be the key to a sense of empathy, the personality trait that underpins so many human relationships, researchers said. "These brain regions are critical to the interplay between the outside world and you," said neuropsychologist Helen Mayberg at Emory University in Atlanta. By directly monitoring mental activity, the researchers showed how expectations and anticipation molded the brain's response to the physical sensation of pain. To a certain degree, pain is an act of imagination. "We are zeroing in on some pathways where our thoughts and beliefs are changing our physical and emotional experience," UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman said. "We don't typically think of those as things we can control." Each team used brain mapping techniques to survey the same neural terrain from three slightly different perspectives.
Two of the studies were published today in the journal Science. The third will be published next month in Neuroimaging. To better understand pain and empathy, a team led by social psychologist Tania Singer at the Institute of Neurology at University College tested 19 couples who, because they were romantically involved, could be expected to be attuned to each other. One woman from each pair was monitored with a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Her neural activity was recorded first as researchers gave her a brief electric shock, then as her partner received the same shock. The researchers discovered that the same critical brain regions involved in processing the physical sensation of pain were activated in each case. Feelings of empathy for another's pain triggered regions of the brain responsible for processing pain, much as if it were a direct sensation, researchers discovered.
To Singer and her colleagues, it strongly suggested that humans were hard-wired for empathy."We are pretty sure that it is a universal mechanism," Singer said. "It is how we can put ourselves emotionally in another's shoes." To investigate how belief affects the brain's response to pain, Lieberman and his UCLA colleagues conducted brain scans of 14 patients given a placebo to treat their chronic abdominal pain. The experiment revealed that the patients' faith in the substance they were given eased their symptoms and also produced physical changes in areas of the brain that processed pain. The greater the brain changes, the greater the reduction in pain, the researchers determined.
At Michigan and Princeton, researchers produced even more compelling evidence that the expectation of relief caused physical changes in how the brain handled pain. They tested dozens of volunteers by giving them shocks while monitoring their neural activity in a brain scanner. Then researchers gave all the volunteers a placebo in the form of a harmless cream the patients were told would prevent the pain. Then the scientists conducted another round of shocks. The expectation of relief was enough to cause physical changes in those pain-processing areas of the brain, offering evidence of the placebo effect. "We actually see physical changes in the brain that correspond closely to changes in symptoms that the patients report," said psychologist Tor Wager, who led the Michigan research team. The researchers determined that pain depended not only on the actual sensory signals from nerves that the brain received but also on a person's emotional state.
The Facebook Gifts application has 10,000,000 little virtual birthday cakes for $1 each. I find it very disturbing that people might spend $10,000,000 on virtual birthday cake. I can see people buying this cake...a dollar here and there. But then...there's lots of disturbing stuff nowadays. There's lots of disturbing stuff all of the time. It's a good thing we have inherent filter mechanisms...or are we just really dead to it all?
It would seem like Facebook would be a good place to rally people toward a good cause or something - but then, Facebook was created for recreation and maybe escape. It would seem that the majority of the time people spend on Facebook is spent escaping real life (real encounters, real action). I think Facebook is very good for popcorn communication - quick messages, even quicker posts, and little snapshots of people's lives - a very good overall picture of a person's life at one point in time. But given human nature...I think Facebook is turning out to be more like the twilight zone - not life giving, but life consuming.
Oh man...I feel like I'm deteriorating. I think my blog posts a year ago definitely had more substance to them. If all I can do is lament at the condition of things - there's already plenty of lamentation going on...we need hope!
It would seem like Facebook would be a good place to rally people toward a good cause or something - but then, Facebook was created for recreation and maybe escape. It would seem that the majority of the time people spend on Facebook is spent escaping real life (real encounters, real action). I think Facebook is very good for popcorn communication - quick messages, even quicker posts, and little snapshots of people's lives - a very good overall picture of a person's life at one point in time. But given human nature...I think Facebook is turning out to be more like the twilight zone - not life giving, but life consuming.
Oh man...I feel like I'm deteriorating. I think my blog posts a year ago definitely had more substance to them. If all I can do is lament at the condition of things - there's already plenty of lamentation going on...we need hope!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
interesting things
I feel disturbed...mai sabai jai...
I think what makes me really sad is how Heath Ledger died. When I see pictures of the Joker from The Dark Knight I think that is why, and it makes me very sad.
Other interesting things: they arrested a protester who committed "lese majeste" - speaking against the monarchy - at my dorm! She was (lived? I don't know) on the opposite side, on the fourth floor...I live on the first. I didn't know a thing, but when I went to by dinner from the vendors in front of my dorm, the "maa ka" - lady vendor - just started talking about it to me. She probably thought I looked very unaware and needed to be enlightened. Or else it was late and she was thinking again of the exciting events from the afternoon - police all over the place, at 1 p.m.! And how probably we will be in the news tomorrow. She was she was running all over the place...couldn't chili the food properly; she was so excited. Lol...you can find the story at http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=128999 and http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=129000
In other news, I randomly found the company that I've been getting all these phone calls for at my office in the past 8-9 months (scores of phone calls, you could say) on the walk home yesterday. They're right across the street from my street! So maybe some things really are right under our noses...or it's coincidence...or finding a needle in a haystack...or being hidden in plain sight...or maybe ignorance or lack of observance on our part! Lol.
I think what makes me really sad is how Heath Ledger died. When I see pictures of the Joker from The Dark Knight I think that is why, and it makes me very sad.
Other interesting things: they arrested a protester who committed "lese majeste" - speaking against the monarchy - at my dorm! She was (lived? I don't know) on the opposite side, on the fourth floor...I live on the first. I didn't know a thing, but when I went to by dinner from the vendors in front of my dorm, the "maa ka" - lady vendor - just started talking about it to me. She probably thought I looked very unaware and needed to be enlightened. Or else it was late and she was thinking again of the exciting events from the afternoon - police all over the place, at 1 p.m.! And how probably we will be in the news tomorrow. She was she was running all over the place...couldn't chili the food properly; she was so excited. Lol...you can find the story at http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=128999 and http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=129000
In other news, I randomly found the company that I've been getting all these phone calls for at my office in the past 8-9 months (scores of phone calls, you could say) on the walk home yesterday. They're right across the street from my street! So maybe some things really are right under our noses...or it's coincidence...or finding a needle in a haystack...or being hidden in plain sight...or maybe ignorance or lack of observance on our part! Lol.
Monday, July 21, 2008
i guess sometimes you cannot hurry life...much as you want to have more input on truth and how things really are...you just have to keep living the day-to-day in order for meaning to unroll.
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
- Rudyard Kipling
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
- Rudyard Kipling
idle ponderings upon a cool summer evening on the lawn
So when I close my eyes and try to rest it never works. My mind just starts thinking so hard! Maybe an wicked fairy godmother cursed me with this at birth.
So maybe I am more of a leaf than a flower. Not that flowers are better than leaves, or leaves than flowers. Both are needed in this world. But then - switch the criteria and the leaves may actually be the flowers or the flowers the leaves. Or maybe some people are flowery leaves and others are leafy flowers. Oh well.
Random thought: Maybe love is the breath of life.
I took a random personality test today that bases your personality on the acronym OCEAN - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. I am apparently very open and sensitive to beauty and also very neurotic. I am quite conscientious and quite agreeable but not very extraverted. Generally these five qualities are good qualities...except for neuroticism, which kind of tortures your life - and I had the most of that. Maybe all this explains why in the 8 or 9 months I have lived here I have actually taken the time to indulge and sit on the stone benches on the lovely lawn in front of my dorm less than 10 times, even if I appreciate it every time I walk by it, I feel worried about bugs and mosquitoes and also having to talk to people. Not that it's such a big deal. But I wonder - I picked this place to live a lot because of this lovely patch of green outside which is so rare in metropolitan Bangkok...
So - that was a lovely moment to sit outside. It was right in between the time the bugs switch reigns...the flies had retired but the mosquitoes had not yet taken up their night shift...
...I really should go and sit outside more often.
So maybe I am more of a leaf than a flower. Not that flowers are better than leaves, or leaves than flowers. Both are needed in this world. But then - switch the criteria and the leaves may actually be the flowers or the flowers the leaves. Or maybe some people are flowery leaves and others are leafy flowers. Oh well.
Random thought: Maybe love is the breath of life.
I took a random personality test today that bases your personality on the acronym OCEAN - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. I am apparently very open and sensitive to beauty and also very neurotic. I am quite conscientious and quite agreeable but not very extraverted. Generally these five qualities are good qualities...except for neuroticism, which kind of tortures your life - and I had the most of that. Maybe all this explains why in the 8 or 9 months I have lived here I have actually taken the time to indulge and sit on the stone benches on the lovely lawn in front of my dorm less than 10 times, even if I appreciate it every time I walk by it, I feel worried about bugs and mosquitoes and also having to talk to people. Not that it's such a big deal. But I wonder - I picked this place to live a lot because of this lovely patch of green outside which is so rare in metropolitan Bangkok...
So - that was a lovely moment to sit outside. It was right in between the time the bugs switch reigns...the flies had retired but the mosquitoes had not yet taken up their night shift...
...I really should go and sit outside more often.
So...why do people use artificial flavouring? When you compare artificial vanilla to real vanilla the artificial thing is so gross! But people use artificial because:
1. It works
2. It's cheaper
3. It is tantalizing to the senses
Sometimes when you walk into the grocery store into the aisles of the stuff that's really worst for you like candy and marshmallows or else when you smell microwave popcorn...it smells very tantalizing - but it's a manufactured tantalizingness...you know you're being worked on...if you're aware enough.
This is a matter of good vs. great. But the fact is, when you were made for great, the good may in fact be lethal.
In God - we have all the riches we need. Never settle! The rich people buy Rolls Royces and Cadillacs because nothing less than the best will do when you can afford it.
Life is freaky!
1. It works
2. It's cheaper
3. It is tantalizing to the senses
Sometimes when you walk into the grocery store into the aisles of the stuff that's really worst for you like candy and marshmallows or else when you smell microwave popcorn...it smells very tantalizing - but it's a manufactured tantalizingness...you know you're being worked on...if you're aware enough.
This is a matter of good vs. great. But the fact is, when you were made for great, the good may in fact be lethal.
In God - we have all the riches we need. Never settle! The rich people buy Rolls Royces and Cadillacs because nothing less than the best will do when you can afford it.
Life is freaky!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
I decided to make a list of things that I really don't like. Not in order of degree...just as they randomly come to mind.
1. The same person telling me the same story over and over again, especially with medium spaces of time in between the tellings...so that it's not long enough for them to possibly have forgotten that they told you before, but not so short as to be continuous. It feels like deja vu and makes me feel detached from reality.
2. Cats fighting.
3. The sound of metal scraping against metal - enough said.
4. Babies crying angrily. Babies and anger just don't go together.
5. Unflattering haircuts. People have so much potential for beauty...why squander it on lousy haircuts?
6. Music that is sung or played just a tad off-key the whole way through.
7. Cynicism. I can't live with a lot of it...it just makes me sort of wither.
8. ...
1. The same person telling me the same story over and over again, especially with medium spaces of time in between the tellings...so that it's not long enough for them to possibly have forgotten that they told you before, but not so short as to be continuous. It feels like deja vu and makes me feel detached from reality.
2. Cats fighting.
3. The sound of metal scraping against metal - enough said.
4. Babies crying angrily. Babies and anger just don't go together.
5. Unflattering haircuts. People have so much potential for beauty...why squander it on lousy haircuts?
6. Music that is sung or played just a tad off-key the whole way through.
7. Cynicism. I can't live with a lot of it...it just makes me sort of wither.
8. ...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Is the secret of growing up that of life becoming more of a torment each day? I understand, just now, how a religion like Buddhism could develop...why people quest for inner peace, and cut themselves off from lust and greed in an effort to cut themselves off from pain. Is this the curse of sin? That the more our eyes are opened to what is, the more pain we experience?
I think that if Christians want to show love and acceptance to people they need to have boundaries. The point being...if love for them equals no boundaries, they will come to a point where they cannot love anymore - because you cannot live life without boundaries...if you live life without boundaries, your life will not be your own.
I think I have seen people turned away from the church because people couldn't "accept" them anymore because they could not say no to their demands. They used dejection (out of fed-up-ness) rather than saying no.
I don't think this is the way to go. We must love and accept the person - help them to see we will always love them - though we may not be able to pander to their every whim or do all they would have us do for them.
There is a way, in love - but we must understand what love is!
I think I have seen people turned away from the church because people couldn't "accept" them anymore because they could not say no to their demands. They used dejection (out of fed-up-ness) rather than saying no.
I don't think this is the way to go. We must love and accept the person - help them to see we will always love them - though we may not be able to pander to their every whim or do all they would have us do for them.
There is a way, in love - but we must understand what love is!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
zANNEniness! :-)
Humanity: You are dust and to dust you will return.
Computers: You are DOS, and to DOS you will return.
The movie In which Humphrey Bollick met Integrate Bergman in Calcablanca and said, "Here's looking at Euclid!" (from "How to Ace Calculus" - which I did not write, lol)
Chocolateship n. A good time eating chocolate together. (They shared a ~ last Friday night.)
[So it seems like people think this sounds spiritual. I just meant a good time! :)]
Computers: You are DOS, and to DOS you will return.
The movie In which Humphrey Bollick met Integrate Bergman in Calcablanca and said, "Here's looking at Euclid!" (from "How to Ace Calculus" - which I did not write, lol)
Chocolateship n. A good time eating chocolate together. (They shared a ~ last Friday night.)
[So it seems like people think this sounds spiritual. I just meant a good time! :)]
so close, and yet so far...
...this is life. So long, and yet so short. Funny how the things that seem the closest to being right can turn out to be the most wrong. Maybe long is short and short is long. Maybe what looks furthest from our reach is most within our grasp whereas what we think is right beneath our noses is impossible to attain. Think backwards for a moment and see if you don't end up ahead of where you started, because perhaps the closest things are the farthest away. And maybe we shouldn't find balance...because balance might turn out to be equilibrium and stagnancy...and could unexpectedly topple us. Maybe we were given two tightropes to walk (i.e. to live the short and the long, the near and the distant) because walking both at the same time would give the greatest balance - in the sense of us balancing because we are living (as opposed to living because we are balancing).
Most of the beautiful things in life are paradoxes...not balances...both/and may = vibrancy and life, not equilibrium.
(2008-07-12...2:37 a.m.)
Most of the beautiful things in life are paradoxes...not balances...both/and may = vibrancy and life, not equilibrium.
(2008-07-12...2:37 a.m.)
Perhaps we should not be so quick to discount anything...anything. The fact being, all things should be taken into consideration because they have some sort of relation to the truth. I think that all things illustrate what is truth in some way, some by being lies. Discounting something because of your personal opinion, prejudice, bias, or anything else you does not change what is...not a single iota. But it does affect you - how you relate to the truth affects who you are.
But there is also truth to be considered not as the one large whole of existence, but as purity - chastity...what is true.
But there is also truth to be considered not as the one large whole of existence, but as purity - chastity...what is true.
"It has been estimated that on the average each human being has about 50,000 thoughts per day." (From "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff," by Robert Carlson)
If you try to count your thoughts you will end up with 100,000 thoughts and no sleep.
Don't count your thoughts...count sheep, or better yet - pray. ;)
If you try to count your thoughts you will end up with 100,000 thoughts and no sleep.
Don't count your thoughts...count sheep, or better yet - pray. ;)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
I think "incognito" is one of my favorite words. Sometimes you need to hide away. The best thing is to do it with style...thus, remaining incognito.
The funny thing is that when I lose my "smiling" perspective on life I can't remember how I ever smiled before and then when I gain it back I can't imagine - seriously - what there was to be so unhappy about. Maybe I can't imagine, but I know it's just around the corner - so I make sure to try and not think about it....the memory road is long but the thinking road is short.
See:
:) :| ;) :( :D :P =) :o) ...life goes by.
That's how it is.
The funny thing is that when I lose my "smiling" perspective on life I can't remember how I ever smiled before and then when I gain it back I can't imagine - seriously - what there was to be so unhappy about. Maybe I can't imagine, but I know it's just around the corner - so I make sure to try and not think about it....the memory road is long but the thinking road is short.
See:
:) :| ;) :( :D :P =) :o) ...life goes by.
That's how it is.
Friday, July 4, 2008
anne's little life questionnaire
The important things in life...
1. Coke or Pepsi?
2. Sprite or 7-Up?
3. Your main source of caffeine: a) coffee, b) tea/green tea, c) chocolate, d) sugar, e) I'm a superhero and I don't need caffeine
4. Mountains or beaches?
5. What is your favorite form of water? (i.e. waterfall, ice, mist, drinking water, ocean, stream, river, etc...)
6. What is your favorite color?
7. What is your favorite color to wear?
8. To recycle or not to recycle?
9. Your favorite classical music composers are...
10. Sunrise or sunset?
11. Chewy or crunchy chocolate chip cookie?
12. Do you have a USB flash drive? If so, what did you name it? (Not "Untitled"! Oh no...go name the poor thing so it has a name to grow into!)
13. What is your favorite numeral from 0-9? Not a "lucky" number, but aesthetic-wise...a number you think is beautiful in form and amount.
14. What sort of music do you NOT like?
15. White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?
16. Life is: a) short, b) long
17. You are person who is: a) cool b) warm
18. The glass is: a) half empty, b) half full
19. Mac, Linux, or PC?
20. Have you ever used a Linux?
21. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
22. Would you consider adopting a child?
1. Coke or Pepsi?
2. Sprite or 7-Up?
3. Your main source of caffeine: a) coffee, b) tea/green tea, c) chocolate, d) sugar, e) I'm a superhero and I don't need caffeine
4. Mountains or beaches?
5. What is your favorite form of water? (i.e. waterfall, ice, mist, drinking water, ocean, stream, river, etc...)
6. What is your favorite color?
7. What is your favorite color to wear?
8. To recycle or not to recycle?
9. Your favorite classical music composers are...
10. Sunrise or sunset?
11. Chewy or crunchy chocolate chip cookie?
12. Do you have a USB flash drive? If so, what did you name it? (Not "Untitled"! Oh no...go name the poor thing so it has a name to grow into!)
13. What is your favorite numeral from 0-9? Not a "lucky" number, but aesthetic-wise...a number you think is beautiful in form and amount.
14. What sort of music do you NOT like?
15. White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?
16. Life is: a) short, b) long
17. You are person who is: a) cool b) warm
18. The glass is: a) half empty, b) half full
19. Mac, Linux, or PC?
20. Have you ever used a Linux?
21. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
22. Would you consider adopting a child?
I think there are so many things in life that would be cleared up if we started to understand love.
How many times a day do we use the word "love"? "I love you," "I love ice cream," etc...
But if we ponder that God is love (1 John ) and that "in Him we live and move and find our being" (Acts 17 24) and that the greatest command is to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul and mind and then, to love your neighbor as yourself - perhaps the breath of life is love, and our every breath each day should be love, because this universe is founded on love. Not love as in some impersonal "one-ness" world peace sort of force...but a magnificent, intimate love that moves mountains and makes hearts beat, that draws us in...a love can perhaps only catch glimpses of, with our limited human capacity to understand.
How many times a day do we use the word "love"? "I love you," "I love ice cream," etc...
But if we ponder that God is love (1 John ) and that "in Him we live and move and find our being" (Acts 17 24) and that the greatest command is to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul and mind and then, to love your neighbor as yourself - perhaps the breath of life is love, and our every breath each day should be love, because this universe is founded on love. Not love as in some impersonal "one-ness" world peace sort of force...but a magnificent, intimate love that moves mountains and makes hearts beat, that draws us in...a love can perhaps only catch glimpses of, with our limited human capacity to understand.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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