it came to the end it seems you had heard.
cause we walked the city streets,
you never said a word
-Where are you Now by Mumford and Sons
Peace is the magic word.
Peace makes the world go round, along with love.
Then leave it there.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Puzzle Piece of the Heart
Peace is the magic word.
Peace makes the world go round, along with love.
Then leave it there.
Monday, December 10, 2012
a Gift, a Promise, a Notion
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."
Romans 5:1-2
a gift
a promise
a notion
What we did deserved severe punishment of the highest degree -- eternal torture and ceaseless agony. That was the prescribed retribution, after all. The rules were laid out plain and simple, just like they were for Adam and Eve. Don't do this. What did we do? We did that.
Our parents told us not to lie. We pointed fingers when someone broke Mom's favorite picture frame. They told us not to steal. We found it acceptable to slip a piece of candy from our siblings' stockings at Christmastime when no one was looking.
These may seem like minor misdemeanors, but in truth they are mere indicators of a larger problem at work: our lives bare the tell-tale footprints of sin.
We have to be honest, our lives are messed up. Even if we get everything to look perfect on the outside, there has to be something ugly happening on the inside. Truth is, we will never get it all right, and that is the greatest curse of our existence.
BUT, (and it is a very large "but" because this verse was not intended to induce depression), we were spared the punishment. By no small miracle, it was made as though there never was any sin in the first place. Someone absolutely perfect in every way, by very nature incapable of deviating from God's plan one iota, took the battle I should have fought. He was bruised; He was shamed. BUT, He was not beaten.
Through blood and tears, He arose victorious. The sin forgotten and constantly excused. What deserves grace such as this? We spit in the face of the one who gave us everything, and instead of letting the hammer of justice fall where it may, He extended a pardon of mercy. Crazy, unexplainable love fueled the perpetual forgiveness of a misdeed that should have deserved hell.
Now, I have just one question for you: How could we possibly not grant one another that same mercy?
Sunday, November 25, 2012
the people we love
How much do we have to show the people we love?
-"Crossed" by Allie Condie
Looking at my life, I am amazed.
So many things that
prick my heart and put its arms around my soul. So many little kisses from God
just to remind me that He loves me. So many thumbprints of love in little
things that accumulate to give me more blessings than I could ever deserve.
There are big things too. Big things like friendships, family. People I can talk to, people who will make me laugh and who will smack me in the face when I need it. People who will hold my hair for me, people who will be glad for me, people who will show up for me, people who will cry for me.
Those are the best friends.
"And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God."
Deuteronomy 28:2
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Black and White
When I was little, I thought of the world
as black and white. There were shaded sides, and there were spotless sides.
Everything either good or bad.
Now, I can't make the same claim any more.
There are aspects of life that cannot be classified as always good or always
evil, and that is because life is incredibly subjective. There is no real way
to be objective. Not ever. Not in any circumstance. The United States has
crafted a judicial system based on supposed "unbiased" jurors. In
reality, however, those individuals, pulled from their daily lives by dreaded
"jury summons", will actually reach their decisions based on their
own experiences. What is right for one person is wrong for another. Nobody
can step outside of his own head and make a decision.
So what is to be the deciding factor in
decision-making? Can we rely on our emotions to provide the right answer to any
situation? Although we are often told by the world, by the media, are we really
the ones in control of our own lives?
If a boy is killed in an accident by a
distracted driver and the father's emotions drive him to
take vengeance on the absentminded motorist, is that the right thing
to do? Are our hearts really capable of serving justice?
The answer is no.
No, we are not capable of making the right
decision. No, we do not automatically default to what is ethical and pure. In
fact, the very opposite is true. From the beginning of time, mankind has
struggled with its tendency to fall into ruin when left alone. Every time we
get it in our heads that we are the ones in control, that we are the ones who
call the shots, who make or break a situation, that is when we fall. Power is a
drug, but it is also a fantasy. The problem is we convince ourselves that we
have it in overdose and that it is up to us to keep injecting it.
Truth is, the world really is in black and
white. There really is a right and a wrong answer. And life, well, that’s
just us trying to find out what exactly it is.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Trapped Between WIndows
10 October 2013
~
Trapped between windows...
Ever feel like you’re dumbying
yourself down to meet other people’s “normalcy”? Like you possess all this
potential, but you continuously keep it hidden so that you’ll fit in with the
multitudes of your peers. Wear the right things, say the right things, go to
the right places, talk with the right people. It’s all an act. Maybe it sounds
rather conspiratorial, but the world is keeping teenagers under a tight rein
with misconceptions of adolescence and by progressively lowering standards.
Adolescence…what does that word
really mean? Defined, it is “a period or stage of development, as of a
society, preceding maturity.” Basically,
it means that based upon other people’s standards, we’re not yet fully developed.
We’re thrown excuses like (and I know you have heard this at least once in
your life), “Your brain just isn’t fully developed.” Does that mean that I
shouldn’t be held to the same expectations of a regular human being? Isn’t the purpose of so
called “adolescence” to get from one place, immaturity, to the state of being
mature? In the box of adolescence, this is not possible. There is no exit. There is no fire escape.
All we have is a front window and a back window, and we’re stuck on the inside
to decide out of which one to gaze.
Both windows are enticing, but it’s
the combination of two possible lives that confuses us. Being a kid seems like
fun, so we want to hold onto that aspect. On the other side of the wall, being
an adult seems to accompany a host of responsibilities that our maturing brains
desire.
Oh, but we’re still adolescent. So
no need to worry about those...responsibilities yet.
What’s ridiculous is that some of
us realize that this “normal” is not the way things should be, but we still go along with it nonetheless.
Because it’s what the cool people do. It’s what those girls who have all the
friends do. It’s what that guy on the football team does. Hours upon end, we
converse about meaningless subjects without one ounce of authenticity. The
average teen is expected (and therefore complies) to be consumed with up to three
things: (1) appearance, (2) school, and (3) members of the opposite sex. Of course those
things are important to a certain extent in society, but the level at which we
absorb ourselves with them oftentimes amounts to, quite frankly, nothing. The verdict is predictable: We’re
all ugly; we all hate school; and we all want a girl/boyfriend. What a limited
scope of opportunities!
After completing some neurological
research on the development of the brain, Professor Frances Jenson was quoted as saying, “You
think of them [teens] as these surly, rude, selfish people. Well, actually,
that’s the developmental stage they’re at. They aren’t yet at that place where
they’re thinking about – or capable, necessarily, of thinking about the effects
of their behavior on other people. That requires insight.” Perhaps this is just me, but I find being stereotyped as "surly, rude, and selfish" insulting enough before heaping a truckload of excuses on top of it. Despite all of her education and researching, what Professor Jenson really came up with was a long, scientific excuse for the misbehavior of young people that actually limited them to the very characteristics which she criticized. And all under the banner of "mere adolescence".
Plus, maybe this is very
John Locke of me, but I don’t really like it when people tell me what I can’t
do.
Additionally, I find Jenson's quote borderline humorous. My six year old
cousin gets in trouble because "he knows better”. Why should teenagers be
exempt from having the most basic of social skills: consideration?
Truly, nobody is born with the ability to function flawlessly in Society, but it is essentially the responsibility of the older generations to teach the younger ones how to "rule" the world. After all, it will be ours somebody. Dr. Jay Giedd
from the National Institution of Mental Health commented, “It’s sort of unfair
to expect teens to have adult levels of organizational skills or
decision-making before their brains are finished being built.” Besides calling for a lowering of standards for teens (which we will be ever so happy to meet, by the way), the Doctor indirectly proposes a frightening prospect. Teenagers lack the required understanding, so why bother trying to teach them? These types of excuses surmount to explain why we young adults carry big red targets on our backs every day of our lives.
In retrospect, it's no surprise that our expectations for ourselves have decreased dramatically as well. Typical teenagers call the kid who
knows more about physics a geek, yet that kid will probably go on
to become one of the nation’s leading experts in science in the next decade or two. The girl who recites the Lord of the Rings like some girls rattle off song lyrics is considered weird by teen
society, but most likely she will go on to be a prominent literary scholar while they're still trying to hold a job.
In short, we have our priorities
misplaced. The frustrating reality is that nobody is willing to do anything about it
unless everybody does, and we all know that is never going to happen. We can harp on this subject for days upon
days, but merely knowing doesn’t change anything. We have to act NOW. We have to decide that the present circumstances are flawed and assume that we’re
the only ones with the capacity to realize it. We have to be willing to go
against the grain even if the world is telling us we're mess-ups. We have to
challenge ourselves in the venues which God calls us towards regardless of
what our peers will think or say.
Perhaps if we genuinely devoted
ourselves to doing the hard things, to taking those God-given opportunities, to not shying away from being the smart kid or the geek,
then Society’s standards would begin to change, and this time for the better. Maybe together we can make a difference by getting rid of the "myth of adolescence" and by "growing-up" America. For as Martin Luther King Jr. perceptibly
said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
Friday, September 28, 2012
We Need Each Other
28 September 2012
~
We need each other...
The answer may seem cliche, but it's because He made you special. There is nobody else on earth like you, possessing your gifts, acting upon your thoughts and emotions. Everything about you may appear unexciting on the outside, but to God, you are a masterpiece continuously displaying the wonderful work of His creation.
How do I know? Because in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul devotes a sizable portion to this specific topic of "spiritual gifts" and the functions we have as the body of Christ. God loves us, yes, but there is so much more to our lives than simply existing in His affections. We were given our individual personalities for a reason! The Lord never does anything just for the heck of it. As human beings, we are automatically samples of His majesty and mirror images of our Creator Himself, but as Christians we are also given responsibilities. When God was putting you together in heaven, He put inside a flawless recipe that would become your personality. That personality was specially given to you so that you would use it.
Wouldn't it have been easier for God to make everybody the same? That way we would all get along, and we would never be jealous of anybody else's abilities, right? Wrong. As distinct individuals, we all come together like puzzle pieces to create something bigger than us all: it's called Christ. Thinking of little, insignificant me as part of Jesus sounds more than a little absurd, but nevertheless, when Jesus hung dying on that cross, He broke down the wall between Himself and all of us so that when the Father looks at us, with all our sins and flaws, He sees Jesus.
Looking at 1 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ." Think of any successful movement in history, the key element was an integrated group of people. We were born with a need for companionship for this very reason. This is why studies show that babies deprived of physical touch actually die from depression.
"For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave of free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." In one succinct sentence, Paul completely dismisses any discrimination between race or class in God's eyes. We were all transformed by the same Spirit so that we might be acceptable into the body, regardless of our record of wrongs. One of my favorite passages in Romans reads, "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you." That power that miraculously raised Jesus from the dead over 3000 years ago? That power is living in you! That same Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis 1, it not only exists inside of you and me, it lives, it thrives, it keeps us going from day to day. It's not about who you have become in this life, it's what you were made to be a part of. The big picture.
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body." That accursed force of nature: self-doubt. We are amazing beings, obtaining unlimited potential from the Creator of the universe, yet we refuse to believe it. There's always that voice in the back of our minds saying, "You're not good enough."
Quite frankly, that's your sin talking. It might be more convenient to blame it on Satan, but the Devil has more important things to do than whisper in your ear. Instead of coddling us, however, Paul basically says, "get over it". Just because I'm not content in my place doesn't excuse me from the responsibilities I have in Christ. I cannot say, "I don't like my place in my family, so I'll leave," and then expect to have shed my responsibilities to them by simply walking away. No matter where I go or what I do, my dad and mom will still be my parents, and my brother will still be my brother. Even in completely throwing away my duties as the daughter of the family, I would still be abandoning those duties every single day that I ignore them. It's the same way with Christ. Funny thing about us...we think that if we can't see something in front of us that it doesn't exist. Or at least we tell ourselves that.
Quite frankly, that's your sin talking. It might be more convenient to blame it on Satan, but the Devil has more important things to do than whisper in your ear. Instead of coddling us, however, Paul basically says, "get over it". Just because I'm not content in my place doesn't excuse me from the responsibilities I have in Christ. I cannot say, "I don't like my place in my family, so I'll leave," and then expect to have shed my responsibilities to them by simply walking away. No matter where I go or what I do, my dad and mom will still be my parents, and my brother will still be my brother. Even in completely throwing away my duties as the daughter of the family, I would still be abandoning those duties every single day that I ignore them. It's the same way with Christ. Funny thing about us...we think that if we can't see something in front of us that it doesn't exist. Or at least we tell ourselves that.
"If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?" We need each other's individual, hand-crafted functions/gifts. Trading in your God-given gift would deprive the whole puzzle a whole piece; it could never be complete; it could never be whole. Do not feel inferior or out of place because you have a gift different from somebody else's. It can be easy to fall prey to this envy when other people make their abilities look so easy, so attractive.
Hugging was my deal for a long time. Girls I knew would throw their arms around each other with abandon, and I would kind of step back and hope that I wasn't the next target. Still, deep down I wished I could be like those girls: able to radiate love with a single action. But that was their gift, not mine. And now I can see that that's OK.
Hugging was my deal for a long time. Girls I knew would throw their arms around each other with abandon, and I would kind of step back and hope that I wasn't the next target. Still, deep down I wished I could be like those girls: able to radiate love with a single action. But that was their gift, not mine. And now I can see that that's OK.
 travelingcabinet.blogspot.com |
"But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." By definition, "body" is "a number of individuals regarded as a single entity." Each edge of a puzzle piece has either a flat side, a little arm or two that stick out, or an empty space that scoops into the piece's side. Where one piece lacks, another piece fits perfectly, filling that empty space and by so doing making both pieces even larger and more significant than before. When every piece fills and fits into its designed location, the puzzle is complete.
Can you see where I'm going with this? I'm not the kind of person who can joyfully run up and hug anybody anywhere, but I do have the capacity for listening to others talk about the things they're going through. Perhaps those girls lack that ability so they display their affections in a very outward manner. Together, we complete one another. :)
God has put you right where He wants you. We all work together to be Christ to this world, completing one another where we might have short-comings. You cannot dismiss your brother or sister in Christ, for he/she is a crucial piece to the puzzle, a vital ingredient in the recipe that is our lives. Even the smallest most taken for granted function is irreplaceable, regardless of whether we realize it or not. As French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin so eloquently put it, "We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other."
Sunday, September 23, 2012
The Danger of Complacency!!
Dear Readers, 23 September 2012
Ever get stuck in a rut that you can't seem to escape? It wears deeper and deeper until before you know it, you have developed a habit you cannot break without true effort. There is a particular type of rut that is more dangerous than others, and that is the dreaded process of becoming accustomed to being average.
We're humans...we get special privileges. In one of his two letters included in the Bible, Peter tells them that they have heard things that "even the angels long to look into". Genesis 1 says we were made in the image of God, and 2 Corinthians simply says, "you were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men."
With all of this favorable attention, you would think that we would live our lives eager to pursue excellence in all things. Unfortunately, I've become lazy in this regard. I've developed a mindset that says "So long as you're not in trouble for not doing anything, you're doing better than others." Not only is this lazy, but it is selfish and feeds conceited thoughts. By just doing the bare minimum, I'm not getting anywhere in life! You ever climbed the ladder by being complacent?
I'm not saying I should be dissatisfied, but frankly that's what I am right now. I am dissatisfied with my recent slump in writing, in reading, in being creative. I've let technology hook me in ways that I've preached against in the past, so that right now I feel like the big "h" word: "hypocrite". Of course, we're all hypocrites, but that's another topic. And just because everybody does it doesn't mean it's OK.
I've always wanted to do something that mattered with my life. To touch at least one person in a way that would positively affect his/her life. By scanning Facebook and Pinterest for hours at a time, scrolling through new songs on Spotify, or flipping through sitcom after sitcom on Netflix, those dreams that I've always had are not going to get any more realistic. It's time to GET OFF MY BUTT AND DO SOMETHING!!!
Sorry, this post is really strange. I don't believe I've ever published one so riddled with random and rants, but I needed to write something or my brain juices were going to dry up. My dear readers, you are such angels for putting up with my rambles. Please pray that I will continue to be encouraged towards excellence, and that I'll be able to think of something actually beneficial that I can write about. I love you all!
Image sources:
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Ever get stuck in a rut that you can't seem to escape? It wears deeper and deeper until before you know it, you have developed a habit you cannot break without true effort. There is a particular type of rut that is more dangerous than others, and that is the dreaded process of becoming accustomed to being average.
We're humans...we get special privileges. In one of his two letters included in the Bible, Peter tells them that they have heard things that "even the angels long to look into". Genesis 1 says we were made in the image of God, and 2 Corinthians simply says, "you were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men."
With all of this favorable attention, you would think that we would live our lives eager to pursue excellence in all things. Unfortunately, I've become lazy in this regard. I've developed a mindset that says "So long as you're not in trouble for not doing anything, you're doing better than others." Not only is this lazy, but it is selfish and feeds conceited thoughts. By just doing the bare minimum, I'm not getting anywhere in life! You ever climbed the ladder by being complacent?
I'm not saying I should be dissatisfied, but frankly that's what I am right now. I am dissatisfied with my recent slump in writing, in reading, in being creative. I've let technology hook me in ways that I've preached against in the past, so that right now I feel like the big "h" word: "hypocrite". Of course, we're all hypocrites, but that's another topic. And just because everybody does it doesn't mean it's OK.
I've always wanted to do something that mattered with my life. To touch at least one person in a way that would positively affect his/her life. By scanning Facebook and Pinterest for hours at a time, scrolling through new songs on Spotify, or flipping through sitcom after sitcom on Netflix, those dreams that I've always had are not going to get any more realistic. It's time to GET OFF MY BUTT AND DO SOMETHING!!!
Sorry, this post is really strange. I don't believe I've ever published one so riddled with random and rants, but I needed to write something or my brain juices were going to dry up. My dear readers, you are such angels for putting up with my rambles. Please pray that I will continue to be encouraged towards excellence, and that I'll be able to think of something actually beneficial that I can write about. I love you all!
Image sources:
1
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5
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