| I've totally neglected this page...I mean, it's been so long that I needed to come up with a new password for this piece. Maybe I should get back on it? hmmm...we shall see. |
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| ...and I stand in the doorway and I think about my boy and all of his
shame...the kind of shame that he would hide under the covers for that
long. And so I go over and I sit down on the edge of the bed and
I pull back the covers a little bit...until he's just lying there, all
curled up with his eyes closed...and he doesn't move. It's like
he has this choice, does he continue? You know, does he grab the
covers and pull them back over his head and keep hiding? Or does
he just let himself lie there totally exposed and vulnerable? So
I sit on the edge of the bed and I say to him "there's nothing you
could ever do to make me love you less."
-Rob Bell, Nooma 010 Lump
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Things I've learned:
1) The first truth of change is that it often must start with you.
Matthew 7:3-5
3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You
hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
While hindsight may be 20/20 and foresight a blur, looking back on how
past experiences have affected oneself can often give poignant clues as
to how one may be affected in the future. It amazes me the kinds
of pitfalls and cycles we humans can find ourselves in, simply because
we are too stubborn to realize this truth: CHANGE BEGINS WITH
YOU. You can beat your fist in the air all you want...scream at
the top of your lungs how you've been wronged...it will all count as
nothing until you are capable of seeing not only what these
circumstances do to you, but also what you do to cause them to continue.
2) Will power, as with anything potential, is only as strong as your willingness to use it.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13No temptation has seized
you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let
you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he
will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Above is one of the most over-quoted references in all of
scripture. I say "over-quoted" because I've seen this very
scripture quoted by those who are clearly NOT living by it. (Do
not assume that I count myself among the blessed in this regard...I am
in no way perfect, I am simply commenting on what I've seen) God
does not give us scripture to use as a witch might use a magical
spell...it is a discipline, not a cure-all. Free will is perhaps
the greatest gift given us by God, and can also be our greatest
downfall as well.
3) God wants so much for His children...but he certainly does not want them to suffer.
Jeremiah 29:11-12
11 For I know the plans I
have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
If you suffer, thank God! -- it is a sure sign that you are alive. --Elbert Hubbard
In the midst of a truly heavy book of the Bible, God delivers one of
his most beautiful promises. We all suffer, every one of
us...granted, some experience more pain than others, but never more
than they can handle. God has promised us that He would not put
us through more than we could endure, after all. That being said,
the pain is often an effective contrast to the joy He WISHES for
us. Some of us become so familiar with our grief that we wear it
about us like a blanket, identifying in the pain they've wrapped
themselves in. Pain is not meant for that. I was delighted
by this quote I found:
Must
you continue to be your own cross? No matter which way God leads you,
you change everything into bitterness by constantly brooding over
everything. For the love of God, replace all this self-scrutiny with a
pure and simple glance at God's goodness. --Saint Jeanne Chantal
Focus not on the pain itself, but on the direction
that pain is pointing you. As the great Horatio Spafford wrote:
"Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say it is well...it is well
with my soul."
That's all I have for now. I would have posted more, but it's already 5am, and I have class tomorrow...today...crap.
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| Outline for next entry, I'll get to it eventually:
Things I've learned:
1) The first truth of change is that it often must start with you.
2) Will power, as with anything potential, is only as strong as your willingness to use it.
3) God wants so much for His children...but he certainly does not want them to suffer.
4) Your situation is only as bad (or good, for that matter) as you make it.
More to come, I gotta get to work.
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