I came home today feeling down and a little discouraged. It happens from time to time, sometimes we allow things in our life to consume us… and nothing else in the whole world seems as important as what we’re struggling with right then.
It’s in times like these that I like to take walks. I’ve lived in this apartment complex for a few months now and I’m very lucky to be right next to the park. And I love it… take a look at this scene….
Standing on the dock on this pond gives me such great peace and serenity… it gives me time to think about how complicated we humans make things. Matthew 6:25-27 is a great verse for me:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”
I actually love my walks in the park because there is a lady who goes around the pond in the evening with her dog and just tosses bits of bread all around the trail for the birds. It’s a beautiful thing.
Once I was done with my walk around the park, there was still daylight, so I decided to grab my basketball and shoot the basketball around. And I don’t know it’s like for some of you guys, but shooting a basketball around by myself is one of the more relaxing things I do. It gives me quiet time… and I often process through things as I shoot the ball around (which is probably why my shots aren’t that great when I’m deep in thought). It also reminds me of a simpler time when I was younger and would take my basketball next door and just shoot around until the sun went down.
I guess my whole reason for this post is to remind myself to slow down, take it easy, not let things bother me so much. I am so thankful for that quiet time that I had today. And if you haven’t had your quiet time today, here’s a 60 second video I took of my view from the dock… take in the sounds… it’s pretty relaxing.
Today I am starting a new section on the blog dedicated to apologetics. For those of you who have never heard of apologetics, it is “the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position, or of religious or occult doctrines.”
For today’s post, I will be posting a few videos about Scientology. To read more about Scientology, you can go to http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04.html. These posts relating to apologetics are not meant to attack other faiths, but to promote the spread of knowledge on this topic. Feel free to leave your comments after watching the videos. Today’s post on Scientology is the first round of many.
Scientology: Inside the Cult
BBC Panorama: Scientology and Me
Scientology: The Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard
If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face. Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
This verse has posted on my wall for the past couple of weeks. I like it for several reasons.
The main reason I love this verse, “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.” I LOVE THIS. I think that there are times when we put on a front for others and give them the appearance that we care. But what if we truly loved people from the center of who we are. What does that even look like? Do we cross-reference that with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7?
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.
When Paul wrote that, he was referencing spiritual gifts among the church in Corinth… but can’t we apply that in how we love today? I think it’s a great way to look at love. Love takes hard work: it can bring the highest highs, the lowest lows, it can get under your skin, it can make you angry. But when you truly love someone, whether in a friendship or a relationship, we must “be good friends who love deeply.”
And I struggle with that sometimes. Sometimes I put on a front for some people because it’s so hard for me to truly love everyone from the center of who I am. Am I meant to love everyone? Probably not… I don’t have the patience. But it’s my hope that when someone comes to me, that I can truly love them and have them feel like I genuinely care.
Well, there are so many things that I could write about this passage, but I will leave that for another day. What do you think of these passages? Do you truly love from the “center of who you are?” Or do you fake it alot?
Today is Ash Wednesday, which for those of you who don’t know, marks the first day of Lent.
I’m actually disappointed that I had class this morning because I was hoping to go to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church to attend Mass and celebrate with the students there. No, I’m not Catholic anymore… but I am still a Christian and this is one of those dates on the Christian calendar that Grace doesn’t formally celebrate. I remember when I attended Saint Luke’s Catholic School and we’d have Mass on the morning of Ash Wednesday which would be followed by going to the Narthex (lobby) and have a cross placed on a forehead using ashes.
According to Wikipedia, these ashes typically come from the burning of the palm leaves used the previous year for Palm Sunday. These ashes are then blessed before placed on the forehead. Why do we put ashes on our forehead? As a visible reminder that we are dust and to dust we will return (Genesis 3:19). Some people use this day also as a day of when confessions are made and make a choice to give up something for 40 days (length of Lent).
I think when I was in Catholic school, I gave up chicken liver… which was extrememly easy because I hated it. Ha ha! To read more about Ash Wednesday, check out:
