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Archive for April, 2004

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Day 7: The Reason for Everything

Posted on Friday, April 30th, 2004

What a gorgeous day today!! It was warm and sunny, free from rain, and gently windy. Just wonderful, if you ask me! Work went quite well, and I made preparations for a (hopefully) very nice dinner tomorrow for my hosts.. I owe them at least as much πŸ˜›

But, onto Day 7! And it’s a long one!! I’m tempted to counteract his length with a briefer reflection, but we’ll see what my fingers press on the keyboard.

The first sentence of this chapter captures it all: “It’s all for him.” Everything in the universe if for Him.. to show His glory. Warren writes that, by fulfilling our purposes, we bring glory to God. He lists five ways of bringing glory to God: worship, loving others, becoming like Christ, serving others, and telling others about Him.

I’m down with worship; I enjoy listening and singing worship songs (heck… I have those types of songs stuck in my head at work!!). I like praying. I really appreciate the beauty of nature. But I don’t do it all of the time.. sometimes I just forget, and others, I’m too lazy. Like I said in a previous post, it is so hard to be good. πŸ™

Loving others is also quite difficult. As Billy Corgan wrote in a recent note on his website, “I even love my enemies… that doesn’t mean I want to hear them speak, but as one of God’s children I say I love you too…” I got a good chuckle out of this, because I’m somewhat like that, too, I guess. Sure, I can love them.. if they never associate with me. But isn’t that contrary to what I should be feeling? Shouldn’t I want to have a better relationship with the people I don’t like? Shouldn’t I forgive them as God has forgiven me, time and time again?

I have to say that becoming like Christ seems a bit far-fetched for me right now. I’m very unconfident with myself, so how could I ever become like God? I think I need more time to work this one out.

Serving others is something I also enjoy doing. I like volunteering at the Embassy and at the St. Paul’s chapel. I used to say that it was very rewarding because people appreciated it, but I have since realized that it should have very little to do with the others. The fact that I’m doing it to praise God should be satisfying enough.

And about spreading the Word, I haven’t reached that stage either. I don’t think that I know enough about Christianity, so I would not be the best person to answer the many difficult questions that would inevitably be asked. Perhaps, for now, I can spread it through my actions… and once I delve further into my faith and gain the confidence I am currently lacking, I can do more.

He ends the chapter off with a choice: who am I going to live for — myself or God? I think the choice should be obvious, but in no way is it the easiest. This is what he says, which I don’t like: “You may hesitate, wondering whether you will have strength to live for God. Don’t worry. God will give you what you need if you will just make the choice to live for him.” He makes it sound so easy. Just make the choice to live for him, and God will miraculously give me the strength to do it? I don’t know about that.

I think what bothers me about this is that it is not necessarily an informed decision to choose God. I don’t really know what a life for God implies in terms of a day-to-day lifestyle. Just like I didn’t know what real faith was when I got confirmed in the Catholic church. I just don’t know. I just need to, as he suggests, believe and receive.

Question to Consider: Where in my daily routine can I become more aware of God’s glory?

Um. Everywhere. From just waking up (and being thankful that I am alive) to the time I go to bed (and being grateful of still being alive and having what hopefully was a good day), I can always devote more attention to God. I am struggling very much to move God to the center of my life. πŸ™

Day 6: Life is a Temporary Assignment

Posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2004

Oi these things are getting later and later… you can blame the Avalanche hockey game going into overtime for this!! Or blame me, for watching that instead of reading and reflecting.. or working on my work term report ;(

Anyhow, this topic was touched upon in previous chapters. It basically focuses on how our stay on earth is preperation for an eternal life, and how we should make the most of what little time we have here. To be honest, if everyone realized how much there is to gain for an eternity.. if everyone could scale that first nanometer in a race (see previous post if you’re confused) to our life compared to eternity, this world would be such a better place.

While I believe that where we spend eternity depends on what we do here, I don’t remember this all the time; I always need to remind myself… I always need to keep telling myself this before I do something stupid.. I need to tell myself that fighting off temptation will merit greater rewards. It’s so hard to put faith into the intangible, but that is what Christ calls us to do. I really hope that I have answered that call.

Question to Consider: How should the fact that life on earth is just a temporary assignment change the way I am living right now?

Hmm. Theoretically, I should forsake all of my worldly possessions and do something else with my life. Practically, however, that’s almost impossible; the world just doesn’t cater to something like that. The key for me, right now, is to not overindulge, and to let go of what I can. I need to give up the joys of this world for the sake of the heavenly joys to come.

God, help me remember that it’s not about me, and that it’s not about the world around me. My life will expire, but that is when I hope that I will be borne into a life with You. Guide me so that I always fix my eyes to that, and help me keep my attention on You. Give me the strength and grace that I need to overcome Satan and his clverness, so that I can let go of what is temporal and work towards salvation through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Day 5: Seeing Life From God’s View

Posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2004

Just got back from poker and watching the hockey games… too bad the Habs couldn’t pull it off tonight… they deserved to win πŸ™ But anyways, onto more important stuff!!

When I first read the title, I thought that it’d have something along the lines of seeing how and why God created us. I figured that it’d have a lot to do with his unending and unconditional love. But no: it dealt with how we view our own lives, and how God views life (as described in the Bible). One of the first quotes in the chapter is from Anais Nin: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

So basically, our perception of life greatly influences the way we live it. I suppose that this is only common sense, but he went into some detail about “life metaphors” – an image that would describe our life. He went on to list some examples: a circus, a roller coaster, a dance… And there’s an associated personality with these metaphors; for example, life as a battle will drive someone to pursue victory at high costs.

He then suggests three metaphors offered by the Bible: a test, a trust, and a temporary assignment. Only the first two are discussed in this chapter, though. I will agree wholeheartedly that life is a test. I believe God and Satan are having a cosmic tug-of-war for each and every soul, and how I react pulls me towards one end. Every action has huge implications.. sort of what I was talking about yesterday. I’m a little bit less comfortable with the notion of trust, although I can certainly see this basic principle: what we have is given to us and, one day, it will be taken away. Be it our talents, possessions, or the world around us, God gave it to us. And since it’s not ours, we should take good care of it. Makes sense.

He ends off talking about managing money and how it tests our trustworthiness. His point is that if we are untrustworthy with our worldly possessions, how could we handle the true riches in Heaven? I struggle with this. I know that I spend money rather stupidly at times, and there are a lot of better places that it could go. Yes, I have been trying to give more to charities and stuff, but not nearly the amount that I could. It’s hard, maybe because I am still selfish, and maybe because I don’t directly see the good of the donation come to fruition. I don’t know. But I’ll need to believe that I’m doing something right when I donate. I am definitely going to donate to the Embassy this term.

Question to Consider: What has happened to me recently that I now realize was a test from God? What are the greatest matters God has entrusted to me?

The first one has so many answers… but I think I will pick something with which I have been fighting quite a bit: going to Church. For some reason, I have been becoming increasingly unhappy with going to Elevation. I don’t know why, but things just didn’t feel right. There is nothing wrong with the service or anything, but it felt off. I was determined to go Church hopping again and, for at least a couple of weeks, I elected to sleep instead. But I owe time to God, and I really felt this recently. I needed to sacrifice my time and give it up to Him instead. I think it was even more difficult this past week when I had to travel a lot farther, and alone, to Elevation and Embassy. But I made it πŸ™‚

I believe that a lot of my talents are among the greatest matters that God has entrusted to me… a number of people comment about my well-roundedness (no, not my sumo-ness lol :P.. sorry, inside joke among some SPUC people) and how I have the ability to do a lot of things well. I think that this diversification puts me at a great position to do God’s will all the better. By not being inhibited with a very limited scope of abilities, I can accomplish a lot and spread His Word in many different ways. I haven’t done a great job yet, but I’m trying πŸ™‚

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