I am stealing this quote from an article I just read, and from C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity. Call me a double-thief, but this quote is worth it. I read this book back in high school but didn't understand it/make the effort to understand it as well as I should have. Maybe I'll be re-adding it to my summer reading list just to brush up, but since it's snowing now...
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Fresh feeling
Well, the spring semester starts tomorrow. Unsurprisingly, Christmas break went by fast and I did not update like I had intended, but that was in part due to a varying schedule, being in different places, and just not having any "aha! i want to blog about that!" moments. As a whole, I had a lot of great experiences with family and friends, and it was cool to revisit parts of my life that have shaped me into who I am today.
Over the last year or so, the following passage has come up repeatedly in my life, particularly in a devotional book and other unexpected places (too unexpected to be mere coincidence, I think):
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."(Romans 12:1-2, The Message)
Here's the NIV version, probably a bit more familiar:
"Therefore, I urge, you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."
I think this passage can speak for itself in a lot of ways. For the record, I like to replace "going-to-work, and walking-around life..." with "going-to-class, and running-around life...". I'm a grad student, and a runner, so there :) Anyway, when I'm feeling bogged down and overwhelmed, I need to remember what I'm focusing on--are the various things I'm involved with an offering to God, or am I thinking about my own agenda and my purposes for everything I'm doing?
This semester, I would like to read through the "wisdom" books of the Bible, including Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. I hope to develop some "well-formed maturity" and not put off trying to make my faith more my own.
I have a lot more rolling around in my head, but it will have to wait til next time since Monday is going to hit hard! I'll close with this hymn's refrain, a vivid reminder of what life is really all about...
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Over the last year or so, the following passage has come up repeatedly in my life, particularly in a devotional book and other unexpected places (too unexpected to be mere coincidence, I think):
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."(Romans 12:1-2, The Message)
Here's the NIV version, probably a bit more familiar:
"Therefore, I urge, you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."
I think this passage can speak for itself in a lot of ways. For the record, I like to replace "going-to-work, and walking-around life..." with "going-to-class, and running-around life...". I'm a grad student, and a runner, so there :) Anyway, when I'm feeling bogged down and overwhelmed, I need to remember what I'm focusing on--are the various things I'm involved with an offering to God, or am I thinking about my own agenda and my purposes for everything I'm doing?
This semester, I would like to read through the "wisdom" books of the Bible, including Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. I hope to develop some "well-formed maturity" and not put off trying to make my faith more my own.
I have a lot more rolling around in my head, but it will have to wait til next time since Monday is going to hit hard! I'll close with this hymn's refrain, a vivid reminder of what life is really all about...
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Awkward first post
I (finally) started a blog. After a few MONTHS of thinking about it, talking about it, and brainstorming about a title, here it is! Thanks to those of you who have pushed me to get it started...it's always good to get a nice kick in the butt to make me just do it.
Without further ado, I have had multiple reasons for making this blog:
1. I am hoping that blogging will help me to reflect more on my life and take on faith issues more readily. I have grown up as a non-denominational Christian, and I believe that choosing to have a relationship with God is the most important decision someone can make. Having the kind of faith that I strive for is a simple concept, but it is not easy to carry out in everyday life. So, I am starting this blog with the primary goal of going deeper and learning more about the God that I serve. There have been numerous times when I hear a sermon, have a conversation, or have another awesome experience that I think I will remember, but then a week or so later I completely forget about it unless I am reminded. Having a bad memory like mine is no excuse to forget about important lessons, so hopefully this will serve as a solution to that.
2. Typing is much faster than writing in a journal, which is what I have done in the past. I am all about efficiency, and I think having a blog will make me more likely to to write instead of thinking that I should write in a journal and then get lazy. I won't stop journaling altogether, but this blog will serve as a necessary addition to it. Plus, I figure that technology is not slowing down, so we all might as well jump on board!
3. I have a lot of feelings, thoughts, and "goals" that swarm around in my head. Hopefully writing in this blog will help me to focus on the important things I learn and make sense of all the "noise" in our chaotic world and in my Type-A brain.
4. This is a public blog, so the last reason for starting this is for others to get something out of what I write. While I am no exception in wanting to be heard (why else do people start blogs anyway?), I want to share my reflections in case someone out there can benefit from or be challenged by something I post, and, no doubt, I will learn from others' opinions as well. So feel free to comment away, but don't feel obligated because of a lack of comments :) It won't hurt my feelings, I promise! Also, I am going to try to be semi-anonymous on here. Yes, I'm linking this to my facebook page, but if someone happens to come across this blog in cyberspace, I want to stay under the radar in hopes that it is easier to relate to something I might say more broadly instead of forming differences from unnecessary details about my life. This makes sense I think because after all, I'm trying to get at the things that really matter.
Well, I hope this blog can accomplish those four things. They are goals, and I am a sucker for to-do lists and things like this that I don't always follow through on. But here goes nothin!
Without further ado, I have had multiple reasons for making this blog:
1. I am hoping that blogging will help me to reflect more on my life and take on faith issues more readily. I have grown up as a non-denominational Christian, and I believe that choosing to have a relationship with God is the most important decision someone can make. Having the kind of faith that I strive for is a simple concept, but it is not easy to carry out in everyday life. So, I am starting this blog with the primary goal of going deeper and learning more about the God that I serve. There have been numerous times when I hear a sermon, have a conversation, or have another awesome experience that I think I will remember, but then a week or so later I completely forget about it unless I am reminded. Having a bad memory like mine is no excuse to forget about important lessons, so hopefully this will serve as a solution to that.
2. Typing is much faster than writing in a journal, which is what I have done in the past. I am all about efficiency, and I think having a blog will make me more likely to to write instead of thinking that I should write in a journal and then get lazy. I won't stop journaling altogether, but this blog will serve as a necessary addition to it. Plus, I figure that technology is not slowing down, so we all might as well jump on board!
3. I have a lot of feelings, thoughts, and "goals" that swarm around in my head. Hopefully writing in this blog will help me to focus on the important things I learn and make sense of all the "noise" in our chaotic world and in my Type-A brain.
4. This is a public blog, so the last reason for starting this is for others to get something out of what I write. While I am no exception in wanting to be heard (why else do people start blogs anyway?), I want to share my reflections in case someone out there can benefit from or be challenged by something I post, and, no doubt, I will learn from others' opinions as well. So feel free to comment away, but don't feel obligated because of a lack of comments :) It won't hurt my feelings, I promise! Also, I am going to try to be semi-anonymous on here. Yes, I'm linking this to my facebook page, but if someone happens to come across this blog in cyberspace, I want to stay under the radar in hopes that it is easier to relate to something I might say more broadly instead of forming differences from unnecessary details about my life. This makes sense I think because after all, I'm trying to get at the things that really matter.
Well, I hope this blog can accomplish those four things. They are goals, and I am a sucker for to-do lists and things like this that I don't always follow through on. But here goes nothin!
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