Here are a couple of excellent articles I read today. I strongly suggest you check them out, even though they're a bit long. Start with this one, which discusses how we're creating a nation of wimps.
http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20041112-000010.html
Next, read this one, which discusses the underlying trends that support the kind of music that is so popular these days.
http://www.policyreview.org/dec04/eberstadt.html
Can you see where we're headed? Educate yourselves, folks. As a leading philospoher wrote this past month,
"Admittedly, history does not provide many examples of the revival of liberal democracies that turned against their founding principles in culture and morality... The Church and the promise it bears and anticipates will increasingly be posited, not by our choice, against this (present day) constitutional order. That may well be the future; and for that future we must be braced, and work to equip the next generation for heroic fidelity."
Can you see it? Dear friend, please have the openness and the courage to see and know what is.
12/29/2004
12/21/2004
I read an interesting article today by, of course, A.W. Tozer. It was called the Tragedy of waste, and discusses how we use the grace we have been given. He says that we have been given three key things by God; time, money, and talents. We have also been givin opportunities to use those three things. Someday we will be judged before God... how important is it that we take those opportunities, regardless of the cost? What are we building and saving for, anyways?
Sometimes I'm frustrated because I feel as though my job is a waste, and that I could be doing more for God doing something else. However, whatever the job situation may be, I have lots of opportunities to serve him within the life I lead. It's important that I take those, and make the most of them. It's important that my life is always glorifying God, no matter what I'm doing. I need to use my time, money, and talents to praise his name here on earth.
Sometimes I'm frustrated because I feel as though my job is a waste, and that I could be doing more for God doing something else. However, whatever the job situation may be, I have lots of opportunities to serve him within the life I lead. It's important that I take those, and make the most of them. It's important that my life is always glorifying God, no matter what I'm doing. I need to use my time, money, and talents to praise his name here on earth.
12/10/2004
Well, ladies and gents, it's finally official... Samantha and I are engaged! Last night, after prayer meeting, I took her into the sanctuary of UBC and proposed. There were all kinds of fun things involved, like flowers and pictures and the whole nine yards. Point being, we are engaged! I'm pretty excited. Thanks to everyone for loving us and supporting us.
12/09/2004
Heh, my last couple posts haven't generated much response. I'm guessing they were too boring? Once again, my love of ideas seems to have pushed me beyond the limits of accessibility. ::sigh::. It's so hard to be KNOWN, you know? To have friends trust your actions simply because it's you can be a wonderful thing, but it requires so much giving, and so much giving in areas you STINK at giving. I wish I were better at building relationships with people in CCF, especially some of the guys. It's tough to care but to be blocked by your own nature.
Usually I prefer the flexibility of abstract ideas, but sometimes I wish people could only communicate in essay form. Words mean so much to me, but so little to others... it's as though in my world I'm offering roses, but in theirs I offer dandelions.
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I were to give up my introspective nature, give up my books, and just make friends. It's hard to feel that a lifestyle of that type is no more honoring to God than mine is. However, I must continue to accept that God's purpose for making me the way I am is good, and that faithfully using who I am and what I am to build up the body is what he wants from me.
I cannot tell you how sorry I am to those of you I have hurt or neglected.
"Beware, thou wretch...and hold thee never the holier nor the better for the worthiness of thy calling...but the more wretched and cursed, unless thou do that in thee is goodly, by grace and by counsel, to live after thy calling."
-Cloud of Unknowing
Usually I prefer the flexibility of abstract ideas, but sometimes I wish people could only communicate in essay form. Words mean so much to me, but so little to others... it's as though in my world I'm offering roses, but in theirs I offer dandelions.
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I were to give up my introspective nature, give up my books, and just make friends. It's hard to feel that a lifestyle of that type is no more honoring to God than mine is. However, I must continue to accept that God's purpose for making me the way I am is good, and that faithfully using who I am and what I am to build up the body is what he wants from me.
I cannot tell you how sorry I am to those of you I have hurt or neglected.
"Beware, thou wretch...and hold thee never the holier nor the better for the worthiness of thy calling...but the more wretched and cursed, unless thou do that in thee is goodly, by grace and by counsel, to live after thy calling."
-Cloud of Unknowing
12/08/2004
Here's the thought for today...
In King Lear (III:vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not given him even a name: he is merely "First Servant." All the characters around him-Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund-have fine long-term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant has no such delusions. He has no notion how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand it. His sword is out and pointed at his master's breast in a moment: then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But if it were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted.
This C.S. Lewis quote is one we should consider carefully. Why is the servant the best part? Let me know what you think.
In King Lear (III:vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not given him even a name: he is merely "First Servant." All the characters around him-Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund-have fine long-term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant has no such delusions. He has no notion how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand it. His sword is out and pointed at his master's breast in a moment: then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But if it were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted.
This C.S. Lewis quote is one we should consider carefully. Why is the servant the best part? Let me know what you think.
12/06/2004
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You Are the Investigator |
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5 You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker. You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations. You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it. |
Heh, thanks to Tian for the quiz. Quite fun! This certainly sounds like me. My latest theory is that these quizzes are especially good at making comments about my personality because I tend to be so extreme. Jared, for instance, has more of balance than I do between thinking and feeling (no prizes for guessing which one I'm stronger in). What do you think?
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