Star of Wonder / None Shall Pass

This song is so disgustingly sick, the beat to these Aesop Rock verses... holy, this song is so lyrically good to me, I can't stay seated, I'm gonna stand up and pace around a little bit and then sit back down.

An Excerpt

John thought about love.

  Love had been like a mountain to him, towering over everything all around it, and he had considered it with awe.  He had thought, ‘Ah, love is like this mountain, majestic in form and amazing in its immensity.’  But when he fell in love, he realized that love was not the consideration of the mountain at all.  To be in love was to climb this mountain, and then to consider the rest of the world from such a lofty height.  From the top, he looked around and thought, ‘Ah, this is love, which is amazing in itself, but the thing that amazes me most is the perspective it gives me of the rest of the world.’

Open-mindedness

Note to Self:

Always be ready to change my views.  Who am I to think I've got it figured out?

Love My Haters

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even 'sinners' love those who love them." -Luke 6:32

There is a remarkable story of the priest who heard a knock at the church doors one night.  He invited in a man who asked for a place to sleep.  The priest offered him a warm dinner and a bed.  Later that night, the priest was woken from his sleep by a noise, only to find that very man stealing from the church.  Startled, the man used the silver candlestick that he was putting into his bag to hit the priest over the head.  The priest was rendered unconscious, and the man dropped the bloodied silver candlestick and ran into the night.

A few hours later, there was another knock at the door.  The priest, still awake and recovering from his blow to the head, slowly walked over and opened it.  Two policemen stood at the door, the thief in custody.  They had arrested the thief when they found him trying to sleep in the local park and discovered the church property in his bag.  The thief looked dismayed- there was no way out for him.

But then, the priest did a curious thing.  He left the door and then came back with the very candlestick the thief had used as a weapon against him.  The thief then knew his fate and lowered his head.  However, the priest spoke, "This man has church property only because I gave it to him.  And I am glad you have brought him back; he has forgotten one item," and he handed the thief the silver candlestick.  "Now go," he said, "and be good."  The thief was speechless.  After the policemen left, the thief stayed with the priest and weeped for forgiveness.

Lent

Lent started today, and I've gotta say that I had no idea what I could give up or add in my life.  I'm blessed enough to say that I'm fairly content with my life at the moment- but then again, there's always more that can be done, and complacency is always a real danger.

After some thought, I decided that I'd give up Facebook for forty days.  I hadn't formed a certain reason why I would at the time, but it seemed like a big enough task without it being too radical.  But now that I think about it, I'm very eager for the next forty days because Facebook is nothing more than something to pass the time with for me.  Everyone says it's a great way to keep in touch, but I feel absolutely no personal connection via Facebook, and I find that I too readily form opinions of people that solidify way too quickly when, really, I don't know them at all.

So, in pursuit of a deeper connection with the people who I do want to know, and for the sake of those I assume to know when I really don't, I'm going to give up Facebook.  I left my email address as my status, and I'm kind of excited to see who might email me, instead of hoping for haphazard comments that might concern me on Facebook.  I'm actually really eager to channel what time I do spend on it on other things that could be considered more productive.

And above all, I've gotta remember that God is my strength, and what time I do find myself with, I should give it to him.

Anyway, let's see how it goes.

Sympathizing

Human nature is such an interesting topic.  I've been guilty of this myself, but some of the most obvious things in life seem to become so complicated, a glass so stained by our ignorance.

But I think subjectivity is for a reason.  If we were to look at our lives objectively, even for a moment, we would know the general direction in which our lives should go, but it is simply impossible to do that.  However, what we can do is attempt to view our lives through the eyes of someone else, and this allows us to sympathize, even empathize, with those around us.  By being able to imagine the perspective of those around us, we can look at our own lives from a less than egocentric manner, but then we also begin to understand what it would be like to be someone other than ourselves.  Often, those of us who are the most lost are those who cannot sympathize with other people.

And then there is the question of morality.  It is much too dangerous to try to solve moral issues by trying to step into another person's position to view our own situation because, frankly, we are all flawed.  And so any views of the problem would be a flawed view.  Everyone is biased by culture and habit, and so all solutions would be influenced by them.

However, thankfully, we have an objectively moral, but unconditionally loving God.

He is objectively moral, and so we can be confident that his definition is the correct one.  And he is unconditionally loving, and so we can rest assured that what he commands is to help us.  We have to learn to sympathize with his perspective, but we can only do that if we know him.  And how can we know him?  Through the bible which is said to be our sword in battle.

The battle being our war with our ignorant selves, fighting to see through God's eyes by understanding his heart.