It's a common phrase and question now to think or talk about what you would do if today was your last day. Honestly, as morbid as this may sound, I was thinking about what I would do if I were to die. I would be overjoyed on one hand to finally be going home to Christ, but for my last day here on earth, If I were actually going to die today, wouldn't I want to live the day completely for Christ- serving him as much as possible, showing others love all day long, and living as sinless and simply as I can? yes! A thousand times yes! So way than should any day be much different?
Our culture has a sickness; it's called being lazy. My generation is the worst at it, with procrastination being the underlying symptom. Things come up throughout the day that you have to do, or things occur to your mind that you should do, even things come up that you WANT to do- but still you put it off. "I should pray" or "I should talk to my roomates about God"....But then we don't do it. We put it off, saying this isn't a good time, or I'm too busy, or I have something else more important to do. But what's more important than God?
It's OK if we find ourselves doing this, trying to put off what's most important. It's almost natural because we are so used to putting off making big decisions, or doing homework, or excercising- the things that are important to our wordly lives. But what's more important than our wordly lives is our spiritual lives. We all have one, whether we consider our selves to be religious or Chrisitans or non-believers. You still have a spiritual life. It's that stirring inside of you, deep down in your heart, that tells you you aren't quite satisfied. It's that feeling you get when you make someone else happy and when you do good for someone else without gaining anything in return. It's wondering in your mind about how we all got here, what everything stands for, and what your life means in this world.
So I challenge you, whether you have a relationship with God or whether you never even realized that you have a spiritual life, I challenge you to listen to that voice inside you. When you try to put off doing something that's important to your spiritual life- may it be spending time in prayer or maybe just spending time by yourself thinking about the bigger things in life- just don't put it off. Give in, and you will be much happier for listening to your heart.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
-Matthew 5:3
Saturday, August 29
Thursday, August 13
You
As the sun sets, you wrap your big, strong arms around the width of the earth, tucking in the day as you pull up the blanket of the still, silent night. You rest peacefully beside me as I sleep, watching over me and thinking of all the wonderful plans you have in store for my future. Then as the sun rises the next day, you peal back the viel of darkness and night and turn everything around me a golden, shining yellow. The new day you bring me you have filled with warmth, hope and joy. It's gift you give to me again and again and I always will gladly accept and share it with you. Thank you.
Tuesday, July 14
Shore House
Shore House
Laughing Black-eyed Susan’s
the size of a grown man’s first
are scattered about in gardens
among the pebbled lawns.
The somber glow of dusk creeps toward
the little blue A-frame house
from the running tides
of the Barnegat Bay.
The horizon is enveloped in peaches
and pinks
and kites with long tails fly
below patchy purple clouds.
Sandy bare feet run on whitewashed decks
dodging splinters
and laughs echo against the
white sandy dunes that barricade the beaches.
Laughing Black-eyed Susan’s
the size of a grown man’s first
are scattered about in gardens
among the pebbled lawns.
The somber glow of dusk creeps toward
the little blue A-frame house
from the running tides
of the Barnegat Bay.
The horizon is enveloped in peaches
and pinks
and kites with long tails fly
below patchy purple clouds.
Sandy bare feet run on whitewashed decks
dodging splinters
and laughs echo against the
white sandy dunes that barricade the beaches.
Friday, June 19
What is Life/ What does it all mean?
Those are two heavy questions that cross all of our minds a few times in life, or for some people I'm sure lay heavy on their heart all the time. Well, here's a new way of looking at life that I just starting thinking about:
I just read in the book Called to Question by Joan Chittister about her thoughts on life. She said, " Life on earth was simply a waiting ground for heaven." At first, I just read over at then kept going down the page, but that idea, earth being a waiting place, a preparation for heaven, kept recirculating in my head. Maybe that could be true? It makes a lot of sense.
Think of it like this: First, our time on earth is short compared to the history of humanity, and is even shorter, is only a pinch of the time we will spend in heaven after his life on earth, because we were given the gift of eternal life, being happy and content in heaven forever.
So if that's the case, then you can compare our time on earth to the foyer of a house. It's like when you are going over to a friends house or going to pick up someone for the first date, and the door is opened to you at the house, so you are welcomed in, and then you stand there, sometimes along or sometimes accompanyed by someone else who lives in the house, while you wait for your friend or significant other to come to meet you at the door. In those moments of waiting, there is an uncertainty around. You stand there awkardly or uncomfortably, looking around the hallway for something familiar, not sure what to do. You also don't know entirely what to expect, you don't know when your friend will come to the door, so there's a feeling of anticipation. That's just like what our life on earth can be compared to. It's the start of something much greater, that's for sure. And during times in our life, we all find us doubting ourselves, unsure of what we are doing, and most of the time we can never be sure of what's next and what's to come.
So then why really does this time, this breath of life, on earth even exist? Well, I've got a theory about that too. We could have st been created in heaven, or just gone straight there, or something along the uncomprehendable lines of that, but we were evidently put on this life for a reason. For all that man is, all that he is capable of doing and feeling, we had to have been created by a higher power, a divine hand that could be greater than we are. I know that God created each of us, and did so in his image. So then, God put on on earth for a reason.
When you experience something you would explain to another person as "beautiful", such as a pink and orange sunset over the water or an arching rainbow appearing over head after a downpour, those certianly are beautiful acts of nature. One of the reasons we may have been put on earth is so that we have a chance to experience things. God wanted to give us a glimpse of the beauty of what we are to experience in heaven. He wanted us to first experience the breath taking beauty of the nautre he made for us on earth before we experience the unthinkable beauty and glory we will see and witness in heaven.
Sometimes you see or hear about actions that one would describe as a miracle, whether it's big or small. For example, I would say that a few months ago or so when that pilot landed his crashing air plane in the Hudson River in out side of NYC and saved the hundreds of people who were going to die, I would say that's pretty miraculous. We hear about these king of miraculous events all the time and see others often online and on the news. Maybe it was just natural coincidence that caused them, but I really don't believe that. I think God has his hand in everything that happens. So what about you, and me? When do we get to experience our miracles? Just wait. If you keep your eyes and heart open, you'll see them all around you every day, though they may be small, they are there. I've expereienced a few already, because I understand that everything really does happen for a reason (but that's another time, another post). So all of these mini miracles, even the pilot landing his crashing plane, all of these are miniscule compared to the miracle that happens we we die, when our souls leave our bodies and pass, with angels and grace, to the heaven God created. That is the ultimate miracle, and we are just being given a tiny reminder and preview to it when we expereince so called miracles here on earth.
Finally, few people are lucky enough to ever really experience and feel love here on earth. Yes, you love your family and they love you. And yes, you love your friends and ya'll would do anything for each other. But I think the most powerful, potent love between to humans is the love and passion and yearning that two people who are truly, unabashedly in love, which is really only felt between the two people who are meant to be together, otherwise maybe known as soul mates. I kinda do think there's one person out there who I'm meant for, who from the beginning of time God said that this man would show me how to love and love me back. Unfortunately, and I can't understand why, but its disconcerting that the divorce rate in today's society is so high. And I can't explain that. Maybe those people settles before they were meant to? I don' know, I can't explain that. But what I can explain, is that I think the earthly love we have for the man/woman we love is the closest thing we can know on earth to what God's love is like for us. That yearning, heartfelt longing, and consuming love that you experience for your loved one is what God had given to us, to our hearts, so that we can have a tiny idea of what his love is like for us. But obviously, God's love really isn't even comparable to that, because he is God, and he can love like we can't even imagine.
What it comes down to is this: our time on earth is a short time of preperation before the real party starts, before we get to meet our wonderful creator, before we get to spend forever in the beautiful, miraculous, lovely heaven. (Just wanted to say, that I do think there are additional reasons we are here on earth, such as to reach out to our brothers and sisters and love them, and help them, and show them God's love; to spread the message of peace and help to bring justice to ourselves and our neighbors; etc... But that's for another time another post too) When we go to heaven we will see beauty that we thought couldn't be created, we will witness the miracle of eternal ife and real perfection, and what I'm looking forward to most of all, is that we will know what God's love is truly like, and our hearts and bodies will be filled to the brim, will be overflowing with his love for us.
I just read in the book Called to Question by Joan Chittister about her thoughts on life. She said, " Life on earth was simply a waiting ground for heaven." At first, I just read over at then kept going down the page, but that idea, earth being a waiting place, a preparation for heaven, kept recirculating in my head. Maybe that could be true? It makes a lot of sense.
Think of it like this: First, our time on earth is short compared to the history of humanity, and is even shorter, is only a pinch of the time we will spend in heaven after his life on earth, because we were given the gift of eternal life, being happy and content in heaven forever.
So if that's the case, then you can compare our time on earth to the foyer of a house. It's like when you are going over to a friends house or going to pick up someone for the first date, and the door is opened to you at the house, so you are welcomed in, and then you stand there, sometimes along or sometimes accompanyed by someone else who lives in the house, while you wait for your friend or significant other to come to meet you at the door. In those moments of waiting, there is an uncertainty around. You stand there awkardly or uncomfortably, looking around the hallway for something familiar, not sure what to do. You also don't know entirely what to expect, you don't know when your friend will come to the door, so there's a feeling of anticipation. That's just like what our life on earth can be compared to. It's the start of something much greater, that's for sure. And during times in our life, we all find us doubting ourselves, unsure of what we are doing, and most of the time we can never be sure of what's next and what's to come.
So then why really does this time, this breath of life, on earth even exist? Well, I've got a theory about that too. We could have st been created in heaven, or just gone straight there, or something along the uncomprehendable lines of that, but we were evidently put on this life for a reason. For all that man is, all that he is capable of doing and feeling, we had to have been created by a higher power, a divine hand that could be greater than we are. I know that God created each of us, and did so in his image. So then, God put on on earth for a reason.
When you experience something you would explain to another person as "beautiful", such as a pink and orange sunset over the water or an arching rainbow appearing over head after a downpour, those certianly are beautiful acts of nature. One of the reasons we may have been put on earth is so that we have a chance to experience things. God wanted to give us a glimpse of the beauty of what we are to experience in heaven. He wanted us to first experience the breath taking beauty of the nautre he made for us on earth before we experience the unthinkable beauty and glory we will see and witness in heaven.
Sometimes you see or hear about actions that one would describe as a miracle, whether it's big or small. For example, I would say that a few months ago or so when that pilot landed his crashing air plane in the Hudson River in out side of NYC and saved the hundreds of people who were going to die, I would say that's pretty miraculous. We hear about these king of miraculous events all the time and see others often online and on the news. Maybe it was just natural coincidence that caused them, but I really don't believe that. I think God has his hand in everything that happens. So what about you, and me? When do we get to experience our miracles? Just wait. If you keep your eyes and heart open, you'll see them all around you every day, though they may be small, they are there. I've expereienced a few already, because I understand that everything really does happen for a reason (but that's another time, another post). So all of these mini miracles, even the pilot landing his crashing plane, all of these are miniscule compared to the miracle that happens we we die, when our souls leave our bodies and pass, with angels and grace, to the heaven God created. That is the ultimate miracle, and we are just being given a tiny reminder and preview to it when we expereince so called miracles here on earth.
Finally, few people are lucky enough to ever really experience and feel love here on earth. Yes, you love your family and they love you. And yes, you love your friends and ya'll would do anything for each other. But I think the most powerful, potent love between to humans is the love and passion and yearning that two people who are truly, unabashedly in love, which is really only felt between the two people who are meant to be together, otherwise maybe known as soul mates. I kinda do think there's one person out there who I'm meant for, who from the beginning of time God said that this man would show me how to love and love me back. Unfortunately, and I can't understand why, but its disconcerting that the divorce rate in today's society is so high. And I can't explain that. Maybe those people settles before they were meant to? I don' know, I can't explain that. But what I can explain, is that I think the earthly love we have for the man/woman we love is the closest thing we can know on earth to what God's love is like for us. That yearning, heartfelt longing, and consuming love that you experience for your loved one is what God had given to us, to our hearts, so that we can have a tiny idea of what his love is like for us. But obviously, God's love really isn't even comparable to that, because he is God, and he can love like we can't even imagine.
What it comes down to is this: our time on earth is a short time of preperation before the real party starts, before we get to meet our wonderful creator, before we get to spend forever in the beautiful, miraculous, lovely heaven. (Just wanted to say, that I do think there are additional reasons we are here on earth, such as to reach out to our brothers and sisters and love them, and help them, and show them God's love; to spread the message of peace and help to bring justice to ourselves and our neighbors; etc... But that's for another time another post too) When we go to heaven we will see beauty that we thought couldn't be created, we will witness the miracle of eternal ife and real perfection, and what I'm looking forward to most of all, is that we will know what God's love is truly like, and our hearts and bodies will be filled to the brim, will be overflowing with his love for us.
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