Intrapersonal conflict

Why do you do what you do? Really, why?

I wish I could at least say that I do what I do because that's what I want, much less because that's what God's will is. But, alas, I'm afraid I do so many things because it's what I've always done and/or it's what's expected of me.

Some Wisdom From C. S. Lewis

Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.
C. S. Lewis

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were
precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased
to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C. S. Lewis

Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection:
the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about
the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief,
but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.
C. S. Lewis

Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.
C. S. Lewis

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
C. S. Lewis

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
C. S. Lewis

"If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself."
C. S. Lewis

"We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship."
C. S. Lewis

"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."
C. S. Lewis

"He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself..."
C. s. Lewis

"Conquest is an evil productive of almost every other evil both to those who commit and to those who suffer it."
C. S. Lewis

Deception

If you forget about the war, it's easy to get shot.

Last week was horrible, to put it mildly. Pain, confusion, despair. But I received some great encouragement on Sunday. I've been in pretty good spirits since then. Until today. Oh how deceived I've been. Never forget:

"The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked"

"The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy"

And then be thankful that you have been saved from sure destruction and that God is greater than your weakness and the cunning of the enemy.

Everything is Meaningless, a Chasing After the Wind

Selections from Ecclesiastes:


2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."

3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.

The product of an ocean of fear and anger

One Day in May
I came to the door
The last stretch was ever so peaceful
Then I opened it
I looked around
And turned my head up
And I saw it sliding
Ever so slowly down
June was beautiful
I danced with her in that corridor
Until one day she said goodbye
And her words and gentle laughter
Turned to words and rustling paper
Still there but not quite the same
And next week I walked through another door
I opened it
And my sky fell down
Months later
And miles down the road
I’m still going
But I don’t know quite why
Slogging on through this smog
In a rage-blasted wasteland
Dragging my wounded soul along
By the river of my tears
Looking back at scrapes
And bloody footprints
Afraid to look at dark clouds looming
So dimly through the fog

God's plans don't hinge upon the actions of men

Thought I would throw this encouraging little truth out there. People are so... STUPID. That pretty much sums it up. Thankfully God is so much bigger than even our worst failures. Thankfully His plans don't depend on us pulling through, because we have a tendency not to. In other words, thank you God for being who You are.

Let the dead bury their own dead

Matthew 8:21-22
Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

It seems to center on what is important. Following Jesus means we lead a different life. We'll have different priorities. Here, Jesus puts it in stark terms: following Me is the most important thing. Even significant family events are trivial. Let the world chase after what it thinks is important. You are to focus on something different.

Jesus makes a similar point when talking dealing with the sisters Martha and Mary. Martha was worried about making the house clean and was cleaning frantically when Jesus came. Mary, however, chose to drop everything and come sit at His feet. When Martha asked Jesus to make Mary get up and help her, Jesus responded that Mary was right.


It may seem counterintuitive to drop everything to sit at His feet, but He is good about ensuring the time we gave to Him wasn't wasted (it never is BTW)