Kermit Wins

Quote of the Week XXX

Never doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light.

(Dr. V. Raymond Edmund)

Quote of the Week XXVIV

The problem with socialists is that eventually they run out of other people's money

(Margaret Thatcher)

Quote of the Week XXVIII

I would rather limp as a man than walk freely as a coward...

- guess who said it.

Holding On

Have you ever found yourself in a bad way of some sort and thought that you just couldn't remain true (as if becoming false would somehow help)? Maybe you are tempted to do something wrong and under other more happy circumstances you might not even be tempted, let alone give in to the temptation. You are not really even likely sure what giving in is supposed to do. If you have been in a situation like this I am sure you have at one time or another given in to some evil in the moment of your trial and you have not remained true. And if you have done this you have likely also found that sometimes if you had just held on a little while longer you would have had a very different perspective on the whole situation. It is funny how we all react to stress sometimes. Perhaps today we should consider not making things worse when they are already bad.

Quote of the Week XXVIII

You've been leaving yourself open for me all day long Bruce Lee. -The Chan Man Ninja

Climbing

Blokey Blokes and Worship Music

Peace and Victory in Context

Peace (in the political sense)is not something that is worth having at any cost- and neither is victory (again in the political sense). It is funny to me that when peace and victory are considered as spiritual goals everything changes. As spiritual goals, these two things are worth much greater risks and losses.

A Brief Comment On Planning and Living

There are many days when the battle is not out in the open. Sometimes, it is just the temptation to go to the other side to try and get what you want. It is different when you discover what it is you actually want- sometimes a lot better, sometimes far worse...

Each day has it's own challenges. Sometimes they are one kind of thing, sometimes they are another. To say that you should make good plans does not mean that you should not exist where you are when you are. Planning does not consist of fitting two day's problems into a single day. It is enough to take the problem of this day and commit it to one who can do far better than you... Jesus did once say that tomorrow would worry about itself.

Quote of the Week XXVII

When death was new to me and I woke each day to the shock of its reality, I wanted nothing more than to claw my way back into sleep and my dreams, where there wasn't a pit of fear in my stomach and a heavy weight on my chest. I needed to breathe deeply, but it felt as though the air was rare and thin. I wanted only to stay in bed and cry, and when I looked around our bedroom and saw his things, ghostly images of Alex filled my mind, doing mundane things like pawing through a dresser drawer, looking for a sock.

(Jennifer Lowe-Anker. Forget Me Not: a memoir. The Mountaineers Books; Seattle: 2008.)

Still...

I dream of you without a face
And every time I lose the thread
And I realize something hard to take
I just don't know who you are.

Sometimes the sun is shining bright
And all the sky seems blue
And still I cannot take a step
Still I dream of you.

I don't know if I'll see you there
But maybe I hope I will
And maybe that's why I hate it here
I hate it here still.

Quote of the Week XXVI

I'm like Bob Ross with keys. - Corey

On Understanding, in Brief

Sometimes people confuse excuses with reasons. Sometimes well meaning friends suggest that searching for the reasons or the cause of something is akin to abdicating your responsibility for a particular action. Sometimes your friends are right.

I am sure that many of us have been "stuck" doing something wrong over and over again. The sin has become a habit or a refuge. It may be something quasi-secret, it may not. Either way I am sure that we sometimes seek to know why we do something, and in seeking to understand, we avoid dealing with our sin first. It is as if we think we have to understand things before we can obey. And sometimes we act as though we are entitled to certain knowledge...

I would suggest that perhaps obedience should come before understanding more and more as you grow in your faith in Jesus Christ. I think that it can become a trust issue. Do I trust that God is right? Do I trust that God knows best? Do I trust that God knows and cares about me? Do I trust that His law is not arbitrary?

I do not wish to stop anyone from seeking understanding, however. In your pressing for trust in God Himself, do not stop seeking for answers. Do not stop trying to understand how you got where you are (the good places and the bad). Only, do not let your search become an excuse to continue sinning. "Lord I believe; help me with my unbelief."

Decisions

Sometimes we are faced with a choice between doing a good thing and not doing a good thing. Sometimes we find this decision to be difficult because the reasons for not doing the good thing are a good. When you want to do the best sometimes you must abstain from a good thing and other times you must risk a good thing. We see darkly now- and often sin in ignorance. In a time to come, however, we will see plainly and certain decisions will become much easier. As life is not about ease, our current predicament should not be cause for dismay. I long to lean not on my own understanding...

Why

We often wonder why things happen, don't we? Or we wonder why things are the way they are (or appear to be). People go through life with a very strong inability to trust when they do not understand (which is not really much trust at all). With each other we demand why's all the time- like some sort of pathological disease. People always seem to want to know why. Why did you not call me yesterday? Why did you say that in front of those people? Why didn't you do that thing I asked you to? It goes on and on and on. You really have to wonder, though- when we ask the question, do we want the answer? If we get the answer, are we expecting it to change something inside of us (how we feel, perhaps)?

People do the same thing with God. Why did you let my beloved die? Why did you not stop that earthquake? Why did you make me handicapped? Why don't you visibly show yourself to everyone? And if a person does not get the answer they are looking for- they get furious. At that point, reason does not begin- it exits the building entirely. If I don't understand why- you must not exist. If I do not understand why- you must not care. If I don't understand why- you must be a monster! This is how it goes (at least in our culture) over and over and over again.

But I have to wonder if we really want to know why God does what He does. I have to wonder if we knew if it would really change how we feel. I have to wonder if knowing why is really what people are after. I doubt it is what they need in many situations- but I begin to wonder if they really even want it...

All of us have questions we do not know the answers to. I think that maybe we should think a little bit about why we are asking the questions we do in the first place.

To Be As Blind

When things have gone wrong for so long that you do not remember right... sometimes you are as blind to the good you do and receive that is all around you right now. Sometimes you see so much bad you begin to think that bad is all there is. Sometimes you think you have sinned so much that it is just part of who you really are. Sometimes those around you have sinned so much you begin to think that this life has no joys and was not made for such happy things. There are some problems with thinking like this.

When you are in such a state you miss what God has put right there in front of you and inside of you. And, when you view life as suffering you may lose sight of the purpose of suffering that God has intended, as though it were without benefit. Both of these views do not comport with the truth.

May the Lord have mercy upon the downtrodden. Who else will lift them up?

On Commitment

Some battles take longer than others. Commitment is tested when you cannot see the end of the war. Commitment and ability are two different things, however. One's commitment is not enough to say, change the orbit of the moon around the earth. Commitment is often required for a prolonged conflict, it is necessary- but never sufficient. The battle will often belong to those with something other than commitment. It is good to be committed to a good cause- it is not, however, good enough to be committed to a good cause. If the Lord does not build it...

You know it's hard to find the connection between the dots when you do not believe there is one.

Quote of the Week XXV

You are responsible for the man you are- not the man people say you are.

(Luther Cox)