I've been on the road so I apologize for the lack of posts, but I'm back again and should get back on track with posting next week. But for your Feel-Good Friday, check out Miss Philippines beatboxing for her talent in the finals of the 2012 Miss World pageant.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Feel-Good Friday
This is courtesy of my hubby, who spotted it on a menu on Wednesday.
Check out "La Brea Tarpit."
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Miracles
Building off of our quote from the other day (for which I can
find no identifiable source), just how does God work through people? I think we need to consider this from two angles: 1) How can God use people, rather than
miracles, in our own lives; and 2) How can God use us, as people, rather than miracles
in the lives of others?
To address the first question, I am going to have to reveal
one of my own personal weaknesses. While
I like to seek the advice and counsel of wise friends and mentors, I often find
myself rejecting their advice for no other reason than that, “They’re just people
and everything I always learned from Sunday School/health class/after school
specials never to do what your friends encourage you to do if you’re
not 100% positive about it. I’m showing greater faith if I
just wait for God to show me what He wants.”
One of the perennial questions of life is, of course, “Why does God allow pain?” And while I don’t have a good answer to that, I have gradually been coming to the conclusion that perhaps one reason He does it so that we can recognize our responsibility to minister to others. Service, empathy, and selflessness, after all, are some of the most important ways that the seeds of faith are watered in our souls. Consider pictures of starving children in the Sudan. We see those images and are tempted to think, “Why would God allow such suffering to happen? Why not send a miraculous cloud of peace over the land, fresh springs of water, make the land arable again, and teach the people how to farm to provide for themselves?”
Well, why don’t we do it ourselves? Why are we waiting upon the supernatural and feel frustrated with God when He doesn’t ease the pain through miraculous means, when it is within our power to do something—even a little something—but we don’t? The question, then, becomes not “Why does God allow suffering?” but “Why do we allow suffering?”
Rob Bell points out in his [rather controversial] book Love Wins, that if Christians were a little less focused on the life to come and a little more focused on the here and now, maybe we would put ourselves into action to dig wells in India or help out a struggling single parent down the street or mentor a child in our community who needs some guidance. Of course our hope is built on something beyond this world, but that does not mean that we cannot, or should not, invest ourselves in this one.
We often hear people talk about “the miracle of birth”—but what about everything after the moment that new life enters the world? What about the potential that individual has—that we all have—every single day on earth, to be a miracle to someone else?
Yes, I think it’s true that God works through people more than He does through miracles. But are we letting Him?
To address the first question, I am going to have to reveal
one of my own personal weaknesses. While
I like to seek the advice and counsel of wise friends and mentors, I often find
myself rejecting their advice for no other reason than that, “They’re just people
and everything I always learned from Sunday School/health class/after school
specials never to do what your friends encourage you to do if you’re
not 100% positive about it. I’m showing greater faith if I
just wait for God to show me what He wants.”
Okay, yeah. You
shouldn’t rely on your friends when you’re 14 and clearly you are all lacking
in wisdom and experience as exhibited by your hair and fashion choices. But what about when you’re an adult and the
people who you are consulting are godly men and women? Are we really showing faith when we ignore
their guidance in favor of waiting for a flashing neon sign from Heaven or—even
more ridiculous (but you know we’ve all done it)—a song on the radio that seems
to have been written “Just for me!”
I
certainly don’t deny that God can and does send us signs of advice and
encouragement through songs or sermons on the radio, or billboards, or “coincidences”
in everyday life. But is it really wise
to put more faith in something like that than the heartfelt counsel of a
believer? And while we may not be 100% sure about the soundness of their advice, isn't that the reason we talked with them in the first place--because we weren't sure of what to do? Of course we need to use discernment when listening to counsel, but we should never simply reject it outright simply because it came "from a person" rather than "from God."
Consider the
following verse from Proverbs:
Proverbs
11:14 Where there is no
guidance, a people falls; but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs
19:20-21 Listen to advice and
accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. Many are the plans
in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
What if those friends-in-the-faith who are offering you
advice are the sign God prepared for you—the
sign you kept insisting you were waiting on?
What if those people are the very miracle through which God is working in your life?
That leads me to the second question: How can God use us, as people, rather than
miracles in the lives of others?One of the perennial questions of life is, of course, “Why does God allow pain?” And while I don’t have a good answer to that, I have gradually been coming to the conclusion that perhaps one reason He does it so that we can recognize our responsibility to minister to others. Service, empathy, and selflessness, after all, are some of the most important ways that the seeds of faith are watered in our souls. Consider pictures of starving children in the Sudan. We see those images and are tempted to think, “Why would God allow such suffering to happen? Why not send a miraculous cloud of peace over the land, fresh springs of water, make the land arable again, and teach the people how to farm to provide for themselves?”
Well, why don’t we do it ourselves? Why are we waiting upon the supernatural and feel frustrated with God when He doesn’t ease the pain through miraculous means, when it is within our power to do something—even a little something—but we don’t? The question, then, becomes not “Why does God allow suffering?” but “Why do we allow suffering?”
Rob Bell points out in his [rather controversial] book Love Wins, that if Christians were a little less focused on the life to come and a little more focused on the here and now, maybe we would put ourselves into action to dig wells in India or help out a struggling single parent down the street or mentor a child in our community who needs some guidance. Of course our hope is built on something beyond this world, but that does not mean that we cannot, or should not, invest ourselves in this one.
We often hear people talk about “the miracle of birth”—but what about everything after the moment that new life enters the world? What about the potential that individual has—that we all have—every single day on earth, to be a miracle to someone else?
Yes, I think it’s true that God works through people more than He does through miracles. But are we letting Him?
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
Feel-Good Friday
This is an image of the official Alfred Hitchcock Barbie, released in 2003 in honor of the
40th anniversary of The Birds. No, I'm serious. It's for real.
In Barbie's case, though, the birds are detachable.
That's why it qualifies as a candidate for "Feel-Good Friday" instead of "Terrifying Tuesday."
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