Smile . . .

There’s a lot of just downright depressing stuff in this world.

I was searching, intronet style, yesterday for something regarding USA History . . . just reading and looking at photographs and came across a blog . . . which I’m sure I could go find again, if need be . . . with poignant photographs, national and international, of starving children in the face of famine, immigrant mothers struggling as a field workers, wars and the effects regarding.

Harsh to look at . . . I ended that blog post crying and feeling the starkness of humanity . . . the fragility of mankind. But also to look at where I am, who I am and all that I’ve been blessed with.  If I could, in my tiny little sphere of living, create a positive influence . . . from the simple smile to the passerby to buying groceries for someone who needs it to just choosing grace above judging my fellow man.

Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. ~Philippians 2:14 (Message Bible)

Perhaps, there will be a time, later in life, that I can give . . . do more, in God’s will and grace.  But, instead of getting depressed by the overwhelming awareness of human fragility and cruelty . . . I want to love extravagantly the people in my life, forgive easily, be in love with my Savior, the very pureness of truth, love and light.

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” ~Luke 10:27 (Message Bible)

My neighbor is more than just my physical neighbor . . . more than my friends . . . my family . . . or people that I can identify with and like instantly.  Pretty sure the Bible is referring to anyone put in our path.  If we get our feathers ruffled with a person or circumstance its because that person or situation has violated our rights . . . has gone against our image of ourselves, our identity . . . playing on our self-esteem perhaps. Or the person just does not add up to what we would desire in a human being, as a friend or acquaintance.

“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that. ~Luke 6:31 (Message Bible)

Hey . . . I’m just sharing thoughts regarding myself and how I think . . . stuff I’m pretty convicted on this week.  I’ve been disappointed in how I’ve reacted to a few circumstances/people this week . . . even in my own family unit.  My humanity just makes me wanna get closer to God . . . rest my head on His chest, arms around his neck; like a child. I’m tired of not getting it right . . . I’m tired of trying, in my own strength to be Christ-like. It isn’t possible.  Fake it for awhile, but in reality . . . it ain’t happenin’ unless I’m letting Him into all those areas . . . trusting, like a child to a Father, Him to be that close . . . to heal, to deliver, to walk with me even when I don’t see Him, feel Him or hear Him.

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. ~Romans 8:5 (Message Bible)

So thats the random thoughts floating through my brain today . . . that and the coffee I brewed today tastes so so good!

mmm . . . coffee!