New Phase

Last week my pre-marital counseling began. And well it is interesting, I went in there not knowing what to expect. And it was so different, for those of you who had to go through pre-marital counseling; it must have been a mix of excitement and fear. It was for me, I was so afraid I would not be compatible to the person I love, but then again that was not how things turned out. It was a journey to learn to how to make this relationship to work.

            We hear all the time that people want to take their relationship to the next level. And that is usually mean moving in, or buying a house or something. But this is really taking things to the next level. It is not about how the relationship is, pre-marital counseling is not about how to get married. It is about how to take your relationship to the next level beyond the romance, beyond the hype and beyond the idealism; pre-marital counseling is about taking all these emotional factors and make the relationship real and functional. I’ve always thought that I was a more level headed guy when it comes to emotions and relationships. But this really takes it beyond me ,and shows me that I still have idealisms in my mind. I’m still a young man right?

            And the other thing that sorta shocked me is the homework and the reading assignments. LOL! Gosh there is reading assignments I thought you just go there share listen and come out, but this is different, this is like sitting in a course. Oh Boy! I’m still excited juggling my current course work with this new course work but I’m enjoying it. And I’m learning to love Charity in a real way. Not that I didn’t love her before but this time it is different, it is deeper, it is real and tangible.

This Is Who We Should Be!

This is an abstract from an assignment I did for a subject in my studies a reflection on something I heard from somewhere but I can’t remember. I would like to acknowledge the real author but I just can’t figure out where I heard it before. So if anyone knows please do let me know for his work is brilliant. I’ve adapted it and took its essence and applied it to something I felt strongly about.

            Here’s the deal, we have made the church a social club. There once was a story of a costal town where shipwrecks frequently happened. But the fatality rate was surprisingly low. It was because there was a small shed which sat right at the water’s edge with a small group of dedicated men looking out for shipwrecks and rescuing drowning sailors. The shed was simple, shabby and rather run down. But it offered hope and assurance that no matter what happened there is someone looking out for the welfare of the sailors. Soon many lives were saved and touched by the mission of the shed. And the people blessed by the rescuers and the mission of the shed gave back to the group of people and even joined them in their life saving efforts. So a brand new shed was built, beautiful and well painted. The metal bunks replaced with nice comfortable beds, the hard wood floor replaced with plush carpeting, the little fire place sitting in the middle of the room that gave warmth to wet and cold sailors was changed into a large bricked fire place with a log fire burning always. Although the changes were made, the life saving mission still happened, but soon, some of the members are getting annoyed that the wet cold sailors are wetting and ruining the carpet, sofas and beds. So after awhile a small group broke from the original house now turned fraternity and restored the original mission of the shed. But as it continued to rescue and save lives, the trend continued like the first shed. Now along the coast many shipwrecks still happen, but hardly anyone is rescued and the fatality rate is extremely high, because all the sheds have turned into clubs.

            The church has almost become like this. Thank God it hasn’t reached that state but we will be if we do not change soon. We have forgotten to stand for the weak, the helpless and the needy. We were saved because we were helpless and lost. We were drowning in our sin but now that we have it good, we forget. The church is  in danger of being a social club concerned with rules and facades, forgetting its original mission and how and why we exist in the first place. Like Paul standing for a slave (Onesimus) that has no worth, a slave that should be punished for his sins, Paul stood by him, rescued him, and gave him a life and a reason to live. Got hi act together and is now vouching for him. We must not lose sight of what we are called to do: feed the needy, defend the weak and stand for justice. And I believe we will relive the mission of old and see so much more people coming to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We will save these drowning souls and give them a reason to live.

            This is how we should be. Maybe its time for us to remember that and come back to God.

What is this life?

Look around us, what have we made ourlives to be?

Honestly I see millions of people running arounnd chasing what? what is all this running around for? why are we sometimes so petrified for? what are we chasing?

Its sad to see sometimes we ae chasing the wind. Never ending string of “A’s”, achievement of success, things; objects that fill our life and homes but don’t fill our soul. What do we think we can achieve by all this? Will it make our life better? Hardly.

We’ve chased too many rabbits into too many holes now we are stuck, chasing things that we cannot catch and just chasing what people say is beautiful.

The question is, can we see beauty that is just in front of us? Can we see the beauty of the sun rise and say Wow, thats worth more than my pay check, instead of concentrating on the jam we are stuck in angry that we might be late for work. Or can we see that beauty of the people around us, the people that love us and thank God for it because no one really cares for us than these people. Can we hear and know beauty when we see it?

Sadly the answer is clear, we don’t know what good thing we have in our lives. That is until it has passed us by or we loose it. Its actualy a sad existance if you see it that way. We work so hard to acquire the things that we think we need, all whilst loosing what we actually need and when it is gone we realise what we really need but can’t get it back anymore, so we try to get again what we trully need, but then loose track and the cycle starts all over again.

Maybe we need to make the earth stand still, throw away all these ‘burdens’ all these ‘wants’ see things differently.

This reminds me of a article i read, it basically states: in an ordinary setting, where everything is un assuming, will we see beauty?

The sad answer is no. we fail to see the greatest beauty that can be right in front of us.

Maybe its time to appreciate beauty from now on, life would be so much more beautiful, don’t you think?