We don't stand AGAINST the bullies
We stand WITH those whom they are bullying
This is who we are
This is what we do
We have always done this
And as long as we are here
we always will.
I stand with the children, the parents, and the siblings of those who have lost their lives at ground zero.
"All things work together for good to them that love God..." -Romans 8:28
All of creation is limitations. It would have been great if we had mental telepathy, for example. But mental telepathy wasn't in the design, so we learned other, more interesting ways to communicate.
In doing so, we discovered that those other ways we learned --to overcome the limitation and express ourselves-- have their own beautiful characteristics. Those beautiful characteristics would have been unimaginable, and completely hidden, if we had been "blessed" with telepathy, and were not limited in this way.
Consider... music, poetry, dance, paintings, and sculpture, for examples of what would never have been.
Within every limitation there is some new, previously unseen and unknown thing to learn, and learn about. And with the learning, comes the purpose.
As sinners go, the guy who wrote this song was right up there with the worst of them. Amazing! Salvation... offered, and accepted, and the angels celebrate by giving us one of the best songs ever written. Sometimes it's not hard at all to know what's important to them.
It is not a will to do anything, except smoke cigarettes.
Or snort cocaine.
Or have sex with strangers.
Or any one of a hundred possible other: narrow, focused, behaviors.
These are little, shallow, fragmentary, wills.
The will we think of when we think of OUR will is much bigger, much more complex. It includes many intertwined desires, aspirations, goals, and actions.
It is, you could say, a more complete will.
. . . . . . . The small, fragmentary wills are separate and distinct from OUR will.
When they are in control, they deny the big will and control our actions. In other words, when acting according to these fragmentary wills, we often do things that are contrary to OUR will. For example, our will says: "I don't want to smoke", the will-fragment says: "I want to smoke".
When the English translation of the Bible refers to a perfect will, could the word "perfect" be referring to a Greek or Hebrew word that, at least partially, means: "complete"?
I have been trying to bring my dead, desert-like lawn back to life for the past three years AT LEAST. I've been down in there digging away for all of those springs, summers, and falls, and have never seen a single earthworm. They were conspicuous in their absence.
Until today.
Today I was edging the curb side of the sidewalk, and I saw earthworms. Not just one either. Bunches of them, all up and down where I had edged.
I don't know why but this really hit me. Here it is, just a few days before Thanksgiving in the States, and I find myself filled with gratitude for... earthworms.
If you've convinced yourself that character is easy for you because you are a good man, you have convinced yourself of a lie. Character is like the water suddenly appearing in the glass when you begin to tip the pitcher. There is no cause and effect. It exists in immeasurable, timeless, instants; whether it is the instant you decide to risk your own life to help a brother in arms, or the instant you decide to hold your tongue when some dirt-ball (who you thought was your best bud) publicly disrespects your mother. Character's tests occur outside of time, but they occur all the time.
