*The views represented in this blog are strictly the views of the author[s]. Any advice or opinions expressed here are theirs alone. Do your own due diligence before adopting any advice or plans of action expressed. This is a blog and therefor not meant to be a point of empirical reference, but rather an online journal in the life of its author[s].*
Apr
09
More Than You Can Handle
“God will never give you more than you can handle.”
What a crock of….!
Have you ever been in the depths of despair and had a friend feed you this line? As if to make things better, they contend that God would never give you more than you can handle (you strong individual you)! Yet, if He never gave us more than we could handle, what reason would we have to call on Him?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” -Matthew 11:28 (NIV)
What burden would we need rest from if God would never give us more than we can handle?
Have you ever been in the dire straights of hopelessness? Have you ever felt true, utter despair? Hoplessness felt? When you are at the end of your emotional rope, the last thing you want to hear is that you can get through this (on your own). You want helpful advice, a helping hand, or just plain help period. You do not want regurgitated, baseless chatter.
“And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” -1 Corinthians 10:13b
So the line may not be entirely baseless, but the (mis)interpretation of the verse is where the error lies; read it again: ‘he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.’ If you read further, you read the request to ‘flee from idolatry’. The Bible says that He will not let you be tempted more than you can handle, not that He will not give you more than you can handle. We are not meant to be able to handle everything; God is. We are meant to give our burdens over to Him. We are meant to call on Him. We are meant to resist temptation, but we are never guaranteed to be given only what we can handle.
I am never encouraged by those words; it never makes me feel better to hear that ‘God will never give you more than you can handle’ because it has always felt like a cop-out.
“A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.” -Psalm 34:19
God will never give you more than He can handle. The caveat to that though is that He can handle anything. He wants us to call on Him; He wants us to lean on Him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Jan
14
Why Evil?
In light of the Sandy Hook Elementary horror, among the many questions we ask include ‘where was God‘, ‘how could someone do this‘, and ‘why‘. Why did God allow this? How could someone be so evil? Why is there evil? As if to know the answers to these questions will settle our hearts and minds, we seek an answer to why someone would commit such a horrific act. As if to finally have confirmation that there is no God, we question the Deity we are trying to deny: where was He?
The baby Christian says that we must have evil to know good and therefor, in order for there to be a loving God, there must be an opposite evil force. Absolute good cannot exist without absolute evil. Evil must be so that we can be free.
The Christian prays.
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
The Christian reads his bible fumbling through the pages to find any reference that will justify a baby slain. A life taken too soon is God calling his babies home; innocence lost is a part of God’s overall plan. Jesus wept.
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Dec
25
Merry Christmas
I’m not the best at staying a consistent blogger; it’s not that I don’t want to write every day, but some days, weeks, and even months are busier than others. A good sign, no doubt, because it means that I am living life or accomplishing something most of the time, but sometimes I am not doing anything. I enjoy the holidays because they keep me busy, but at the same time, they give me more free time. Merry Christmas to anyone who happens upon this post; I write for myself with the secondary thought that perhaps others can relate to what I have to say. Perhaps others can gain more ‘sense’ of what they are trying to figure out. After all, if I have done a part of the legwork for you, you are further along the path than I was.
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Dec
11
Life Meaning
As if we have to have a meaning to live, we question at times what the meaning of life is. Not to take away from the fact that life is only produced out of procreation and a natural cycle that enables existence (obviously), but many, if not all, people want to know what our purpose here is.
Some mean to ask our purpose as a group of people whereas others mean it personally to say what is my individual purpose for existing. We of course know how we came to be and literally why, but we find ourselves questioning what we, the named individuals that we are, are meant to do with our lives.
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Dec
07
But I’m Awesome
I think I’m pretty awesome. I am not as super talented as some of my friends and family, but I am a good friend, funny, kind, and pretty darn good at problem solving! I’m awesome in being myself. I am not cocky about who I am, and I don’t try to demean others to uplift myself more, but I am confident that who I am is enough to be a good friend, sister, and lover.
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Dec
06
Flow
Some people can look at a couple and wonder what one was thinking in getting with the other; they judge by the outer appearances. They see what their narrow minds show them. Judging eyes.
I’ve been guilty of judging my reaction to someone based on their appearances; that is, I have been guilty of not thinking I can be attracted to someone based on their appearances. Not that they are ugly by any means, but that I would not feel the chemistry. After all, why waste the energy if the chemistry is not going to be there? Some people make better friends than lovers; if I can gauge which goes into which category best, I can gauge how much effort I will put to them. Not to say that lovers get more text time or friends get more face time and vice versa, but rather that if you can only fit in the “lovers” category, and I don’t want you as a friend, I don’t have to put any effort. Yet if you can only fit in the “friends” category, I’m not gonna spend the extra effort to let you know I’m thinking about you either. 😉
It makes sense in my head. In my head, I am still wrong; I make rash decisions and mistakes, but I don’t give up because of a bad break.
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Dec
05
Touch Me
I saw an article a few weeks ago about a professional cuddler; the comments on the article went primarily in the direction of ‘prostitute’, but it is not until the past couple of days that I truly understand the ‘service’ she offers. I crave to be held–intimate touch, but not in the sense of being sexual. I want to be close to someone and feel comforted by their touch. I feel so anxious lately for no apparent reason; I find myself just craving to be held. I want to sit in someone’s arms. I want the old school make-out session: no sex required. I want an all-day-movie-thon curled up under the covers. Spoon. Touch. Feel.
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