Moccachi-know

I'm sitting here drinking a coffee.

As I write this, my wife will be getting up and going to work in 10 minutes. Time to take her morning coffee up, so she can have hers in bed. I euphemistically call it 'breakfast in bed', but it's not really, is it... Considering that shortly afterwards, usually around 7am, she comes downstairs and makes our porridge. That's breakfast. If I'm honest...

Anyhow, back to coffee....

We are by no means coffee connoisseurs. We usually enjoy a quick cup of quite remarkable Nescafé, instant, with trim milk. My lovely wife even requires a teaspoon of Cadbury's hot chocolate to enhance it even further. I hear the collective gasp of shock from those who are dismayed at our treatment of the holy coffee bean as we speak. I ask for your forgiveness, please find it in your heart to accept those of different coffee persuasions than your own.

I honestly forget how much a cup of coffee costs these days. I hear through our reliable media that the cost is going up! Oh no! How will we survive! We generally have the aforementioned luxurious instant once, maybe twice in the mornings, and an excursion to a café for an insidiously overpriced cup of Java is a special treat for us... I can't remember the last time we went, possibly a couple of months ago, to celebrate the miracle of our first child being in Cat's tummy. (Not MY tummy as everyone seems to joke... haha very funny *punch to the face*).

Speaking of special treats, finally getting to the point, we bought some moccachino sachets the other day. This is the coffee we are drinking this morning. As you follow the directions and pour the hot water into the cup, whilst stirring, there magically appears to be hundreds of small bubbles on the creamy top of the coffee. My first though was 'wow, there's more bubbles than stars in the night sky!' I wondered if God was enjoying a coffee while he created the infinite and eternal universe... :P. As I sat and stared at my coffee, contemplating this and other random things about life, a thought crossed my mind.

There's lots of bubbles. But what if I look closer? ... So I lifted the cup closer to my face... All of a sudden it seemed as if there were thousands more bubbles! Wow! Excited by this, I looked closer again... So many more bubbles, again... Excitement rose! To my feeble human mind they seemed infinite! Shall I dare to look even closer? I hesitated... I decided to take the plunge. Here we go! 

Oops! Too close, I went cross eyed and ruined everything.

Oh well, tomorrow I will try again :)


But this got me thinking about God, we can sit there every morning and admire His handiwork, the seemingly infinite work of His hands and be amazed at it. We can enjoy the smells, the tastes, the way it makes us feel, and most importantly, the knowledge that spending time with this cup of coffee will refresh us, wake us up and get us ready for the day ahead. It is a good thing to do, and most of us will always find time for a coffee in the mornings, no matter how busy we are. 

But if we look closer at our coffee, which takes a choice to lift the cup closer, to make the effort to see, to be still and know what we are looking at, we will always be amazed at what we find. There is always much, much more than we can see. If we would only be still and listen and make the choice to investigate further and submit to these promptings to 'experience more', who knows what we will find. The initial amazement from having a coffee in our hands could very well fade into a distant memory as we discover more and more wonderful things. As we get to know our 'Cup of Coffee' even closer and more intimately.

Eventually, we will get to that point where our understanding reaches it's human limits, where things become unclear and we have to trust that we will be OK. Even the smartest person who has ever lived will never understand everything! At that point of going cross-eyed, life is a lot easier and enjoyable when you know that Someone is holding you in their hands. Carrying you. In a way, we are the cup of coffee in His hands, that He enjoys and 'loves' every day. I am so thankful for this!


We are His special treat, crafted by Him, with 'The Best Barista of All Time' award hanging behind him on the wall.

I can make stale instant coffee mixed with hot chocolate, but at least that's a start. If I keep making coffee every day, who knows where i'll end up...


I'm sure Dad will teach me a few things one day when I go to see Him :) 



:)Psalm 46:10, James 4:8

Nothing At All

If you had nothing, where would you go?

Imagine for a second, you were standing in the middle of a giant desert. In fact, you had no idea whether the entire planet was a desert. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. You had no home. You had no family. You had no friends, no Facebook to tell everyone how lonely you are, or to ask "where am I?". No twitter to #lost in the desert #please send help #sandinmyshoes. No internet, no computer. ...and if you can, try and imagine having no cellphone! 

That may be difficult for some!

You had no workplace, no school, no city or country to 'go back to' to find your place. No car, bike, scooter or any other form of transportation to get you anywhere fast. Not that you even knew where to start.

Furthermore, you had no education, no ability to read, write or even speak. You wouldn't even have an accent or a language to give you a hint as to where you might be from.

You wouldn't even have any clothing, to maybe just give you something to start you off. No jeans, shoes, t-shirts, hats, or any clothing associated with any other culture, or place in the world! 

No clues whatsoever.


Nothing to 'go home to' to get just a little bit of comfort, relief and relaxation... No couch, no lazyboy recliner, no bed, no nice warm fireplace, not even your favourite comfy pants or snuggly blanket. NO COFFEE!

Sorry to those offended by this coffee heresy.


Not even a friend, a parent, a brother or sister to give you an embrace. No sky sports, movies or your favourite tv show to watch. No latest favourite band to listen to. No fashions and trends to follow to give you a sense of 'being cool'. No cat or dog or children to welcome you home. No Man Cave to escape to and do man things, or coffee dates for girls ;)

Absolutely nothing! All you knew was that you were here. Wherever that was! You had no idea why. You just knew you were there.


What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you turn to? What direction would you go? What if that step forward in the right direction was actually a step backwards. Where would you find your sense of peace, comfort and relief that can only come from getting home into your own home, couch and bed? Or watching your favourite sports team (All Blacks) win, again. How would you deal with that sense of loneliness? That lack of purpose? The sense of not knowing who you were or why you were even alive?


It makes you think if you had nothing at all but life itself, what would you do? Stay in one place and keep it all to yourself, afraid to do anything wrong and telling yourself that you don't really want or need to know? Or search up, down and in every direction around you until you found out the truth as to why you were there. You might find purpose, hope and a fulfilling life helping others you might encounter along the way.

It might take a while. But that's OK, you have nothing else to distract you... Life itself is your only priority now...

Flashback :2007

Hi! I've been sorting through my old files, with the intention of cleaning up my computer and I came across a few of these old blogs from a time before Facebook was popular. The deep, dark past of 2007... This one is from MySpace! Remember that? I wrote it in May 2007! In fact, I wrote it on my last ever sick day!(before my current enforced holiday!)Interesting glimpse into the past. (Disclaimer: this article reflects my thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of the time, not necessarily now. It reminded me that life is a journey and we are always learning and growing) Hope you enjoy it :)

BEGIN HERE: MAY 2007

Hello

I have the day off because I have a cold and it is raining. So I can take some time out and write something. I'm looking forward to this... lets see what happens.

Some of you may know, but most probably don't, that I have been studying at the Living Wisdom night school for the past 18 weeks. In short, this school is teaching us some life and counseling skills. It also has many other goals, such as teaching us how to speak the truth in love, how to see ourselves how God sees us, and to teach us how to renew our minds. It has been my experience that we are often told to do many Christian things but find it hard coz we don’t know exactly "how" to do it.

So that’s what this course has done for my classmates and I. Now I know how to take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. Now I know why I believe lies and don’t want to embrace the truth. It’s often easier to live in delusion coz its all we have known, in some cases, for our entire lives. But Jesus promised that when we know the truth it will set us free, and I have finally been persuaded that this is the case, even if I have to go through hell first!

But enough about that. I was just thinking "yeah it’s great that I have been studying a course on wisdom, but why? what’s the point of getting wisdom anyway?" So I thought, the bible might tell me. It’s good like that!

I first checked my concordance to see what "wisdom" translates to in the original Hebrew. "hokma" wisdom, skill, learning, this can refer to skill in life, trade, war, or spiritual things. This is cool. It seems to be telling me that wisdom is a skill. Skills can be learned can’t they? Cool so wisdom isn't necessarily something super-spiritual (although there is that element) but it’s a skill! Sweet as. We can learn wisdom, and with practice get better skilled at life and other various things.

Cool.

Anyway, Proverbs chapters two and three seem to give some pretty cool advice about these benefits of wisdom. So I started to read it and here's some of the stuff that it says. I think there seems to be a lot of things so I will just list a few off them.

Verse 5: You will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you. (Well that’s good, if discretion and understanding are protecting and guarding me, then surely that means I don't have to protect myself. I don't have to be on the defensive, I can let my walls down, I can express who I am and not be afraid. All of our relationships and lives will be much more fulfilling if we all let our walls down and came closer to each other. Isn't that what God intends? He will protect us. Relax).

Wisdom will save us from wicked men.

It will save us from the adulteress.

We will live in the land. (What land?) The Promised Land (what's your Promised Land?) wisdom will let you live in your Promised Land, where your dreams and goals are fulfilled and the desires of your heart are met. I want to live there!

Our lives will be prolonged and prosperous, our bodies healthy and nourished.

Wisdom will bring peace to our lives. (Not necessarily our circumstances, but in our souls (heart/mind/emotions) instead).

Well, there’s heaps more in there, I highly recommend that you read it yourself...

In Proverbs 3:7 Solomon warns us not to be wise in our own eyes. My thoughts here would be, to remember who gives you the wisdom = God, not yourself! And also to check why you are gaining wisdom. Is it for purely selfish reasons? To feel good about yourself and improve you life. Or is it purely to please other people? If we always please people, then how can we always please God? Both are wrong. We should be seeking wisdom so that we can find a healthy balance of helping both ourselves and others and ultimately bring some positive attention to our heavenly Father.

Its not always selfish to want good things, and its not always loving to help other people (they might just need to learn how to swim on their own for example). So seek wisdom for everyone's benefit and ask God to help you remain humble as you do so.

Well I might go get some breakfast now. I have only just touched the tip of this huge iceberg, and I am in desperate need of a coffee. Hope you get something from my ramblings and seek a bit more wisdom in your lives.

Might come back later, got the day off, so there’s only so much relaxing I can do without getting bored!

Bye

END HERE: JULY 2012

Well, I did come back later! Took my time though! Since then I have done many wise and unwise things, but with the intention of increasing the wise things and learning to weed out those unwise things.

I was thinking that our lives are like gardens, with many beautiful and fruitful plants growing in them. If we keep making unwise decisions, it's like allowing the weeds to grow and choke those God-given plants, making it difficult for us to produce anything of any value! You would have to rely on going to the supermarket every week and giving your money to someone else just to get fed! I would rather grow my own veges to feed my family, and even have so many that I would take my extra food to the supermarket and give it to them! That sounds very rewarding!

(Of course we will always need to go to the supermarket regularly to get stuff, if we want our lives to actually taste any good!) ;)

I don't want my life to be like that neglected, old compost heap! With a few old spuds growing in it, and lots of weeds!

And let's be honest... it smells a bit funny...

I would rather my tomato plants, for example, were straining under the weight of masses of fruit, needing others to take the fruit off! This helps everyone! I would have to help others, just to survive! A weak spindly tomato plant with weeds growing all over it won't help anyone. Sometimes it even struggles to help itself!

While some things change over time, and we should all be wanting to grow, some things remain the same. I am still in desperate need of a coffee!

:)

Howdy, Stranger!

Hello. I've got some exciting news! It's the best news EVER!!!

Two minutes later...

Hey! I've got some new exciting news for you!

Five minutes later...

I just saw the most EPIC thing EVER!!!

Three minutes later...

This one thing will completely change your life!

Our attention spans are so much shorter than they have ever been...

It's not good enough to hear the best news you have ever heard.

Two minutes later you have probably got bored and forgotten it and want something more!

What did I read three lines ago?

I wonder what's on MTV?

I just checked, and I have 20 draft blogs, that I have written, but not posted. (You are welcome). It made me realise how many ideas I get, but then get another one and forget the previous one and move on.

What if I didn't think like a goldfish and actually finished more of these blogs.

But I get distracted and want to move on.

I'm not going to write a 'proper' blog today.

I would just be adding to this 'Shallowisation of Society'.

This 'Superficialisation' of our culture.

The 'Conveyer Belt of Idea Consumerism'

There are so many profound truths in this world, which all get lost in the crowd.

Especially if their delivery isn't entertaining.

We spend a lot of time watching tv, so someone can tell us what to think

I know this is true because I saw it on tv...

Remember the word 'meditation'?

It's not just a buddhist thing, with butterflies flying around your head.

You don't have to empty your mind

Then there's nothing in there and all sorts of stupid things can fill it up

You can actually meditate on good things

Yes! Try thinking this thought here over and over for even just a minute:

Can you sit still for a minute?

I'm loved by and significant to God and my friends and family, I've got a great future, I have so much good stuff in my life, today's gonna be a good day...

Try that...

Tell me you don't feel better afterwards :)

But that pretty much doesn't happen

People are too busy being busy

Not doing too much

But still always busy

If you have a constant flow of pointless information pouring into you, you will always be busy

I'm bored

What's next

The economy is stuffed, the world is blowing itself to pieces...

So what...?

That's not your problem

So don't worry about it:)

You know, I have now spent around six months not driving

Lying on my couch

Not going out of the house for a week at times. Often.

I hadn't been to the supermarket for months

Recently, I got a ride to Countdown, for some normal life sanity

I was quite uncomfortable, people were walking fast all over the place, I was holding people up, by walking 'slowly'

EVERYONE WAS IN A HURRY!

Walking fast, rushing around, standing impatiently in a queue, pushing ahead of others, not smiling... I was shocked actually.

Not because I'm perfect or better than them

But because there was such a stark difference to the speed of life I had gotten used to!

I've been living at home, not in a rush, no transport, sweet as!

Back into the 'Rat Race', I noticed how appropriate that title was!

Just chill out

We are human beings.

We are not human doings.

In attempting to not write a blog, I have actually written one. Apologies.

I WILL post this one

Slow down

Open your eyes

Think for yourself

Look at, or even, heaven forbid, smile at a stranger! If you do well at these difficult and dangerous tasks, you may even want to try saying hello to someone you don't know! They probably won't kill you, so it could be fun

They are probably just as scared as you!

We are not kids anymore, being offered lollies by a strange looking man as we walk home from primary school

It's ok to talk to strangers now

Take some time to make someone else smile and feel valued

You have no idea what the positive consequences might be!

A better world has to start somewhere

Why not with you and me?

I would like to close with a metaphor (or whatever the proper term is!)


Many of us want to make a difference. To change our world in some small way. But we don't do anything about it. Coz we think it's too hard. Starting an avalanche is tough, but throwing that first small snowball is pretty easy. If we realise this, and just throw a few snowballs everyday, God's in the avalanche business. And He loves playing in the snow with his kids!

Mmm, feels good...

OK, life lesson time:

Just made a call to WINZ. Was the rudest call centre service that I have ever received. I got of the phone shaking and angry! If you know me, I don't get angry often!

Time to make a choice.

I decided to do MYSELF a favour and forgive her. If you don't forgive someone, it's like swallowing poison and expecting them to die. It's stupid!

(OH THERE HE GOES AGAIN, TALKING ABOUT HIS RELIGIOUS CRAP. YAWN. WELL PLEASE HANG IN THERE. I HANG IN THERE WITH ALL OF YOUR ATHEIST, NEW AGE, ALCOHOLIC... STATUS UPDATES ;) I even prayed for her real quick. Now I feel OK again. God's my Vindicator. He saw what happened! He can fight my battles for injustices, (and the way she treated me was completely unfair!) I just tell him and then carry on on being happy. Was tough to learn this habit, but man! Once you do! Talk about inner peace!

Part of the reason there are so many angry people around is that they CHOOSE not to believe in or trust God, so they try and do his job for him....Good luck! That's way too hard for me. It takes most of your enjoyment out of life, and you have to get drunk, or do drugs to try and feel happy again. I know, I used to live that way too! But I found a way better way! In the bible, God says 'taste and see that I am good!' sadly many people sit on the sideline, going on about how dumb church is and how they don't believe in God without even knowing anything about it!

Well newsflash!

Thousands of people around you go to church and believe in God, but we aren't all the best at sharing that. In fact most of us hide it a bit. We get a bit embarrassed or whatever, coz it's not 'cool' or glamourous on tv, and certainly we are portrayed as a bit weird in mainstream media. In our western culture, certainly NZ, it's ok to believe in whatever you want, because everyone is right (is that logical?) anyway! Ha! And as long as you don't talk about it publically! You can do what you want.

I certainly didn't change my old habits overnight! I'm still far from perfect! But that stuffs not what it's about anyway. You just find after a while that it's just boring! But my real friends, who just love me for who I am, are still around! Remember, going to church is fun and good for you, but really means nothing if you don't pray and trust God for what he did at the first Easter. Easter means freedom. REAL FREEDOM! Not the type of 'freedom' our culture tells us we have. That's just enslavement to our desires. Following them around, doing whatever feels good! They warn us that if you don't do what I want you to do, you will miss out, and feel bad! When we base our lives on feeling good, we will miss out. When we say 'I don't care how I feel, I just want to do what's best, all of a sudden we may feel pretty good! But even if we don't, we should tell our feelings how to feel, they aren't my boss!

You know that song 'fight the feeling?'... I don't ... Is there a song called that? Haha anyway, that's what we have to do. They will get in line and do as they're told, but they just take a little more time than we are prepared to give them. But it happens after a short time, maybe a few days, or weeks, but if you aren't prepared to be a little bit uncomfortable, you'll never get anywhere! Like training for a marathon! I'm sure I wouldn't enjoy that! But winning it?! That'd be sweet! Climbing Everest? I would hate that! But standing on the top? What a high! Wa wa wa ...

Short term pain for long term gain. Please don't just do what feels good! You're better than that! Life can be far more than you imagine if you just choose to do a few things you don't really feel like doing, but you know are the right thing to do. Hey, if it's too hard, there's this Guy who is all powerful and all knowing and omnipresent, who can help you if you want!

I've got visitors, sorry for the rushed finish! Oops!

Yay? or Neigh?

4:30am. Considering my recent sleeping patterns, this is a nice sleep in. I'm not complaining, after all it's just a side effect of the medication I am on, which is trying to kill me so that I don't die...

Just coz something feels bad, doesn't mean it's bad for you. Conversely, just because something feels good, doesn't mean it's good for you! They are unrelated. Some stuff that makes me sick, like Justin Bieber, Glee, and The Backstreet Boys is bad for you, but other stuff like chemo makes me sick, but is good for me.

Our feelings are a completely unreliable guide as to what's good and bad. Your feelings don't care about whats "right" or "best for you", etc, they can be the traitor within, caring only about themselves, and not you as a whole person.

Our feelings only care about feeling good. Not what's best for us. Don't be led astray by the lies of 'if it feels good, do it', or 'try before you buy'. These are just catchy sayings beamed out through the atheist media to a carefully and systematically dumbed down populace so that we are brainwashed into living a life with few boundaries, wielding a self-righteous battle axe that constantly whooshes "what about me, what about my rights", every time we blindly swing it, in our perpetually defensive mindsets, which are in that state because deep down, we know we are wrong, but the lies telling you to "do what you feel like, it's my right", "everyone else does it" (DO THEY REALLY?) are just too loud to ignore. Every time you listen to a thought and agree with it, it gets louder. A lifetime of the same thoughts gets pretty deeply ingrained and can take time to change.

This is made even more difficult when thousands of people like me have an antidote to this and keep it to themselves. Church is full of selfish hypocrites, that's why I go there, coz I'm one too, and I get help every week to try and not be one. The whole world is full of hypocrites too, people forget that, but it is harder to be a hypocrite when you don't actually have any real standards, that make you any different from anyone else.

That's some good writing there. Did anyone else just feel that small earthquake?

My mum would have. The world's best mum. Hi mum. Love you. Thanks, Aunty Trish for printing this out and taking it to mum so she can read it. She loves it. Or at least she pretends to, to make me feel good ;)

Here's one for ya: don't wait 'til you feel like doing something. Commit to it, then you will feel like doing it. Oprah won't tell you that one.

But really, who cares how I feel? Well, cliched as it is, because it's true, God does. I remember when I first started going to church, about ten years ago, in my early twenties, I didn't feel good at all! To qualify that, I still remember the very first time I went, because I felt this warmth, this life, light and unexplainable joy this feeling of being at home, they told me that was The Holy Spirit. Whatever that was? Ha ha! I was excited, and freaked out too! In fact, I only ever went to our smaller night service of about 100 younger people my age, for about three-four months, because I was far to scared to go to the morning service, with 5-600 people! I was actually physically sick on numerous occasions, because of the fear of the crowds. True story.

About a year or two later, I got up the front and spoke, was leading a small group and was playing drums in our band!

If I'd listened to and obeyed my feelings, who knows what a boring, empty life I would have now! I can't even imagine! As God says, "just taste and see, that I am good" but people don't do that because they don't want to lose their lifestyle, or friends, or they just love getting pissed and partying too much! Take it from me, that life feels good, I was an expert at excess, (three years at a politically correct brainwashing institution / University), but ultimately is just a bit of a band aid over a wounded heart, it will never make you truly happy or whole, but it will distract you weekend to weekend so that you never get around to living a full life. It is a life of treading water, buying time. I don't want to tread water, I want to walk on water... (metaphorically, not literally, for any stubborn, anti-Christian cynics still reading)

It's a gamble. You might lose things. You probably will lose friends and people will judge you. They are usually just jealous of your boldness, and afraid that their little world will be made a bit uncomfortable. I lost several friends. But I also kept several, and made hundreds more! Just like putting $1000 on a horse to win. Handing over the money has all sorts of mixed emotions, fear, excitement, anticipation, doubt, second guessing your decision, living in a state of what happens next... But when your horse comes in first place at odds of infinity to one, and there was actually only one real horse in the race and dozens of cardboard cutout images of horses, you will be overjoyed!

But it's your choice. I used to go to church for the first few months, hungover, or coming down off drugs, (sorry mum, it was years ago), with about two hours sleep. No one gave a crap! Probably, no one even noticed! Coz your heart is all that matters, and that's between you and God. Like I've said before, going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. But if you want to look after your car, it will always be in better condition in the long term, if you keep it in that garage.

My Dad hadn't been to church regularly for probably 40 years. His church was the hundreds of people who needed food, a bed for a while, money for bills, or for a car to get to job interviews. I don't even know half of the good he and mum did over the years, they just kept it all quiet. But sitting by his hospital bed a month or so ago, he knew where he was going, as much as anyone has any idea about it.

If there's no God in heaven, then we are just animals and would be free to just do what other animals do, eat, sex, kill, rape, fight, defacate in our beds, steal other people's stuff because I WANT TO! That whole macro evolution argument has more holes than my favourite undies. But people don't see them, because they DON'T WANT TO! and they are taught evolution as scientific fact, based on some old goats bone. Good evidence... Yeah...

That's so sad

God says "give me an honest go and see what happens". God is love. Love is a choice, and sometimes a feeling. It's your choice. He's already chosen you. Don't worry, our stupid feelings always catch up!

A Sheep Choose Green Grass

Well, hello again!

I've been trying to write this blog for a couple of days, but it just wouldn't come together. At this point I cannot help but conclude that there is a rather crude similarity to what is happening in my physical body. I have been back on chemo for a week now, double the dose I was on previously in December and January. One of the side effects can be a change in bowel movements. Or should I say, a ceasing of the aforementioned digestatory patterns. Constipation. Yummy.

Writer's block = Constipation. Get it?...

But I will keep pushing hard, it has to come out. ( but not too hard...)

Don't want to pop a screw out of my skull and let my brain ( what's left of it ) leak out!

But I jest.

So the health update is that a week ago, I had another seizure and got taken to the Emergency Department for a few hours. In a wheelchair. By my very own beautiful nurse, Catherine. Ha ha, I got her, you didn't :P God is good! They did blood tests and all that, and gave me some strong painkillers, which I have needed all week, but now the pain feels ok again! Think "morphine". Good times.

This week I have had an MRI Scan, (waiting for results), five days of chemo, three needles and blood tests (these results looked good, thank you Jesus!) I'm on the mend! I have woken up between 3-4am each day. I have been so exhausted at times that I have turned my phone off for hours at a time. When I turn it on, there's always several missed calls and messages! Mission accomplished!

I don't mean to sound depressing, because the fact is, I am far from it! I've never felt more alive! Life has an urgency now. I don't waste my time with negative people. I have a wonderful fiancé, and best mates and we have the party of the century to organize! (Our wedding) and on that topic, the guest list is at 100ish and that's just close friends and family! No cousins, only a handful of close mates and the meal and bar tab is already costing $8000! Now I understand why I haven't been invited to every wedding I expected to over the years! What a rip off! But at least the after party will be big party good times! Rant over!

But as we all know, you only live once, today's the day to make the most of it!

If we wake up again tomorrow, the same thing still holds true.

Love The One who put you here, and love the ones He put you with.

It's only us and our selfish natures which make this difficult. And it's our choice to make it that way. If you disagree, you may be living in delusion. And by definition of "delusion" you wont have any idea that you are deluded. Its a trick of the devil. Some of you will be familiar with the quote that the devil's greatest trick was convincing people that he didn't exist. Possibly, even reading this paragraph wont make sense to you because he has been working very hard to confuse us all since before we were even born! If you are worried about this, then ask God to help you right now! You don't need to go to church to talk to God! Just like standing in a garage doesn't make you a car! Because life is actually very simple. But when we throw our selfish desires into the mix and plans and pride and insecurities, (which come from trying to figure out if we are "OK" Or acceptable, instead of just believing that we are coz God says so) life gets harder.

It's not what happens to you that determines if you have a good life. It's how you choose to respond to it that will determine how good your life will be.

Stop being a sheep, make your own decisions! It stinks being in the middle of a herd of sheep! Make your own mind up to stop following the crowd, and the view is much more spectacular, and the air is far more fresh and healthy. You never know. Other people might follow you and look up to you? And if they don't, well at least YOUR life will change.

Today's the day. If you're depressed, or if you're happy, your choices will keep you feeling the same way until you grow old and die. No one else is going to fix your life. That's up to you and God. He says I have a future and a hope. I choose to believe that every morning. Simple really.