What is going on?

Recently, I have noticed that there have been quite a few deaths of young famous people aged in their twenties and early thirties. What is going on?

I get an image of deep, dark pit where these people are standing at the bottom, some mumbling to themselves, others silently crying and still others screaming with their arms stretch outed begging for the happy people outside, all around them to help them, counsel them, reach them.

It makes me wonder if fame and fortune truly brings happiness or early death or the thought of suicide. It seems many of the young stars suffer from depression as a result of loneliness, drugs, alcohol, etc. Where are their families? Where is the help for them? Is the industry so polluted that even celebs can't even help each other?

I am starting to question if their doctors, therapists, etc really care about them as people, human beings or just like having someone famous as a patient. What is causing their depression and as a result alcohol and drug abuse? What is it about the industry that creates this self loath in them?

For us, the average Joe, we can't seem to understand how people who "have it all" aren't happy, content and just enjoying life. They have access to opportunities some of us only dream of having. For some of us, the thought of having camera everywhere is an invasion of privacy but we could do with some of the fortune.

It's also a great indication of how material things do not create inner peace and fill us with the happiness intended for us. God tells us not to invest in earthly goods and it's sad to think we need reminders like death to keep us on the straight and narrow.

The inventing world around us adds to the materialistic thinking too but offering big, better, faster items like televisions, dvd players, cellphones. Does this give us happiness or create inner peace? I don't think so. These things creates laziness, lack of imagination, thinking and physical symptoms like deafness. They also hinder our ability to communicate and interact effectively with other human beings.

God created us to be communal, to love one another, be of service to others but yet the modern world doesn't always promote this. God wants to shake hands, conversate with each other, help others not facebook, e-mail and what's app each other. God wants us to share His word and love by our actions and thoughts not by the material things around us.

Upon reflection, this blog seems more like a rant than a revelation. And what do I know, I'm still a growing Christian trying to figure where I fit in God's puzzle for us and for me.

Material items might give you happiness for a day, a month, a year but it will never replace of having God's love fill your soul and heart for eternity.

Connection

This past week-end the Ladies in our family, young and old, went away together. No kids, no partners, just the girls. We do this every two years and it is so much fun. We do it to re-connect with each other, spend time together and just bond.

Our lives are so busy and we don't all live close to each so this is our way of not losing touch with each other and to remind us that family is still important in between the differences, arguments. We talk about the things we often shy away from, we play games, take walks and communicate.

Feeling connected with family and friends form part of our support system and keeping close bonds with them help us to face the problems and issues we have in our lives. Knowing that they will be there to pick us up and accept us for who we are. They might not always understand the choices we make and the things we do but they are the very few people who have the ability to love us and really see who we really are.

Another great thing about being well connected with your loved ones is that sometimes just being in their company, not necessarily talking but just being together forms a bond. The ladies in our family is a great example of this as we give each other the space to be alone, whether its just lying on a bed staring into space or reading a novel in the sunlight. We give each other space but also make time to spend doing something together no matter how big or small.

Having connections seemed to be lost in today's time. Families and even siblings aren't as close as they should be. Families today hardly see each other. Of course, sometimes circumstances creates us being disconnected somewhat but that's when we need to get creative and find interesting ways to stay in touch.

Our connections help us also to feel that we are important and really "here". They are our telephone wires and when one has a crack or breaks we start to feel lost and life pressures. It creates stress and sometimes loneliness and depression. 

Don't give up on trying to stay connected. Deep down, we love the feeling of being connected to people.
We want to belong and being connected with family and friends creates this feeling of belonging.

So....STAY CONNECTED!

Fiction Frenzy

Yesterday, I stepped into a place, I haven't been in for a good while - the library. It reminded me of how much I love the smell of old, withered, read books and how peaceful, yet inviting a library can be. You would  think in this day and age of technology, libraries were no longer popular but I was wrong. It warmed my heart to hear someone come in to apply for a library card and to see the excitement on my child's face after collecting her new library card and taking books out. Good, old fashioned reading is still the best.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed the many blessings God has given us even through something like a library where our mind can think, learn, wonder and create. 

As I was looking for books, I came across an interesting shelf which made stop and wonder about good vs. evil. There were Stephen King novels right next to Karen Kingsbury novels and of course, my imagination started running wild. Of course, logic tells me that it makes sense alpabetically but that line of thought is so boring. What interested me is how two very different authors get shelved together.

The one, to me, is a good writer but very eerie, sinister and some would say evil. His stories creates fear in us, get the heart beating faster in anticipation to find out what is waiting for us around the corner. The other, is also a good writer, but creates emotions in us that we don't necessarily express regularly or on a daily basis. The one feeds on our interest in fear thrills and spills where the other fees on our interest for relationships, drama and emotions such as love, hurt, grief, etc.

Naturally, my imagination took it a step further and I imagined the scene when the lights are out and all is locked and silent. I imagined the characters out of Stephen King's novels meeting the characters out of Karen Kingsbury's novels.

What would happen? How would faith clash with evil?What kind of conversations would be had? Would their be a spiritual warfare or just a fiction-filled battle? 

Blog Babe

The sound of computer keys tap through the air, as the world carries on around her, without any notice from her. She is engrossed in her world as she creates rapidly and her coffee gets cold. People notice her in the window but she doesn’t pay them any attention.

She loves writing, her imagination free to run wild, the names coming alive to her; the words appear in her mind as she types. She doesn’t notice the hustle and bustle all around her, the dull hum of people through the window.

Her fingers start cramping telling her to take a break and stretch her fingers. She sits back into her cigar chair and grabs her coffee. Sipping slowly enjoying a cold coffee, she finally looks through the window, fascinated by the people around and that night has fallen. Slowly, she turns her head and sits right up, frozen in place, looking at a certain spot across the way.

She can't make out what exactly it is. The shadow created by the nearby street lamp creates an eerie picture in front of her. The scene reminds her of a movie. An odd looking shape on the sidewalk while three dark figures hover around it. She watches as the three figures disappear into the night.

She puts her empty mug down and re-types her blog for this week:

"I sit in my usual spot in this small place, hearing the hustle hum in the back of my mind while I start typing this blog for you. My coffee had gotten cold and the pain severe when I realised what I thought was hours typing. I decided to take a break and drink my coffee, watching the world outside. 

As I pondered my next sentence, my eye caught a scene on the sidewalk. An odd shape lying on the sidewalk down one of the side alleys. It was in open view yet not enough to be noticed. The street lamp creates the eerie scene. Around this odd shape are three figures hovering around it in the dark. Without looking behind them, they walk off into the night. 

It gave me chills down my spine but I thought I had to write it down. I feel like a detective with all these questions racing in my mind. What is the shape? Person, animal? Who were the three figures? Should I walk over to have a peek?"

Looking up again, across the way she notices the odd shape gone. Feeling scared and paranoid, she decides to leave for home. No need to peek anymore.

 

Gut feeling

"Go with your gut", "what is your gut telling you"
These are phrases used by people often to tell us to listen to our "gut feeling" but what if that feeling is actually the Holy Spirit and God prompting us to go in His direction.

Whenever we get an idea and/or need to make a decision which suggests a major life change we get a gut feel and this feeling generally tells us whether the change feels right or wrong. Could this be God sending the Holy Spirit to prompt us to walk the path God intended for us. Could this be God giving us a message that we actually can feel?

God said he will never forsake us and maybe it's His way to remind us, nudge us along. I know you going to ask but what about Non-Christians? They also get this gut feeling. True but consider this....

God is always knocking, asking us to let Him into our heart, our life, our love. He will keep knocking on the hearts of non-believers. What if He gives non-believers these gut feelings in the hope that they will come to realise that it is God knocking, reminding, nudging them to accept and follow Him.

Love, Hope and Faith are God's gifts given to us so we can love, give hope and have faith in Him and others. God talks to us using many different ways and people.

Maybe our gut feeling is one way God also tries to get us to reflect and look at our life and where we are going in life. If we are doing what God feels is right in our life. Maybe is just another way God is trying to give us a "reality check or wake up call".

I am not a theologian and might have perceived this very wrong but this has kept me thinking for a good while so I thought I would put it down in print. I just wonder if feelings like this are given to us by God, how many good opportunities, good direction and choices we might have missed. I wonder if my life would be different if I listened to the gut feeling especially if God created that feeling for a specific reason. 

Go with God because He is all the gut we need!

Does it scare you too?

Today, motivational speakers keep telling us don't be afraid of failure. Failure is part of the process, part of achieving success in the end. It's true but what do they say if you are afraid of the complete opposite. Afraid of success?!

Yes, I know, reading this you are probably wondering how anyone can be afraid of succeeding in life, succeeding in anything for that matter.Well, I am. I am afraid of trying something and actually succeeding. I also know that I am not the only one out there that feels this way.

I find trying and failing easier to deal with and move on from than trying and succeeding. "Huh", you say. Let me explain.

People don't tell you that when you achieve success that the people around you expect you to keep that level of success going all the time. They also don't tell you that you seem to apply quite a lot of pressure on yourself to keep on top of your game which in business is a good assumption. People assume that you are always on top of your game and get very surprised when you slip up, make a mistake or just plain forget things.

Now, that's what's scary. The thought of trying to keep the success going, the level of achievement of a high standard scares me. What if I can't keep it going? What if I slip up? Do I lose the respect of others? Do they doubt my abilities?

Talk about pressure.Yes, I know this is more self-talk than actually people's opinions but man, the voice in your head can really affect you more sometimes than others. This is when you become your own enemy, your own doubter.

How do I combat this issue, I keep trying. Yes, it takes me longer, meaning days, months perhaps to take the first step but I force myself to do it. I force myself not to worry about this until I am actually there. Then a slight panic emerges. Panic turns into nerves which turns into excitement once the good realisation becomes apparent.

So........here I go......trying to succeed.

A Time for Everything

This week I battled to think about what to write and then I started to think about one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, Verse 1 – 8.  ‘There is a time for everything, and everything on earth has its special season’.

What I love about these verses is that it is so relevant to your life, no matter what century you are living in. I also love that it can relate to so many different things and have possibly different meanings to each person.

Life is one wonderful special season for all us and yes, there is a time for everything in life. God creates time for us to experience all that the life He has given us.

There is a time to be born and a time to die. Yes, this means literally to be born and to die but it could also mean to let the “old” you die when you are saved and allow the “new” you to be born in the light of the Lord.

There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants. Interestingly enough, yes, this also means literally there are preferred times to plant plants and pull out plants especially if they are no longer growing. Regarding human beings, this could mean there is a time to plant, to sow new seeds and/or things in our life which we allow to grow, whether it being something like changing careers, changing habits etc. “Pulling out plants” could mean pulling out our personal weeds, maybe trying to change and/or stop bad habits, change our self as a person or possibly getting rid of those things around us that cause us to be someone we don’t particularly like.

There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to destroy and a time to build. Well, these two verses are interesting as we have to really thing about these two verses to see how it relates to our life.  To me, these two verses seem quite harsh as it is very direct and blunt. To kill could mean to end something or end a relationship with somebody, something or somebody that could be destroying us which can be very difficult especially when a person might feel it is the best they can do and/or because it's all they know. The upside of this is when a person has made the decision to end it; there is a time to heal and a time to build. The time to heal is allowing yourself to get better, to reflect and also re-build yourself as a person and in turn your environment.

There is a time to cry and a time to laugh. There is a time to be sad and a time to dance.  I love these verses as it really relates to our ups and downs, our highs and lows of life. These two verses make you recall good and bad memories. Straight away our time to cry and time to be sad would make us recall a time when we have lost something and/or somebody in our life. This is when we cried until we fell asleep or felt sad until we found something to make us smile again. Our times to laugh and dance are the weddings, parties we attended and our family we created memories with and our friends we made along the way. These are times we were silly together, spoke nonsense, made a noise and just spent time together. These two verses helps us to remember the tears we’ve cried, the laughter we helped create and the time we held hands and danced together.

There is a time to throw away stones and a time to gather them. First I thought this could relate to leave people out of our life and keep others in our life. Upon further reflection, I thought that this could mean there are times when we should let things that happen, happen and/ or things people say affect us and then there are times when we should just let it go. What I mean by this, is there are times when we should allow ourselves to have intense emotion in healthy ways (and not lash out at the person) and maybe think about what the person is trying to tell us and there are times, especially if you have heard something about you via the grapevine, that we should just let it go (especially if you know it not to be true). We need to pick our battles and fight in a constructive and healthy way to get our side across.

There is a time to hug and a time not to hug. To me, this just means after a resolved issue between two people, a hug could start the love and seal the deal but hugging in the middle of an issue could lead to physical harm. A hug is a great way to let anyone know that you do care but like this chapter says…there really is a time for everything. Choose the time to hug wisely!

There is a time to look for something and a time to stop looking for it. There is a time to keep things and a time to throw things away. These verses can relate to any changes you might want to make in your life. For example, if your interests and/or passion have changed this could lead to a career change and in turn means a time to look for something. The second part of this verse could mean that maybe you are searching for something that you know deep down is really not suited for you and this would be the time to stop searching.  There is a time to keep things especially in times of loss , we tend to hang on to material items which makes us feel still connected to that person but eventually the time comes when we have to throw it away and close that chapter in order for us to start looking for something new.

There is a time to tear apart and a time to sew together. This verse can be related to some of the verses mentioned above. There is a time to “tear” our bad relationships and there is a time to “sew” together. This is a great verse to remember when you and your family are going through a rough patch and it seems that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. It is a good opportunity to reflect on things that should be ended or “torn apart” and a time to really get closer to each other, supporting each other and drawing strength from each other in difficult times. Our family is our quilt, they keep us warm, they allow us to show our loose threads and that we are coming apart at the seams and because we keep re-sewing all of us together when these threads start showing.

There is a time to be silent and a time to speak. There is a time to love and a time to hate. There is a time for war and a time for peace.  The first verse is a good tool we all, I think, need to learn. However, it can be difficult to master this. I think we should always try to think before we speak especially if we might say something that could really hurt the other person. A time to love and a time to hate can be misused in many ways. I like to think we should try and love all the times which is also not easy to do including when something happens which creates an emotion of hate. It’s how we use that emotion of hate which makes the difference. This leads to when there is a time for war and a time for peace. This verse also means to pick your battles wisely and show peace when appropriate. Sometimes a time for war could be to state your opinion in a peaceful yet effective way. We don’t need to use aggression or anger to get our view across and for it to make an impact. We also need to notice the time to rather express peace and not add fuel to the fire.

This Chapter in the Bible allows us to think of all different aspects of our life and how each verse relates to us on a personal, emotional and spiritual way. I love the way it creates imagery in our minds and helps us to reflect on the past, present and future.

There is a time for everything and everything happens in God’s time.