First I've been contemplating more about the character of Christ. What is it? To me the most undeniable character trait of the Son of God is willing selflessness. As I have contemplated this, I've realized that a majority of humankind tells us that we need to put our needs first, look out for number one. Christ would tell us otherwise. One thing I've come to realize is that this character cannot be truly put to the test, unless we are put in circumstances where it's difficult to be selfless. Stressful, trial filled periods of our life are when our true Christ-like natures show themselves. Satan would have us think that in these moments we are excused from thinking of others, that we are entitled to some "me time." Now I am a huge culprit of the "wo-is-me pitty party" ha, I think we all have fallen into the Laman and Lemuel murmuring trap. I have been thinking about this though...when do we see our TRUE character.....it shows when we're struggling, it shows when we're down, it shows when we're weak...
It takes a lot of faith to say "you know what, I feel like crap, but I know that if I do this selfless act, even though it may be painful or hard right now, or not what I want to be doing, I trust that eventually I will be happy because I'm doing it." Do I trust that? Do I trust that doing the things the Lord has asked "losing myself" will ultimately lead to happiness, even if I don't see it now? Christ made no exceptions for himself....but I do, over and over again...so I want to be BETTER.
Secondly and in somewhat of a relation to the first, I've been thinking about the worlds view on "caring" or "loving." Some people look down on you for caring, for feeling, for loving. I don't think there's such a thing as loving or caring for someone or something too much. I don't think it's wrong to feel deeply for people, and to be willing to do anything for them. I think often times we close ourselves to this because it's painful and it makes us vulnerable, we run a high risk of being hurt, but I think it shows true strength to be able to love people whether they want it or not. After all that's what Christ does for us, He loves us unconditionally, He loves those who don't accept him, he cares for those who don't deserve it...I think everyone deserves that kind of love and care.
Finally I've been thinking about high school...haha. You know they say we "graduate" and outgrow high school, but in reality, high school never ends. We don't outgrow insecurity, we don't outgrow clicks, we don't outgrow gossip, we don't outgrow lying and cheating, those things don't just dissipate with the advancement of grade. There's not a switch that just makes them go away, in fact, most of the time they DON'T go away. We still hold on to a lot of those tendencies as a adults, they just manifest themselves in different ways. People still feel left out, no matter how old you get you can still feel like you're not "in with the cool kids". Lying and cheating don't just happen on tests or homework, they happen in the deepest crevices of our character and our dealings. I'm not claiming to be perfect haha, we all know that's not even close to being true, I'm not even claiming to be good, I'm simply making an observation that high school lives on! We are all grown up high schoolers, and the only way to make it go away is through changing ourselves, and making intentional and deliberate decisions to behave otherwise. It goes away as we think more about others and their feelings, as we once again love, and weave Christ's character into our character.
So somehow these all came back full circle. Coincidence? Nothing's coincidence...
 |
| yours truly just weirding out:) |
No comments:
Post a Comment