Our lives are filled with too much noise.
It's a simple concept to grasp. Sometimes the voice of God is blocked out by all the noise we surround ourselves with.
I'm a multimedia major so I always use media in many different forms. I often have to spend many hours on the internet for required schoolwork. Regardless, there is still a point where the amount of noise we fill our lives with is unacceptable. The actual sources of the noise are not intrinsically bad, but when they begin to replace the time we need to grow in our relationship with the Lord, they do become bad.
In fact, "noise" is not always "sound" either. Many times, it is, but noise is anything we fill our heads with. How many times is it awkward for us to just literally sit in silence? When we pray, we usually talk to God, ask for things, pray for help, thank Him. Maybe we read the Bible or reflect in a journal. All of this is very good, but why is it so hard to just sit and try and listen to what God has to tell us? And if we try this, why do we expect a booming voice within one minute? We don't hear it and then decide...Well, I'll just read the Bible. But technically speaking, though God may speak to you through the Bible, the purpose for reading the Bible in this situation is to fill our heads with something, when maybe God wants us to empty our minds and have nothing, a space that HE can fill.
Thoughts to ponder...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Love is Hard
Love.
It is something that I'm struggling with right now. I say I love my family, and I do. I say I love my friends, and I do. I say I love my boyfriend, and I do.
But sometimes it is so hard to love. Sometimes I just can't find it in myself to love someone who has hurt me or who doesn't love me back. This is because by loving them, it feels like I am condoning what they've done, when in reality this is not the proper concept of love at all.
True love does not depend on whether you're receiving love back. True love does not have conditions on which it will exist, hence unconditional love. Actually, the word "unconditional" should not even be necessary because it's implied by the real meaning of the word love, but we have successfully perverted such a beautiful thing into one that does have conditions.
I realized tonight the conditions I have put on loving someone. I had a very hard time today loving a friend because I see her putting conditions on her love for me, yet turning around and giving herself wholly to someone else who hasn't been there for her nearly as much. This is TERRIBLE because not only is almost a vengeful condition that I have put on my love for her as my friend, it is also prideful because I feel I have given so much to our friendship without recognizing what she's done. Love is not prideful. This is something basic, something you learn in grade school catechism classes along with singing the Fruits of the Spirit.
Now, I don't know the extent to which the people around me struggle with love, but I think that in today's society, having and understanding the proper concept love is a problem in general. I guess besides this being just a random reflection, I have also come to the conclusion that maybe through recognizing our own small ways that we fail to love, eventually we can be more loving as a whole.
It is something that I'm struggling with right now. I say I love my family, and I do. I say I love my friends, and I do. I say I love my boyfriend, and I do.
But sometimes it is so hard to love. Sometimes I just can't find it in myself to love someone who has hurt me or who doesn't love me back. This is because by loving them, it feels like I am condoning what they've done, when in reality this is not the proper concept of love at all.
True love does not depend on whether you're receiving love back. True love does not have conditions on which it will exist, hence unconditional love. Actually, the word "unconditional" should not even be necessary because it's implied by the real meaning of the word love, but we have successfully perverted such a beautiful thing into one that does have conditions.
I realized tonight the conditions I have put on loving someone. I had a very hard time today loving a friend because I see her putting conditions on her love for me, yet turning around and giving herself wholly to someone else who hasn't been there for her nearly as much. This is TERRIBLE because not only is almost a vengeful condition that I have put on my love for her as my friend, it is also prideful because I feel I have given so much to our friendship without recognizing what she's done. Love is not prideful. This is something basic, something you learn in grade school catechism classes along with singing the Fruits of the Spirit.
Now, I don't know the extent to which the people around me struggle with love, but I think that in today's society, having and understanding the proper concept love is a problem in general. I guess besides this being just a random reflection, I have also come to the conclusion that maybe through recognizing our own small ways that we fail to love, eventually we can be more loving as a whole.
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