The Heart’s Response to Life
I have recently been overwhelmed.
My circumstances have changed in ways small to the outside world, but large in my perception. Some changes are positive, and some are more challenging, yet something strange has been happening to me in the last two weeks. Each stress, challenge, discouragement and change in my life has been met with a reaction unanticipated, unexpected and unnatural. Read the rest of this entry »
Volition
“It is good that everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil – this is the gift of God.” – Solomon, King of Israel, a VERY long time ago
I am a person prone to bouts of fitfulness. I love change, adapting to a new situation, working through a challenge. I always feel a bit restless and so, after reading this I immediately thought, “This is what I want.” As soon as that thought was concluded, I heard the Lord say, “You can have it.”
In much of what will happen in our lives, we are utterly powerless. There’s nothing you can do to affect change. Situations, people and more will fluctuate in and out of your life and you really have no control over it. But there is one extremely powerful word in this quote that I think sheds light on this passage: volition. Volition is defined as “the act of willing, choosing or resolving.” As I was growing up, my father would often say to me, “Everything is a volition, Amanda.” He was right. Read the rest of this entry »
Observations from the Sun
A very wise man once proclaimed: “What has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun.”
There is a huge part of me that would like to believe that this is a false statement. I’d like to think of humanity as progressing. I’d like to think that if I could look back in time 1,000 years, I would be able to perceive INTERNAL human progress in our present day and age. Obvious inventions have come about that have transformed our outer lives, but according to Solomon, whether your point of comparison is 50 years or 5,000 years, the same scenarios keep repeating themselves. The problems may look wildly different, the settings have changed, the lifestyles are unrecognizable, yet the philosophical issues that are at the root of this ceaseless cycle of all humanity are identical no matter how much time has gone by. Read the rest of this entry »
Finding Your Purpose: Staying Home
It comes in different forms of expression, with varied nuances and authoritative tones. Yet despite all the different ways I have heard it – from women at every church I have ever attended, to pastors and preachers, from various books speaking of the Christian life, to the patient I took care of in the hospital five years ago – it has been presented to me time and time again: a woman’s place is in the home.
With each hearing of this timeless expression, a piece of me has been irritated to my very core. Looking shamefaced at my irritation and concluding that it was nothing more than a secret dose of feminism that my subconscious keeps locked away in my heart, I sigh and try to push it out of my mind. My place is in the home taking care of my family, taking care of my family, taking care of my – what?!?! Again my heart is exasperated as I remember (as though it is possible I could forget!) the fact that I am 29 and not married, not engaged and not dating.
After church one afternoon, I began cooking a random recipe. I enjoy such things, yet as I cooked I unintentionally relived a conversation I had recently witnessed.
“So,” she began confidentially, “It’s like none of the things I was passionate for have any meaning to me anymore. I just want to stay home with my little boy and take care of my husband.”
As she spoke I smiled, as this was a beautiful passion to have. It is sometimes hard to accomplish in our current economy, but it’s possible and something wonderful to aspire to as a new mother.
A louder, obnoxious voice cut in, interrupting my inner monologue. Read the rest of this entry »
The Sasquatch Soul: wandering, searching deeply, and avoiding photos. 
Settling.
November 19, 2012 at 8:49 pm (Completion, Devotional, Philosophy, Religious Commentary) (Almighty God, empty, Faith, faithlessness, no faith, power of god, self-reliance, settling for mediocrity)
There are two primary issues that impact every area of my life:
1) self-reliance
2) lack of faith
I rely on myself far too often. Why? ‘Cause usually I can get by. I know what people want/need to hear, I know how to assuage others anxieties. It leaves me with an impression of, “Hm, I can get it done!”
“What’s wrong with that?” you may ask. Read the rest of this entry »
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