Dude, you are knocking out banger after banger lately. And they all seem to speak directly to me. I recently decided to try making one of the front yard flower beds at my house as beautiful as I could make it. Nothing fancy. I'm not very creative, nor do i have the skills to really build anything. So all I did was clean it out, pull out the weeds, plant a few new bushes and flowers, bought an inexpensive stone bench and birdbath, put down some mulch, then a few granite pavers to make a walkway. It made the front yard look 1000% better. More importantly, it's a beautiful place to sit in the cool or the morning or evening. My wife, who doesn't really care much about landscaping or how our yard looks, couldn't understand why I did it. My only answer was that at this point in my life, beauty matters more to me than anything else. Now, like you said, if I can turn that into more than just an external, and apply it to all the human beings I encounter everyday, maybe I'll be a bit closer to the Kingdom of God. Alas . . .
A couple of months ago I realized that my season of essays and podcasts had ended. I have enough data points; more won't heal or bring peace. Now is the time for stories and music. Listen to some good fiction audiobooks while you're driving, or some Voces8. It helps.
Ironically, I was pondering these very thoughts this morning. In all my suffers, I have never found solace in human words or feigned attempts to show compassion.
I think I want human consolation....but when it presents itself, however well-intentioned the soul who offers it is, the words they speak are as a band-aid that refuses to adhere to a wound.
Most people need to be surrounded by human consolation. And for those souls who do, I would gladly console them. The key is to place yourself in their shoes and try to walk a mile without saying one word about the raging suffering in your own soul.
Life isn't a contest to see who suffers the most. What is a breeze to some is horrendous pain to another. I learned that from my Mom.
There's a lot of wisdom in your post, Steve. I'm especially thinking about what you say about fighting, and I am really concentrating these days on carefully choosing my battles, limiting myself to what is truly important, and only taking a stand on what I am confident is true. It is sad that many people online who claim that they are Christians are so quick to scoff at others. They seem to think that attacking everything they think is wrong is a kind of virtue, but it is really a distraction from the hard work of addressing one's own sins and developing true virtue.
Dude, you are knocking out banger after banger lately. And they all seem to speak directly to me. I recently decided to try making one of the front yard flower beds at my house as beautiful as I could make it. Nothing fancy. I'm not very creative, nor do i have the skills to really build anything. So all I did was clean it out, pull out the weeds, plant a few new bushes and flowers, bought an inexpensive stone bench and birdbath, put down some mulch, then a few granite pavers to make a walkway. It made the front yard look 1000% better. More importantly, it's a beautiful place to sit in the cool or the morning or evening. My wife, who doesn't really care much about landscaping or how our yard looks, couldn't understand why I did it. My only answer was that at this point in my life, beauty matters more to me than anything else. Now, like you said, if I can turn that into more than just an external, and apply it to all the human beings I encounter everyday, maybe I'll be a bit closer to the Kingdom of God. Alas . . .
That’s awesome. I hope you’re proud of what you made, even if nobody else gets it!
A couple of months ago I realized that my season of essays and podcasts had ended. I have enough data points; more won't heal or bring peace. Now is the time for stories and music. Listen to some good fiction audiobooks while you're driving, or some Voces8. It helps.
Ironically, I was pondering these very thoughts this morning. In all my suffers, I have never found solace in human words or feigned attempts to show compassion.
I think I want human consolation....but when it presents itself, however well-intentioned the soul who offers it is, the words they speak are as a band-aid that refuses to adhere to a wound.
Most people need to be surrounded by human consolation. And for those souls who do, I would gladly console them. The key is to place yourself in their shoes and try to walk a mile without saying one word about the raging suffering in your own soul.
Life isn't a contest to see who suffers the most. What is a breeze to some is horrendous pain to another. I learned that from my Mom.
There's a lot of wisdom in your post, Steve. I'm especially thinking about what you say about fighting, and I am really concentrating these days on carefully choosing my battles, limiting myself to what is truly important, and only taking a stand on what I am confident is true. It is sad that many people online who claim that they are Christians are so quick to scoff at others. They seem to think that attacking everything they think is wrong is a kind of virtue, but it is really a distraction from the hard work of addressing one's own sins and developing true virtue.