Today I got to spend some time at Hallet Cove Conservation park on the south side of Adelaide. It's a beautiful place that I'd recommend you visit when any of you decide to visit South Australia.
While there I saw some beautiful rock formations as well as a wild and rough ocean. Though scientists claim it was created over millions of years (I have no way of confirming or denying this hypothesis) but I do believe that it was a place created in the mind of God and then formed so that we could enjoy its beauty.
The way this rocks were formed was through glacial activity over many years, tidal activity and also by human intervention. Did God use all these processes in his creative process? Yes.
Just like Jackson Pollock created masterpieces by scattering and spreading paint, God created this this beautiful area by scattering rock, ice and water along the western coast to create His masterpiece. The only difference was God knew before its time how each rock, block of ice and each drop of rain will affect the landscape. He saw the masterpiece I see today even before I saw it ever before he began creating it.
In the same way our lives are his creation. he knew us before we were even formed, before our parents even thought of doing the deed, or for some of us, buying the test tube. But he saw the end result. He sees us as we are now even from back then. Yes I said SEES (present tense). He sees us in the future we live in from back then before we were born or created. The All knowing God I believe in can do that. Kinda like Dr Who but cooler. :D
Now the masterpiece of our lives may not be complete yet but when God looks at it even now, He says "It is good" because He the perfect God created it. But he also knows what the final masterpiece looks like and is anticipating when at the end of time we will be revealed as God's perfect creation.
You may now be thinking, "What about now? If perfection comes at the end, what does he see now? Is my life really worth the effort if all it's about is the final product? what do I do?"
Lots of questions, my suggestion, "Live Life".
He is the painter creating his masterpiece. he looks at you every morning and he sees every imperfection, every blotch, every smear and still thinks you are perfect. For me, Jesus is the one who makes me perfect to God. I can never be perfect but Jesus who was fully God, fully human, fully perfect and he through a whole lot of theological principles, which I won't go into here, fills in my imperfections so God always sees the final, perfect product.
Now don't get me wrong, PEOPLE will see the imperfections. They will notice the blotches, the scars, the bags under the eyes, the broken promises, the missed opportunities, the pain, the agony, the fear. They will critique and give their opinion. They may call you names just as I on occasionally have found myself doing to others and even to myself.
But it takes a daily reminder that we are seen as perfect. "The Scream" to me is one of the scariest paintings I have seen. Someday I wish to see the real thing. It is a reflection of a man screaming, either in pain or fear or replusion or desperation. He screams a blood curdling scream in the twilight, but no one can help him, no one can rescue him. They can only watch him as he screams an eternal scream through the ages. Yet we know, this very painting that brings fear, and to some, the motherly instinct to protect, was once looked upon by the artist who at the end of painting it said "It is good".
In our lives, we should let them critique, let them stare at the deformity and the imperfection. Some would see the real beauty in you as I see in "The Scream". Others would ignore the beauty and only see the pain and ugliness. But always remember, God sees you as beautiful. A monument to His creative genius.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Cost Of Friendship
Human friendship is so intertwined and interconnected and complicated. It can make life bearable, or amazing, or ecstatic. Having those special people to share life with is a blessing no human should go without. It's a part of the human experience that gives it a sense of meaning. But... it involves a lot of hard work to maintain.
A friendship requires constant contact. This is to I once had required me to get a second phone to be able to contact her when I needed to and avoid high charges for overseas calls and texts. I wanted to keep in contact with her but to do that I had to get a new number with a new provider to be able to contact her. Sounds expensive? It was. But I felt it was worth it to build a friendship I placed a high value on.
When you place value on a friendship it requires a sacrifice. Sometimes doing things that you don't like doing just because it means spending time with someone to add to your life or to add to their life or both investing and adding to each others lives. Sometimes it might mean traveling across this great planet just to be by their side to help them celebrate a victory or mourn a loss or just to be with them. Sometimes it requires watching a soppy romantic love story on television when all you want to do is go and watch a gory blood fest at the movies.
It is a strange thing to have friends. You can't live with them, you can't live without them. It brings a bond that creates life and hope. But when it breaks it can cause heartbreak and destroys bonds all around it.
Recently I had such an experience where a friendship came to an end due to a difference in definitions. To them friendship just meant minimal contact and a deliberate removal of personal information from all communication. To me this seemed more like the definition of an acquaintance so we decided it best we go our separate ways.
It's not till now (4 weeks later) that I have come to realize the implications of this one friendship. Some of my closest friends have had to split their time between the two of us due to their commitment to both. I have also had to voluntarily break contact with several other friends who I had shared many an experience with due to the fact they were very close to her and her family. I still find myself checking my phone for that random text message I used to get for 3 whole years but none comes.
friendship is important. It is good to cultivate such close bonds because we cannot live our lives with just the ones we barely know. But we need to always remember that with friendship, there is ALWAYS a cost.
If you DON'T have friends, you don't have someone to share life with, no-one to speak to about life's struggles, no-one to enjoy life's victories. I guess that's why in this friendless society, psychologists and psychiatrists are so popular(?).
If you DO have friends, you have someone to share life with but sometimes you have to do things you don't personally enjoy because you want to spend time with that person. You may even suffer through a lecture about healthy eating because they are passionate about it and you are not (as much). But then who knows, you may learn a thing or two. :D
If the friendship breaks apart the cost is the widespread destruction that one broken friendship can cause. The other friendships that are compromised, the memories that are destroyed, the hopes and dreams that are given up on.
Here's what I am saying. Whatever you decide about the friendships you have, keep being great friends to the ones you have, make news ones every chance you get, BUT.....always remember THERE IS ALWAYS A COST.
A friendship requires constant contact. This is to I once had required me to get a second phone to be able to contact her when I needed to and avoid high charges for overseas calls and texts. I wanted to keep in contact with her but to do that I had to get a new number with a new provider to be able to contact her. Sounds expensive? It was. But I felt it was worth it to build a friendship I placed a high value on.
When you place value on a friendship it requires a sacrifice. Sometimes doing things that you don't like doing just because it means spending time with someone to add to your life or to add to their life or both investing and adding to each others lives. Sometimes it might mean traveling across this great planet just to be by their side to help them celebrate a victory or mourn a loss or just to be with them. Sometimes it requires watching a soppy romantic love story on television when all you want to do is go and watch a gory blood fest at the movies.
It is a strange thing to have friends. You can't live with them, you can't live without them. It brings a bond that creates life and hope. But when it breaks it can cause heartbreak and destroys bonds all around it.
Recently I had such an experience where a friendship came to an end due to a difference in definitions. To them friendship just meant minimal contact and a deliberate removal of personal information from all communication. To me this seemed more like the definition of an acquaintance so we decided it best we go our separate ways.
It's not till now (4 weeks later) that I have come to realize the implications of this one friendship. Some of my closest friends have had to split their time between the two of us due to their commitment to both. I have also had to voluntarily break contact with several other friends who I had shared many an experience with due to the fact they were very close to her and her family. I still find myself checking my phone for that random text message I used to get for 3 whole years but none comes.
friendship is important. It is good to cultivate such close bonds because we cannot live our lives with just the ones we barely know. But we need to always remember that with friendship, there is ALWAYS a cost.
If you DON'T have friends, you don't have someone to share life with, no-one to speak to about life's struggles, no-one to enjoy life's victories. I guess that's why in this friendless society, psychologists and psychiatrists are so popular(?).
If you DO have friends, you have someone to share life with but sometimes you have to do things you don't personally enjoy because you want to spend time with that person. You may even suffer through a lecture about healthy eating because they are passionate about it and you are not (as much). But then who knows, you may learn a thing or two. :D
If the friendship breaks apart the cost is the widespread destruction that one broken friendship can cause. The other friendships that are compromised, the memories that are destroyed, the hopes and dreams that are given up on.
Here's what I am saying. Whatever you decide about the friendships you have, keep being great friends to the ones you have, make news ones every chance you get, BUT.....always remember THERE IS ALWAYS A COST.
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