Pearls Before Swine

Gay marriage is a hot political issue today. This means that across the country (and the world), conversations are happening between Catholics and non-Catholics, and among Catholics themselves, regarding this issue. If you consider yourself an orthodox Christian, you must face the fact that you will likely be given the opportunity to speak about this issue with someone who disagrees, Catholic or otherwise.

How will you respond when that time comes? Will you murmur an assent and nod slowly? Will you wishy-washily answer "I don't know..." and trail off in mock-indecision? Or perhaps you will respond with that time-honored tagline of truth-skirting talk—"Hmm."

The question you have to ask yourself is this: are you willing to sacrifice an institution in order to avoid an awkward conversation? The fact is, society is changed from the ground up. No matter what the media says, no matter what TV and radio pump into our ears, the unassailable fact remains that "We the People" decide society's direction, and word of mouth is still the strongest form of media there is. If we remain silent while ideas we disagree with are assumed and accepted, while ramps to Hell are exalted as stairways to Heaven, then we will be spectators to the continued downward trudge of society—with only our timidity to blame.

It is our challenge to never remain silent in the face of what is wrong. And free speech will be the freedom that delivers us from moral turmoil, if only we are willing to use it. Speak up, everybody! Don't budge!

Face to Face With Life

Face to face with life. That's what it said. Face to face with life. Just a little advertising motto written on the travel agency's pen. But those words carried a lot of power in that moment.

Face to face with life. What does that mean? What is it like to be face to face with life? I'll tell you--it's to look at things squarely. It's to experience life directly and vividly, the way we were designed to experience it. How many days have you finished and wondered--wow, did I really just let this day pass me by? How many days have you been too out-of-it to even ask the question?

It's also to be honest with yourself about what's going on in your world, and what other people are doing and feeling, too. We see enough to understand all we need to understand. Other people's words and actions, on the whole, reflect what they are feeling. But we often don't go deep enough when we're thinking about other people; we often jump to one conclusion and cling to it like a rubber band. When you're face to face with life, you realize that you don't know a whole lot. You can't accurately diagnose why people are acting or feeling the way they are--but if you are attentive to them, you are aware of what they're feeling. And if you're committed to becoming the best person you can be, what does this awareness make you want to do?

That is what is most amazing, what I discovered when I made the commitment; then and there seeing that wonderful pen, I realized that getting face to face with life causes compassion.

Suppose this: someday, someone is acting lukewarm toward you, and it makes you wonder if you've done something to anger or offend them. This is the ego coming in (the ego always comes in when problems arise), because you actually have no grounds to assume this.

But oftentimes we do assume things like this, and it leads to so much unnecessary strife. Think about that person a little more. Something is certainly bothering them, that much is clear. But look at life squarely! You don't know the real answer--and instead of wondering how you might have caused his low spirits, why don't you try to make him feel better? A kind word, if it's real and from the heart, goes a long, long way. Think about it.

Face to face with life! How cool is that? Think deeply, then act deeply. Face to face with life. You know, I've never been one to have a motto, but this simple yet startling phrase is sorely tempting me to adopt it as one.

The Solution

Sometimes it's the most obvious advice that we need to hear most often and most repeatedly. So let's sustain that custom with today's brief post.

No matter what problems you are facing, prayer is solace, solution, and the way forward. Whatever is not right in your life, whether you know what that is or not, begins to be solved when you sit in silence and set yourself to commune with your Creator. All will be well. As Boyd Bailey says, "Be still, listen, and let Him love you and revive you."

It is no wonder that prayer is one of the most common characteristics of the saints. Prayer is an immediate way of getting closer to God. We are called as Christians to live our lives so as to bring ourselves closer to God. So why do we waste so much time thinking about the grass of the field, which is thrown into the oven tomorrow, when God is right there waiting for us?

It is quite literally true to assert that God has all the time in the world; He can wait.

But can we?

Random Thoughts

Once again borrowing a page from the book of Thomas Sowell, I present several "Random Thoughts." These are neither as political or as entertaining as his, but they are certainly random; their status as thoughts may be justifiably contested by the reader:

1. I was taught to examine life and learn from it, that daily experiences are not isolated events that fade into the past, but connected lessons in the School of Human Experience—which will teach us volumes if we are willing to pay attention. This perspective comes with a price. It's quite a bit like exercise: it demonstrates our limits every time. The daily challenges of life have a way of highlighting our weakness in bright colors, of pointing out what we did wrong and showing us what would have been the best action to take (hindsight is 20/20, after all). But the practice of examining life's challenges for lessons also is like exercise in this simple and striking fact: provided we don't place undue stress on ourselves, each struggle makes us stronger. And knowing that makes us thankful for trials.

2. The only man more formidable than him with nothing to lose is him with something to fight for.

3. Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? (Henry David Thoreau)

That is all.

Good day!

Joezilla

Clarity

Hello,

A question to throw out over the cyber-waves (or whatever they're called) today: what could you do to make your life more honest and open? Clarity is something we're called to strive for, but none of us achieves it perfectly. Nonetheless, the whole point of striving is to work toward that elusive perfection, in hopes that one day--with a lot of help from our Father--we will achieve it.

So what can be done? Today, my life taught me something simple yet beautiful about clarity:

Be ready to face anyone, at any moment. If you find yourself purposely avoiding someone, you need to stop and fix things.

The fact is, if we are living a genuine and righteous life, we should be able to face anyone, anytime, about anything. So if you're running from someone or something, stop in your tracks, figure out what's wrong, and be prepared to face them about it. If you don't, you're only running from the truth--and that never ends well.

Keep fighting the good fight!
Respectfully,
Joezilla

The Highest Form of Thought

How soon we forget…

Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can lose sight of the good things people have said or done to us in the past? How easy is it for us to snap at someone who, a mere span of days or hours ago, brought us immense joy with a funny joke, or brought us to our senses with an honest comment, shot straight from hip and heart? We like to speak of overlooking someone’s faults and giving the benefit of the doubt. But how much more often it is that we overlook the gifts and graces of others, and assume the worst about them! Perhaps it is only I who do this, but I suspect that most are alike in this bad way. What are we to do? The only answer is, commit. Commit ourselves to gratefulness, to wonder—in short, to love.

Special shout-out to TobyMac, whose great song “Hold On” reminded me of this stuff today. Have a listen—it may change the course of your day as it did mine!

http://play.napster.com/track/31568383

Wake up to the morning sun,

Thank the Lord for the things He’s done

Lift your eyes to the Hope that's ever True...

With the love of a stalwart friend, and thankfully!

Joezilla

A Biting Truth

"YEOWCH!"
I winced as I felt my teeth sink hard upon the inside of my cheek, showering my head with burning pain—I had just witnessed, all-too-firsthand, the dangers of eating a bagel too quickly. I immediately adjusted my manner of eating. A moment ago, my highest priority had been chewing the bagel before all the delectable cinnamon-sugar melted away; now I shifted to the more practical goal of not chewing up the inside of my mouth.

As the pain and my reactive wince subsided, I began contemplating what had just happened. I had not bitten myself of my own accord; for whatever reason, God willed that seemingly unfortunate event. I began to gaze warily at my surroundings. What else could God will at this moment? Might the roof come tumbling down upon my unsuspecting head? Or, perhaps, would the lake outside the window, in roaring tsunamic rampage, surge forward and wipe away the building in which I dined? Pondering such potential pains (all of which outweighed my bitten mouth by serious degrees), I finally began to understand what "fear of the Lord" means.

My rather macabre reveries revealed an underlying assumption which I'd never truly faced before: God has the power to do whatever He wants to us. Truly, the concept of an all-powerful deity, taken alone, contains some frightful implications. If God so chose, He could fly us up to the stratosphere, spin us around 18 times, then drop us like skydivers without parachutes. He could cause a rainstorm of rocks to thunder upon us—indoors. Dare I mention it, He could even cause the song "Thriller" to play, in a sort of eternal repeat mode, unceasingly through the maddened corridors of our own minds.

There is quite literally nothing that He could not do to us, if He so chose. Now thankfully, our religion tells us that He will most likely not do any of this. God loves us, and His actions in Scripture make that resoundingly clear. But the fact remains, and the story of Job stands out as an unsettling reminder of this, that God has the power to do whatsoever He wants.

Now a moment's reflection on this fact ought not result in fearful frenzy or dead-eyed depression. Quite the contrary, in fact—because such a solid conviction of God's power results in an equally-solid conviction of our own powerlessness.

At any moment, we could be rendered deaf and dumb for the rest of our days. Why should that scare us? It should just shock us into the realization that we aren't here for our own fulfillment. We are so powerless that we can't possibly fulfill ourselves, no matter how hard we try. Everything temporal that we've worked for and continue to work for—it could all be wiped away in a second. If that were to happen, what would remain? Self-fulfillment is not our job.

It comes as a surprise to remember this, every now and then. We are not here to fulfill our own desires, but to obey the Will of He Who made us. It's a simple but foundational change in perspective, a true inversion of our priorities. And it helps a lot. Of course, the greatest paradox arrives when we learn that God's Will is to fulfill us, but that fulfillment will only come when we submit ourselves to Him, cutting every string, surrendering every cheap battle, and embracing every human spirit with an open heart and a thankful soul.

Who knew that biting yourself could be so great?

Fearing the Lord (in a good way),
Joezilla