Masks

With today being Halloween and all my students were getting all dressed up, the whole idea of how we seek to hide who we are hit me. It is not just on this day that we put on masks but each day.

What causes us to put on these masks? Is it to protect ourselves? How do we take them off and not put them on again?

God created each one of us to be individuals but so often we hide who we truly are. As we put on mask after mask we can lose sight to who we are and who God made us to be. Sometimes it isn't even us who puts on the mask but it's those around us or the world. We may not even know of all the masks that we wear or hide behind. There comes a time when we all have to start to take those masks off. For myself it is a work in processes.

We start to take off those masks when we come to Christ. Jesus knows who we are. Who we truly are under all those masks. To know Jesus is to know self. We may try to go to Jesus with the masks on but He sees right through them.

Jesus wants us to be true not only to Him but to ourselves. When we start to see who we are, we are able to start to live a life. We are all called to serve God and if we hide behind all theses masks, we also hide what we are called to do. What I mean by that is how can we truly do our mission in life, if we are not who we really are. It would be like going for a job and saying you are one person in the interview, yet come Monday when you start your boss sees you being another person. Your not being the person that was given the job. Same as what God has planned for us. He gives us our mission or purpose but if we are being someone else how can we truly be doing it?

I wish I could say that it is easy to take off those masks but I am not going to lie. But once you start to see who you are inside you can start to live on the outside and not need those masks...

No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.

~Luke 8:16-17 ~

Throw Away

This past weekend I was cleaning and noticed all this... well... stuff that I had. Things I have had for years, some even since childhood. I found that it took so long cleaning because I would look over papers, read them, remember when I got one item or the time that was spent with who gave it to me. It was more then just stuff that was there in a pile but really were memories of times gone by.

Some of those memories were of great times and others reminded me of people who are no longer in my life. Either to death or just moved on. I tried to figure out what I still wanted or needed and it wasn't so easy because all of those things also make up who we are. Those memories have played a part in who we are today. Thats one thing I got but then I also got this from it.

We live in a world where we just throw things away. I wish that it was just things but we also throw away people. What happened to having friends for life, a marriage that lasts, family that stay together. It seems that once things get tough people just throw it away and say " It wasn't meant to be.. Oh well.." I am guilty of this as well. There are people who I just slip out the door without even asking myself is this what I really want. This is not to say about relationships that are unhealthy. Just those that seem to not be the same.

How did we as a society come to where we are now? That we just throw away people and don't even think about it. I mean here in this age where we have email, texts, cell phones, voice mail,,,,etc.. do we have less contact with people and not as close as people were. All those things should make it easier for us to talk and work things out, be in contact and strengthen those relationships. I know I am a bit all over the place here...

It seems to me that not only are we a throw away society for garbage but also in relationships. We don't put in time anymore to make meaningful connections. Yet all we have we should have more time to commit to people and with that God.

Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.

~Anthony D'Angelo~

Childhood Dream.....

Ever since I was a child I wanted my own Castle and with that my own Kingdom. I would rule over the land and would be a just and righteous King. I must admit I still wouldn't mind this and still I am in search of my castle...... yet in some ways I have a castle and that kingdom ( just not a crown :( ...... )

Castles were , to me. places of safety, class, honor, power and money. They kept out what they didn't want in with high walls, moats, draw bridges, etc..... I have done that with myself. I am my own castle. I don't let people in easily, if at all,,, and when they are in the walls are still so high and so think that they can't get in even if they tried. Even for myself it is hard to get in. I will push aside what I feel and will wait to deal with it some day. I know this is not a great way of doing things and " Living the Life"... It is a reality that I try and face and deal with from time to time.

My kingdom is just about the same. It's my own world that I run to when things are not going as I wanted or that I planned. In that world I feel safe but at the same time it is a lonely place. my castle is in that kingdom that I control and rule. I find that I am not that King I wanted to be. The King, me, is hard on his kingdom, puts demands that can't be meet yet, is harsh, etc... Not a fair ruler at all.... And the Key is I shouldn't be the "King" or the "Ruler"... those are not to be my titles or place in either Kingdom...

There is only one true "King" and that is Jesus and one "Ruler" and that is God. Maybe if I stop trying to keep the crown and humble myself I will learn this. They know what I really need and knows what is best. I think many of us may feel the same. If we let Jesus and God rule over us and I speak so much for myself as well, we would be better off. The burden of running that kingdom of our own is taken from us.. There is only one kingdom we need to be part of and that is the Kingdom of God. That is what I need to focus on and not my own Kingdom. I think if we all did that it would be an easier life to live.....
What do you think?

The man who says he will lead a newer and better life tomorrow, who promises great things for the future, and yet does nothing in the present to make that future possible,

is living in an air-castle.
~ William Jordan~

Renewed

The story of the Phenix reminds me of how we are to be in this life. We are to keep dying to ourselves so we can be reformed in Christ. The Phenix dies when it reaches old age but for us to die it is seeing the world in new ways and getting rid of the old.

When we reach that point where we need to grow again or go to that deeper level we may be asked to have a new way of thinking, seeing the world with new eyes, change a habbit, open our hearts more, etc..... Each time we do this we start to burn off some of those old ways, old sight, old vission and in that we are made new again. Same will happen when we ask for forgiveness from God. The sins are burned away and a new clean soul is born.

There will never be an end, in this life, to renewing ourselves in the Lord. The Holy Spirit is at work in each one of us burning away the old and creating room for the new. When we allow the Spirit to work in us it will be easier for us to let go of the sins, the old ways, thoughts and mind set.

"Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. "

~ Acts 2:3-4 ~

Spider Lessons....

This happened last month but I figured this would be a good first post....

I was sitting outside doing work since my computer was not working right and I had to do the work the old way of paper and pen. As I was sitting there working I saw this spider start to make his web. Every so often I would stop working and watch him make his web. It got to the point where I just stopped working and was just watching him and it was just so fascinating to watch and I thought how smart because he was making the web right by the light where the bugs were flying around. He finished up and the web was perfect. Then he took his spot in the middle. Ok so back to work I go. But then a group of 3 pine needles fell into his web and he got scared and backed off, but went back to the center of the web... Then after a minute he slowly started to go down to where they landed and I thought howsad that his web was damaged and that he was stupid because I thought he was trying to spin a web around them thinking they were food but then I noticed that he was trying to get them off the web.They were about 4 times his size but he kept working on them and moving them and then I saw him cut part of the web and after a bit they fell from the web and he went back to the center of the web and I was thinking “why are you not fixing the web you stupid bug. You have a couple of big holes in your web.”

So again back to work because I was annoyed at the spider and was not going to give it any more attention.Now I saw from the corner of my eye the spider going back to where the holes were and he was fixing them. He fixed them and the web looked great again and you couldn't really tell there were ever holes...I learned something from this spider.... Life, to me, is made up of all connections and how each part of life is built on the life lived right before it. Just as each part of a web. But what got me was that when the pine needles fell in he took a bit of time, saw that they didn’t belong and got rid of them.He had no problem doing it.... He didn't think and think about it... That is something that we should do with our lives. When we see that something really doesn't belong there anymore or it is causing problems we should go right to where the problem is, face it, and if need be cut it out of our life. It can be anything, maybe a habit that isn't good, a bad relationship, something that takes us from God, pulls us from our faith, whatever...Then he didn't just fix the broken part of the web but first went back to the center and then fixed it. We need to do the same..

We need to go back and center ourselves after something or someone cause a problem or when we feel our life is broken. Go, center ourselves with God and crew . Then go and deal with what part of our life that is in need of repair. Just as the web could be fixed, so can our lives. We just have to center ourselves and then go to fix and heal what is needed.You never know when you may learn a lesson about life but, as I found tonight, it doesn't always come from a book but by just living a life and not closing yourself off from it, lessons can be learned..

The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes.
~ Leo Tolstoy ~