What's up, World?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
I guess I should put up something since I've "disappeared" for so long.
Well, what can I say? I've started work. Just some temporary work to tide me over til I get an answer from SMBC. Hopefully that will be soon.
So, Davin is leaving tonight. =( Oh well... I may see him soon enough. Maybe. =p
Anyways, life is... well, as interesting as it could get, I suppose. I think the question that plagues us all when we start working is, "What on earth am I doing here?" At this point, I have to ask whether I'm fulfilling my purpose in life. I thought I had such a clear idea about what I wanted to do. I suppose I could be doing something more in line with what I wanna do.
Ooh, which reminds me. A lot of you have asked me what I wanna do when I graduate, and why I want to go to bible college. Well, look no further than here. This is just a short description of the type of organization I wanna work in. Fortunately, there's a home in Sydney, which I hope to liaise with while I'm studying.
I know I've had a couple of depressing posts lately. Well, I've decided that I'm gonna stop being depressed. For now, at least. I really do believe in the power of choice. We choose who we wanna be. And yeah, I guess you can't choose your emotions. But you can choose not to let them control you. =)
Ok, on to the next thing that has been on my mind for a couple of weeks. So, some of you may know that I've been struggling with the issue of grace. So, I cleverly went and bought myself a book called "What's so amazing about grace?" by Philip Yancey. It's proven to be quite good so far. =) Just some quotes I've "stolen" from the book.
"God has granted us a terrible agency: by denying forgiveness to others, we are in effect determining them unworthy of God's forgiveness, and thus so are we. In some mysterious way, divine forgiveness depends on us." (p.88). "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15).
"But the very word forgive contains the word "give" (just as the word pardon contains the donum or gift). Like grace, forgiveness has about it the maddening quality of being undeserved, unmerited, unfair. (p. 88) "Only the experience of being forgiven makes it possible for us to forgive." (p.90).
Romans 12:19 says, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord."
"Forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out." (p.93) "A cease fire between human beings depends on a cease-fire with God." (p.93)
Yancey takes a passage from Henri Nouwen, which I find reflects my own nature.
"I have often said, "I forgive you," but even as I said these words my heart remained angry or resentful. I still wanted to hear the story that tells me that I was right after all; I still wanted to hear apologies and excuses; I still wanted the satisfaction of receiving some praise in return - if only the praise for being so forgiving! But God's forgiveness is unconditional; it comes from a heart that does not demand anything for itself, a heart that is completely empty of self-seeking. It is this divine forgiveness that I have to practice in my daily life. It calls me to keep stepping over all my arguments that say forgiveness is unwise, unhealthy, and impractical. It challenges me to step over all my needs for gratitude and compliments. Finally, it demands of me that I step over that wounded part of my heart that feels hurt and wronged and that wants tot stay in control and put a few conditions between me and the one whom I am asked to forgive." (p.92)
So, what am I writing all this for? Well, the issue of grace often starts with forgiveness. "We forgive not merely to fulfill some higher law of morality' we do it for ourselves... When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us." (p.100).
I think the main issue I have is not that I need to extend so much grace to others. I have been blessed in that I've not been wronged in such a horrible manner. No, rather I feel I need to extend more grace to myself. It sounds so weird. But after all that's been said and done... I still find the hardest person to forgive is yourself. You look for forgiveness from the people you've wronged, from neutral parties, anyone who would listen. You know that God forgives all who truly repent. And to deny yourself forgiveness would cheapen God's gift. In essence, you're really saying that His sacrifice is not good enough to forgive your sins. At the very heart of forgiveness and grace is, faith.
posted by HobbiT at Wednesday, September 26, 2007
2 Comments:
nice post, dearie =) the last paragraph sounds strangely familiar, lol. how many times u've been going through that in ur head?
got your text too! don't worry babe, i know what i'm doing. i'm not being pressured into anything at all, trust me. if anything, i think i've been a little demanding!
wish u were here so we can talk a lot more about all this ( and by that, i mean ur issue with grace n all =) )
September 27, 2007 at 6:06 AM
That's a really good book! Easy to read too. God's grace for us is unbelievable aye
September 30, 2007 at 11:33 PM
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