Ok, so I’m a bit crabby and tired and I have a headache and work sucks
monkey balls and stress and… and… you get the idea. So I
don’t feel like typing much tonight so let’s just get the posting of
the old LiveJournal blogs out of the way so I can be more original.
After this post, it’s going to be all new Matt all the time. Whether
that’s a good thing depends on your point of view I guess. Here’s the
last two posts which will take us to this February.
Strength
[Jan. 31st, 2005 | 01:05 am]
It’s been a while since I’ve posted an entry in my blog. There is much
I want to write down, my trip to Jamaica, how it affected me, my
current life, etc. There are struggles that I am struggling with that I
would like to put down as well. But the issue that is currently at the
forefront of my thinking has to do with strength. What is strength and
how does one obtain it? Are some people born with it, while others
aren’t as fortunate? Right now I’m defining strength as having the
courage of your convictions, having the ability to say yes or no to
something and mean it. I think this is an issue that we all struggle
with, if not the issue. Think about it: What do wars, bar
fights, fights in relationships, workplace competition all have mostly
in common? They’re all about strength, who has it or doesn’t. The
husband fights with his wife in order to show that he’s the one who has
the strength in the relationship. The country attacks another country
to show strength. Two drunken men fight with each other in order to
determine who has the strength. You get the idea.
Yes, I understand that this analogy is weak and does not survive
close scrutiny (e.g., wars are not always about displays of strength),
but it gets my point across. A lot of our struggles have to do with the
issue of strength. I think many of us, if not most of us, underestimate
how strong we are. I don’t speak very much about Satan or the influence
he has on this world because I do not want to dismiss the human
responsibility for their own sins, and also because it has always
seemed to me to be too conveinent of an excuse sometimes. However, my
beliefs know him to be true and a powerful (but not even close to the
all-power of God), existing being in this universe, hell-bent on taking
down as many people as he can down with him. It is one of my personal
beliefs that Satan deceives us about our weaknesses. He causes many of
us to buy in the lie that we’re weak. This line of thinking causes many
people to sin because they do not believe they have the personal drive,
the strength, to say no. We are taught otherwise. We are actually very powerful beings
because God has made us so. Consider two important biblical facts: 1)
God created us in His image. This means we share all of the qualities
of God (except for those qualities that make God God, for example,
omnipotency). 2) God has given us the Holy Spirit, which is God himself. Wow, the Almighty God, Creator of the universe, lives in us. That staggering fact alone should open our eyes and help us realize how powerful we can be. How powerful?
We can say no. Every time we’re tempted to sin and fall into
sin because we’re made to feel weak and think “I’m just going to fall
into this sin anyway, so I might just as well do this,” we no longer
have to. We can say, “No!” because we know we have all the strength and
power in the universe behind ourselves. How cool is that? We cannot
afford to forget this fact. It’s revolutionary. It’ll change the world
the more people are aware of this!
Let’s get the word out…!
Working on working
[Feb. 15th, 2005 | 01:14 am]
So, I got this email from an awesome friend of mine, Catherine. In it
she said something so obvious, but yet so profound that it really does
need to be said. And I quote,
We’re all works in progress, I guess.
I’ve also been reading a couple of people’s Xanga sites and by
just reading them, reading their thoughts and ramblings I realized I’ve
been doing a crappy job of using this blog to chronicle ideas,
thoughts, and whatever nonsense pops in my head. I went to Jamaica and
I came back with all of these things I was going to do. I haven’t done
any of it yet. This needs to change. Instead of coming up with some
philosophical BS, I need to be honest and truthful to myself before I
involve other people.
We’re all works in progress, I guess.
And I need to start showing some progress.
February 24, 2005
Xanga-Matt
Comments Off on
Matt
Ok, so I’m a bit crabby and tired and I have a headache and work sucks
monkey balls and stress and… and… you get the idea. So I
don’t feel like typing much tonight so let’s just get the posting of
the old LiveJournal blogs out of the way so I can be more original.
After this post, it’s going to be all new Matt all the time. Whether
that’s a good thing depends on your point of view I guess. Here’s the
last two posts which will take us to this February.
Strength
[Jan. 31st, 2005 | 01:05 am]
It’s been a while since I’ve posted an entry in my blog. There is much
I want to write down, my trip to Jamaica, how it affected me, my
current life, etc. There are struggles that I am struggling with that I
would like to put down as well. But the issue that is currently at the
forefront of my thinking has to do with strength. What is strength and
how does one obtain it? Are some people born with it, while others
aren’t as fortunate? Right now I’m defining strength as having the
courage of your convictions, having the ability to say yes or no to
something and mean it. I think this is an issue that we all struggle
with, if not the issue. Think about it: What do wars, bar
fights, fights in relationships, workplace competition all have mostly
in common? They’re all about strength, who has it or doesn’t. The
husband fights with his wife in order to show that he’s the one who has
the strength in the relationship. The country attacks another country
to show strength. Two drunken men fight with each other in order to
determine who has the strength. You get the idea.
Yes, I understand that this analogy is weak and does not survive
close scrutiny (e.g., wars are not always about displays of strength),
but it gets my point across. A lot of our struggles have to do with the
issue of strength. I think many of us, if not most of us, underestimate
how strong we are. I don’t speak very much about Satan or the influence
he has on this world because I do not want to dismiss the human
responsibility for their own sins, and also because it has always
seemed to me to be too conveinent of an excuse sometimes. However, my
beliefs know him to be true and a powerful (but not even close to the
all-power of God), existing being in this universe, hell-bent on taking
down as many people as he can down with him. It is one of my personal
beliefs that Satan deceives us about our weaknesses. He causes many of
us to buy in the lie that we’re weak. This line of thinking causes many
people to sin because they do not believe they have the personal drive,
the strength, to say no. We are taught otherwise. We are actually very powerful beings
because God has made us so. Consider two important biblical facts: 1)
God created us in His image. This means we share all of the qualities
of God (except for those qualities that make God God, for example,
omnipotency). 2) God has given us the Holy Spirit, which is God himself. Wow, the Almighty God, Creator of the universe, lives in us. That staggering fact alone should open our eyes and help us realize how powerful we can be. How powerful?
We can say no. Every time we’re tempted to sin and fall into
sin because we’re made to feel weak and think “I’m just going to fall
into this sin anyway, so I might just as well do this,” we no longer
have to. We can say, “No!” because we know we have all the strength and
power in the universe behind ourselves. How cool is that? We cannot
afford to forget this fact. It’s revolutionary. It’ll change the world
the more people are aware of this!
Let’s get the word out…!
Working on working
[Feb. 15th, 2005 | 01:14 am]
So, I got this email from an awesome friend of mine, Catherine. In it
she said something so obvious, but yet so profound that it really does
need to be said. And I quote,
We’re all works in progress, I guess.
I’ve also been reading a couple of people’s Xanga sites and by
just reading them, reading their thoughts and ramblings I realized I’ve
been doing a crappy job of using this blog to chronicle ideas,
thoughts, and whatever nonsense pops in my head. I went to Jamaica and
I came back with all of these things I was going to do. I haven’t done
any of it yet. This needs to change. Instead of coming up with some
philosophical BS, I need to be honest and truthful to myself before I
involve other people.
We’re all works in progress, I guess.
And I need to start showing some progress.
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