I've noticed that I've kind of gotten away from posting things about art, but I promise you that there's lots of art things pushing around in my skin.. It's just that I haven't let it out to play in a while. So, instead I'm going to rattle on about some things that I've been thinking about recently.
If you're not plugged into the grape vine, I have a boyfriend and the two month mark is coming up in January. It's still pretty crazy to think that I have a boyfriend, because I've never really had one before, and he's such a sweetheart and a man of God. The reason I bring this up is because I've noticed that I talk about Scott a lot. I think half of the stuff that comes out of my mouth recently is about him, or somewhere we went, or something he said and/or did that I thought was fantastic. I don't talk about him ALL the time (because then I would annoy myself), I've just noticed that I talk about him a lot.
I'm excited about Scott: I love the way he treats me, respects me, talks to me, goofs around with me; I love the way he loves God and seeks God... and I love it when people ask, "So how's your boyfriend doing?" or "How are things with Scott?"
So, I was thinking about this the other day and came to an intersting conundrum. Although I enjoy Scott, and love talking about him, I should be just as excited (and then some) about my relationship with God. Some time ago in church, Pastor Mark gave a sermon about how exciting and joyful we ought to be about our relationship with Christ - much in the same way we are excited about a relationship with a significant other and excited to tell others about Him. I didn't fully grasp the concept because at the time I was single, but now I understand it all too well.
While I buzz around making sure that everyone and their mom knows that "Yvonne has a boyfriend and she thinks he's AWESOME," should I not also buzz around to make sure everyone knows the Savior of my soul, and how awesome He is?
Yes, I probably ought to do that. And though I know this -- though I know the charge put before me to share the good news about Christ -- I don't always share what it is that God's been doing in my life, or how God loves me and other people. Granted, I understand that bringing up Jesus is probably a bit more offensive than bringing up my boyfriend; however, this should not deter me from speaking truth or shedding light into the darkness. Although, granted yet again, I know that telling someone about Scott is not going to change their life... I can't even claim that Scott changed my life because God was the one that did that.
But, telling someone about Jesus will rock their world, either positively or negatively (and prayerfully, the response would be positive).
I suppose the up side of this realization is that I can praise Him who began a good work in me, because He is faithful to complete the good work. So this dilemma won't be left all on its own, but rather I know God's going to work with me on it.
So, prayerfully this thing will get sorted out sooner rather than later. In the end, I just need to make sure I don't willfully neglect telling people about Christ because when that happens, I'll have a much bigger problem on my hands.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
Buzzing Brain Bees
I realized a problem that I have.
It's not that I neglected my note about surrealism (which I WILL get back to sometime in the near future... I hope).
Rather, this has to do with my habits of book buying and book reading. I'm not exactly what you would call a highly intellectual person (really, I'm not) but I will readily admit that I like information. I enjoy learning and discovering things... even though I'm not really discovering something that hasn't already been found before. Most of the books that I own are, in some format or another, about Christian growth. Some are about art. Some of them are about theology. Only a few are fiction - which, isn't that terribly ironic? a person fueled on creativity doesn't read that which is creative?
I haven't quite figured out why I'm like this. I enjoy fictional books, I just don't read them that often, at least not since I became a Christian. Since I became a follower of the Savior of the world, nearly all of my energy and focus has been discovering what exactly it means to be a follower of the Savior of the world.
It's like this insatiable thirst to find out answers to these questions: Who am I in Christ? What does it mean to be a Christian? What do I believe about the Bible? What do I believe about God? How does the Spirit work within me? ... etc. I want to know and I want to understand, and in turn I want to share that information with others.
Half of the books I own that help me traverse such questions, however, are waiting to be read. I am a slow reader. I like to digest words on paper, savoring sentences -- and sometimes things are harder to swallow than others. And yet, although I have all these other books left unread, I persist in buying more before I'm done with the others. I'm prepping myself for the day I'll be able to read the other books, I guess. I don't know.
Perhaps you could say that I'm a collector of applicable information... but that makes it sound more fancy than it needs to be. This is only part of my problem, though. Perhaps not even the bigger part of the problem.
I mean, I just like to learn things.
That means is that I have a lot of little random things buzzing around in my brain. These are anything from that which is inconsequential and not really that big of a deal... to what little I know about theology and Biblical text. Although it seems like a lot in some ways, in other ways I also know that what I know is not a lot. I've had my healthy share of feeling as dumb as a brick (especially when it comes to those common-knowledge, common sense kind of things).. I'm not a brainiac. I just like to tear things apart and try to figure them out.
There's always something more to learn. There's always something else to dig into, process, and store away for some use or another. And someone is always going to know more than I do about things. It's just a fact of life.
The reason why all of this is the second part of my problem is that I don't keep things - as Scott would say - "simple."
I over-think and complicate things that don't need to be over-thought or complicated. This is particularly true with spiritual issues, the Bible, and theology.
Let's bring up an example fresh out of the oven: today and yesterday was spent at Regional Staff Seminar for training. The topic: Biblical Application. Now, I was thinking one thing going into the seminar - that I was going to learn more about the Bible itself - and came out carrying something totally different. Pastor Dean Trulear was our speaker (and was phenomenal by the way) and one the biggest point about our time together was that we have the tendancy to take the Bible and see all the principles... While totally missing the Person. I know that the Bible is designed as not only a manual for life, but also as a means to get to know the Creator... but you know what, I think I tend to focus a heck of a lot more on the Manual part, and the informational part, that I don't always hear God's voice in the text.
I need to get back to seeking the seeking the relationship rather than the information.
So while my hunger and thirst to learn is probably a great thing, it's also my pitfall. Oh that the Lord would teach me how to balance it!
Keeping it simple is a lot harder than what it sounds like. At least, that's my perspective, as the person who over-thinks things. I'll see an issue that I could just simply trust that God knows how to handle, and try to figure out all the ways my hands are going to get dirty by meddling with the situation. I think about the things that could happen afterward. I think about how it might affect the way people think about me, or other such ridiculous things.
Come to think of it, when I over-think things, there's a common theme: me. It's all about me and my little world and how a situation is going to affect my little world; or how it disrupts my ideas about spirituality, theology, or life.
Dang.
It sucks when you realize how self-centered (or self-perserving) you can be in your own head.
But anyway.
Simple. Because I'm such an information-hog, let's see what we can find out about that word itself: humble, easy to understand/deal with, inornate, common or ordinary, naive, natural, unassuming.... and a handful of others. Thank you, Dictionary.com.
When I think of 'keeping it simple,' in regards to my relationship with God, I think of child-like faith. ... Knowledge and learning are not bad things. But, clearly I can understand how they complicate things when trying to trust God. Another way to put it is to say that I need to put my hope in God.
I need to open up my hands, stop clenching the issues that I keep complicating, and allow God to take care of it. ...And not just allow Him to do it, but also acknowledging God's faithfulness in all things. "I don't know what's going on, but I know that God does, and that's enough for me." It's not tossing what I know out the window or checking my brain at the door. By no means. But... perhaps it means that I need to submit my knowledge to my Creator, knowing that He knows all things and I don't.
I don't know. I think my thoughts are starting to pull at the seams.
"I still have the heart of a seeker, but I need the faith of a child." Supertones, you're speaking my language.
Blog, there's so much more that I would like to write about. Other things and thoughts that have nothing to do with my problem of sucking up information like a sponge.... which really isn't a proper image, since a lot of the information ends up falling out. Maybe I'm like an information bucket.
Right. I have bigger fish to fry than this.
It's not that I neglected my note about surrealism (which I WILL get back to sometime in the near future... I hope).
Rather, this has to do with my habits of book buying and book reading. I'm not exactly what you would call a highly intellectual person (really, I'm not) but I will readily admit that I like information. I enjoy learning and discovering things... even though I'm not really discovering something that hasn't already been found before. Most of the books that I own are, in some format or another, about Christian growth. Some are about art. Some of them are about theology. Only a few are fiction - which, isn't that terribly ironic? a person fueled on creativity doesn't read that which is creative?
I haven't quite figured out why I'm like this. I enjoy fictional books, I just don't read them that often, at least not since I became a Christian. Since I became a follower of the Savior of the world, nearly all of my energy and focus has been discovering what exactly it means to be a follower of the Savior of the world.
It's like this insatiable thirst to find out answers to these questions: Who am I in Christ? What does it mean to be a Christian? What do I believe about the Bible? What do I believe about God? How does the Spirit work within me? ... etc. I want to know and I want to understand, and in turn I want to share that information with others.
Half of the books I own that help me traverse such questions, however, are waiting to be read. I am a slow reader. I like to digest words on paper, savoring sentences -- and sometimes things are harder to swallow than others. And yet, although I have all these other books left unread, I persist in buying more before I'm done with the others. I'm prepping myself for the day I'll be able to read the other books, I guess. I don't know.
Perhaps you could say that I'm a collector of applicable information... but that makes it sound more fancy than it needs to be. This is only part of my problem, though. Perhaps not even the bigger part of the problem.
I mean, I just like to learn things.
That means is that I have a lot of little random things buzzing around in my brain. These are anything from that which is inconsequential and not really that big of a deal... to what little I know about theology and Biblical text. Although it seems like a lot in some ways, in other ways I also know that what I know is not a lot. I've had my healthy share of feeling as dumb as a brick (especially when it comes to those common-knowledge, common sense kind of things).. I'm not a brainiac. I just like to tear things apart and try to figure them out.
There's always something more to learn. There's always something else to dig into, process, and store away for some use or another. And someone is always going to know more than I do about things. It's just a fact of life.
The reason why all of this is the second part of my problem is that I don't keep things - as Scott would say - "simple."
I over-think and complicate things that don't need to be over-thought or complicated. This is particularly true with spiritual issues, the Bible, and theology.
Let's bring up an example fresh out of the oven: today and yesterday was spent at Regional Staff Seminar for training. The topic: Biblical Application. Now, I was thinking one thing going into the seminar - that I was going to learn more about the Bible itself - and came out carrying something totally different. Pastor Dean Trulear was our speaker (and was phenomenal by the way) and one the biggest point about our time together was that we have the tendancy to take the Bible and see all the principles... While totally missing the Person. I know that the Bible is designed as not only a manual for life, but also as a means to get to know the Creator... but you know what, I think I tend to focus a heck of a lot more on the Manual part, and the informational part, that I don't always hear God's voice in the text.
I need to get back to seeking the seeking the relationship rather than the information.
So while my hunger and thirst to learn is probably a great thing, it's also my pitfall. Oh that the Lord would teach me how to balance it!
Keeping it simple is a lot harder than what it sounds like. At least, that's my perspective, as the person who over-thinks things. I'll see an issue that I could just simply trust that God knows how to handle, and try to figure out all the ways my hands are going to get dirty by meddling with the situation. I think about the things that could happen afterward. I think about how it might affect the way people think about me, or other such ridiculous things.
Come to think of it, when I over-think things, there's a common theme: me. It's all about me and my little world and how a situation is going to affect my little world; or how it disrupts my ideas about spirituality, theology, or life.
Dang.
It sucks when you realize how self-centered (or self-perserving) you can be in your own head.
But anyway.
Simple. Because I'm such an information-hog, let's see what we can find out about that word itself: humble, easy to understand/deal with, inornate, common or ordinary, naive, natural, unassuming.... and a handful of others. Thank you, Dictionary.com.
When I think of 'keeping it simple,' in regards to my relationship with God, I think of child-like faith. ... Knowledge and learning are not bad things. But, clearly I can understand how they complicate things when trying to trust God. Another way to put it is to say that I need to put my hope in God.
I need to open up my hands, stop clenching the issues that I keep complicating, and allow God to take care of it. ...And not just allow Him to do it, but also acknowledging God's faithfulness in all things. "I don't know what's going on, but I know that God does, and that's enough for me." It's not tossing what I know out the window or checking my brain at the door. By no means. But... perhaps it means that I need to submit my knowledge to my Creator, knowing that He knows all things and I don't.
I don't know. I think my thoughts are starting to pull at the seams.
"I still have the heart of a seeker, but I need the faith of a child." Supertones, you're speaking my language.
Blog, there's so much more that I would like to write about. Other things and thoughts that have nothing to do with my problem of sucking up information like a sponge.... which really isn't a proper image, since a lot of the information ends up falling out. Maybe I'm like an information bucket.
Right. I have bigger fish to fry than this.
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