Showing posts with label Viet Nam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Viet Nam. Show all posts

Friday, September 5, 2014

Are You Aware of the Big Picture?

There is with each of us a great mountain of unexplored territory.  Our personality is beyond our grasp, even the smallest parts of it.  That is why egotism is such a dastardly sin against ourselves because what we think we are is so far from the actuality.  Just consider your dreams and how profoundly they explore your depths.  You dream of someone you cannot recall ever seeing, create a narrative that is far more complex with plots and subplots than anything you could ever put down in writing, express fears and colossal desires you did not know existed.    In your dreams, lusts and cravings spring up from the pit of you that astound and perplex you.  That is just the brief snippets of the dreams you recall after the first minute of waking.  The boundaries of you that are versus what you think those boundaries of you are far surpass the difference between all of Asia and the little mosquito dancing near a swamp in Viet Nam.  You are not merely the sum of your parts…you go beyond all your parts and all the parts of everyone you know of those you have met over the course of your life.  The shepherds were amazed by the angels…first one and then thousands because they never imagined something so wonderful and spectacular.  Come to Jesus and you will find that what you know of Him and what you think you know of Him is even less than what you know of yourself.  Consider the wonder and awe of those first moments when the shepherds looked up into the night sky and watched the heavenly dance played out above them.  They could not have realized that what the angels announced was so much greater than what they presented of themselves.  Why are we so dreary and lackadaisical when it comes to knowing Jesus Christ?  We seem to be like the poor man who smashed his TV to get at the little people who lived in his box and talked to him from inside it..  Can we not see that Jesus Christ is mercy and love and joy beyond our wildest imaginings and that the glory of His being is the most magnificent of discoveries and one that brightens exponentially with each new exploration into Him?  Have we the persistence of the shepherds who scrambled to see the Christ Christmas morning?  Have we an idea of what consists of the “big picture“?  Do we realize how big Jesus is?

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.      Luke 2:16 NIV

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Courage


Boy was I caught off guard. I have been walking for an hour and a half every day the past 4 weeks around Lake Elizabeth and have by going at the same time every day met some very nice people. I have a new friend who as we pass we comment on the latest sports news. A couple of nights ago, for the first time since I broke my leg and tore my achilles tendon ran (can we really call it that?) a half mile. It was exhilerating and yet I had a rough time of it with my legs. Today I decided to jog a bit on my trip around the lake and this friend along with all my other friends there was shocked to see me "picking up the pace". When he met up with me the second time as we both made it around the lake in opposite directions he chided me for not running. So, to preserve my sense of manhood, (like that is some big deal) I stopped and explained how come I couldn't run anymore. I showed him the scar on my leg where I had the rod placed in it and the scar from my achilles tendon surgery. Puffed with my bloated sense of courageous perseverence, I explained that it was tough for me to run very far so I had to stop because of the achiness. My new friend then told me why he couldn't run. While serving in Viet Nam, he had to come home and an aluminum rod was placed through his spine to save his back. He rolled up his socks and showed me where shrapnel scarred his leg. The truth is, some wounds really are war wounds and some courage is bigger than other bits of courage. "...with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2 b