In Pursuit of Purpose

"The world has become an incubator of stress, depression, hopelessness, and fear. It seems that the kingdoms and the governmentsof this world are bankrupt. They no longer offer innovative soluions for these ever-increasing problems. Industrialized nations are as fragile as Third World nations. The tremendous changes in national and international situations, and the economic, political, social and cultural transitions that have accompanied these changes, now prsent a totally different golbal equation.

There is also a generation in every nation that seems to have lost its sense of purpose. They are out of touch with the values, morals, and convictions that build strong families, secure communities, healthy societies and prosperous nations. Thus, the moral fabric of most societies is being stretched and tested to its outer limits. ..

History shows that the value of life decreases and the quality of existence diminishes when a generation loses its sense of destiny and purpose. A quick glance at our current world exposes a sad picture that demands our attention. We preserve nature, for example, but kill babies. We build solid houses but cannot construct lasting homes. We are smarter but not wiser, bigger but not stronger. We know more but understand less, and we live longer but enjoy life less fully. We write more books but fail to take the time to read them. We go faster but get nowhere, conquer space but cannot conquer our habits, protect whales but abuse our children, go to the moon but wander far from home, and flirt with fantasy to avoid reality.

The United States of America, the greatest nation in recent history, has come to a crossroads because of lack of national purpose."

-Myles Munroe

Panic Sets In

Why do we live in the city of those most churches and have the smallest faith? Nashvillians seem to panic about everything. When it calls for snow we strip the grocery store shelves, stocking up on bread and water and all such necessities. We close our schools when the first flake hits the ground. At the threat of a tornado we haul everything out of closets and crawl in them ourselves. Of course I believe in taking precautions and I don't dare act in the presumption that "it will never happen to me" but half the time we cause our own problems as the simple result of our panic. For example, this gas crisis that would not be a crisis had we not acted in such haste.

www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/19/nashville.gas/index.html?iref+24hours

To Be As We Are

"We have a large class of poor creatures, who, while not discontent with others, are discontent with themselves. They are not what they like to be, and they are not what they wish to be, and they don't feel as they should feel, and they don't think as they would like to think. They are always plunging their finger into their own eyes, because they cannot see as well as they wish, always ripping up the wounds they have, making themselves miserable in order that they may be happy, and at last, crying themselves into an inconsolable state of misery, they acquire a habit of mourning, until that mourning seems to be the only bliss they know". 

~Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I Need A Library

It's official. I have more books than space to put them. It's against my good conscience and convictions to purge my collection. I was insulted even by Jayme's suggestion to box some of the ones I haven't read in a while or don't plan on reading any time soon. Can't do it. Next house we own...it's a requirement. Library.

If We Don't, Who Will?

It is past time for us to re-learn what it is to think for ourselves and to dust off our discernment and put it to use. This applies to so many circumstances in life but the one I will rant about in this blog is health-care. 

I was thinking the other day-what generation has been the healthiest? When there was little or no medical intervention, we suffered. We died sometimes in our 20's. Now when there seems, (in my opinion) to be too much medical intervention, we suffer. I look at our parent's and grandparent's generations. I think they had the balance. Life was still about hard-work and family. People spent time preparing meals, there were no microwaves, no pre-made meals, no mass-market produce with quality and purity sacrificed for preservatives and longer shelf-life a.k.a $$$. 

When medical intervention was needed, it was more than a quick scribble on an Rx note. It was in-home healthcare that treated problems as they arose. It was an intimate assessment of one's life to find the actual cause behind the symptoms. It was a belief that the body was divinely created to fight off infections with the proper support. It was a time when nutrition was studied and considered to be a leading cause of health defects. Nutrition is currently 20% or less of a medical student's workload. 

Not to say that many things that have been discovered since are all bad...by no means. But we have gone to an extreme in a very short amount of time. Why didn't leave well enough alone? No one will make your health decisions for you. It is left up to us to do our research, to study ingredients, to use our brains. Should we be able to trust that anything we purchase from the grocery store would of course cause us no harm? Certainly, we should...but we can't. 

I am, in a strange way, encouraged by these new commercials promoting High Fructose Corn Syrup. You know the ones where they paint the picture of the person oh so coyly ridiculing their friends for eating/drinking products with High Fructose Corn Syrup and then making them look like the fool who has no information to back up their argument. Yes, those. I am encouraged only in the fact that to feel the necessity to create these commercials, then we must be waking up to the potential hazards and be thinking for ourselves. Thank God! 

I will only dabble on the subject of Autism. All I am saying is that we must look for the reasons, the cause. Why in the last 10-20 years have we seen an absolutely astounding rise in a disease that before then, scarcely anyone had even heard of??? Could it be nutrition, could it be immunizations, could it be electromagnetic frequencies caused by cell phones, microwaves, etc.? Yes. It could be any. It could be all. We just have to ponder, have to ask, have to search. Have to pray. And possibly, have to make alterations to our lifestyles. 

Thank God for Coffee

This morning I breathed a quick and sincere prayer of thankfulness for coffee. For a small thing that helps make a bad day a little bit better. I'll also take this moment to promote Cafe Campesino where we buy ours. Fair Trade. Support it. www.cafecampesino.com 

Too Much To Handle

My shoulders ache, my neck is tight, my whole body feels stiff when I roll out of bed these mornings. Isn't it amazing that our body reacts as if it were literally carrying a heavy load when in fact the load is not physical at all. Anything but. It is emotional, mental, spiritual, but not physical. I think it is a more than perfect example of how the things that we wage war against are not flesh and blood but spirit. A spiritual battle with very natural repercussions.

I was reminded today of the fact that God draws near to us when we draw near to Him. A meeting in the middle if you will.

I remind myself that we are promised not to be given more than we can bear. Possibly because we are not meant to shoulder any of the burden. I am learning how to cast my burdens, and I think my shoulders will thank me for it. My chiropractor will miss me though.

A First

There is something very freeing to know that I am writing to and for nobody at this particular moment yet it still has a much more vulnerable feel than if I were confiding in my journal alone. Chances are small that anyone but myself will ever pore over those pages. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to start a blog, and I'm not certain that I'll keep it up but it's worth a go. 

It is late. Past time to write with any sort of alertness and I stumble over my sloppy typing which, thankfully for the backspace, you will not have to endure. Let's just say it is taking me a lot longer than you'd think to type out these two paragraphs. 

I don't have any great hopes or expectations for this page beyond the enjoyment of the layout of my thoughts with a computer doing most of the laying-out. I am not antagonistic, manipulative, or argumentative so please do not receive my thoughts as invitation to a great debate. That is not my intent. 

If you find yourself here, well here I am. A piece of me anyhow. It's good to know you.

~Genevieve