Wide Awake

Since sleep is not coming tonight, I’m up and at it again.  You’d think I’d be tired.  Let’s see . . . 4 hours of sleep Wednesday night; 8 last night….  I guess I’m due for a shorter night again.  I just finished off the last of some chocolate chip cookie dough; Duke Ellington is throwing out some smooth jazz; and I’m in a pondering and weird mood.  First of all, I thought this cartoon was great and TOTALLY me:

Millie, my soul sister!  I play analytical tag all the time. That is something I can completely get my brain around.  How do I know that I relate to this cartoon?  Because I think her question regarding the intention of "it" is totally valid and amazingly intuitive.  I can’t believe I never asked it before during my many games of tag. 🙂  If you can’t play physical tag, there is always mental tag.  I have a couple of friends that are pretty good at mental tag and enjoy it as much as I do.  Almost like two grand wizards going at it. 🙂  Now, that is quite fun indeed.

But some of you may relate more to this strip in regards to what I share on this blog:

I am a high-risk investment.  Sorry – you can’t get any refunds and no amount of therapy will erase what you’ve read here from your minds.  So, if you find my comments and musings irreversibly screwy or damaging to your psyche, you must mind the strength within you to never return to this site.  For I shall continue to post whatever fascinating discoveries I come across from the analytical moments I have at unimportant times – like 2 am and I cannot be held responsible for where I mentally go.  The odds are great that it will definitely be a road less traveled.

Okay – some musings from my readings today in Chapters 1 and 2 of Paul’s first (as far as we know) letter to the church at Corinth.  I really liked 1:10b in the message which states "You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common."   Christians in general seem to spend a great deal of time cultivating a life of difference, rather than a life in common.  What would happen if we spent more time cultivating common ground with one another as opposed to marking ourselves off with fences and barriers and posting "No trespassing" signs?  I’ve always loved the saying, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in everything, love." by Augustine.  If we would remember and live this way, the kingdom of God would be revealed in ways that would astound us and that would declare the glory of God without any hindrances.  So . . . why don’t we live this way?

One of my favorite verses is 1 Cor. 1:25: "Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God.  Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s ‘weakness’."  Actually most of the first chapter is such a great reminder of how we are truly nothing without God.  "Everything that we have – right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start – comes from God by way of Jesus Christ." 1:30.   There is a balance of understanding this amazing grace that God is only capable of extending to us to the level that God does and not living a life under self-condemnation.  To continually beat up on one’s self because of the failures of our life and the many ways we fall short is evidence that we 1) don’t understand grace and 2) having understood in a general capacity what grace is, we have not truly accepted it.  For accepting grace allows us to still live with a sense of purity, holiness and liberation while at the same time fully understanding that we are flawed, weak and completely human.  A fine line of knowing that I am both broken and whole.  One of the many juxtapositions of faith.

It is wonderful to hear the rain beat down outside and on the roof.  There is something very soothing and very comforting about the sound of rain.  In fact, it is very soothing … so soothing that I believe I should wrap this up and retire to bed with peaceful sleep just a moment away.

In the spirit of and wishing for you – Peace -once more – Melissa