Wasting our breath

'Two young fish were swimming along, chatting about life when they bumped into a older fish. He said to them "The water is so nice today, isn't it?". The two young fish were shocked, and replied, "What the hell is water!".'

So many people today either don't know, or don't want to know, what they are swimming in. Living life on the surface. Imagine what those young fish were talking about at first. "The weather is nice", or "I need to get that new fashion item!".

So often we just skim across the surface of anything that we don't want to know. We just don't care! Instead, we put all our effort in figuring out things that are really pointless in the end. Like our faces. We learn to beautify our faces in any way possible, spending large amounts of money, but in the end, it gets washed away, and you become who you were anyway.

Why are wasting our breath, money, our whole life, on things that won't matter anyway? Why don't we start doing something that does have worth, that will make a difference? Just small things like, spending time with God instead of watching some TV, or donating money to charity instead of buying a coffee.

Don't waste your life just swimming on the surface. Go deeper. Use your breath for something useful.

When in doubt, believe

Everyone has doubts. Everyone has that nagging feeling that what they put their trust in might fail. Everyone has their vulnerable moments, where the supposably solid foundations they were standing on becomes sand.

Doubts are always pulling me down. Slowing me in growing closer to God, and playing with my mind. Fighting them off takes a lot of strength as I try and find the right answer. Sometimes my doubts are useful, to make me think twice. Like when I was thinking of buying another guitar. My doubts said "Do I really need one? Will I ever use it?", and in the end stopped me from making a rash decision.

When it is your core beliefs, doubts become a bit more complicated. Because, what you believe deep inside you will affect how you think about everything. So how you do survive when you are struggling in doubt? Believe.

Believe that you are in God's hands, believe that he will take care of you even in this patch of darkness, and believe God's love that smothers any doubts you might have. Remember the times you were joyful, the times you looked at God as your solid rock, and remember that as a rock, the foundation of God will never turn into sand.

Believing even in doubt might be a paradox, but it is a sure way of getting through those doubting phases. Hope for the day that you can look back at those patches and say "How stupid I was to doubt God back then".

Drifting in thoughtlessness

I was sick the past few days. A sickness that is very hard to diagnose, and to cure. The sickness was thoughtlessness. Drifting in the world, slowly making its ideas sink into your mind, letting the world take control. A very dangerous sickness, leading to nothing but nothing, and taking you away from what was meant for you.

It started with just a few incidences of neglect on things that I should have been thinking about. Like a snowball rolling down the hill gathering snow, those incidences quickly grew in number until I was always thinking about nothing of importance, and instead filling my mind with anything and everything of the world.

I got jolted out of my slide of thoughtlessness with this verse. "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved" Hebrews 10:39. If I just let myself drift along with the river of worldly thoughts, I am heading for the dangerous waterfall. Even if we do nothing, we are still drifting towards the danger. We need to keep fighting the current.

As always though, God seems to know better than us. He knows that we are creatures that can think, to be able to determine right and wrong. He knows that worldly things have no real value anyway. Why would we want to sacrifice our thoughts on something worthless?

Thinking can get tired after some time, but the alternative, just drifting in thoughtlessness is much worse.

Quick post, quick thinking

A small thought that leads to an action is better than a big thought that leads to nothing.

I just want to challenge and encourage you to think of easy, quick ways you can serve, encourage, makes someone's day. You never know, that might be exactly what they needed.

From me to you, I hope you have a nice week, and that by reading this short burst of thought you have had a chance to reflect on your life. 

treebytheriver

Compared to what?

I love comparing myself to others. I have a better computer, house, bike, (insert something here), than you! Saying these things to my friends or enemies gives me a boost in self-esteem. I have something you don't have, I can do something you can't. Only later do I realise that it is only a fake boost, my mind is deceived into thinking I am a better person than them.

Usually however, when I compare myself with others I get more bad results than good ones. They can play guitar, sing, blog, write, design, much better than me. Down goes my self esteem, down goes my attitude. To me, it seems like I am mediocre at lots of things, and have nothing that I am really good at. Unlike others, who are very good at everything!

When I compare myself with others, I usually start worrying. Why am I not good at anything? Why am I so impressed with things that aren't even good compared to others? Spiraling down the worried road, soon finds me at the bottom. Not wanting to do anything, knowing that someone will be better at it anyway. Not a good place to be...

Despite of all this moaning, there is a solution. It is in the title of this post, which is "Compared to what?". You might feel bad compared to others, but in God's eyes you are precious. That just throws your peers' opinion out the window! God, the creator of the universe, the most powerful being, the king of everything, thinks you are precious.

Remember that, and no matter how bad you might feel, how unskilled you might think you are, you can still be joyful, relishing in the fact that their opinion means nothing, compared to that of God's.