Life is a waiting room

Christmas was yesterday. The people, the carols, the presents, the stories all yesterday. All the build up was for yesterday. Isn't it interesting if you put it that way. We build up so much excitement for something that passes in one day! Liken it to a toy. you save up your money to buy a present you wanted so much and it lasts for one day and then is thrown out. All I can think of is "What a waste!"

I understand that Christmas is not just about the day itself, Jesus' birth is one of the best things to celebrate! My real point is that our lives often seem to be just like waiting rooms. Like the ones in airports. We spend our lives waiting for what we desire.

So back to the Christmas theme, when did you first notice that Christmas was the next big event on the calendar? When the shops switched their background music to Christmas carols? When cars try to mimic Rudolph with their red noses? Maybe when all your presents from last year were used up? For me it was the holidays. Summer (I live in the southern hemisphere) holidays started, and I noticed Christmas was coming soon. From then on my spare time was spent waiting for it. Imagining how the day would pan out.

Throughout the year there are many things we wait for. Weekends, payday, a delivery to arrive, a wedding, a birthday, a test result, a friend to come back. So I think my metaphor gives quite an accurate description of life. In the waiting room, we do have thing to keep us occupied like the magazines, but we are still essentially waiting for something in life.

It needs to be understood however, that this is in no means a negative look at life. Looking at the above list, most of the things we wait for and great! It is when we wait for the wrong things that our lives go to waste. Waiting for your wallet to be filled with $100 notes is not worth the precious waiting time. But waiting for a baby boy to grow into a fine young man is definitely worth spending your waiting time on.

So this Christmas. What are you waiting for? Is it worth it? Everyone only has so many minutes to wait, so make sure you use the wisely.

My mind games

I get bored. You must get bored too. But I get bored quicker, well that's my interpretation anyway. Everyone else seems to find something to do and look like they are interested where as for me, my glazed eye look comes as soon as my mouth or hands stop doing something. So I resort to mind games. They do not increase brain capacity at all. No they are games. Exactly that. Pointless things to waste away the minutes.

1. My favourite is to imagine the area around me 1000 years ago.

Humans have really changed the surrounding landscape. Even green things, like ovals, were probably covered in trees instead of just being a clearing. I could say something meaningful about this, but nature is so overcoming over my senses that it blots out all my other thoughts.

2. Guess other people's thoughts.

Maybe creepy, but as I said, they are mind games, so I'm not going to blurt anything out. Usually I give people very depressive thoughts, and then I think, "Hey I'm not depressed? Why would they be?", so they become happier beings. But I usually think my depressive guesses are more accurate. It's just percentage wise. I think...

3. Finally, I trace my thought process.

So if I were to trace my thought process to this point it would be from:

Mind games --> Stuff I do while I'm bored --> When am I bored? --> When I walk home --> I trace my thoughts...

So I try to go back as far as possible. I remember once I traced my thoughts back to hearing a bee, and that had slowly worked into me thinking about funniest commercials. Whoever can try and guess how that came about, I may award something. Or just respect more...

So when your bored, (Probably after reading this post) try one of them. I assure you, boring times will be no more. And while I'm at it, Merry Christmas. I hope you won't need my tips anytime soon during this season...

History through glasses

I have just completed reading through the Psalms, and as is inevitable, I have struck upon a favourite. Psalm 136. It is a song of praise, interestingly recounting most of the events of Israelites history. What I most like about it though is the fact that after each line comes the phrase "His [God's] love endures forever."

I should confess now that I love to study history. The events, the effects of that event, the people involved, the reasons involved, the legacies of that event. History is an endless flowchart, infinitely complicated, but still all connected by lines all heading the same direction. What I like most about history though, is that a tiny action can start a snowballing effect which leads to massive changes. A good example would be the Arab revolutions. The small group of protesters meeting in Tunisia would never had imagined such a big consequence from their actions!

History can also be very sad too. The wars with horrific stories of merciless killings, the news of devastating earthquakes and other natural disasters, the terror of continued oppression by the government. When we learn about such things we can often question God. "How can God let such things happen?" I think part of the answer is repeated throughout my favourite Psalm. As I mentioned before, every second line of the Psalm is "His [God's] love endures forever".

The title of this post is History through glasses because I often think we can look at every event in all sorts of different ways. We put on our critical glasses and start seeing all the flaws in people's plans, or wear our ethical glasses and get angry at all the wrongs being committed. Well, I think we should try and see History through the glasses of God's eternal love.

So, if we look at the events of World War 2 understanding God's eternal love, we see that, yes our world is broken. Yes, people do die unnecessary deaths. But we know that God's love never dies, so we know he will come to make a new heaven and earth with no more pain, no more wars, no more suffering. It gives us the strength to cope all the bad things in this life, knowing that we have something to look forward to.

History is the story of this world. But this world is not the end. So by God's love being eternal, we know that it will last forever, even when this world does fade away, he will still be there.