Random Thought

If I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus, I wouldn't write a song about it.

October

For Bono: 

Jerusha

So here's the deal Jerusha,

If you die by contracting the same disease that killed the person you nursed, then you love him. It does not matter then, if you just liked him, or if you liked-him-liked him.

Hey... I think it's cute.


Thank you for loving him.

"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

Gas

Sugar snap peas cause gas :-/

Random Advice

This should be done:
1. Visiting the house of the dead, so that it will make you thankful for life.
2. Visiting places that preach the prosperity gospel, so that you will be overwhelmed in love for the true one and those that preach it no matter how much you disagree with the methods and the peripheral theology
3. Attending boring lectures, so that you resolve never to give one.

They don't teach anything worth knowing

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”

- Neil Gaiman

See and Smile

Dear Mr. William Wilberforce,

I will try to not look the other way.

Joy - Page CXVI

http://pagecxvi.com/

Random Thought

Structure is like clothing in that if you go for a one-size-fits-all, it does end up covering you, but you don't look great. 

Oh my God

Sometimes I can not forgive and these days mercy cuts so deep,

If the world was how it should be, maybe I could get some sleep.

While I lay, I'd dream we're better, scales were gone and faces lighter,

When we wake we hate our brother, we still move to hurt each other,

Sometimes I can close my eyes and all the fear the keeps me silent,

Falls below my heavy breathing, what makes me so badly bent?

We all have a chance to murder, we all have the need for wonder.

We still want to be reminded that the pain is worth the plunder.

Sometimes when I lose my grip, I wonder what to make of heaven,

All the times I thought to reach up, all the times I had to give up.

Babies underneath their beds, in hospitals that cannot treat them.

All the wounds that money causes, all the comforts of cathedrals,

All the cries of thirsty children, this is our inheritance,

All the rage of watching mothers, this is our greatest offense

Oh my God, 

Oh my God, 

Oh my God.

- Jars of clay

Advice to Christians: Love - Francis Schaeffer

"As we turn to consider in more detail how we may speak to people of the twentieth century, we must realise first of all that we cannot apply mechanical rules. We, of all people, should realise this, for as Christians we believe that personality really does exist and is important. We can lay down some general principles, but there can be no automatic application. If we are truly personal, as created by God, then each individual will differ from everyone else. Therefore each person must be dealt with as anindividual, not as a case or statistic or machine. If we could work withthese people, we cannot apply things we have learnt..." "...mechanically. We must look to the Lord in prayer, and to the work of the Holy Spirit, for theeffective use of these things."

"Furthermore, we must remember that the person to whom we are talking, however far from the Christian faith he may be, is an image-bearer of God. He has great value, and our communication to him must be in genuine love. Love is not an easy thing; it is not just an emotional urge, but an attempt to move over and sit in the other person's place and see how his problems look to him. Love is a genuine concern for the individual. As Jesus Christ reminds us, we are to love that individual 'as ourselves'. This is the place to begin. Therefore, to be engaged in personal 'witness' as a duty or because our Christian circle exerts a social pressure on us, is to miss the whole point. The reason we do it is that the person before us is an image-bearer of God, and he is an individual who is unique in this world. This kind of communication is not cheap. To understand and speak to sincere but utterly confused twentieth-century people is costly. It is tiring; it will open you to temptations and pressures. Genuine love, in the last analysis, means a willingness to be entirely exposed to the person to whom we are talking."

- Francis Schaeffer, thanks to Stephen Williams 

Remember The Titans

Someday, when you get the time and if you haven't already, watch the movie.

Spoiler!

Jim and his ice-cream

So there was a kid. Let's call him Jim. Jim was unique, in that, he loved ice-cream…. like genuinely.  

One day he and his father were out on one of their evening walks, and they stumbled upon an ice cream vendor. Jim looked at his father expectantly. His father was wise. It wasn't too often that he would give Jim what he wanted, but today was Jim's day. 

Soon Jim had his big, round, black, sparkly eyes fixed on the ice-cream he was holding… but even before he took his first bite at it, he saw a kid - about his age, with tattered clothes, shrunken body and sunken eyes that made it obvious that he craved the ice-cream. He was not begging. 

Jim felt pain. A lot of it. He was a kid, remember? He knew too little to be able to rationalize his feelings away. And the pain not was just a result of an inherent ability to empathize with the kid. It was mixed with the pain of feeling compelled to have to part with his ice-cream - things he did not understand then and that one day, would be taught to him as 'right' in one of his value-education classes. 

While he was still staring at the kid, he heard a whisper right beside his ear. He could tell that it was his father's, not only because his father was the only person around him and he could see the profile of his face in his peripheral vision, but much more - because he knew his fathers voice. He had learnt to recognize it. His father often said things to him that seemed grave, profound and serious. He hadn't heard many fathers talk with kids his age that way. Many times he did not completely understand the things he said. This time he heard: 

"And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do."

Somehow, all that reminded Jim of how big his father really is. Jim made his decision. He gave his ice cream, then still missing it, he turned around, looked up to his father and gave him a weak smile. They weren't too far from the ice-cream vendor and Jim's father was very rich.  But he did not buy him another ice-cream. However, later that evening, Jim had so much fun with dad, that when he lay on the bed that night, tired with joy, he had forgotten everything about his ice cream. 

Random Thought

How pitiable our lives look if the resurrection from the dead is not true, might be a good measure of how well we live it.

Loves too little

He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.

                                                                                         - Augustine of Hippo

For a change...

You know that thing where you wake up every morning, go do your thing for the day and then sleep again?

Ok, so for a change, this morning I tried waking up in a different body... but failed :-/

Shayan

Some babies are special:

Sheetal and Shayan

They make
a special mom
a special dad
a very special great grand mom
special grandmas and grand-dadas
special aunties
special cousins
and a somewhat special uncle

Random Thought

Looking at history it seems that some have loved God too much for him to allow them to have a long life.

One Mind

"They must talk to each other directly, Ender, mind to mind. What one thinks, another can also think; what one remembers, another can also remember. Why would they ever develop language? Why would they ever learn to read and write? How would they know what reading and writing were if they saw them? Or signals? Or numbers? Or anything that we use to communicate? This isn't just a matter of translating from one language to another. They don't have a language at all. We use every means we could think of to communicate with them, but they don't even have the machinery to know we're signaling. And maybe they've been trying to think to us, and they can't understand why we don't respond."

Random Thought

Seminary training can sometimes indeed be useful. 

Random Thought

Tomorrow…  while you are having a perfectly normal day, going about your business, whether it is taking a walk... or shopping at the grocery store… some one might come to you… (it could be a stranger, an acquaintance, your friend or who knows???? may be even your spouse) and they might say, "I know how a transistor works!". DON'T BELIEVE THEM.

The Cosmic Paradox

It is better to give, than to receive

- Jesus Christ (Acts 20:35)

Runaway

This one is growing on me:



Thanks to Michael Odlyzko

Fail?!

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default

J. K. Rowling 

Resonance

Yep. This is exactly what our typical workday looks like:

10 Resolutions for Mental Health - Clyde Kilby

This post is pasted from here

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

 - Clyde Kilby

Screwtape Letter #1

My dear Wormwood,

The question you raised in your last letter - ‘Why do we spend so much time and resources continuing to attack the belief of the humans the Enemy certainly has snatched into his camp’ is, of course, valid, but has made me ask some more troubling questions to myself. Have I been a bad mentor? Are you really my nephew? Should I just quit? Nevertheless, I find some comfort in the success of some of my other pupils. While we have not been in correspondence for all these years, I expected you to increase and not decrease in your maturity. Besides, I cannot help but ask: What has kept you going on the field all these years? Your question, after all, attacks the very foundations of your work. Or have I found the answer to why we find your work so unproductive? Whatever it be, it might be time for us to take a serous action… may be call you back for a period of re-programming or relieve you of your duties entirely.

I will, however, answer your question in this letter with the hope that my efforts might push you to work the rest of your days, whether few or many, with a renewed vigor to bring honor to our Father below.

It seems to me from your question that you do indeed understand the doctrine of assured loss. By that doctrine, we understand that we will never be able to completely bring a human back to our side that we have lost to the Enemy. We know this not only because the Enemy has claimed that, but also because over all the years we have had no success in this matter (we have not yet given up, but those matters are better left to more capable tempters than you, and are irrelevant to answer your question). Your question is a naive response to that doctrine, and has been asked by thousands, but during far earlier stages in their training. To a novice who first understands that doctrine, it makes much sense that we focus all our resources  on the ones we know we have not yet lost, rather than spending those on the ones we will never win back.

So why don’t we do that?

I am not going to assume you remember much of what has already been taught to you. So.. When the Enemy created these humans, He did it with much care – these beings are unlike any other creatures we know. While He did make them finite, almost like any animal, He did, in that finiteness, add some of His infinite qualities that make them beyond our complete understanding. Infact, some of our kin, who refused to follow our Father sti!ll fall in worship of the Enemy confounded by this simple being. How self abasing and despicable! Anyways, one of the things we do understand is that, ironically He created them with an overpowering desire to be completed – and completed in Him.  Often we have found them express this with some words they use like ‘joy’, ‘happiness’, and ‘satisfaction’ (Don’t try to figure that one out. Being faithful servants of our Father, we have been well protected from such dangers). They are restless without Him.

There is more you should know. Along with a desire to be completed in Him, they have a desire to 'enjoy' Him with other beings - with almost any thing that has breath. 

Now, having been well deprived of this thing they call ‘joy’ that they were created for, for centuries starting from our biggest win against the Enemy through a plan well crafted out by our Father, (the continuous study of which will do you well), these humans have reached a pitiable state. Not only have a lot of them stopped thinking He exists, (Isn’t that hilarious?) they have started finding satisfaction in any toy we have to offer… and sometimes in things even we would never imagine to work for our benefit, as a substitute for Him. They have also become completely confused as to what they live for, and rightly so. But, while we gain the advantage of years, you must remember, even in their pitiable state, all the time and every time, whether knowing or unknowing, they are looking for Him. We can use that desire to our advantage, but we cannot kill it.

The crux of the matter: We would not have spend any resources on any thing after our first win had the Enemy not been so stubborn on wining some of them back to Himself. Long story short (I do not want to get into the details of the implications of our biggest loss 2000 years ago), He brings them back to Himself by faith. Yes, to the same relationship he created them for. They must only believe in Him. Sounds ridiculous, you know that, but pay attention - the more they believe in Him the more they know Him. The more they know Him the more they get transformed to beings they were meant to be (pretty much like the first man from the Garden). That makes them more joyful, more perfect, more incomprehensible, more beautiful, and far less susceptible to our schemes.

It gets worse. Once that happens, they cannot help but communicate Him to all others around them one way or another (and whether they use words for this or not is hardly the point). That is when it becomes problematic. We start loosing our grip over the minds of the ones we have blinded, who on seeing them start wanting what they have. And we all know that deep down, they want Him with that same overpowering desire that they were created with. Even the thought of it makes me shudder.  Against that, our most powerful efforts can fail.

I hope you now see that we have as many humans captured in our camp, not only because our direct efforts to keep them, but that complemented with our efforts to undermine the faith of those on the Enemies camp. So, my dear apprentice, keep at it. Every day... every hour... every second. Incessantly beat against your patients faith, whether you chip little pieces or huge chucks. Change strategies... try out new things, but keep his faith as low as possible. That is your goal and your calling. Your efforts are not in vain. 

In the meanwhile, I will see what can be done to bring you back…

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape. 

Random Thought

Insanity is relative

Random Thought

I can't love people because they are lovable. I can love them because God loved me when I was not close to being lovable. 

Amsterdam

One of their lesser known and more beautiful songs. Like it.

Joy can weep

The reason Joy can weep is because it longs to be extended.

- John Piper

Do you believe?

"All right," said Hermione, disconcerted. "Say the Cloak existed ... what about the stone, Mr. Lovegood? The thing you call the Resurrection Stone?"

"What of it ?"

"Well, how can that be real?"

"Prove that it is not," said Xenophilius.

Hermione looked outraged.

"But that's - I'm sorry, but that's completely ridiculous! How can I possibly prove it doen't exist? Do you expect me to get hold of - of all the pebbles in the world and test them? I mean, you could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!"

"Yes, you could," said Xenophilius.

Random Thought

The difficult thing about believing the message about the bible is that you try to get your mind around two infinities... juxtaposed beside each other... and if that is not enough, one infinity is greater than the other.

The infinity of your sin, the infinite power of God's grace, and the infinite power of God's grace to cover your sin.