Shadows In The Rain « TheNorEaster
So I just got done reading this post and it took my breath away and gave me hope like you wouldn’t believe, finally I find that there are people who are able to see beyond appearances to God’s Grace that has the potential to exist in all of us. My views on this started…oh I don’t know, probably around the beginning of college a few years ago when I declared myself to be…………Goth. And Christian. And I started surfing around on the web looking up exactly that, Christian Goths and found some breathtaking and beautiful ideas and people and I began to realize an interesting thing.
As the visual people we tend to be we have the penchant then to judge people based on how they look or act. We never give them the chance to show us who they really are. We see and we write them off, either as hopeless and lost or as worthy of our time. Either way they get written off. We put them in boxes and in so doing put ourselves and our God in a box. It really started to eat at me, especially as I donned black clothes and corsets and people looked at me differently. I started to think about what they would do if they found out that this little Goth was also a Christian. Well, that’s fairly easy, most of them would probably think I wasn’t serious about it, that it was just something I grew up doing so that’s what I called myself; Christian. I may not always dress in black, but I still consider myself to be Goth. And Christian. And anymore I’m tickled pink (or rather black :D ) by the thought of how scandalized some people would be to learn that I was either and both of those things.
Anyway as I began to realize these tendecies of others (and myself) it led me down an interesting thought path. One day as I was wrestling with the oft asked, never satisfactorially answered question of why bad things happen to us, I came to a startling thought (I won’t say conclusion, because this question will never have a conclusion ’till we are dead) - we only ever get a one-inch view of the world. We don’t get to see the BIG picture. We don’t get to see how ever single action of every person ever acted in the past, present or future are weaved together to create a picture so amazing that if we were given just a glimpse of it while we were still alive we’d go blind.
I don’t like it when people say “everything happens for a reason,” I think it’s a trite and ‘canned’ answer and despite what the speaker may intend does not, in fact, give anyone hope. So, although what I’m saying sounds remarkably like that it is far from it. Shit happens. And it sucks and it hurts and it doesn’t make sense. It may never make sense (until we are dead). I guess what I’m saying is…Don’t judge people because of how they look or act or whatever because you don’t know them and you don’t know what beauty they are contributing to The Picture or, by judging them, what (…) you are contributing.
So yeah, I hope you don’t mind me linking to you NorEaster. And to anyone else……keep being you.
Well I got what I asked for
April 27, 2008
Several months ago I told God I was tired of feeling like I was crying all the time. Well I got what I asked for, I’m not crying anymore. That’s a good thing right? Well, maybe. Now my immediate reaction to things that upset me is anger. *looks chagrined* Maybe not the best thing ever, but before you go thinking this is a bad change, it’s not really. You see instead of sitting back and bemoaning and crying about my situation in life, I get mad and do something about it. So really a good change.
This kind of thing has happened to me before you know, asking God for something and expecting one thing but getting something completely different.
For example about a year ago I was living in Colorado and my parents had just moved to SD when me, my bro and my grandmother were all invited out to visit the parentals. Well, much to my bro’s frustration, the route we took was one my grandmother had mapped out. It took us through Nebraska’s deadest two-lane roads EVER! It was boring, the roads were as straight as…something and there was nothing interesting to look at. Well after about, oh I don’t know, fifteen miles of me complaining (to my grandmother and to God) about how boring this drive was (I was driving my car by the way) it started to rain. I was pretty happy, something new was happening, man I had no idea. My bro was in his truck following us when we came up to the sharpest turn that existed on that whole road and wouldn’t you know it, it was of course one of those turns that you have to slow down to 25 mph to take. Well, Surprise! My car wouldn’t slow down! I had my brake pedal pressed all the way down to the floor and it felt like I was driving through mud. I managed to get the car slowed down enough to get around the turn safely and honestly I panicked when I saw the turn and simply told God “Okay your turn to take the wheel.” Anyway we made it around the turn but the car still had to be stopped. It took me pressing all the way down on the brake pedal, putting the parking brake on and shifting the car into neutral to get it stopped. *cringes* It was not pretty. My grandmother’s response? “Well you said you were bored!” LOL.
Another example of this took place fairly recently, like 9 months ago. I had known for a few years that my spending habits were really bad, like there was a permanent hole in my pocket, money just couldn’t get a grip. Well I’d been trying to discipline myself for a long time when I finally asked God to help me learn how to save money. His solution? I was out of a job from August ‘07 to February ‘08. Yeah, trust me now I hold very, very tightly to my money. :)
One more example before I’m done for now. And this one is a bit more serious. I have this really good friend that I’d managed to hold on to for about six years (a big achievment for me) and even though we’d had a few discussions about God and life I’ve never felt like she really understood what I was saying. Well about a year ago I decided to move to SD with her and I felt good about it. I distinctly remember the night before I left feeling God telling me I was ready. Well I misinterpreted Him, as I’m wont to do and figured this meant that I’d finally be able to reach her about faith and life and etc, etc. So I moved up here and things quickly went sour between her and I. We had several fights over the summer and decided not to live together though we agreed to be next door neighbors, shortly afterwards I found out she was engaged to a recent ex. So we moved in next door to each other and I found myself alone and ignored. First I got upset and cried for several months feeling very used and like the only reason I was there was for her to unload all of her problems. Well after 5 months of crying I got mad. And I stood up to her. That was about two months ago and things have pretty much ended between us. Well last night I was thinking about that feeling I got from God and after thinking about it for a long time I realized He was right! I was ready, just not in the way I thought. I realized (95% certain) that this move wasn’t for her benefit (though it may benefit her, I’ll likely never know as C.S. Lewis’s Aslan said once “…It isn’t your story.”) it was for mine. I was ready to learn some fairly big life lessons and to grow. This move, even though I may wish I’d not done it, was exactly what I needed. And I don’t regret it.
I can wish that I’d stayed in CO but I know that this move was the right thing. It’s like Frost’s poem about the two roads (it’s not about nonconformity by the way but how our choices affect our lives), I took a different path than the one I’d thought I’d be on “…and it has made all the difference.”
So there you have, the moral of these four little stories is…Be careful what you ask for because you may get it though God’s solution likely won’t look at all like your solution.
:) He’s awesome like that! Lol.
