Thank God for gossips!

When gossips are around, that is a very good chance to show what kind of person you are. Are you a naive person who just believe what you heard without thinking seriously? Are you a person who will be satisfied to make a conclusion just by hearing one-sided information? Are you a person who so easily gets emotionally involved by what you heard? Are you a person who just spreads what you hear to others without examining the information? Are you a person who just blames someone as an immediate reaction to certain information? Are you a person who lives according to integrity and value which is based on eternity? Are you a person who has clear goal and vision? Are you a person who lives every moment in consistency with his goal and vision?

Anyway, people will watch what you do, and they will make their conclusion about what kind of person you are. Of course, "people" includes those who will be there invisibly--those who are watching you--including your best audience--God! And based on that, they will decide how they will deal with you.

Anyway, whenever any gossip is spread, there is always some explicit or implicit intention behind it and someone who intends to spread it. Don't be fooled by that. Things become more ugly especially when religious fervor was involved. Someone is trying to use people's religious passion to accomplish his own agenda. They may be ready to use the name of God or any equivalent religious authority. They will of course surely have to pay for what they've done, but the point is that you don't need to be a victim of some intentional lies. You must take responsibility for your own action. Therefore, do not take gossips lightly. You should reflect and think seriously before responding to them. But, also, please remember: there must be more important things for you to focus on or do, so ask yourself, "Should I waste my time in dealing with this kind of gossips?" If not, then you just need to focus on what you must fulfill.

Thank God for conscience!

One day we all will face that everything will be exposed... that day, you will be asked, "Why did you do that action?" Then, if you say, "So-and-so told me to do so, that's why I did it." That will not work. You cannot blame someone for your choosing certain action. You should be able to tell clearly why you did it, what was your reason for that. That's a kind of trap you need to be aware of. Even, "God told me to do so." will not work, either. We all are responsible for all of our actions and thoughts. Therefore, each moment is so precious as well as so scary. You still can say, "Thank you God for my conscience!"

Thank God for the youth!

You may think you are still young, and you have a pretty much free time to enjoy, I say to you that you are wrong! Time slips away so fast, and soon you will soon find yourself in your 50s and 60s.

Now, what I'm trying to say is that please don't say later the phrase that starts with "I regret..." You will be surprised, how many "should've"s and "could've"s you would be saying. But of course there is a way to avoid it. Live every moment as if it is the last moment of your life. Invest yourself totally in each moment, with no regret. As long as you find yourself happy at this moment, you can hope that you will be happy in coming future.

Nobody can live your life. You are the only person who can make your life happy or make it miserable. Good future depends on this moment--right now!

Thank God for confusion!

We usually don't like confusion, but why? When we are confused, usually we are challenged--our ability to clarify things is challenged. This means that the confusion provides us one of the greatest chances to access to the most valuable in our life.

I don't know what is correct; what is right; who to trust; etc. --then I realize that my life has been based on so many assumptions, and I really didn't use so much of my own ability to discern things. (in a way, I have been giving that part to other people, or, I did not really take responsibility/ownership over my own thinking, or my own decision, etc.) In other words, I didn't give a chance to my own ability to take full control over my life. Or, I always had someone to take care of my life, or I always had someone to blame. Of course nothing is wrong because it is a very natural process as we grow step by step starting from being a baby.

But the day must come when we start living our own life. You could say, of course, you are not living centered on yourself, but you are living only relying on "the Divine" through your conscience, and not someone else. Therefore, confusion is the most important chance for us to make one step toward that direction.

What if you don't have any confusion? Then you may keep living your life assuming everything is OK. But in fact it's not unless you are "perfect".

Anyway, my point is that we need to always find a positive aspect of anything. I believe that's how "God" would want to look at things. And when we find that perspective, we always can thank God for that.

Thank God for discomfort zones!

Sometimes you feel God is asking you to move out of your comfort zone. Then you determine to move out of your comfort zone. Now, out of your comfort zone, you face many challenges, one after another... then, you feel, "I would never want to do these things. The only reason I am doing this is because God told me to do this. I would never do these things if it were not for God..." With a disgusting frustration you would say it. Then, wait a minute... Let's think...

Why does God want you to go out of your comfort zone? Of course it is not because he wants to enjoy seeing you suffer. The only one reason he wants you to go out of your comfort zone is for your eternal happiness. He knows as long as you have many "discomfort zones", your life will not be a happy one. Therefore, He really wants to help you eliminate those zones so that your eternal life can be a happy one. When He is asking you with such motivation of love, why would you follow Him with such unhappy frustration? Better think about it.

Just say, thank you, God, for giving me another chance, and then try to clear your mind about what exactly is happening to you. You are the hero of the drama and your audience is---God!

I need something that makes more sense

I try not to think that people are stupid. Even if someone seems to be the case according to my view, I still believe that I do have a lot of limitation in understanding the truth 100%. There must be something--some reason, some kind of situation--that I cannot see. Therefore, instead of making a quick judgment about that person, I try to find a view that would make more sense to my conscience. I don't know if it's a good attitude or not, but if I have to admit that certain people are not wise, that really would discourage me... there must be some reason, or situation which I cannot see. Sometimes people cannot express certain things for many complicated reasons, and have to express something different in an attempt to defend/protect someone, which you would never imagine.

In a way, I am challenged to change the paradigm in my value system, or, how I look at things and people. I believe that I really need a real prayer in this kind of situation.

True Love never has a happy ending

...because True Love never ends (that's what I heard)

Why war/fight doesn't end

There is always a cause for a result. If you ignore this, you will get in trouble.

Why people fight, one reason is that they ignore this simple principle. If you see someone doing something against you which is not good (or very bad) according to your value system, you would say, "Why does he do this to me?"

This question, in fact, is so important. "Why does he do this to me?" = "What is the cause of his action?" However, you would react to his action without studying and seeking to find the answer to this question. Assuming that the other party does the same, this fight has no end. Sometimes it seems it ends, but no, no complete end and it will come up anytime anywhere because it's not a complete end.

Why not try to find the answer to the question, "What is the cause of his action?" And determine to take responsibility in dealing with this "cause", or, completely erase it. It's not easy, but it's worth it, or maybe it's the only hopeful way to reach the complete solution. It might take a lot of patience, self-control, reflection, thinking and a profound strategy. We cannot expect everybody to do this, but somebody has to do it if you want an end.

King met Jesus

… The phone rang out in the midnight silence, and when King lifted the receiver, a drawl released a torrent of obscene words and then the death threat: “Listen, nigger, we’ve taken all we want from you; before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery.”… “I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. I had heard these things before, but for some reason that night it got to me. Stirred into wakefulness, King made a pot of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. “I felt myself faltering,” he said. It was as though the violent undercurrents of the protest rushed in upon him with heightened force, and he surveyed the turbulent waters for a way of escape, searching for an exit point between courage and convenience—“a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward”—and he found none. “I was ready to give up,” he said.

King thought of baby Yoki sleeping in her crib, of her “little gentle smile,” and of Coretta, who had sacrificed her music career, according to the milieu of the Baptist pastor’s wife, to follow her husband south. For the first time, he grasped the seriousness of his situation and with it the inescapable fact that his family could be taken away from him any minute, or more likely he from them… Sitting at his kitchen table sipping the coffee … “Something said to me. ‘You can’t call on Daddy now, you can’t call on Mama. You’ve got to call on that something in that person that your daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.’” With his head now buried in his hands, King bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. He said:

Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I still think I’m right. I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now, I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. And I can’t let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.

As he prayed alone in the silent kitchen, King heard a voice saying, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world.” Then King heard the voice of Jesus. “I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.” And as the voice washed over the stains of the wretched caller, King reached a spiritual shore beyond fear and apprehension. “I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before,” he said. “Almost at once my fears began to go,” King said of the midnight flash of illumination and resolve. “My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”
(Autobiography, etc.)

Thank God for religion -- (7)

I believe many people may share the sentiment that somehow religious people must step up today for the sake of bringing peace to our world. Religion has amazing power and influence on the people. Therefore, if religious people somehow find a way to use that resource in a right way, we still have a hope to bring world peace. Otherwise, world peace doesn't seem to be very possible.

I believe the time has come that religious people need to learn to throw away the insistence on the idea that "my group is the best and other group cannot be the best" More important than the group is myself. It shouldn't be something like the group tells you what to do, but rather your conscience guides you to naturally follow the Universal law. Then, when such people come together, more naturally we are getting closer to our hope.

I think some genuine religious people will find some other genuine religious people who share the same concern and try to find God's work in each other, and start working step by step. I believe this kind of time has come.

Thank God for the most difficult challenge!

If anything seems to be the most difficult challenge, then it could be the most precious opportunity which God is presenting to you. In other words, this thing needs to be changed, and somehow you find yourself in the position that you have a chance to make a choice--choose to get involved and make some positive change into the challenging situation--whatever it is.

In a way, God is calling you for your participation--even though he knows very well how much you are not "qualified" or how many mistakes you may have done in the past, and how much you already have given him sorrow. He still absolutely loves you, trusts you (your good nature), and give you another chance, while he is ready to get hurt again by your "mistakes/failures".

Of course, you still do have another choice, too: blame someone and justify your not doing anything; think this is someone's job, not yours; lose hope and say, I don't care...; lose "faith"; doubt someone; wait for someone to tell you what to do; just deceive yourself; etc. But, as you know, of course, you would surely lose this chance.

And he is here, watching you as an attentive audience; and you are--the hero of the drama.