The greatest gifts, and the deepest truths of God are given and revealed only to those who trust in Him. Seems obvious on the surface, but wait until you receive one! Only then will you understand the greatness of the blessing, or the deepness of the truth. My experience has been that it's one thing to seek the blessing, and there is an element of nobility in the seeking.
What is love?
The poets have never stopped contemplating it. Song writers write, singers sing, actors act… they write about love, they sing about love, they portray love as best they can. But mankind still cannot understand its depths.
Philosophers habitually avoid the subject, preferring topics such as good versus evil, morality, existentialism, and politics. They methodically dissect society and man, cutting both into bite-sized pieces for analysis, then reconstructing them in an attempt to achieve some level of cohesiveness in their design or description.
What's Wrong With Me?
There I was. Standing at the reception desk at the doctor's office, I was locked up. Stumped. I couldn't answer her simple question.
It was never a question, for myself, whether I would one day
be what, and whom, I wanted to be.
The fact had always stood,
with opportunities in abundance.
But there that day the questions seemed to proliferate.
What next to do that I hadn't already tried?
—or that wasn't so similar as to quench
any hope of satisfaction in my quest.
And, "Quest for exactly what?" I could no longer answer.
Had I ever known? Or was I now just tired of the empty humor.
With no one else in the room to fill the silence
Life and Death:
Essentially different;
Opposites;
Mutually exclusive, yet
Inseparable.
You can't have life without death, for all must die.
You can't have death without life, for,
Death of whom but he who had lived?
so…
Is life just the path to death?
—a means to an end;
—ceaseless striving that leads us to the peace of the grave?
Shall we not then welcome death as
the only solution to life's dilemmas?
Thus the mind may reason, but my spirit says, "No!"
"What is truth?" said Pilate, as he turned his back on Jesus. Of course he meant it to be a sarcastic hypothetical question. I believe he had no idea of its prophetic implications.
I was enjoying life and all it has to offer; sort of.
Opportunities in abundance, good times indeed; mostly.
Looking to the future, eager to grow; usually.
Worried, though, about missing something important;
Always.
What was this thing that held me back?
Why could I not fully enjoy what my friends enjoyed?
What was this piece of seriousness that muted the humor?
What is this sobriety that looms over simple frivolity,
threatening, dominating, overpowering, overcoming?
Then Jesus glanced my way.
There is a common trait amongst Christians. They are dissatisfied. They are dissatisfied with what this world has to offer.
Everyone seeks satisfaction. This is a human trait. In fact, I would assert that this is primary among the things that differentiate man from the animals. Other differentiators have been proposed, such as
When I consider that my present pain
seems to be a culmination,
having risen gradually to its current din
I cannot help but wonder...
At how many points along the way
might help have come,
or had it even arrived already,
and I failed to avail myself of it.
For God's grace surely has gone before me.
I have experienced His love.
He has solved countless dilemmas on my behalf,
for which I have thanked Him, and enjoyed His sweet fellowship.
We Christians know that God loves us. So much so, that ninety percent of us take God's love for granted. Face it, Christian, you take God's love for granted. You've heard so many times that God loves you, no matter what you do, that His love for you is firmly stuck into your consciousness. You take it for granted, because it is. It is granted. It is a gift, and you don't deserve it. You recognize that fact, but does your attitude reflect it?