What kind of a Christian are you? Are you sugary and sweet but without substance? Do you have lots of spiritual and moral fibre, but with a few rough edges? Or are you a porridge person? Lord, keep us from being too shallow and sweet and too rough around the edges. Keep us also from being like porridge--thick dull, and hard to stir. Make us like corn flakes--always prepared and ready to serve.
--Taken from an Actual Church Bulletin
Enough said.
As part of preparing to be baptized, and of thinking about religion and life in a deeper, sustained way, an opinion that I've had for a while has come to the surface.
I don't understand why a lot of people have a negative view of others who try to control what movies, music, and other media they consume. These people are "weak", or "wimpy".
I wonder why people think of it this way. Isn't it just the opposite? The easiest thing to do is to go with the flow, and just watch whatever people are watching. The harder thing is to keep in mind what you want to carry with you, and control what media you take in.
Just a thought.
If you are born in Canada, the USA, or another equally developed country, have won the genetic lottery and have no serious physical or mental ailments, and take good care of yourself, you are entitled to some 29,000 days of life when you are born. That figure may be slightly different for women, and, of course, your individual results will vary.
What are you going to do with all that time? Well, you'll likely spend about 9062.5 days of it sleeping, or trying to. You'll spend at least 1200 days of it watching television, if you're average (and I've taken the lower figures.) So, if you subtract thsoes two figures, you have 18,737.5 days. Now, if you're working for a living, working eight hour days five days a week from age 35 until early retirement will set you back 2600 days, and so we now have 16137.5.
Depending on your point of view, that's either quite a lot of time, or almost none at all. The point I'm trying to make here is that life is short. It's too short for regrets. Learn what you need to, make amends, and move on. It's too short to simply "be bored." Don't surf the internet endlessly, or lie there in moping. Do something. Go out for coffee with a firend, or if you have no friends, work at making some. Don't excercise just for the sake of it. Make it social, or, if you need your morning run, listen to an audiobook or a talk while you're doing it. Read and learn like crazy. Never stop doing that.
Pick up a hobby. Work at it like mad. Who knows, you may even end up making some money from it, and if you work really hard, you may even be able to make it your job! Never give up. Instead, ask yourself when you're in a good mood whether what you're doing is worth it to you, and, should you decide it is, then continue at it and perservere, even when you may later have to force yourself.
Writer Napolean Hill wrote a very famous book, entitled The Seventeen Keys to Success. To write the book, he interviewed hundreds of highly successful people in order to find out what makes someone successful. What he found was that successful people will do something even when they don't want to do it at that particular moment, because they know that it will pay off in the long run. For example, a musician probably does not like practicing every day. He does it anyways.
You can do whatever you want to do. But you may (indeed, you likely will) have to work very hard.
Hop to it. Life is ticking. As dramatic as it sounds, it's very true.
Note: Please don't assume I've got everything worked out in this respect. I'm writing this article for me as much as anyone else.
