WHY?

I don't know about the rest of you, but my first response to a question or situation is probably why? Sometimes this can be a very helpful aspect, but at many times it also can be extremely hindering to things. The "why" question I have been wrestling with the past few days (maybe weeks) is, Why are we here? The answer to some might seem quite simple, you're at school to become educated and through that education sustain a living, you are at your job to sustain the living of the aforementioned, you are at the gym to work out, and etc. But to me the answers seem much deeper than just black and white. The why I struggle with is in fact much deeper than why am I at MSU? The real question is not just why am I here, rather it is, For what purpose have I been placed here? How can I better myself and others while in this situation? I firmly believe that I am where I am because God has a plan for me, but I have been struggling to find that plan... patience isn't a strong suit of mine. So what then is my purpose? I know its to love The Lord with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself, and the litany continues, but what is my use or calling? I think of some of the great people of history, what if Martin Luther missed his call to develop his thesis? What if Abraham Lincoln completely missed his calling, or Martin Luther King Jr. missed his? What if The Founding Fathers were oblivious to what they were meant to do? It's always fun to play the what if game, but the fact of the matter is they didn't... so then how do you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are doing what you are destined to do? There is after all a greater cause isn't there? The ripples in the pond or butterfly effect all are originated by something... So why am I here? How do I find the thing I was wired to do in life? The answer is simple in finding yet difficult in application.... I'll leave it up to you to determine just what that answer is...

Think Deep

Frustration set in, simply because I had an idea of what it was I wanted to write about, yet I couldn't find the precise words to say to portray my thoughts clearly. Wracking my brain and fighting off writers block, I dug deep and attempted to spill out my thoughts onto the Microsoft Word screen staring blank back at me. The topic was something I have always held firm and as well as something I knew an adequate amount of information about, yet I couldn't figure it out.  "But I firmly believe that, if completely separated, religion and government, our system of government would crash and burn. Ethics and morality would then have no fundamental reason to be practiced, for if there is no existence after death, what reason do I have to not act self-seeking, gaining power and wealth in the time I spend on earth?"

The above thesis seemed well enough, yet I still didn't know how to tie it all together. It wasn't until I read over a somewhat chilling quote from a portion of a letter sent to Thomas Jefferson from then second President John Adams. 

"Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, "this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion at all!!!"..."

This was a letter between the founding fathers of our country, "supposed" good Christian men, yet how could John Adams say the best possible world would be lacking religion, and still be a christian? Distraught and some what depressed over this, I decided look into this quote some more. What I found to be true, is the above quote, is usually used as an argument saying the founding fathers realized that government and religion should not exist, but that it was a quote taken completely out of context. The quote in its entirety states this,

"Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, "this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion at all!!! But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell."

Upon discovery of the WHOLE quote i became somewhat aware and understanding of his situation. The second President of the United States, no doubt under a mass amount of stress, after all he had to find ways to keep success and progress afloat in a brand new country, was just as human as the rest of us are. Honestly, how many times have we all been frustrated with religion (christianity), and become upset or angered with God. It seems completely stupid but we all have been there, and it seems as though John Adams was there as well, at least twenty times. But what he continues on to say is exactly the truth of the matter. The world would be hell without christianity. Personally the faith of the founder fathers of this country amazes me. Upon reading many quotes by those same men and reading of their strong faith in God, I was somewhat convicted. Faced with the daunting task of creating this country what did they rely on? Lets again refer to John Adams for that answer, 

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature."

Faced with many challenges, minutely small compared to their tasks, is our faith the same? 

Matthew 17 verse 20... "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

two part post... aren't you lucky?

Part 1

Todays post I decided to take a different approach to writing about smiling (or something that pertains to smiling) and come up with some words I think of when I hear or think of the word smile. Happy, Nice, pretty, joyful, content :), good-mood, love, family, friends, funny, laugh... I'm sure there are plenty of other words I could list but for now this list of words will suffice. Now here is the challenge, as I read over the above list I notice that something connects all of the words. A positive feeling, emotion or attitude. Honestly, there is nothing negative about being happy, nice, pretty, joyful, content, in a good mood, being in love, or with family and friends and etc. So that means if there are only positive thoughts brought about by smiling then wouldn't that in turn make you more of a positive person if you smiled more? Hmm.... interesting isn't it.

Part 2

For part two of this post I wanted to get  into the Psychology of smiling, (mostly because I have a psychology class right now and a couple weeks back there was an experiment that involved smiling, but if I didn't just tell you that, you all would think I was an extremely intelligent person, oh well I ruined that.) Anyways the experiment had two different sets of people, one group was asked to hold a pen in there teeth without there lips touching the pen and read a set of jokes. The other set was asked to read the same set of jokes but this time holding then pen with their lips clasped around it. After the experiment was over the groups were to report to the Dr. as to what they thought of the jokes. Group 1 found them funnier than group 2. Why? Well its simple, the way group one held the pen in their teeth caused them to appear as though they were smiling, while the way the second group held their pen appeared as a scowl. Weird how the appearance of a smile can make your mind fine jokes funnier than the appearance of a frown isn't it. 

So basically this experiments helps to further prove my theory that, the more you smile the A. more positive you will be and B. You will find things funnier..... after all its science.

keep on smiling

What does being content mean? The definition of the word does a fairly good job of explaining the word... "experience of satisfaction and being at ease with ones circumstances." This satisfaction has to come from something then doesn't it? Continuing with the same question... if it comes from something, then some people have this "contentment" while others are still searching, correct? And isn't that what everyone is really looking for? No matter the circumstance, economic status, age, education, and etc. isn't that what we all are striving to find, contentment? Take the rich for example, you will never hear a rich man say I have enough money, even if their wealth is the size of that of Bill Gates, they will never say they have enough.... why? Because they are not content, and are choosing the wrong path to seek that out. So where does true contentment come from? The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Jesus and a relationship with him. Take a look at 2nd Corinthians 12 9&10. 9. But he said to me, 

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST,then, I AM CONTENT WITH MY weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

So thats what being content looks like, through the weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities I am satisfied because of Gods grace. 

So I guess here is the lesson, amidst all of the turmoil of our times economically, amidst the business of our days, amidst all of the school, or going to work, or a person that really is irritating you ask yourselves one question. Is God's grace sufficient?... being content means smiling more too...

Week 1.... Smiling

Ok, so I have been racking my brain in hopes of figuring out a topic that I might be able to write something interesting about for a whole week. My mind went from political ideas (too dividing right now) religious issues (I don't know enough about this yet, so if you are interested in the idea ask my father), and just other random ideas. Through the chaos and downpour of ideas flowing through an unorganized mind I witnessed something that sparked a world of ideas to write about. Today while walking to class I had to cross the service exit of the Breslin Center, there was a man driving a mini-van sitting at the exit waiting to turn out onto the road. I slowed my walk in order to let him have the space to drive out, rather than turning and being on his way he motioned for me to cross in front of him. (which I thought was rather unusual but I didn't think too much about it and crossed in front of him) The fascinating thing that sparked this blog is what happened next, while crossing in front of him i smiled and lifted my hand as if to say thanks, the look on his face was priceless. It was the sort of, completely shocked-that-never-happens-to-me-bewildered-look. That look on his face in turn made me perplexed and sparked a thought or rather an experiment. I decided to smile at every person/car/bus I passed by and see their reactions. It became quite humorous. Honestly try it out if you don't believe me. Some people smiled back (rare) some gave the same look that man driving gave me, while others seemed completely weirded which in turn caused them to walk faster as if to get away from me. While doing this I was almost completely shocked at what was happening, are people so unaccustomed to being smiled at that when it happens they are shocked/scared? One facial expression has the ability to cause  a visible response, and its supposed to be the pleasant expression. So my challenge/goal this week is to change that... and I challenge you the same, its simple just SMILE....  "Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing." Mother Teresa

Comebacckkkk

So, just like all the best or most famous athletes I have decided to un-retire from blogging and make my highly anticipated much awaited come back...(complete satire).  Much like Michael Jordan and Brett Favre, I just love this game too much to leave it behind. Some may say that I am past my prime, but I still firmly believe I have a few years left.... ok on a serious note, I am going to try to be pretty constant with writing on this, I honestly do thoroughly enjoy writing, yet it's hard for me to just "blog" because I sit, contemplate and formulate how I am going to make the post some ground shaking, earth shattering, philosophical post that people will rave about. Realizing that the prior statement is highly unlikely to happen anytime soon, I have come up with a new "style" of blogging I am going to try out. I am going to choose a topic, (anything random from the reason the sky is blue, to religious conundrums, to social controversies, and etc.) and try to write about that for one whole week, then upon the ending of the week, a new topic will be decided on and blogged about and the cycle repeats. I'm still deliberating as to what to write about for this week, but like any other unemployed college student, I have a sufficient amount of time to put into something like this. Hopefully by later on today I will Have the topic and write the first post about it... Maybe this could become a "you comment with topics for the week, and I pick the one i like most blog" who knows. But one thing I can promise you.... it will be something.