Tag: Faith

Receiving

That time of year has come again. Valentine’s Day. The day on which a lucky few receive chocolate and flowers and are lavished with love and affection. The day on which the rest of us wish we were on the other side.

What is it we feel we’re missing? Love may seem like the obvious answer, but we still have family and friends who care about us deeply. So where does the stigma of being “single on Valentine’s Day” come from? And why does the absence of a significant other qualify one as “alone?”

One of the utmost longings of the human heart is the desire for love. We want it. We crave it. But what is it about love that draws us in? Although most of us have been loved since the moment of our birth, those childhood attachments somehow seem insufficient.

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Who do you think I am?

Who am I?

It’s the age-old struggle, the question we’ve all asked ourselves at least once in our lives. This search for our genuine identity begins when we are young and never seems to be completely done. There’s peace with continued self-discovery, but is there ever a point where one can at last leave the doubts behind and say “Aha! That is who I am”? As I ask this very question to myself, I can’t help but sing the familiar strains of the song “Who am I” from Les Miserables. So perhaps before going on, I’ll take a brief musical interlude.

Jean Valjean’s moral dilemma brings to mind the difficulties involved when attempting to create a new identity. We probably haven’t escaped slavery and then adopted a new persona as mayor of a small town, but there may be pieces of our past that we’d like to leave behind. Haven’t you ever wanted to start anew? Think of the possibilities, of the freedom, the power. Imagine if you moved to a completely different city where no one knew you at all. Then you could be whoever you wanted to be. Couldn’t you?

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Facing the Light

When I feel my fear rise up,
Nearly choke me as it comes,
You ask me to remember,
To be mindful of Your love
My flick’ring heart is fickle
And it turns the wrong direction.
Remind me please, O Lord,
You only are perfection.
I want not to feed the evil
But to focus on the light.
I want to give You all control
And not to try and fight.
Place before my eyes
A quick glimpse of salvation,
For from such everlasting love
There can be no separation.

True Triumph

Happy Christmas Eve! It’s crazy to think that this day is already upon us. In some ways, the last couple of months seem to have stretched out for a lifetime, but in other ways it feels like they’ve passed by so fast. A lot has changed for me in the last few months. Before September, I had never been away from home for more than three nights, and now I’ve lived on my own for almost four months!!! Although many obstacles have been present along the way, the feeling after overcoming these minor and major roadblocks is so much better than if they had not been there in the first place. It makes me think of the following quote: “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful” (-Joshua J. Marine).

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In God’s Eyes

It’s been a very, very long time since I last posted on this blog, but I’m hopeful that I can turn over a new leaf and start making more regular updates. As one of the co-leaders of a new Christian Youth Group at my school, I thought it would be nice (and give me some structure), if I wrote a blog each week about our ever-changing theme. This week the theme was dating…

You may ask (and would be totally justified in doing so), what makes me qualified to write any kind of reflection about dating? I’ve never dated anyone before and I’ve never had a boyfriend. So maybe it does mean that I don’t have all of the answers when it comes to having relationships, but I think I am more than qualified when it comes to not having them.

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The Present

“The past is history, the future’s a mystery and today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” I can’t remember where I heard this quote. Actually I think it was during the Kungfu Panda movie… But that small fact is sadly irrelevant. The reason I started this post with that particular quote is because it so perfectly describes an issue on which I have been dwelling for the last few days.

I have a problem with the present. There, I said it. I know the past is history and I know the future’s a mystery, but for some reason or other I can’t seem to stop myself from living in either, especially the future. I don’t know what’s in store for me and my life and that scares me. A lot of possibilities loom ahead and without knowing in the slightest how things will really turn out, I find myself burdened by worries and fears. ‘What if that happened?’ ‘If things go this way, how will I cope?’ ‘How will I deal with that problem?’

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The Thing about Proof…

Today I handed in a world religions essay about God’s existence. I spent hours researching nice, neat, little arguments to prove that somewhere out there, God really is watching over us. These arguments were logical and in my opinion, made very strong cases to support my main idea. I was proud of how it turned out. But along the way I realized something…

You can’t prove God. You can try all you want to put him into a man-made box of science and reason, but it just won’t work. Why? Well, think about it. Even if you don’t believe in God, you have to agree that a being capable of creating the universe and billions of human beings each with unique talents and gifts, would have to be pretty great. He would have to be pretty smart. In fact, He would have to be pretty much completely beyond our imaginations. How could a single, small, finite human being like me attempt to explain such a powerful, amazing, awesome, superior God?

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The Christmas Season!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la la la la la!!!

In other words, the Christmas season has begun, and as the rest of the song goes, “tis the season to be jolly!” When white, fluffy snow blankets the ground and bright, cozy lights shine from every corner, I find the whole world seems happier, or “jollier,” I guess you could say. Sure, it’s still November, and maybe there is more slush than snow, but to me, that feeling of Christmas is already here! It is the first week of Advent, so that also got me thinking about Christmas and what it really means…

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Perfection

I’ve been sitting here for the past 15 minutes trying to figure out how to start my blog. How do you start a blog? I mean, I guess it’s different for everyone, but what should I do? Should I introduce myself first, or get into what I want to talk about right away? And what do I want to talk about anyways? So many questions… And like usual, I’m not sure about the answers. But if there’s one thing I’m learning, it’s that maybe, sometimes, there is no right answer. Maybe the right answer for me would be completely wrong for someone else.

I guess I might as well introduce myself, now that I’ve bridged that always difficult opening paragraph. My name is Jenny and I am a high school student who loves to write, which is pretty much why I decided to start my own blog. I have a lot to say and written words always seem to express my thoughts best. Who knows: maybe no one will even read this blog but me. If that happens, I guess you could say that I’m wasting my time here talking to myself, which may seem a little weird. But by now, I should really learn to embrace my weirdness instead of fighting it!

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