A WELCOME NOTE:
Greetings, and a very warm welcome to you. Thank you for taking some time to share in my philosophical foibles. It's my hope that within these entries you might find encouragement, challenge, laughter, counsel and companionship for the journey ahead. Carpe Diem!
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Holy shish kabobs! I haven't posted here in quite a while. Shame on...someone.
I was having a chat with someone today about memorable movie quotes. Sometimes, while catching a flick, I find myself struck in the face by a line that just jumps out at and resonates with me. I thought I'd take a few moments to populate this space with some of my favourites from my movie-going experiences over the years. Here they are in no particular order:
Such is the nature of the universe that it is governed by certain laws. These laws do not require us to like them or agree with them, but we would do well to take heed of them. A true law can never really be broken. It can perhaps be counter-acted or resisted with a certain amount of pressure or force, but in the end, the law always wins. Why? Because the law expends no energy existing as it is. It can rest in that state infinitely. Any effort to resist it however, is eventually doomed to exhaustion, and to the subsequent consequences of standing in opposition to that law.
As it is with the universe, so it is with the human condition. We, too, are governed by laws. One such law, as I have heard it referred to, is the law of work. Simply put, the law of work states that nothing starved of attention and effort ever improves on its own. Never. Things that are left to neglect, are ultimately left to ruin or to loss. That's the problem with stagnation - things don't actually stop. They rot.
So a couple of nights ago I'm driving on the freeway. It's a cold night. It's snowing, and the road is slippery. I can feel it in the way my car is handling. I'm driving cautiously and staying focused. I'm on a dead straight section of the route...doing no more than 60mph...my foot is light on the accelerator...my hands steady on the wheel. It makes no difference whatsoever. My car develops a mind of it's own, begins to slide uncontrollably on the freeway, and in the end sends me spinning off the asphalt onto the median separating the lanes of traffic. And there I find myself...totally stuck...my vehicle unresponsive in conditions it was not engineered to be effective in. What follows is a 3 hour adventure getting towed out of there at no insignificant expense and eventually making it back home. So, I get to thinking...
How many times are my best intentions at living a honorable and moral life compromised by positioning myself in conditions or an atmosphere that are always going to be dangerous? If I keep counsel with the wicked...if I refuse to keep my eyes off vile things...if I maintain a practice of alienating myself from the transforming presence of God...then no attempt at subsequent integrity will provide me with any sustainable sense of progress or success. In fact...the dangers are invited and come with the territory. Perhaps my intentions and efforts at integrity would best be served when the overall climate of my life is surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. This means that I choose Him in the broad decisions that affect how I spend my time and who or what I allow myself to be influenced by, along with the ways I negotiate specific temptations as they arise.
Careful driving does little to safeguard my life when I willfully venture out in hazardous conditions.
There can be no freedom without boundaries. No talk of liberty without constraints. True pleasure and satisfaction without remorse lies in the enjoyment of the gifts that God offers, within the context of self-control and moderation. It is a paradox. Seemingly, the way of abandoned surrender to our desires and obsessions would promise the quenching of our weary soul's thirsts. But it is a lie. That road is one that leads to vice, bondage, and slavery. A tennis match without rules erodes the meaning of the game. A diet without constraints undermines the purpose of a nutritional plan. A country governed without parameters breeds anarchy and chaos. In his wisdom, God has outlined His guidelines for humanity, in the hope that we would embrace them, and through living them out discover the fountain of joy, to which no sorrow or regret is added.
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