Exploration of the Soul...
I know that since this year, I’ve yet to blog about anything I’ve been doing. But, basically nothing much is happening right now and not much has happened at the start of this year. I started the year just relaxing at home and on the second day, the National Age Group chess championships were concluded. And, pretty much since then I’ve been at home for the most part, just doing my usual stuff. Of course, I’ve been having chess lessons on Tuesdays and trainings on Saturdays. Yea, and I’m still having vocal lessons. I’ve missed the past few youth fellowship sessions but I was able to attend the Centralised Learning in our Church. And, seriously, I’ve either been on my com doing random stuff like chess, social networking and playing or just watching TV, like now been watching all the tennis matches at Australian Open.
Anyway, I would like to take a different approach to my blog posting this year, so like I’m focussing more on the theme that sticks in my mind over the weeks and then writing about that rather than about the stuff I’d been doing during the week. Then again, it could change when I have more to write about when I get back to school. Regardless, just gonna mix things up a little.
So yea, since the week before, I sort of figured out the issue of God’s glory as our motivation to do our best. But, last week, I thought about passion and how it motivates us to achieve. And, about dreams, why it matters to our souls? You know so much of being human is the passion that we feel and it is certainly a God thing given to us, so I wanted to figure out how passion is one of the things that God uses to motivate us to do well and bring glory to His name. I wanted to explain why our souls gravitate towards greatness through the needs of the soul?
I thought very hard throughout the week to really understand how passion motivates us to do our best to achieve perfection. I believe that of course if you have a passion for something, you naturally do well at it because you enjoy it and you put your heart and soul into what you’re doing. But, I wondered about how it actually motivates us to do well. Passion firstly is to feel strongly about something. And, I guess, when we love to do something, we want to do it well because, of course it brings us greater joy when we do better at what we do, but this answer didn’t satisfy me. So, I guess, there is more to it..perhaps, it is that when we have a passion for something, we enjoy what we do, and have an appreciation for it, so of course we want to do well because we feel a greater sense of satisfaction since, it is not just something that love but something that we love and done well such that we can admire our work of art so to speak. I mean, for example a soccer player who loves playing the game knows that the beauty of the game lies in the goal after a well crafted move, a display of skill that gets him a goal or pass a player or even a save by the keeper that helps a team stay in the game, so when they do well they appreciate the beauty of the game, therefore, they seek to do well in appreciation of the game. And, we want to do well in our love for what we do and in our enjoyment of it. When we have a passion for something it means a whole lot to us and so we do well because it means something to us. As for why dreams are so important for us, is that that is sort of like what we want, what we hope for and the future that strive towards. So we want to achieve our dreams simply because they are our dreams, what we desire. But, more importantly, I believe dreams are put in our hearts by God for a reason, they are part of our shape that God uses for us to accomplish the purpose He has for our lives, and hints as to our calling. But, of course some dreams are not meant to be reached, however, some are. Either way they have a purpose the ones we don’t achieve are what spur us and the dreams we do achieve are part of the purpose God wants to use it for in our lives.
And, this brings me nicely to Pastor’s sermon of the soul thirsting for God and why we need God which was last week’s message. Basically, there are three main reasons that we need God, they are that He is our Creator, He is our Redeemer and He is our Provider. God created all of us so because of that He is the reason we exist so He is the ultimate purpose of our lives and He alone is the one who knows our role. And, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, it is only in Christ that we can be saved through His redemptive work on the cross, by putting our trust in Him. Finally, it is Christ who gives us strength, life and providence. There are three main things our soul needs, that is, love, destiny and meaning. And, in our pursuit of these things in life, we ultimately come to God, because all these only have significance in Christ. In love, we love Christ because He first loved us and we love others just as Christ loved us. In terms of our dreams and our future, ultimately these things are part of the purpose we are created in bringing glory to God. And, meaning is only found in Christ and in our relationship with Him, coz everything we do is for God’s glory so the things we do have meaning to achieve the ultimate purpose of glory to God.
I thought about the issue of contentment. To remind myself that truly it is in Christ that we have everything even if we have nothing. And, in life what are important are not the material things we have or the number of friends we have or even how eventful or exciting our lives are. What is important is our relationship with God, coz He is our God that we live for. And, what matters in life, the whole purpose of our existence is to bring glory to God, as long as we are living the life God intended for us and we are living for our purpose to bring glory to God that is all we really need. And, now I think I realise my mistake, that I haven’t been grateful enough, coz like the point is that when we receive things in life, it is an act of worship that brings glory to God when we thank Him for what he has richly blessed us with, and it is not about getting more stuff and doing more stuff, it is about receiving from God what He has blessed us with grateful heart. And, truly, seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, and delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. He came so that we can have life and life in full. Somehow, I just get caught up looking at the lives of others and just wanting more with my life and I feel envious at times. It’s just that there’s all this I see with people having friends to spend time with each other like go out together, celebrating special occasions together, going over to their places, and just having experiences. And, like just being able to live my life to the fullest, experience life and be involved in events and activities. Also, like there’s this thing about the kind of home lifestyle. I realise that some of it is just discontentment and not being satisfied with the things I have in my life, but I still feel like I’m not all that ungrateful, it is just that I want to enjoy my life and make the most of my time, to really live life to the fullest. I know what my purposes in life are and that my relationship with God is most important, but I’m sure that God would want us to enjoy this gift of life, as much as I know the pursuit of pleasure, wealth and the acquiring of things are meaningless. However, I do believe I’m not after the material things in life but just to live my life in a big way. And, besides, it is not to say that we can’t enjoy our lives because in giving thanks to God it can be a spiritual thing. But, this doesn’t mean that we enjoy ourselves and get things with that purpose but in accepting what He has given us, coz He provides for us. Like, whatever our situation at any point in our lives, we are to be content and give thanks for what He has given us, because we know that God knows our heart’s desire and will provide for us wherever in His will if our desire’s are . It’s about trusting in Him. And, it isn’t a passive thing but a proactive thing, first and foremost God’s work and our relationship with Him is what our goal to work towards is in bringing glory to God, and the rest of the things can come into play. I guess in very much in human nature to want more, but it is not inherently wrong to want more, it is rather when it becomes too important to us that it is a bad thing. The issue I have is that, we should not be discontent, but to want more seems to be discontentment. We are to be content in all circumstances, so I must somehow be wrong in a way. Then again, don’t we all have things we want from our lives, are we supposed to not want anything anymore. But, I guess, it is alright for us to want things, just that whether or not we get what we want that we be at peace and are satisfied, coz we trust and know that God will provide for us.
So yea, I feel like there is still so much I don’t understand about life but I guess I’m seeking and getting closer to understanding our soul’s longings and how passion motivates us. Also, I’m figuring out about contentment and to differentiate discontentment from my desire for progress and to live my life to the fullest by striving each moment to do more with my life.
Anyway, I would like to take a different approach to my blog posting this year, so like I’m focussing more on the theme that sticks in my mind over the weeks and then writing about that rather than about the stuff I’d been doing during the week. Then again, it could change when I have more to write about when I get back to school. Regardless, just gonna mix things up a little.
So yea, since the week before, I sort of figured out the issue of God’s glory as our motivation to do our best. But, last week, I thought about passion and how it motivates us to achieve. And, about dreams, why it matters to our souls? You know so much of being human is the passion that we feel and it is certainly a God thing given to us, so I wanted to figure out how passion is one of the things that God uses to motivate us to do well and bring glory to His name. I wanted to explain why our souls gravitate towards greatness through the needs of the soul?
I thought very hard throughout the week to really understand how passion motivates us to do our best to achieve perfection. I believe that of course if you have a passion for something, you naturally do well at it because you enjoy it and you put your heart and soul into what you’re doing. But, I wondered about how it actually motivates us to do well. Passion firstly is to feel strongly about something. And, I guess, when we love to do something, we want to do it well because, of course it brings us greater joy when we do better at what we do, but this answer didn’t satisfy me. So, I guess, there is more to it..perhaps, it is that when we have a passion for something, we enjoy what we do, and have an appreciation for it, so of course we want to do well because we feel a greater sense of satisfaction since, it is not just something that love but something that we love and done well such that we can admire our work of art so to speak. I mean, for example a soccer player who loves playing the game knows that the beauty of the game lies in the goal after a well crafted move, a display of skill that gets him a goal or pass a player or even a save by the keeper that helps a team stay in the game, so when they do well they appreciate the beauty of the game, therefore, they seek to do well in appreciation of the game. And, we want to do well in our love for what we do and in our enjoyment of it. When we have a passion for something it means a whole lot to us and so we do well because it means something to us. As for why dreams are so important for us, is that that is sort of like what we want, what we hope for and the future that strive towards. So we want to achieve our dreams simply because they are our dreams, what we desire. But, more importantly, I believe dreams are put in our hearts by God for a reason, they are part of our shape that God uses for us to accomplish the purpose He has for our lives, and hints as to our calling. But, of course some dreams are not meant to be reached, however, some are. Either way they have a purpose the ones we don’t achieve are what spur us and the dreams we do achieve are part of the purpose God wants to use it for in our lives.
And, this brings me nicely to Pastor’s sermon of the soul thirsting for God and why we need God which was last week’s message. Basically, there are three main reasons that we need God, they are that He is our Creator, He is our Redeemer and He is our Provider. God created all of us so because of that He is the reason we exist so He is the ultimate purpose of our lives and He alone is the one who knows our role. And, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, it is only in Christ that we can be saved through His redemptive work on the cross, by putting our trust in Him. Finally, it is Christ who gives us strength, life and providence. There are three main things our soul needs, that is, love, destiny and meaning. And, in our pursuit of these things in life, we ultimately come to God, because all these only have significance in Christ. In love, we love Christ because He first loved us and we love others just as Christ loved us. In terms of our dreams and our future, ultimately these things are part of the purpose we are created in bringing glory to God. And, meaning is only found in Christ and in our relationship with Him, coz everything we do is for God’s glory so the things we do have meaning to achieve the ultimate purpose of glory to God.
I thought about the issue of contentment. To remind myself that truly it is in Christ that we have everything even if we have nothing. And, in life what are important are not the material things we have or the number of friends we have or even how eventful or exciting our lives are. What is important is our relationship with God, coz He is our God that we live for. And, what matters in life, the whole purpose of our existence is to bring glory to God, as long as we are living the life God intended for us and we are living for our purpose to bring glory to God that is all we really need. And, now I think I realise my mistake, that I haven’t been grateful enough, coz like the point is that when we receive things in life, it is an act of worship that brings glory to God when we thank Him for what he has richly blessed us with, and it is not about getting more stuff and doing more stuff, it is about receiving from God what He has blessed us with grateful heart. And, truly, seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, and delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. He came so that we can have life and life in full. Somehow, I just get caught up looking at the lives of others and just wanting more with my life and I feel envious at times. It’s just that there’s all this I see with people having friends to spend time with each other like go out together, celebrating special occasions together, going over to their places, and just having experiences. And, like just being able to live my life to the fullest, experience life and be involved in events and activities. Also, like there’s this thing about the kind of home lifestyle. I realise that some of it is just discontentment and not being satisfied with the things I have in my life, but I still feel like I’m not all that ungrateful, it is just that I want to enjoy my life and make the most of my time, to really live life to the fullest. I know what my purposes in life are and that my relationship with God is most important, but I’m sure that God would want us to enjoy this gift of life, as much as I know the pursuit of pleasure, wealth and the acquiring of things are meaningless. However, I do believe I’m not after the material things in life but just to live my life in a big way. And, besides, it is not to say that we can’t enjoy our lives because in giving thanks to God it can be a spiritual thing. But, this doesn’t mean that we enjoy ourselves and get things with that purpose but in accepting what He has given us, coz He provides for us. Like, whatever our situation at any point in our lives, we are to be content and give thanks for what He has given us, because we know that God knows our heart’s desire and will provide for us wherever in His will if our desire’s are . It’s about trusting in Him. And, it isn’t a passive thing but a proactive thing, first and foremost God’s work and our relationship with Him is what our goal to work towards is in bringing glory to God, and the rest of the things can come into play. I guess in very much in human nature to want more, but it is not inherently wrong to want more, it is rather when it becomes too important to us that it is a bad thing. The issue I have is that, we should not be discontent, but to want more seems to be discontentment. We are to be content in all circumstances, so I must somehow be wrong in a way. Then again, don’t we all have things we want from our lives, are we supposed to not want anything anymore. But, I guess, it is alright for us to want things, just that whether or not we get what we want that we be at peace and are satisfied, coz we trust and know that God will provide for us.
So yea, I feel like there is still so much I don’t understand about life but I guess I’m seeking and getting closer to understanding our soul’s longings and how passion motivates us. Also, I’m figuring out about contentment and to differentiate discontentment from my desire for progress and to live my life to the fullest by striving each moment to do more with my life.
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