BoldGrace

What should be our focus?  All of you reading this blog site can answer this anyway you want but for me the answer is clearly a focus on others, NOT on God or ourselves.  People who focus on God or themselves (often christians) are always talking about their love of God and what they have done to prove it in such a way that makes others feel like they are inadequate because they don’t see life the same way.  The religious people of Christ’s day wanted everyone to know how much they loved God and they showed it by how religious they were.  That mindframe always leads to judgement and condemnation of others.  How many have been killed in the name of someone’s so called love of God and their dedication to being righteous before him?

In the same way those who focus on themselves will never find the satisfaction they are looking for either.  They might gather great barns and have their fill of all the pleasures of this world but they will always be left empty.

On the other hand show me a person who focuses on others and I will show you a person who is at peace.  In my 55 years I have never yet met a person like this who didn’t have a aura around them that made you ask yourself just what was different about them. 

We were created to be creatures who CARE.  When we focus on others we enter into the environment we were intended to live in.  All of my life when I focused on the needs of those around me I always felt like I was fulfilling my purpose in being here. 

I have to be honest and say when I hear people talk about their love of the Lord it makes me sick to my stomach.  God doesn’t have an ego that needs propping up. 

The apostle John said:  "How can you say you love God whom you have not seen if you don’t love your brother whom you have seen?"

Focusing on others is not easy but what makes it easier is experiencing the rewards of your focus.   If you do it for any reason other then how it makes you feel you’ll never know the rewards.  Choose this focus because it fulfills who you are inside, not to get kudos from God or men.   

What would our world be like if we took religion completely out of it and waved a magic wand that actually caused people to CARE?  Don’t you think God would be pleased?

Stay tuned to the practical side of this post NEXT.

Just what is the JOY OF LIFE?  Some may say the joy of life is in all the wonderful moments we have absent the pain, but I would have to disagree.  The real joy of life does not lie in the sweet times or the bitter times but rather in the survival of both. 

The root of REAL JOY is never found in the present moment.  You may experience JOY in this moment but its root is always found in looking back at your life and realizing that despite the sweet times or the bitter times you are what you are because of both. 

As I look back on my sweet times it gives me a great sense of appreciation.  It humbles me before a loving creator and makes me want to give back to the creation from which I came.

As I look back on my bitter times it gives me profound wisdom.  What wisdom I have very rarely came from my sweet times.  It was always the most bitter pills that made me look deep inside at who I am and the world around me.

As I look back on both sweet & bitter together it gives me JOY, knowing that all along the way I was being guided by a loving universe that has used all of my past moments to keep me moving where I need to be. 

Yes, I have great JOY, but it’s even greater now that I understand what JOY really is.

YOU CAN NEVER KNOW THE FULL DEPTH OF LOVE UNTIL YOU KNOW THE FULL DEPTH OF PAIN.  That’s why Jesus clearly is our PERFECT LOVE.

I believe God is Perfect.  I also believe he has created a Perfect enviornment for us to have a journey through.  But the question for today is "WHY DOES HE ALLOW DARKNESS IN THIS PERFECT ENVIRONMENT?" 

Now some will just deny the existence of darkness all together but whether you think it’s real or an illusion you still must endure it in the mind.  For me, I tend toward darkness being an illusion that started with Adam no longer believing that God could love him without effort on his part to make it happen, and when we don’t believe our own Creator loves us it will always lead to PAIN.  The illusion has continued throughout the history of man with the exception of JESUS CHRIST.  What made him different from Adam was that he never doubted the Father’s love.  Yes, he endured the pain inflicted on him because of the darkness of others, but one thing they could never take away was his absolute confidence in his Father.

Sadly, in Adam all die, but the goodnews is that in Christ ALL will live.  He has shattered the illusion even though there are many who still don’t see it.  But let’s get back to our original question, Why does he allow Darkness? 

You answer this any way that pleases you, but here is how I have answered it for me. 

Darkness is the lie we choose to believe that never represents reality.  Reality is very simple……….it is believing in this moment that I along with all my fellow travelers are loved by God unconditionally.   ANYTHING THAT MOVES US AWAY FROM THAT REALITY WILL TAKE US TO DARKNESS, and believe me I have been to the darkness.   This is exactly why Jesus us taught us ‘JUDGE NOT LEST YOU BE JUDGED.  We all have and will at times choose darkness and I believe that is without exception, but I also believe even the darkness will have its Perfect work because it is a part of his perfect environment for us.  I don’t like darkness, as a matter of fact I HATE IT, in myself and in others, but I am learning to trust that even the darkness is light to God.

Ps 139:12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

The very second that Adam made the decision to partake of the knowledge Good & Evil he enterered into DARKNESS of the mind.  Jesus came to once again RENEW our minds with the REALITY that we are always loved by God and always will be.  Yes, he allows us to choose darkness but he also knows that no matter how dark it gets HIS light will find us and bring us back. 

All of our choices every single day are as simple as choosing Darkness or Light, one will bring great pain, and one will bring great joy, but both will bring us to the Father.  The sooner you know this simple truth the sooner you will walk this journey in peace.

If I’m wrong then we have every reason to live in constant fear, but if I’m right then the darkness loses all its power and actually becomes LIGHT.

The garage area is my domain.  It’s the one place in the house that I can hang anything on the wall and get away with it.  Lately I starting writing on the walls.  Today I want to share something I wrote.

EACH DAY THE POWER OF A LOVING UNIVERSE LEADS ME TO A PLACE I NEED TO BE!

Do you agree, disagree, agree strongly, or diasagree strongly?