A Curious Girl: A response to the guestbook signers

Wow, that's a pretty long guestbook signing...

To 'sorry anon'

No, the Noise is not a cult thing :-) It's an initiative for outreach involving basically community service for a weekend. I want to do it, but I feel discouraged, and who knows, maybe God has a better plan for me :-) Maybe it is determinism, but I believe that if God wants something, he'll get me there, and if I can't it's because he has other plans. There are times when there isn't such a distinction, I know, and it's my choice about which way I go. Sometimes, then, I'll go against what God wants, but in this case I have a feeling that he'll make it pretty clear to me which way he wants it. I guess that even if he does clear the way for me I could pull out. I believe in free will too but I also believe in God's will, and it's more important than mine, especially as mine can be destructive.

And as for Thomas...

Your guestbook signing certainly provoked some thought! I had a long rambling letter all planned, but I'll try and keep it succinct.

I read once in Alice's diary, (http://sheepdip.diaryland.com) how she read that following God is a bit like a rollercoaster, ie. more fun if your arms are in the air than if you're clinging for dear life and your knuckles have turned white. That analogy is how I see the difference between living for self and for God. If you're trying only to protect yourself, you lose a sense of daring, of the kind of willingness to risk self that people observe in acts of heroism. You become the person with white knuckles, trying to hold on and not trusting that you are safe. People change when you give of yourself. Something I've noticed about life is that when people live for each other, things change. Did you read my scheme for ruling the world? That's my theory. (http://sweet-indigo.diaryland.com/worldruler.html) Say you simply give someone bus money to save them a long walk hom in the dark, instead of buying yourself something to eat 'cause you didn't have time for lunch. Maybe you've caused yourself some extra hunger until dinner, but you've probably saved that person hassle in all kinds of ways. It's more productive. And it's the way God wants it.

Another good analogy is something I saw on TV once (on the good ol' Christmas Lectures, a British thing) - a man called forward two volunteers from the audience, and told them to arm wrestle. Everytime the back of the one player's hand touched the table in one minute, the other would get a sweet (great prize, huh?). When the minute was over, only one of the players had gotten one solitary sweet. Then the man pointed out that they both could have won many more sweets than that by simply agreeing to let the other win every other go. That way they would have been better off for less energy, just by yielding to the other.

Sometimes you have to accept that there is something else you must trust in, adhere to. Like when you're driving along a road - you have to follow the rules and obey the signs even if they don't appear to be relevant, because you can't see all the road, you are just one driver, one person. You can't see around corners. You have to accept the controls if you want to get to your destination. You can choose to obey the rules or not, just like I can choose to obey God or not. I know that what He wants is what's best for me. I won't be hindered from my dreams, but helped to them, or given better ones; fulfilment is not about what you're getting, it's what you're becoming. Your dreams aren't merely fixed goals, they're part of you, they're about what makes you whole. You can be a happy roadsweeper or a miserable millionaire, because the difference is how you feel, not what you have. So dreams are about becoming. I believe that only God can help us become truly whole, truly ourselves.

I don't believe I am doing what others have convinced me to be the right way. Just recently I have had pressures about careers from my parents, my dad especially, who wants me to do something science-y like pharmacology or biochemistry. It's not that I couldn't do it, but I want to work with children, most likely as a teacher. My dad is pretty mad about this, but I know it's my choice, my call. I also believe it's what God wants.

For me, God is not just an 'idea' but a living person, a ruler, a father, a friend. God is not an abstract concept but someone very real. The message of the cross is the truest thing I ever heard, that God exists, He loves us and He's fighting for our future. We aren't just drivers with no mirrors, on roads with no signposts. We're creations of God, not for a futile end but for glory.

OK, so maybe that wasn't all that succinct! What a sermon! Hope you can understand me. I agree with you that what people try to make God into is scary. I don't believe in the stern, stiff, angry God, who requires of us total abstinence of pleasure and perpetual guilt. I believe in the God who does all things for the good of those who love him. I believe in the God who would become incarnate as a man and die so that we could live to the full.

Has anyone read abcsecrets? It's really good.

Random word for today:

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