Another thought

I have lately been wondering about beauty. All humans have some sort of concept of beauty, granted they will differ between different people but it is a concept that is there, no matter who you are.
We have different cultural examples here and there of what beauty is. The American example of course is that women should have a large bust but a comparatively small body and a man should be a chiseled piece of rock. And there are numerous other things.

But in embracing this idea, I had to ask myself "What is beauty?"

Because I don't think that beauty can only be appearance based but, at the same time if we want to say that immaterial things can contribute to the concept, there has to be a time and place where the physical ideas of beauty has to captivate us before we can understand the immaterial beauty.

I don't think we can understand physical beauty though without an appreciation of a immaterial or spiritual beauty. And if there is truly an immaterial beauty what do we gauge that by?
I think that we have to gauge beauty by what God says about man.

I remember a while back seeing a commercial about a group that was promoting positive self-image. And it was having people, especially young women, promising to see themselves as beautiful. And my gut reaction was "What are you saying is beautiful?"

And I've been stuck in this place. What is beauty? What does God say beauty is? What is finding worth in my Savior?

I think God would probably say that being beautiful is perusing conformation and transformation to His Image.
I find my beauty in Christ my Savior, who has presented me a chance to conform to the Image of God.

A thought on beliefs.

Between two of my classes lately, I have been thinking a lot about different belief systems and how people form Worldviews. I'll admit I wasn't really concerned with the Worldview aspect but, a thought that continued to bug and come back to me and it really started to make me think.

Is it really possible that someone can completely hold on to and live out all of the things they believe?

I quickly came to an answer. NO! I was shocked at my own answer.

Isn't the point of adhering to some sort of believe system to perfect yourself compared to it?

Yes, that is the point but, you really can't do it in reality.
It is unfortunately wishful thinking to believe that you can become perfect.
In Christianity, you can't because, even though you hope to sin less the more mature you become you cannot become sinless.
In other Worldviews, you can't completely follow all of the tenets, even if you want to, because reality dictates that some of these things that people believe just cant happen.

So the major point of this for me has been self examination. It's important to me because I know what I what I believe and I know that I don't/can't yet live up to it. I have hopes though for better things to come my way.

Attempt Number 4

I have been trying to write something on here the last few nights and I just cant stick to any one thought. I had, each of the last few nights, started to write something and the out of nowhere decided it wasn't even good enough to continue writing. A continual question of not being good enough has invaded my mind and I don't exactly know why. But in the same hand this question of not being good enough has provoked another question.

"Who am I not good enough for?"

Do you ever stop and ask yourself that question when in a moment of strong self doubt? I forget to. A lot. The "Who" in that question is probably more important than the fact that you obviously don't feel adequate(although that is important too.) Who do we try to impress in our attempts to become better? A friend, spouse, some significant other, your boss, a random stranger, or do you do this with God?

I find myself trying to impress God quite a bit. I don't think though that he wants to be impressed. I think that God wants our hearts and because he has our hearts, we will become better.

I don't think that God would even want to be impressed with us. First off I don't think God could be impressed with us. Because really what are we? Check Psalm 8. "What is man that you are mindful of him? What is man that you care for him?"

We are insignificantly significant and I think I can be okay with that. Can you?

We are not made to show off, be prideful, or boastful, and I'm sick of myself when I do these things.

So back to the question, "Who am I not good enough for?" I think that the World encourages us to never settle. To type that feels contrary to my nature, to even acknowledge that in some ways settling is a Christian virtue and not a Worldly virtue. And maybe it's not so much that settling is a Christian virtue but rather that we strive and have aspirations for different things.

Am I good enough for God? This is the next question that just naturally came. I think that the answer that came shocked me even though it is true for me and the truth for you as well and will always be true. We are good enough for God. He loves as we are and when we come to him, anything that is not right before him, he will heal in time if we let him. And so now another question.

"Who am I good enough for?"

The Creator and Master of the Universe. That's who.

A new idea(well an old idea but, I'm trying to accept it again)

I think I'm going to let today worry about today.

Experiment

Sometimes we do odd things in order to understand the world around and ourselves. I think that this is typically a good thing. We test our limits. We try and get a better idea of these limits too. I don't have any other reason for why we do these things, besides that we want to understand. We want more knowledge of things that are not necessarily unknown but rather abstract in a way.
Scientists do this all the time. They take a concept that is either foreign or maybe just something that no one has really thought about in a while and then they test it.
I think sometimes that we wonder if God is like a scientist. I accept that God knows everything, so he's not looking to gain more knowledge but, sometimes it seems that with the things we go through in life are merely tests, or experiments, if you will, that serve only to show how much stress we can take before we snap. I think that sometimes we could even relate our individual relationships with God to a post-mortem bone density test.(basically they put a bone in a vice and measure the pressure it takes to snap the bone.)
But I don't think we could, in all sincerity, veiw God like this truthfully. Granted there are times that in our relationship with God we have growing pains and we are stretched but, it is not in God's character to stretch us so far that we snap. God is a loving god! And that is why we go through different times of stretching and growth.
In some ways this may seem contrary but, it is truth. God loves us enough to let us get hurt. He doesn't go out of his way to make sure that we are in pain or agony but, he lets the decisions we make effect us positively or negatively depending on what we are really looking for.

So back to this concept of experiments... I have no clue how long this will take but, I'm going to try to do it anyway.
I have a brick and I am going to put a hole through it. I will only use my fingers. I will poke the brick in the same spot with each of my four fingers on my left hand 25 times(100) before I go to bed.
There are two goals. One is that I will be able to wear a hole through a brick. And a secondary goal is that I will toughen up my finger tips a bit more for guitar and bass playing.