It's a really long way home

There's a song I've had stuck in my head recently which I thought I'd share with you. Long Way Home by Steven Curtis Chapman.

It's about the life we are promised as Christians. Some might think that the life of a Christian is easy. That it's just like any life but we have a crutch to hold us up when bad things are happening. Christianity is much more than a crutch, in fact it brings with it more trials than we would otherwise have in our life, trials which are because we follow Jesus.

 

Each of us have baggage in this life, things we carry with us from our past - things we wish we had done, or things we wish we hadn't. Perhaps things which we had no control over which have had a profound (intense) influence on our lives. Sometimes we let these get in the way of our relationsip with God, and our walk with Him.

 

One of the hardest things I think is to remain firm in faith with a sense of urgency (insistent necessity) to continue, to make it to the end, when times are really hard and all we want to do is blame God instead of turning to Him, and also when times are really 'easy' and we want to forget God and just enjoy the moment. But the life we have has been given to us by Him and this life here on earth is just a little bit of it. The rest of it is with Him, so while we're here we should always remember where our final destination is.

I set out on a great adventure
The day my Father started leading me home
He said there's gonna be some mountains to climb
And some valleys we're gonna go through

But I had no way of knowing
Just how hard this journey could be
Cause the valleys are deeper
And the mountains are steeper than I ever would have dreamed

But I know we're gonna make it
And I know we're gonna get there soon
And I know sometimes it feels like we're going the wrong way
But its just a long way home

I got some rocks in my shoes
Fears I wish I could lose
That make the mountains so hard to climb
And my heart gets so heavy with the weight of the world sometimes

There's a bag of regrets,
My should've beens, and not yets
I keep on dragging around
And I can hardly wait for the day I get to lay it all down

But I know that day is coming
I know its gonna be here soon
And I won't turn back even if the whole world says I'm going the wrong way
Cause its just a long way home

When we can't take another step
The Father will pick us up and carry us in His arms
And even on the best days, He says to remember we're not home yet
So don't get too comfortable
Cause really all we are is just pilgrims passing through

Well, I know we're gonna make it
And I know we're gonna get there soon
So I'll keep on singing and believing
What all of my songs say

Cause our God has made a promise
And I know that everything He says is true
And I know wherever we go
He will never leave us
Cause He's gonna lead us home

Every single step of the long way home
          (Keep going, we're gonna make it)
          (I know, we're gonna make it)
          (We're just taking the long way home)     [x3]
(Keep going, we're gonna make it)
(I know, we're gonna make it)
It's just a long way home


God Bless

Life is a mirror??

Today I'd like to share with you a little (short, small) ditty, poem, rhyme, or saying, that my Mum taught me when I was little (young).

Life is a mirror, all will come backThe good, the pure, and the trueSo give to the world the best that you canAnd the best will come back to you

Some of what this says I think is true, but when I look at it now, it reminds me of the concept (idea) of karma, which I don't believe in. The basic dulled down (simplified) version of karma is that if you do bad things, then bad things will happen to you, and if you do good things then good things will happen to you (sometimes in a next life).

This idea doesn't fit with the God that I know. The God that I know is creator (made everything and everyone). He is all powerful. He is loving. He is past, present, and future. He is king. He is my heavenly father. He is judge. He is good, and pure, and true. This is the God that I know and He is involved (having an active part in) with our world and our lives, in a way which is much bigger (the concept/idea and more powerful) than karma, or even the universe (everything which exists throughout space). 

As a believer in, and follower of, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, I believe something very different to karma, which is all about the God I was just telling you about. Basically, we are all bad but Jesus has paid the punishment for us already, so although we deserve to die for all the terrible things we do (even when we do our best), when we put our faith (trust) in Jesus the best really does come back to us, forgiveness and real (true, genuine, not fake) life. 

"What do you mean, real life?" - you might ask. "Are we not already living and breathing?" Life which lasts forever (does not end) and is based first and foremost (the most important part of) in your relationship with God. Not just any God but this God, the God of Jesus Christ, the God who is Jesus Christ. 

So now when I think about this little ditty which I was taught when I was little, this is what I am reminded of. That life is a mirror, it should mirror our creator as we are made in His image (likeness), be a reflection of Him (God/Jesus) for others to see. That God Himself came 'back', came to the world to show us just what is good, and pure, and true - that He loved us so much that He gave us the best and biggest gift He could - forgiveness and a way to be with Him forever.

God Bless

La la La, da DA de dum!

Here in Cambridge, the atmosphere is changing as the students are all arriving ready to start the new term this coming week, the holidays are over, and it's all back to work. The days are getting shorter and the wind is increasing. The most is made of the sunshine when it appears but primarily now it's raincoats and closed shoes that you see everywhere.

 

With all the students arriving for university it got me thinking about my own time at university in Australia. I have such a short attention span that I'm always amazed that I made it through my degree. I had to come up with a lot of different strategies to help me get there though.

 

The Institute for Learning Styles Research breaks up the way individuals learn into seven basic categories. These are print (read), aural (hear), visual (see), haptic (touch), interactive (repeat), kinesthetic (do), and olfactory (smell & taste). Everybody learns through a combination of these but work and learn better with some rather than others. For me, those some are haptic, kinesthetic, and interactive (with a lot of crossover into visual).

 

These aren't the ideal learning styles for studying at university - and honestly a lecture was way too long for me to stay attentive for (my mind drifted off topic). Taking notes helped but because I'm really not a print person, it didn't help a lot. I do like pictures though - and I can remember them - so sometimes I would take lecture notes in image form. This worked sometimes but not all topics lent themselves towards images (ie. I couldn't put pictures to math equations). Practicals were the best as this didn't require effort to change up the learning style given but just go with the flow (follow on) - unless they were computer based which goes pack to the print style learning - this wasn't so good. Sometimes I would imagine (picutre in my mind) I was doing the things I was putting into the computer for real - this helped. As I was studying a form of Earth Science sometimes I would take a 'field trip' to an area like that which we were currently studying (beach, mountains, lakes, etc.)to see and feel just what I was looking at on a page - somehow this made it make much more sense. One other method I came up with was to sometimes 'act out' my lectures - go back over notes and put movements or expression into it to help me remember; or sometimes I would write the information (data, study material, lectures) into a song against an easy tune to hum.

 

This last 'method' is something which has stuck with me but in a different way, even though I did not do it a lot. When I have a slightly quieter time in my day, like when riding from one place to another, or doing the dishes or some gardening, I often find myself making up tunes to either go along with my current mood, or mimic (parallel, copy) my day so far. It's like I'm in tune with the world - and this is my tune which works together with everyone else's to make a wonderful melody (tune) of life. But sometimes I have an off day, it just wasn't quite right, and there just isn't a tune which fits, it's like you're suddenly out of tune - like you're separate from everything else.

 

It's on these days, when I feel down, out of touch, not quite right, lonely, isolated, like a floating island - on these days that I remember that there is so much more than just now, and that I am so much more than what's now. I remember that we are made in God's image (Genesis 1:27), that we are loved by Him (Romans 5:8), that we have a future beyond here and now (John 3:16, 1 Peter 1:3-5), and that nothing can ever separate us from this (Romans 8:38-39). And the great thing is that I don't need to learn these things the same way I had to learn the things for my degree because these things are shown to me every day through my relationship with God, through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. The same way I don't need to learn that my family loves me because they show me every time I talk to them.

 

I love learning things but even better is to know something with such certainty because it is shown to you again and again, without fail. I also love to be 'in tune' with the world and what's around me, but when I'm not I still know that God will always be there to take my off beat ways and show me his own rhythm to follow - this is the most important one in my books (my opinion).

What do you think about this?

 

God Bless

 

PS - sorry, I started rambling (going on and on) a little again