An Allegory.

I was rummaging through the cupboard for a box of Life and discovered it was already open.

Vision

Glasses are quite incredible things. Glasses for vision correction, to be clear. It is impossible for someone to tell whether they need a correction on their own. For the eyes they were born with are all they know to see. How are they to know the world has distinct shape and line if nothing they do with their own eyes like squinting or staring will change the way something looks. It isn't until they start running into objects they cannot tell are in the way, for the extreme examples, or cannot see something written far away they need to read like a teachers white board, or a street sign. Sometimes the need for a vision correction is obvious, but for others, they don't even know the difference. This is how it was for me. I knew I was able to read the white boards, read street signs fairly well and was able to pick out people at a distance. It wasn't until after hours of studying my head would hurt and the world around me was a little more fuzzy. Daily eye aches sent me to an ophthalmologist. During the testing I was to shut one eye and read the letters on the wall. I had always told my vision was 20/20. But after I shut the one eye my vision went to pot. Both of my eyes together worked decently, but alone they were horrible. A few weeks went by and I decided to look for frames and scout prices. At one establishment, the proprietor was kind enough to find some lenses that would show me exactly what I would be seeing differently. He told me to look out the window, then set them on my face. I almost jumped. I was able to read the sign just fine, but instantly the lines were defined and crisp.


If you have read this far you may have guessed my point. I thought my sight was fine and dandy until someone else showed me how much better it could be. This is the way of Christ. We are born into this world with our own natural inclinations, thought processes and experiences that shape our actions and reactions. There is no possible way we could know how to be any different, unless someone gives us a new and clearer way to see. As I hesitated on the real need of glasses at first, many of us may question whether we really need the help because what we are seeing at the moment is good enough and gets us by. But no amount of squinting on our own is going to improve our vision of our own actions. We must be given the better way. The clearer way.

At Rehearsal Tuesday May 25

Someone from the cast who was watching those on stage (me and others) called out "Mom!"

And I answered.

Note that in the script, I am actually his mother. 

Worry.

Burdens have the potential to exalt us, but baggage just weighs us down and wears us out. When we don't repent, sin becomes baggage. Worry, jealousy, and guilt are baggage. An unforgiving heart, anger, regret, and pride are baggage. We choose whether or not to pick up baggage, and Satan loves nothing more than loading us down like pack mules.
-Sheri Dew

Be careful for nothing (Don't be unduly concerned about anything); but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hears and minds through Christ Jesus. ...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased (humble), and I know how to abound (abundance): every where and in all tings I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.
-Philippians 4:6-7, 11-13 King James Translation, parenthesis added from footnotes.

From the Lips of Death.

A quote from Death personified, in the book The Book Thief:

*** A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH ***

I do not carry a sickle or sythe. 

I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold.

And I don't have those skull-like 

facial features you seem to enjoy

pinning on me from a distance. You

want to know what I truly look like?

I'll help you out. Find yourself 

a mirror...