Delight

"Bliss."
1. supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment
2. (Theology) the joy of heaven
3. heaven; paradise

Synonyms: joy, happiness, delight.

(From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bliss and https://www.google.com/search?q=Bliss+definition&oq=bliss+definition&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l5.4998j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8)

"Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

the Lord bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

from those whose walk is blameless.

Lord Almighty,

blessed is the one who trusts in you."

--Psalm 84:10-12

I used to think of bliss as a distraction from the important things, but really, bliss is that place one step away from experiencing heaven. 

Bliss happens when you delight yourself in the Lord.

I read the passage above this morning in my quiet time, and this part stuck out to me: "no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless...blessed is the one who trusts in you."

God really does love His children. He doesn't spoil them, but He surely likes bless them...just because. 

For example, yesterday, while I was walking my dog around in my backyard, I saw that my favorite tree had almost lost all of its leaves. Looking down, I saw a multitude of beautifully colored leaves and collected a few:

 

Aren't they lovely?

They remind me of how beautiful God is and that while the world is constantly changing, there are still things that never change like beauty, love, truth, and goodness. 

My point is: delight yourself in the Lord. 

God gives blessings everyday, but it's hard to always recognize them. That's why it's so important to be on the lookout for the things that will catch your eye. They just might be presents from God telling you that He loves you and thinks you're amazing. :)

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." --Psalm 37:4

Two Poems Diverged

One of my new favorite movies, Dead Poets Society, mentions two poems that have struck me in these last few days. One is an excerpt from Henry David Thoreau's Walden about why one would go to the woods, and the other is a poem by Walt Whitman called "Oh Me! Oh Life!" which answers the ever-popular question, "Why are we here, in the world, and what is our purpose?"

The reason why I mention these two poems together is that they both attempt to answer this question with two different perspectives.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear, nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to 'glorify God and enjoy him forever.'"

Thoreau makes a very good point, that we are here to choose life over death, and to avoid the realization at the end of our lives that we had not lived.

Unfortunately, he says that "most men...have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to 'glorify God and enjoy him forever.'"

What a shame, to believe that such a glorious calling is nothing but a hasty conclusion!

If I were to visit the woods, this would be my purpose: to enjoy God and glorify Him. At this season of my life, I praise God every day for the trees. The leaves and their colors are absolutely captivating, and it my heart skips a beat realizing that God made me ruler of all of it (as well as you!); that you and I are in fact the crowning glory of those beautiful colors on the leaves, the constellations in the stars on the dark night sky, and the brightness that overcomes the cold morning air in the sunrise at the beginning of every day: that all of us were made to top those beautiful sights, and to give our glory back to the Lord (2 Peter 1:3-11, ESV).

I disagree with Thoreau: this is not a hasty conclusion at all. I did not come up with that conclusion on my own. It is in fact what I was assigned to do by the Voice of Truth Himself on the day He gave me breath (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, ESV). It's not a conclusion I made for myself: it's a calling.

I believe that Walt Whitman describes the facts of life much better: that amongst our hurt and pain, our hearts cry out, "Oh me! Oh life!" and "what could I possibly be good for?"

"O Me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer. 
That you are here-that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

Whitman knows quite well that we are sad wretches, searching around the earth for an answer to what we are good for, what we were made for, and why we are here, still daring to live. The answer: that we're here! That we are a part of a beautiful story set all around us, and we are important characters in it! And that our lives will contribute a verse to the greatest play of all time.

As Professor Keating very well stated, "What will your verse be?"

"I'm Thankful For..." Link-Up

It's that time of the year again. Thanksgiving is a little over a week from now. Schools are studying Plymouth Plantation, the cooks of the families are making the longest grocery lists known to man, and Macy's, once again, is planning the ultimate parade.

But what is Thanksgiving really about? Surely it's not only about eating twice as much as you really should one day per year, and watching football or parades.

No, it's about taking time to think about all of God's graces and blessings in our lives that we have to thank Him for.

Here are a few of my favorite things to be thankful for:

1. Interests and Talents
Imagine a world where humans were talent-less, had no inspiration or creativity, and no capability to do something great for God. I'm so thankful for that opportunity: to wake up every day and decide to glorify God with the talents He gave me and the interests that He has set in my heart.

2. Family
This is one of the obvious Sunday school answers, but at the same time, it's actually profound. I remember reading an article several months ago about a cause supporting orphans in Romania who were psychologically harmed. It was so sad to see some of the videos that were posted and how none of those children had any family that was willing to give them support to lead exceptional and extraordinary lives. That's why I'm especially thankful this year to be with my family every day. Thanks to them, I'll be able to truly celebrate Thanksgiving, and I think that's something that a lot of Americans often take for granted.

3. Education
Education is a bit more than being past the point of unintelligence, or just being able to say that we're smart, or have a bigger brain than an alligator. Education is the gift from God in which we learn how to think, not what to think. I'm grateful that I have so many wonderful educational opportunities that teach me how to think critically, follow Christ, and pursue the interests and talents that (again), God has given me to glorify Him.

4. Friends
I've had some bumpy roads this year with a couple of friendships of mine. But through those rough times, I've learned to be patient and loving, and even trusting the people who care about me, even when there's a risk of getting hurt in the end (but there's also a chance of wonderful things to happen as well). On top of that, I've learned that I have to love the Lord above all else, because He is the only one who gives me self-worth. 

5. Communication
Where would anyone be without the ability to communicate? For crying out loud, this blog would be non-existent. We'd all probably be swaying to and fro in the fetal position trying to figure out how to live life on our own since we would have no capability to get help from others. I think that loving our neighbors strongly connects to communication. It's so fascinating how a 6 word tweet can bring thousands of people to a concert, or 500 words can change minds when they are spoken on a podium. I've even seen people's hearts turned around over one Bible verse. I'm thankful for our ability to communicate. Without it, we'd likely be able to truly love one another.

Now it's your turn! I have created a link-up for all of you readers to share what you are thankful for. If you're having trouble thinking of some, don't worry! The link-up ends on Monday, December 2nd, so you have plenty of time.

Don't forget to comment on this post, invite your friends to follow this blog, and have fun linking-up!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods." --Psalm 95:2-3

The 30-Day Blog Challenge, Day 21: On My Mind

Prompt: 5 things on your mind.

1) Thanksgiving
It's at this time of year that I really begin to think about what I'm thankful for. I know that I'm thankful for the obvious "Sunday School" answers: I'm thankful for my Savior, my home, my family, food, an education, etc. But what are the things that I'm thankful that I normally don't think about?

2) Friendships
When you attend an online school with thousands of kids all over the world, you'd think that you wouldn't feel very lonely. But this is one of the rare times that I truly do feel lonely. Part of that is because I'm an introvert, so I'm not very proactive when it comes to making friends and building relationships. I realized last week that in order to truly maintain friendships and relationships with people, you have to proactively seek out time with them, instead of waiting for natural events to give you the opportunity.

3) Talents
Some of you might be familiar with the mild stress, worry, and concern that comes from college prep in junior year of high school. Almost every college prep pamphlet, website, and program in the world tells high school juniors to ponder what they love doing, what they're talents are, and how to apply that to an expertise for adulthood. Obviously, it's kind of scary to think about. "What if I'm not as good at this as all the other kids my age are, so it's not as impressive to college entrance administrators?" "What if I turn out not to like this particular area of interest 10 years from now, even though I absolutely adore it now?" "How do I choose between these two interests?" "How do I turn as weird of an interest as this one into a career?" Lots of questions, lots of thinking, lots of unnecessary worry, because I know that I have a lot more time than I intuitively think. I just need to keep analyzing what I enjoy, and ask God to help me sort out what His plan is for me.

4) Reading
I used to really love reading a lot, but now I'm not finding the inspiration to do so. I think one of the problems is that I overwhelm myself with school reading by putting it off (because they're not always fun to read) and then I decide that I can't read anything because I feel guilty reading anything else but schoolwork. I'm figuring out that if I catch up and keep up, then I'll have a lot more time to read what I truly enjoy. But for right now, I'm very behind, and I need to focus hard on catching up.

5) 10,000 hours
Back to the talents again. An author named Malcolm Gladwell said that the approximate amount of time that a true expert spends in his field of work is about 10,000 hours, or around ten years. I think I know what I want to spend 10,000 hours in, but to look at that number is both inspiring and daunting at the same time. But that number keeps haunting me... Ten thousand hours of practice in order to achieve expertise. How will I spend ten thousand hours of my life?

Question for the Reader: What's on your mind?

"Jesus answered, 'Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.'" --John 11:9