renovation project?

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choice means limitation

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endearing terms

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Untitled

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Choice means Limitations

Taken from Elisabeth Eliot.  I really like this passage, and frankly, I think a lot of people today miss this point and are hence dissatisfied with their choices, regret their lives, and wish each day away.  When you make a choice, you are making the choice not to choose thousands of other options – so live with it!  You can’t have everything, nor are you entitled to everything.

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Do it Afraid

http://www.samradford.com/2009/07/01/stop-allowing-fear-to-undermine-your-potential/?awesm=awkn.ws_2C&utm_campaign=samradford&utm_content=twitterfeed&utm_medium=awkn.ws-twitter&utm_source=direct-awkn.ws

Stop allowing fear to undermine your potential

by SAM RADFORD on JULY 1, 2009

You will never be without fear. There will always be obstacles and challenges that provoke and generate fear. Fear is not something that you can just make disappear.

This leaves us with a critical reality. Will we allow our fear to stop us or will be press on in spite of the fear?

Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is about doing the right thing afraid. Don’t wait until the fear is gone before making that tough decision. Don’t wait until you’re no longer afraid to leave the safety of a comfortable job and pursue the life of your dreams. You’ll be waiting your all life.

Just do what you need to do. Do the right thing. Make that hard choice. I know you’re afraid. I know you have fear permeating every nerve in your body and mind. We all do. My fear may not be your fear. That doesn’t matter. We all have to face our own fears. And we don’t face them by trying to make them disappear; we face them by doing what is the right thing to do in spite of the fear.

Stop waiting. Don’t waste another moment of your life allowing fear to hold your back. Press on. Seize your potential. Do it afraid.

On Giving

Another one from the same:

An excerpt from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

Then said a rich man, “Speak to us of Giving.”
And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are your possessions but things
you keep and guard
for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow
bring to the overprudent dog
burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the
pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full,
the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little
of the much which they have-
and they give it
for recognition and their hidden desire
makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life,
and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy,
and their joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain,
and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not
pain in giving, nor do they seek joy,
nor give with mindfulness of virtue:
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle
breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God
speaks, and from behind their eyes
He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is
better to give unasked, through understanding:
And to the open-handed the search for
one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught your would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given:
Therefore give now, that the season of
giving may be yours and not your inheritors`.

You often say,”I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so,
nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live,
for to with-hold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his
days and nights, is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from
the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be,
than that, which lies in the courage and the
confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend
their bosom and unveil their pride,
that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be
a giver,and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-
while you, who deem yourself a giver are but a witness.

And you receivers- and you are all
receivers- assume no weight of gratitude,
lest you lay a yoke upon
yourself and upon he who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings:
For to be overmindful of your debt,is
to doubt his generosity who has the
free-hearted earth for mother,and God for father

On Love

Another one from the same:

http://www.sfheart.com/love2.html

ON LOVE

An excerpt from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon the people,
and there fell a stillness upon them.
And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them
in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant:
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God`s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you
that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life`s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only
love`s peace and love`s pleasure,
Then it is better for you
that you cover your nakedness and
pass out of love`s threshing floor,
Into the seasonless world where you
shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself,
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed:
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
“God is in my heart,” but rather,
“I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course
of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving:
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love`s ecstasy:
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in you heart
and a song of praise upon you lips.

On Work

I found this poem online somewhere… pretty poignant poem:

http://www.sfheart.com/work.html

An excerpt from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

Then a ploughman said,  Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:

You work that you may keep pace with
the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,
and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty
and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through
whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent,
When all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is
a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil
a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you
when the dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you
are in truth loving life,
And to love life’s labour is to be intimate
with life’s innermost secret.

But if in your pain you would call birth an affliction
and the support of the flesh a curse
written upon your brow,
than I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow
shall wash away that which is written,

You have been told that life is darkness,
and in your weariness you echo what
was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed a darkness
save when there is urge.
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind
yourself to yourself, and to one another,
and to God.

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn
from your own heart,
even as if your beloved
were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved
were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and
reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved
were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion
with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep,
“He who works in marble, and finds the shape
of his own soul in the stone,
is nobler that he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a
cloth in the likeness of man, is more
than he who makes the sandals for our feet.”
But I say, not in sleep but in the over- wakefulness of noontide,
that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks
than to the least of all the blades of grass.
And he alone is great who turns the voice
of the wind into a song made sweeter by
his own loving.

Work is love made visible
And if you cannot work with love but only
with distate, it is better that you should
leave your work and sit at the gate of the
temple and take alms of those who work with joy..
For if you bake bread with indifference
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half
man’s hunger
And if you grudge the crushing of the
grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine
And if you sing though as angels,and
love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears
to the voices of the day and the voices of
the night.

The Hiding Place

I’ve been reading this book lately, called The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  It’s about the Holocaust, and the author is the sole survivor of her modest family.  However, the amazing thing is that she somehow manages, in the trials of her day, to remain at peace and even to evangelize to so many Jews and Germans alike.  I feel inspired – not that I can do those things, but that my daily struggles are so small.  Her words echo through the pages, and I feel frightened for her.  The invasion, the occupation… I’m only on chapter 5, but their incredible faith through all this is amazing.  Every facet of their lives is submitted to Christ – from the watchmaking, to their sicknesses and deaths, to the German occupation and even visions of their torture.  They themselves are not at risk (they are not Jews), yet they risk everything to help their neighbors who are.

Some quotes that spoke to me in my life struggles:

(pg 42): Corrie’s father, Casper: “Some knowledge is too heavy for children .  When you are older and stronger you can bear it.  For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”

(pg 44): Casper: “Our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too.  Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie.  When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need — just in time.”

(pg 60): Casper, after Corrie has unrequited love: “God loves Karel — even more than you do– and if you ask Him, He will give you His love for this man, a love nothing can prevent, nothing destroy.  Whenever we cannot love in the old, human way, Corrie, God can give us the perfect way.”

(pg 80): Betsie, Corrie’s sister, after Corrie has a vision of the Germans taking them away to camps: “if God has shown us bad times ahead, it’s enough for me that He knows about them.  That’s why He sometimes shows us things, you know — to tell us that this too is in His hands.”