A chance to live

The woman closes her eyes, as if to shut out the memory that still haunts her. But her mind takes her back regardless of her efforts not to remember...

He returns home one Saturday night after another night at the pub. She hears his heavy, irregular footsteps as he clumsily heads for the kitchen. She knows he will be drunk (he always is), and she knows he will come and find her. "Why isn't my dinner waiting for me on table?", he will shout, throwing out his fist to cast her to the floor like an unwanted dog. She holds her little girls close and waits for the inevitable shout...

She turns to her now older daughter, a spitting image of her grandmother at nineteen years of age. "If I had have known you would go through all of that suffering, I would never have had kids", she tells her.

The wisdom of her daughters continues to surprise her: "No, Mum. I'm thankful that you did have us. Yes, there's been hard times, but we've got through it all. I'm just grateful that we have been given the chance to live."

* * *

A lot of us wonder sometimes why God created people if he knew they would do wrong. Of course, when God created Adam and Eve, they were good - they chose to love God out of their own free will. But then they chose to turn away from Him and live their own way. They handed themselves over to evil - and God's perfect world became corrupt and sinful. So why did God create people, seeing as he knows all things and he would have known the world would turn out this way?

It is because he wanted so much to have relationship with us, his creation. Even though there would be trouble in the world, and suffering, and even though it would cost his only Son to make it possible for us to have relationship with him again, God knew it would be worth it. He gave us a chance to live - a chance to do things the right way, a chance to make some good in this fallen world, a chance to choose to love Him. You've got your chance. Are you going to take it?

Millions of questions; two answers

In a book I'm reading at the moment the author poses a thought-provoking argument in the early chapters. He suggests that the vast majority of debates relating to the value of life, morality, and so on, boil down to two major worldviews that are gripped in a fierce battle (in America at least). These two worldviews relate to two views of how the universe (including humans) came to exist: one that views the universe as being bought into existence by a Creator; and the other, that views the universe as having evolved through natural causes.

It would take many blog posts to cover this topic (maybe just read the book for yourself). But it does simplify things a lot for me. Basically, decisions based on the Creation view take into account the fact that humans will be made accountable for their actions to God. Human life has immense value because people are created in the image of God, and each life is precious in His sight. On the other hand, decisions based on a naturalistic view may uphold the power of an individual to make their own choices as paramount. Or perhaps the 'greater good'.

Abortion, for example, is at present permitted in Australia, because the naturalistic view is preferred by many Australians (or perhaps, they do not see where allowing abortion may conflict with a belief in God). I oppose abortion because I do not believe we should terminate the life of a human being, be they born or unborn. Naturalism, however, is 'pro choice' - it emphasises the choice of the mother as being paramount. We can see how, in this example, the real war is between two worldviews, not just between two sides of a current debate. Anti-abortionists campaign so vigorously because they know the underlying principles that are at stake - those that determine the value we place on human life. And our decisions on these matters have widespread ramifications.

There are limitations to this concept: an important one that comes to mind is that there are those who reject naturalism but also reject creationism - and these type of worldviews are growing in popularity.

I might blog more about this later. In the meantime, I'd encourage you to think about what lies at the heart of your beliefs. Why do you believe what you do? And if your worldview was held by everybody, what do you think the world would be like?

I know that most of us would like the whole world to believe what we do, but I want to challenge you to take your beliefs to their extreme end and examine them. What would happen if there were (insert-your-worldview-here) extremists, or if your views about some debates were transferred to others and the whole world followed that system of beliefs and values? What would that world be like? Is it a nice place to live?

Another question: is their congruency to your actions? That is, if you believe that life is precious, do you treat every individual person you meet accordingly? Now there's a challenge, to me also...

Like I said, I'll blog more about this later.

For more info about worldview, check out this post.

Tidy Teddy

Teddy is my loo. He's just been given a new name to signify a new era in his waste-disposing life. To tell you the truth, Teddy had a bit of a gunk problem. Although he'd been kept cosmetically and pathologically clean, he had a significant build-up of a strange brown gunk underneath the part where the seat is attached.
And so I decided, after over 17 years of gunk accumulation, that I was going to conquer the gunk. And conquer it I did.
It took a lot to remove the gunk at Teddy' behind; I first had to take the black seat off (an exercise in itself as one of the bolts was jammed), and then use a strange concoction of all the cleaning products I could find to try to loosen the gunk's grip on the porcelain's posterior. In the end, I believe it was Mr Muscle and a good deal of elbow grease that did it.
After scraping the strange gunk off, I then had a very messy floor to deal with. After that, I had to scrape yet more gunk off the black seat - I found this easier to do by soaking it in the bath and then scrubbing with all the energy I had left.
By this time, I'd been going about three hours. But transforming a toilet this dramatically is an excellent way to impress your mother. So, it was worth it.
And just look at Teddy now!

I bet you're expecting that I'll come up with some deep and meaningful life lesson from this experience. Well, I did :). I was thinking that Teddy is just like a person's heart. With years of no attention, Teddy got the most amazing gunk build-up I've ever seen. In the same way, if a person is not continually growing in character, and dealing with the things in their life that are not healthy (such as unforgiveness, bitterness, pride), they quickly build up a kind of spiritual 'gunk', that is really difficult to deal with if it's been left a long time. This is why I try to work on my character every day, so that each day I'm being refined and improved, instead of leaving heart problems unresolved, which are going to take a lot of intensive work to correct.
How do I work on my character every day? I've found an incredible resource in the Bible. The Bible has so much in it about how to become a better person. I also pray and ask God to show me the areas of my life that need improving. He always does show me, and I commit to working on those things with His help until they improve. Give it a try - and everyone around you will notice you being transformed.

Pictures of Resilience

I realised that in this post I only gave you half the picture. I didn't show you the plants in my garden that are surviving the drought; these are images of resilience and strength as they fight to outlast the big dry.









We all look at the world through lenses - the expectations and presuppositions that determine what meaning we attach to what we see, and which things we notice above others.

What lenses do you wear? Do you always see the negative things in life, or the positives? How do you see people? Do you reprimand them always for their weaknesses, or do you encourage them for their strengths? Because in the same way that I only saw the dying plants in my yard, ignoring those that are thriving, your perspective on life can determine whether you see hopelessness or promise, impossibility or potential.

Those who always see negativity are programming themselves for failure; but those who always see possibility set themselves up for success.

The age of the discount store

Over the last few years I've seen a massive increase in what I would call 'discount stores' - shops that offer damaged, plain-brand or over-their-used-by-date stock at very low prices. I personally love these shops - and I think a great number of other Australians do too. These are the shops that are always full - and their patrons commonly emerge carrying boxes full of cheap goods, at least believing they've saved 'a packet'.


Can you really make any decent saving by shopping at these places? I reckon you can - but there's a few things to be aware of.


1 - How far do you travel to get to the store? A 15min extra drive just to save 20c on a carton of milk is clearly not worth it! Your saving here depends on how much cheaper your grocery bill is, compared to the cost of your transport.


2 - Beware of ripoffs in 'bargain' costumes. Take note of what you pay at each store. Not everything is a real saving. I think some of these places make money by having slightly overpriced items hidden amongst the real savings, which easily fool unsuspecting customers.


3 - Would you buy it if it wasn't on special? This is the thing that almost gets me every time. I see something at an incredibly low price, and buy it simply because of its great price, not necessarily because I need it. My tip is to make a list, and stick to that list. Only deviate on items you know for sure you will use (before they go out of date). Too many times I've walked out of a store having spent way more than I intended, on things I don't really need, which is not really a saving at all.