“May I live a thousand years and never hunt again.”

- The Princess Bride

Well, I had this wonderfully long post about God’s love and how trust in Him allows us to love Him and others better, but I decided my poor readers, few and scattered as they are, would seek better thoughts elsewhere.

So, in honor of half-Singles Awareness Day, I present a post about…

The Cotton Gin

I think it was a pretty cool thing to invent, even though it probably didn’t help abolish slavery and all that. In any case, it’s just kinda funny to think that some people would think about drinking cotton alcohol. I don’t understand how some people can be all that adventurous.

I really like that old PBS show, Square One. I was just thinking about it the other day. It really made math fun; you know, like those edutainment sorts of things. I loved the music videos, and I appreciate them even more now. Mathman’s the greatest, and those quiz shows were superb. I’ll never forget But Who’s Counting? and Don Juan-Two-Three.

Speaking of late 80s/early 90s TV programming, does anyone remember the color revolution of the 90s? I totally remember there being a drastic change in color from 1989 to 1990. At first I thought my family got a new TV, but I look at some of the old videos of shows. It’s kinda like how the world suddenly became Technicolor in the middle of the 20th century or whenever. The 80s were really faded, if I remember correctly. I bet life was really boring back when everything was still black and white.

I was watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers today and I remember listening to a commentary that was talking about themes in the movie. Tolkien apparently wrote a lot about hope and despair. Despair was considered the absence of hope – it’s what happens when you think that nothing good can come out of a situation, regardless of where you turn. As I thought about it, I realized how true Paul’s words were in 1 Corinthians 13: Love always hopes. So we should always hope, because God loves us, and we never know what’s coming next. There’s a promise for us to hold onto as well: Romans 8:28 – “And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” So I will try to remain fixed in God’s love, and hope all good things for my future.

God’s amazingly good, isn’t He? He doesn’t need us for anything, so we can’t offer Him anything He doesn’t already own. Even our lives – though our choices and thoughts are independent of Him, He brings all things together for His glory. I suppose He doesn’t own our love – by His grace and love we have the free will to reject Him and love something/someone other than Him. But our love for Him is enabled by His love for us, and through Jesus Christ. So He is still the originator of all things, and the creator of all things.

It’s a comforting thought – no matter what I do or what I want, my primary purpose has nothing to do with what I give to God, but everything to do with how I respond to God. So there’s no need to run myself ragged with various projects or disciplines that attempt to glorify God with my own strength. While the disciplines of reading Scripture, prayer, and the like are important to the Christian life, they don’t foster intimacy with God any more than reading books and talking foster intimacy with your spouse. Let’s learn to respond to God, rather than expect God to respond to us. That’s where true worship comes – responding to God in the right ways, as an astute theologian pointed out.

So I’ve been spending time thinking about how good God is and how I don’t have to do anything. I don’t deserve Him, and yet He pursues me and calls me by name. He loves me unconditionally, with forgiveness and grace to deal with my imperfections. He’s showered me with so many gifts to enjoy – why don’t I enjoy them? Why am I not thankful? “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…” (James 1:17). And it’s His delight to give good gifts to those He loves. He also rewards those “who earnestly seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). So it’s a heavenly right and privilege to enjoy what He has given us and praise Him for what He has taken away.

Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name!
Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious name!

Blessed Be Your Name
Matt Redman and Beth Redman
© 2002 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)