Pain a Beautiful Thing!

Well I figured it was about time to update my blog, two months between entries is a bit much I know. But then I had nothing worth saying, and now I do, so I will remedy the current situation.
I have come to the conclusion that we need to suffer pain. I know that some of you are calling me an idiot right now, but please stick with me.
We all want to be people that are kind, generous, and that others look at and say “there goes an awesome person”. But have you ever thought of the struggles that the people you look at and admire go through? We as Christians are often heard to say and pray, “Make me like Jesus” but do we ever really consider what really is going to mean for us? Jesus loved humanity so much that he died for us, do we really want die for others so that they might know his love?
But back to the topic of pain! Going through pain and suffering allows us the opportunity to cling to God, and to look to him for our rescue. No one else can carry us through the storm of life, and when we look to our heavenly Father for our strength we begin to take on his beauty.
God wants his children to be like him, and the only way we can truly become like him is to develop the fruits of his spirit. Those are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) The problem is to grow these fruits requires doing them, and living them out hurts, it costs us something.
Today in some churches there is idea that life should be sweet, but this is a misguided notion. Life is not going to be a breeze for Christians, because to follow Christ hurts, it costs us and so it should, Christ paid with his very life should we expect any less? Jesus said, “Pick up your cross and follow me”, he did not say, “stretch out your lazyboy and relax.”
God does not cause pain, let me just make that crystal clear, the fall of man brought that about, and Satan continues hurl it at us, but God only allows it to happen so that we might become more like him.
God also hurts when we do, there is no doubt in my mind that God’s heart breaks at the pain of starving children in Africa, or at the pain of women sold into slavery, or at the hate poured out on homosexuals and the pain they feel inflicted by people in the churches. (I am not condoning the sin of homosexuality, but I am saying that God loves them, and so should we.) I think that God allows this pain so that we have an opportunity to do something about it.
Life is guaranteed to be hard, but if we want to be truly beautiful people then we need to be ready for the beautiful thing called pain.

Extreme Beauty

I was watching the show Extreme Makeover last night, I always find myself morbidly fascinated. It amazes me what surgeons can do to a person to make them look more attractive supposedly. But I found myself thinking last night, how does God feel? It says in Psalm 139 verse 14, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works.” That being the case that we are all in God eyes a piece of extraordinary workmanship what a slap in the face that it must be to Him when people want nose jobs, bigger breasts, squarer jaws and straighter teeth. It is also true that my gender is the worst! Whatever happened to wanting to be unique?
Now I know that plastic surgery has done wonders for the medical profession, (I am having a limp corrected in the near future), so people who have medical conditions and will be healthier as a result of having plastic or corrective surgery I have no problem with. But shows like Extreme Makeover are taking normal people who have nothing wrong with them, (except a lack of self esteem) and putting them under the knife and turning them into Hollywood clones. In essence these people are saying that what God did wasn’t good enough. What an insult!
As a woman of the 21st century it is horrendous battle trying not to get sucked into the beauty myth myself. But having a correct sense of what it means to be truly beautiful helps. For me the Proverbs 31 woman has it down to an art. This proverb speaks nothing of looks. In fact it clearly states, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.” Proverb 31 speaks of doing good to all and giving of oneself to other without complaint. Beauty is not a way of looking, but a way of being, it is an attitude that we can all choose.

Slaving Away!

I went with a group of friends a couple of weeks go to see the film Amazing Grace, I thought it was fantastic and if you haven't seen it already then get on your bike and get down to the movies, because it is awesome.The movie was made to commenmorate 200 years since the abolition of slavery, a bill that was sucessfully brought to the House of Lords by William Wilberforce.The thing that gets me though, is that the illegal act of Human trafficking is worse in our time, today, than it was in Wilberfoce's day. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, that is more than the whole intire population of Australia! We should be outraged, what if it were you who was forced against your will to perform sexual acts, or to be a solidier an an army that kidnapped you, or forced to work in a rice field just to survive.Now I know this blog is confrontational, for that I make no apologies! But there is no need to give up on this issue because you feel the problem is too big, there are things we can all do. Here is a list: 1 . Buy fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate 2. Ask the cafes that you go to if they are using fair trade products
3. Buy Christmas gifts from places like world vision and oxfam 4. Buy only Australian made clothingThis list is only smal but it is a start! I will have more ideas as I find out more information, but if your'e interested in knowing more just google "abolition of slavery" and you are sure to find something. This was a huge issue in Wilburforces's time, and it is an even bigger issue in ours, but let's take the journey together, one step at a time, to abolish slavey for good!Shannon

First Blog Ever...knd of

Well this is my first Blog entry ever! It is kind of wierd because I am not that much of an interesting person, I live a rather mundane exsistence of a Theology student so why I need a blog is beyond me but I now have one so there you go!Feel free to comment and just say hi, I love ot when people want to talk to me so maybe this will be good thing after all.I will endevour to write something more interesting later, but for now that's all she wrote
Shannon