Thinking Philosophically...



Know Thyself:  

"Know thyself."--ancient Greek aphorism. Part of this can be 'ignoring the multitude' in what they think about you. Know what God says about you and take it to heart. Only when you know who you truly are will you be able to have real joy, hope, and peace.  Don't strive to be somebody or something else or more. Instead, learn, acknowledge and become who you are. God has placed a special beauty inside of you that shows a part of who He is in a unique way. Learn to recognize this and seek it out. God is using you wherever you are.

Questions:

 Don't forget to ask those deeper "Why?" questions. ----- "Why are these bad things happening?", "Why is the world so beautiful (nature, etc.)?" "Why are people beautiful?", "What does beauty truly look like?", "Why aren't people enough to fill me?", "Where does music come from, why is it so lovely?" etc.  These types of questions may seem unanswerable or unknowable at times, but know that you can get closer to the answer, at least. They may be frustrating or hard to think about, but if you really search, you will find. Hard times cause us to draw back into more important things and bring us closer together. Through pain and trial, with triumph in the end, the sorrows make the ending picture more beautiful.  Where could lovely music come from, but from something transcendent, beautiful, and eternal? How could we compose and play that music if not somehow connected to that eternal source? Why are we beautiful and nature so beautiful? We do not make ourselves essentially, so the beauty does not come from us. It is bestowed in and upon us. Hmm. Why is beauty bestowed upon us and given us through nature? Because we are made to reflect something, Some One greater.  Why can't people fill us and we long for more? Why are horrible things allowed to happen? The aches and longings within us, heart cries for 'more', the wake up call from extreme events, bring us to a place of need and move us toward something greater. God wants us to know Him. In seeing the whole picture, we can see in our lives and throughout history (plus in the Bible it's explained alongside past history) the ways He does this. Ask Him to show you. : D


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Through hardships, God is causing me to have to look to Him and look at the big picture of things.  He's trying to reveal to me who I really am, and to stop looking at myself in the light of my iniquities.  He wants to be my source and strength.  He's teaching me that what He wants more than me to do good things for Him, is for me to really let Him be my source and strength.  I love him because he first loved me and it's not for what good I do.  It is for who I am, he loves me despite what I do.  This realization sinking in makes such an impact in my life.  God is showing me that He is using me wherever I am because He has bestowed beauty in me that shows the world Him, wherever I am.  We all have this in us in different ways, but many don't recognize it or know what it is.  Walk in His strength, He is your source, because all you have that is of any true worth, was put in you by Him.  

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