Nourishing and Tempting

Ok, I accept. Most of the time I forget to pray before I eat my food. It especially happens when I am very hungry. I have caught myself chewing/gulping when I remember and start praying.

So it was a thunderbolt when a friend equaled that to what Eve did in Eden, with the fruit. "Good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes". Oh yes, nourishing and tempting that it can even cloud being thankful for our food.

Mom always reminded us of the thousands who have no food/no proper food. Lord, help me to be thankful everyday, for the food in my plate!

925 million undernourished people in the world today. Check where people are hungry in this map. Courtesy: Wfp.org
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp229328.pdf

Christmas lights?

Oh they are beautiful! Lights everywhere. On trees, on the bushes,even on the tall buildings, on the fence, on the rooftops, the houses, the streets on either side of the roads! The whole city is lit up. I have never seen anything like that before.Red, green and gold!

I sure was carried away, by the beauty of all of it.

Amidst all the beauty, and the excitement, as someone who has seen the otherside of the world, I can't help but gasp at the huge diversity!

But seeing the below display, made me beam wide!

Shopping or Cemetry?

Call me weird, but I like going to the cemetry. Just walking around, reading the epitaphs, calculating their age, and matching the family members! Old tombstones -100-200 years old are even more interesting. Would they have known, that someone from this century would read about them??

It is one place with NO activity. A place so silent, and so still. It seems the world stops spinning there. People who were alive and kicking, with friends, family, someone who laughed, was hugged, kissed, and loved, are now jst a name above the ground. Here lies someone who was once dedicated hardworker, a loving mother, an intelligent scientist, a millionare, a talented singer, a kind doctor they all end up six feet under. Whatever they worked for, lived for, their aspirations, their achievements, everything comes to a standstill. 99% of those who are buried there, don't come there willingly. Ironic aint it.

Working for a leading death care industry, I finaly got the opportunity to see one of their cemetry. The very STRANGE thing, which I've never seen in India was, those well and alive ( not dead), leave their name on the tombstone, with their birthyear. ( Seems it is cheaper to add only the death year later- like that of the picture). Weird? I think that actualy makes you well prepared for that big day. Afterall, that's bound to happen anytime!

Oh yeah, going to a cemetry is less intidimating than shopping. Atleast for weirdo me!

None

Who wants to do nothing? Get up late, laze around, do absolutely nothing all day, but still get paycheck? What do you think?? My pastor asked us to raise our hands. Few hands went up. He asked us again, and this time to tell the truth. :) He raised his hands first. We all did. It felt good to know that its just not me!

Bare minimum. That's what we do at times. Barely getting by. Do nothing, but want to get reward. Easy life. No trouble, no hiccups. Just glide through.

But God wants us to give our best. The best of our strength, our finances, relationships,our health,our time, life. Lesson from the parable of talents. The king does ask for returns. We ought to give the max effort, with whatever we have. Fight against our own desire to be lazy or to do just the bare minimum, but maximise all that we have to the full potential, making use of every opportunity.

He went on, 'God put us in the field to play'. We are just happy to be in the team, and if we don't watch the ball, but just linger around the outfield, you will be chucked out of the field.

Matthew 25:14-30

Restless

I dono why, but recently when I read the passage of Judas, where he decides to betray Christ, it occured to me how he would have felt. Satan had entered into him. and you can imagine, how that would have been. CHAOTIC. The struggle, restlessness, all the worst possible ideas, confusion, doubt, fear, anger, despair. He gave in and then finaly gave up his very life.

I am bad in taking decisions ( big or small), thinking on the pros and cons, what might, what may not, working out the permutation and combination, it is a mess(h) of thoughts. But when the thoughts are too overwhelming, and over controlling that it overflows, we are restless, with too much going on in our minds. Yes or a no, to be or not to be. Yickes. It sure drives me crazy.

But I have learnt to understand that Satan loves keeping me confused( he sure is jumping with joy), pouring out doubts and flow of random, irregular thoughts that can tangle me and get me tied up. It can cloud our minds so bad, that it boxes us up, all we are is restless and a wall builds up blocking the face of God. For after all that's his goal to keep us away from God.

So the key is to turn our eyes upon Jesus, to look full in his wonderful face. And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace!! Oh the tight situation remains. Being cornered and demanded of a decision.Yes or No. To be or not to be. But inspite of everything, I sure know, that God gives me the peace that surpasses all understanding, the wisdom to discern and the strength to say, not my will, but your will be done and After all, it is he who is holding me, and I can see his smile on his eyes. http://nebeula.blogspot.com/2009/01/uncertainty.html

and when we praise God, and put on our smile from the heart, inspite of the mess we are in, haha I can see the frown on the face of our foe.

What's your point in life?

What's your point in life? What are you doing? Life is brief. Too brief that we may be here today and gone tomorrow. So, what's your point in life? A question directed to those gathered at church on Sunday evening.

Is our life pointing at our job, our bank account? None of it is worth it, when you lay still at your funeral.

It is worth it, only if my life is pointing to Christ. Just like John the Baptist. He must increase and I must decrease in all that I do.

Huh, where am I pointing!

Ironic

Looking at the fish pond we cleaned last week, a friend asked if I had ever cleaned a fish pond at home. We have a 'fish tank' home, and yes I was the one who cleaned it, but it hit me real hard, if I had ever cleaned it that eagerly.

I remember my mom whenever I am in the yard. She loved plants. Flowers. Did I share her interests? I never watered the plants. I hardly took time to even look at them. She was the one planting them, watering them, re-planting them, admiring them, talking to them. My mom fed the street dogs. She saved all the leftovers for them.

She was the one who locked the gate at night, opened it in the morning. Got us coffee to our beds. Breakfast, lunch, dinner to the table. Kept the house tidy. Washed the clothes, got it ironed and neatly stored in the cupboard. She was the 'finder' of our house. Keys, purse, Id cards, shirts, bags, books, pens, letters. She could find all the lost items. She called twice daily to ensure I reached safely and left office on time. Waited eagerly till I get home. Checked if I ate properly. Forced to take any medicines.

Alrite, all the above just makes me more guilty and miss mom. Why I started writing this? Well, she had been tirelessly cooking, cleaning, working hard all her life for us. I wonder if I ever did help her out without 'hurry', without 'irritation', without 'exasperation', or 'anger'. Did I ever appreciate her for being for us. May be am doing restitution now. Cleaning the fish pond. In another country!! yuck. Cherish your mom or dad. I don't think there's anyone on earth who can love you as they do.

Ex 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

A What?

On my first day, of my first job, I was leaving the building to go home (at 6 PM), when I bumped into my new Manager in the elevator. She asked,"What new thing did you learn today?". I sure had lot of things to say, as it was my first day. She smiled and told me to ask myself this question every evening before leaving work. Growth requires, you learn something new everyday.

Whenever we meet, my Pastor has this question. 'What has God been doing in your life today/this week?'

This week, he asked a bigger one. When we die, and we meet God f2f, he's definitely going to ask, 'What have you done in your life to glorify me'? What is your answer? He also cautioned, that if we had done something for our feel good factor, we have just glorified ourself and not Him.

Luke 19:13So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.'Put this money to work,' he said, 'until I come back.'
15b ..Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out WHAT they had gained with it.

Why sleep?

When we are always racing against time, lining up tasks to do, chores at home, deadlines to meet, complaining we have no time to finish work or spend with family and friends, inspite of so much to do, why do we sleep? When lay our body still, hands and legs doing nothing, mind (as well) absolutely doing nothing, for atleast a minimum of 5-6 hrs?

Sounds silly? It sure does, but why do we sleep? We have no control over eyes shutting close and our body pushing itself to lay down. Neither do we have control over the hunger, when the stomach clocks strikes, there is no way of shutting it up. Try not drinking the whole day, or holding your bladder or keep from batting your eyelid. We just can't.

There are rules, we just can't neglect. Rules of the body. There are rules of life too. We reap, what we sow. No matter how much we try or prove or imagine, 'all's well', what goes around comes around. Big or small. Its horrifying to know that sin demands punishment. The wrath of God is true. There is no escape.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

Chocolate wisdom!

I was watering the plants today, and noticed as the water hit the soil the color changed. The dirt, black and well, dirty dirt, mixed with the water was creamy and I don't know why, but it reminded me of CHOCOLATE. Yes, the creamy, yummy chocolate.

And I wondered, how chocolate became so famous, and favorite. Inspite of its dirty color. The yucky color is more a yummy color now!

And this dawned, what God was trying to teach me: It doesn't matter how you look. It only matters how you taste! To people around you. :)

Col 4:6 'Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt...'