I don’t keep up on CCM very well myself…partly because it’s not uncommon to hear in the text of some artists’ song lyrics things which are doctrinally off base, partly because of style preferences, and partly simple logistics; time. I tend to come across individual songs, and a few artists, which “tickle my fancy”. My proclivity is more to worship music. I also like it when I come across modern renderings of some of the older hymns…like Jars of Clay’s “Redemption Songs”". All that said, I love music, and my tastes are pretty eclectic…I’m going to try to see Michael Card in concert tonight. I really like Nichole Nordeman because she’s earthy and honest, both in style and content; candidly depicting the inner reality of the struggling, growing, learning believer’s experience .

 ”One does not wish to denigrate earth and matter, of course, but one must also admit, along with the Buddha, that in oh, so many ways, “to live is to suffer.”  “  Acceptance of that simple fact was a seminal moment in my growth, both as a believer and an individual. I had picked up the book, popular at the time, “The Road Less Traveled“, by M. Scott Peck. I read, on the first page, the following:

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths* [*The first of the 'Four Noble Truths' which Buddha taught was 'Life is suffering.'] It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult–once we truly understand and accept it–then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

“Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been specially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share.
“Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? “

Although I found much with which I disagreed in Peck’s writings, this passage opened my eyes. I saw that the world, and life’s difficulties, “are what they are”, and acceptance of this freed me to pursue living life, attacking its challenges with solution in mind, and the energy-sapping wasted pursuit of “moaning” as Peck calls it, about how unfair life is, began to cease to be a key player in my internal life. I had read countless times that

” …your father who is in heaven…makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” ( Matthew 5:45) ,
 
and knew that God is just, but often operated in my attitude as if

“God is a mean kid sitting on an anthill with a magnifying glass, and I’m the ant. He could fix my life in five minutes if He wanted to, but he’d rather burn off my feelers and watch me squirm.” ( Jim Carrey’s character, Bruce, in Bruce Almighty).

It has alway been interesting to me the way epiphinal moments come together. In one focused instant, I got it…the delusional cloud ( that is, that existence shouldn’t be difficult; that God was singling me out for hardship, or something akin to that) which had obscured so much of my vision and ability to freely enjoy and pursue life, dissipated with the acceptance  of the universe, life, God, myself, others; EVERYTHING…. as God has allowed it to be, in His just, loving wisdom, also helping me be better able to trust that

“…all things are working together for good to those who love God…”   (Romans 8:28) 

nate: Absolutely! By the way, would you mind it if I came to one or more of your soccer games?

Breath_of_Dawn:  No, but the group through which I’ve been working the past few years functions similarly to “Habitat”. It’s more openly Christian; that is, they make sure it is “proclaimed” that it is in the name of Christ, and because of His love for people, that those who work to build the homes, do so. (Did you know that Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization? I hadn’t realized that until sometime in the last year.) The homeowner-to-be, or their proxy, has to put in “sweat equity” by working on a number of other homes, as well as their own. The church and other volunteer groups who come and labor provide the funds for the building materials. Probably the biggest difference from Habitat, as it works in the States is that these people usually will never have the ability to pay for the home or materials..unlike the US, where the owner is left with a home, and an affordable/nominal house payment.

I also had two years of Latin, and the only reason I  a) didn’t have a third year, and b) took French, was that they had  canceled third-year Latin at the time I went to sign up…C’est la vie!