Masterpiece

I like to write, that’s probably one of the main reasons I started a blog. Why I like to write is what makes me continue this blog. You see, it’s not about who reads. It’s not about what someone else thinks about what I write. It’s not about popularity, or fame, or fortune, or … name something else. For me it is about exploring who I am. I mean, when I have passed through this world, have a left it a better place than when I arrived? Have I grown my spirit? Am I striving to be better today than I was yesterday? Am I becoming the masterpiece that my Master has seen? That is why I write, so I can please Him.

A master calligrapher was writing some characters onto a piece of paper. One of his especially perceptive students was watching him. When the calligrapher was finished, he asked for the student’s opinion – who immediately told him that it wasn’t any good. The master tried again, but the student criticized the work again. Over and over, the calligrapher carefully redrew the same characters, and each time the student rejected it. Finally, when the student had turned his attention away to something else and wasn’t watching, the master seized the opportunity to quickly dash off the characters. “There! How’s that?,” he asked the student. The student turned to look. “THAT…. is a masterpiece!” he exclaimed.

Find more at: barefootpreachr.org

Stinking Thinking

Tomorrow is trash pick-up day at our house and tonight is the night we spend some time cleaning out the fridge and gathering the scattered wastebaskets from around the house. Sometimes we have old smelly things that have been shoved into the back of a drawer or behind another container. We may have forgotten about that leftover and now it has turned into a smelly, moldy, unrecognizable mess.

Sometimes this also happens to our thoughts and affects our behavior towards ourselves and others. Have you ever found yourself spiraling into negative thoughts about yourself and/or others? Your day started all wrong - your alarm didn't go off at the right time, you were late getting out the door so you got stuck in traffic and were even later to your appointment. Then, while standing in line that woman in front of you kept asking a lot of questions, couldn't she just sit down and figure out the paperwork for herself? Finally you realize that she can't read and you are upset with yourself for acting like a fool so you mentally berate yourself until you are no longer upset with her, but are now upset with yourself. And the spiral of negative thinking has begun.

How do we stop this spiral of negative thinking? Oftentimes we don't even realize how our judgmental thinking is affecting our concept of God and of ourselves. God has given us the strength to live and grow in our relationship with him and has given us the strength to become more than what we are so we may become all of which we have been created to be. I have found that when I remember that we - this includes me! - are created in the image of God, I am able to accept my limitations and weaknesses so that God's strength can overcome my judgmental attitudes. I think this quote by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh says it quite well - "You are carrying a masterpiece hidden within you, but you are standing in the way. Just move aside, then the masterpiece will be revealed. Everyone is a masterpiece, because God never gives birth to anything less than that. Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it. God himself has created you; you cannot be improved."

Oops ~ looks like it's time to remove the trash. Don't let trashy thinking litter your mind and ruin your life!

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." ~ Genesis 1:27