Daily Archives: September 21, 2008
50/50
Hey everyone!
I went to church today as I have been doing for the past few Sundays. The service today was a lot different from the others. The message today was about sexuality and how people often abuse it. I think there were many things out of today’s service that most people can agree with and relate with in one fashion or another.
- “Men use love to get sex – Women use sex to find love.” I thought this was a pretty powerful statement, and it’s so true in so many ways.
- “Human beings are created and born from the womb, but only men spend their entire lives trying to get back in.”
The overall sermon was dedicated to showing how people can abuse sexuality, as I mentioned previously. The idea that you’re supposed to become ‘one’ with someone, and just ‘one’ person only, can frighten many people. The problem starts when you become ‘one’ with a person before committing to a lifelong marriage. It seems as though this is why most marriages fail in the end, after just a matter of months or a few years. Too many people are trying to become ‘one’ with more than ‘one’ person, thus making it impossible. How can you become ‘one’ with more than ‘one’ person? Well, you can’t. In 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, Paul tries to explain just why that is. The message below it all, as we went over it earlier, was that if you are already ‘one’ with a partner, having any sexual intercourse with another would only reduce you as a ‘whole’ entity, if it were possible. Simply put, no person (specifically men for this purpose) can be only 50%, 25%, 10% etc…of themselves. It’s impossible, and even though it’s impossible, the very idea behind it is enough to make a statement against sexual immorality. Betraying the ‘idea’ in turn betrays God himself.
It was a pretty wild and open discussion about this today, as we were forced to be honest with ourselves and the rest of the church as far as what we have done in the past (or are currently) doing to betray God in this way as individuals. It was an eye opening experience. Today, I finally convinced myself that I waited too long to start the journey. I have missed out on a lot over the last several years, and I have a lot of ground to make up.
Today’s service ended with the Baptizing of a girl named Emily, a member of the church. It was interesting to watch. I have to say, I’m way too judgemental when it comes to initially making up my mind about whether or not something is right for me or not. Just 3 weeks ago, I was saying Baptism may not be right for me…but after today, it might possibly be in my future…but it’s still a bit too early to tell.
With that said, I’m watching the Emmy’s tonight on TV. Tomorrow morning bright and early at 6am it’s back to work. Have a great night!
This is as close as it gets…
I’m dabbling around on E-Harmony for shits and giggles. The site couldn’t be any more “right” about me. Here is what it came up with, and it’s ALL completely, 100% true:
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| On Emotional Stability you are: | |||
| RESPONSIVE
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| Words that describe you: | |||
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| A General Description of Your Reactivity | |||
| You are an emotional person. In some ways, we are all emotional; we feel joy, anger, sadness and fear; some of us more powerfully than others – and you more powerfully than most. Your emotions are closer to the surface, and your feelings more obvious to you than is the case with most people. You’ve got your life in a good place, your dominant mood is upbeat, and unless life has been particularly trying for you, you greatly enjoy the richness and intensity of life that being so open with your emotions brings you.Sure there are times when your feelings come very close to the surface, and life becomes more complicated. At these times you may grow self-conscious, or feel a bit anxious. But all in all, you much prefer being open with your emotions, breathing in all that life offers, than shutting down any part of your emotional experience. Granted, there may be times when these emotions are hard but you realize that is part of life. And more often than not you feel enriched by your emotions, by your ability to be open to all that life brings you. You know that even when you have those times that get you down, there will be even more times when you see life in ways that others just can’t.
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| Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward You | |||
| Undoubtedly you have met some people who get uncomfortable being around you because your feelings are so close to the surface. They may keep a bit of distance, especially around any subject that might trigger an emotional topic they are uncomfortable with. Over time, they might even stay away from you more and more. You will find you have decisions to make; do you temper your style for their comfort or do you hope they will find ways to become more comfortable with emotional expressions? Given the richness that seems to stem from your emotional life the most meaningful response is probably very apparent to you.
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| Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You | |||
| You are a cherished companion for those friends who can handle emotions well. They will appreciate the candor with which you express even difficult feelings like anger and fear. Your openness will make intimate conversations even more intimate, and make the connections between you as friends deeper and stronger. Some people who have trouble expressing their feelings might find in you a good example of how to be more vulnerable and more open. Your willingness and ability to share your emotions could encourage them to share theirs, and invite them into ways of being friends that will help enrich their lives. |
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| On the Openness Dimension you are: | |||
| CURIOUS
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| Words that describe you: | |||
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| A General Description of How You Approach New Information and Experiences | |||
| You think like an artist. Or better, you SEE like an artist. While most people look at life’s straight lines, its height and depth and width, you’re bending the lines with your imagination and turning black and white into shades of blue and yellow. And in conversations at work or with your friends you want to ask, “Do you see what I see?” A few might, most don’t, but you’ve piqued everyone’s curiosity with your own original and inventive ways of thinking.You can, if you must, think in conventional ways. But left on your own, you’ll usually opt for the eccentric or avant-garde; in fact you’re usually bored with what everyone else is comfortable with. You learn from reading, talking, watching people and other fauna and flora, and simply sitting in the soft chair of your mind and wondering how people would learn how to count if they could only use uneven numbers. You are out in front of conventional ideas, bravely originally defining true and false, right and wrong, the good, the bad and the ugly.
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| Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward Your Style of Thinking | |||
| You drive through life faster than the speed limit, and when you hit speed bumps, and you hit a lot of them with your mind distracted from the straight line ahead your wheels leave the ground.For people who like life at a safer speed, you move too fast and lose touch too often with the solid ground they prefer, hence their discomfort with you. As odd as you might find this, many people feel safe in the shelter of the world they already know. They like the familiar. They breathe easily and sleep deeply knowing with more certainty how the world works. So although they might enjoy your company and be curious about your latest notion of how to count backwards by threes, they can only take you in small doses. And they wish you’d quit trying to push the boundaries of their personal and social cosmos.
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| Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You | |||
| Even those whom you make uncomfortable know, as just about everyone does, that you’re not a flake. You think well, and even your wildest fancies have their roots in the deep soil of sound ideas and tested beliefs. So even if some people don’t want to drive at high speed with you, they will respect you for your courage as an innovative and unconventional thinker. You lend color and imagination to what would otherwise be the straight black and white lines of their work world and social environments.A few more daring people of your circle might even learn from you to take a risk they would otherwise never consider. As comfortable as they are on solid ground, they may be curious about what it would be like to go faster than the speed limit, or paint the living room two shades of blue, or question ideas or beliefs they’ve fingered like sacred beads since they were children.
After all, they watch you do it, and you seem no worse for the risks you take. In fact, your eyes are wider and your breath quicker, and maybe they can find at least a bit of this for themselves. To be certain, they don’t want their wheels to leave the ground, but maybe the next time they approach a speed bump they might just brace themselves and speed up just a little bit.
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| Your approach toward your obligations is: | ||||
| FOCUSED
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| Words that describe you: | ||||
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| Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward You | ||||
| It’s not hard to imagine one of your friends or colleagues saying, probably under their breath, “Just once I wish you’d be late to something, or wear the wrong clothes, or trip over your own feet. You seem so tightly put together that, just once, I’d like to see you explode, in laughter or anger or . . . anything.”In part, they may be envious. You get so much done, and done so well, that they might feel they never measure up. Your discipline and sense of duty put them to shame. But it may also be that they sense that beneath that single-minded and orderly demeanor of yours is a complex and sometimes complicated person whom they’d like to know, not so they can make fun of you but so they can share their perplexed humanity with you and get you to share your complexity with them. They might wish you were less cautious, and therefore, more accessible to their friendship.
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| Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You | ||||
| “If we want something done, we know whom to call.” Most of your friends and colleagues will learn to count on you, and they will appreciate you for this reliability.If they get off track in a work situation, they’ll turn to you because they know you’ve got the goal clearly in view and you’re moving toward it with that characteristic discipline of yours. You’ll help get them back on track. If they need a personal friend to count on, they know you’ll show up when you say you’ll be there, dig in to whatever the common task is, whether it’s planning a party, organizing the garage, or working through a financial mess, and see it through to completion.
For anyone in trouble, you are the proverbial “friend in need”. Many of your friends will see you as an example that they seek to emulate. When they get disorderly or disorganized, they can watch how you live and work, and find in you a mentor in self-discipline. They might well admire not just your ability to get to the goal or your single-minded drive, but also the underlying quality of your character; they will see your sense of duty to yourself, to life’s tasks, and to your friendships, and admire and imitate these qualities in you. Your focused life will be a guide to them when they get themselves so out of focus that they don’t know where they’re going. |
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| When it comes to Extraversion you are: | ||||
| OUTGOING
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| Words that describe you: | ||||
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| A General Description of How You Interact with Others | ||||
| People light you up. In conversations, planning meetings or almost any social situation, you bring your energy and your friendly, outgoing personality into these engagements with other people, and you come away pumped up. You can hardly wait for the next event, as long as other people will be there. And you’re good at it.You know how to communicate. You listen well, the first rule of good communication, and then, when it’s your turn, you talk vigorously and with animation; in your uninhibited way you give all that you’ve got to the encounter.
In situations where you feel very safe, when you know and trust the people you’re with, you can be very kindhearted and unrestrained. You let your affection for and pleasure in being with others flow freely. You’re wide open And when you get back this same kind of unrestrained warmth, you are deeply satisfied. Because you are so friendly and full of life, these are among your favorite moments.
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| Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward You | ||||
| As much as you like being with other people, not everyone will like being with you. Hard to believe, but your gregarious and warm manner is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people are more cautious than you in personal encounters; others think the work place should be more formal, more impersonal than is comfortable for you. Still others, who may want more of the spotlight, will find you too much to compete with once you get your lively and outgoing self in motion.Here’s another word of caution. You’ve been at this warm and open way of relating for a while, but for some people it’s a brand new experience. They may be protecting something inside themselves, some fear or guilt or shame, or some private part of their story that they’re not yet ready to share. Your openness might threaten them, and they’ll take a step back and be reluctant the next time to engage you in the kind of exchange you find so easy and satisfying but they find so dangerous.
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| Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You | ||||
| Many people, most probably, will be glad to be in the room you’re in. At work you make the environment livelier and the banter more interesting, so the time moves swiftly and the experience is a happier one. At home you keep everyone connected because you engage each of them in the conversational action, and as a result they are more connected as well with one another. You make home a warmer and more interesting place for everyone who lives there.You might also be helpful to some people. There are those who need to talk but aren’t very good at it. They don’t know how to begin the kind of conversation that would allow them to share whatever is in their personal stories that they’d like or need to talk about. You could make that easier for them with your way with words. Some people just need an example and a little encouragement to come out of their shell and get into the greater fun and personal connectedness that will make their lives so much more satisfying. Again, you might be just the right person to make that happen for them.
So almost everyone will be glad to be with you, you make life more interesting for those you live and work with, and you could help some of your friends who need just a little encouragement to open up and find in themselves the kinds of energetic and warm connections that you thrive on. Not that you are a pushover; in fact, you are often quite assertive. In taking care of yourself you also make sure that others are engaged and energized. |
