Wednesday, 25 May 2011

The past two days had been going so well, but today I was back at where I had started. It's not as easy as I thought. To love my neighbor as I love myself. Rich Mullins once wrote:

Most people dislike their names much like they dislike their noses or ears or eye-brows - it's pretty much just a symptom of adolescent self-contempt.

And to love my neighbor as I love myself means ridding myself of this self-contempt. But at the same time, it means deflating my ego. I waste so much time being wrapped up in self-pity. Valuable time that could be used to do good.

Generally speaking, I waste way too much time on meaningless things. I procrastinate. A lot. I am to give a short presentation on Tuesday, and I haven't even started working on it. And most of the day, I was pretty annoyed at myself for my lack of determination to get this thing done. But I didn't actually do anything about it, thus making myself feel even worse. Not really a helpful strategy to improve my well-being.

Having a positive view on life is a powerful tool to help me break free from depression but apparently, it's not the ultimate answer. There is more to that. I keep going back to the place where I found the following words written on a wall:



(You are not alone. Someone loves you.)

Whenever I check again, I'm excited to see if something new has been added to it. Right next to these words, it says, in different handwritings, things like:

Jesus, for example.

and

Jesus lives!

Today in Greek class we read a passage from Mark 10 where a rich young man asks Jesus what he needs to do to have eternal life. The bit where Jesus tells his disciples that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God was not included in our textbook, but we talked about the entire passage for a bit. During that discussion, I wanted to jump from my seat and shout:

Hey guys! This passage is not about God forbidding people to be rich! It's about priorities.

Worldly possessions are insignificant when it comes to the real truths. It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle... unless God takes action. Because with Him all things are possible. Through Him, salvation that would otherwise be impossible is possible. He doesn't care how much money you have in the bank.

And that's a beautiful thought.