Happy Fathers' Day!

Psalm 143:8 *NKJV

Cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You.

Away from life for a while

So, this is probably my last college-like summer. Summer, at least for now, filled with nothing I MUST do. I can sleep until 10 am with my puppy dog warming up my feet. I can spend time picking up wall paint for my room without feeling like I am wasting time that should be spent on homework or studying. Although there is research that I MUST do this summer, let me pretend for now that I do not have to do it (at least for another week). No calls, no homework, no friend 'duties', sweet nothingness of living.

As one of my friends would say, a dry season, a season that had lasted throughout the entire last semester due to lack of time, fellowship, and also some Christians whose shallowness was, looking back, quite contagious, seems to be coming to an end. I am looking forward to a new life in the south. New people, new friendships, new weather, leaving the past behind and running towards the future.

It may, on one hand, be tough to keep in touch with old friends. But, on the other hand, the ones I do keep in touch with are those who really matter. So, if we matter to each other, let's keep in touch. I will be here, happy, sad, lonely, overwhelmed by people, missing you and not missing someone else, or just me and God.

Coming back :)

I realize that I should come back to my blog... so here I am :)

On constructive criticism...

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
(Pro 9:8-9)

It seems to me that many Christians do think that we should never rebuke each other in any way or that we should not rebuke a brother or sister in Christ if we encounter their sin. I am not sure where these beliefs come from.

Shouldn't we strive to help each other overcome that sin, to become better and thus make God look better in the eyes of nonbelievers?

Constructive criticism, I believe, does have a place in Christian life. I do not mind when my family tells me that I am doing something wrong and that there are ways to overcome that. I actually quite appreciate that. There are many things that I think are not a problem, yet may hurt others around me.
Destructive criticism on the other hand can be compared to throwing a stone at a sinner. You won't accomplish anything except a death of that person... I do not claim that I have mastered any knowledge of anything, but reading the verse above made me think...

I wonder, what to think of a person who rejects any kind of constructive criticism... Are they too proud and full of themselves? Or do they not strive to become better people and Christians?
Is a friend who offers constructive criticism a good friend or do you think it's the same as throwing a stone at someone?

Big Impact

The Bathroom and the Human Nature

This is a story of something I witnessed going on in the apartment I share with 3 other roommates. I think it applies to everyday life of almost every person...

When we moved in, we cleaned everything in our apartment, including the bathroom and our shower. Everything was squeaky clean and so all of us felt free not to use any shower shoes in our shower. Why should we, if it was so clean?

Now, some of my roommates had shampoos and soaps on the floor of our shower. As days went by, a mold began to form underneath these containers .

Suddenly, a couple days ago, I noticed that someone had removed all of their shampoo and soap containers from the showers floor. This is when I actually saw the mold and it didn't look very good. A pair of flip flops was chilling next to the shower meaning that one of the girls began using them to wear in the shower now. Things went without change for a couple more days... moldy shower floor, flip flops next to it, all shampoo and soap containers removed...

Did you notice anything? Any questions?

My question was this: Why didn't the person who removed the containers from the shower clean their 'mess' (i.e. the shower floor)? Why couldn't someone take those 2 minutes to put things into their original state?

What will happen if no one ever cleans the floor? The mold will grow, we will all star wearing shoes to shower, the shower will develop this moldy smell to it... Is this really where we want to end up?

And this is not where things end... numerous other examples pop up in my head when people try to protect themselves from the mess they made rather than try to clean it up...

...like ...

...living as far as we can from the city dumpster instead of recycling our waste

... giving a professor bad ratings because his exams were too hard instead of admitting that we should have studied more

...the relationships we have with others

...denying our sins instead of asking for forgiveness

And you know where this will end? Things will get moldy, they will be disgusting to us, and we will have to find even more protection from them and move further away. Unless we clean up our mess, it won't go away. It is one thing to pray for the world, or to pray for the shower to be clean (and don't take me wrong - I love prayer and believe in its importance), but things won't change unless we actually get out of our comfort zone and make an effort.