Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Lessons from a cough drop

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cough drop. I started untwisting the ends and opening up the little paper that encase my lozenge like a little cocoon. And then the unthinkable happened.
Some of the paper stuck to the cough drop, and tore. This left little strips of paper behind, impossible to peel off.
"That sucks."
I suppose sitting in my car in the heat or in my pocket had caused the cough drop to slightly melt, then re-harden. I wondered if Hall's couldn't be bothered to use a paper wrapper with a wax interior, or something similar to avoid this all-too-common predicament.
Cough drop ruined, frustrated thoughts coursing through my brain, a sigh escaping my lips...and then, a bemused thought came to my head.
"It could be worse."
In fact, it is worse. I envy those who have to contend with a ruined cough drop as their largest concern.

For some unknown reason, I can not be content with the status quo. I want to change the world in some little way. If I learn something, I want to share it. More often than not, no one cares about the same things I do.
I think that is why religion and politics are the two biggest things I write about here. They are also the two biggest things that I post about on Facebook. I find myself sharing videos, articles, and links that I am certain most of you never take the time to read. They are the two biggest things I think about. This is because the topics of religion and politics, to me, are extremely important. My children's futures are at stake. I want to do everything I can to make the world a better place for them.

Maybe starting a dialogue about the deeper meat of my faith can help even one other person understand it better. Maybe it will help me understand it better. Things like penal substitutionary atonement, verbal plenary inspiration, soteriology...these types of things are important to me. It breaks my heart that others do not find them to be so important.
When people sit idly by and watch their country go a direction they don't like and do nothing about it, I get frustrated. Why don't people care if their liberties are being undermined, if our elected officials view the document that they (and I) swore an oath to defend as a mere piece of paper, that innocent unborn children are being murdered daily? Doesn't it concern people that our nation is heading toward bankruptcy? Doesn't it matter that most of this can be prevented? Why do I feel like I am the only one that either a. cares, or b. hasn't given up yet?

I don't know why I have the weight of the world on my shoulders like this. I don't know what makes one person care about the little things so much, and another care about bigger things. The things I think about sometimes keep me up at night (well, actually, it's daytime.) when I try to sleep. By little things, I mean those that don't matter in the long run for us as a country, or as humans and our eternal souls. Often, I wish I could just put these things out of my mind, and live in the moment more.

This isn't to put down those whose chief concerns involve how to get the attention of that girl or guy in your class, or at whose house you are going to watch the big fight, or trying to increase your 1 - rep max on the bench, or learning how to play a new musical instrument. These things are important to you, and at some point or another these things were or will be important to me.

I just wish I could understand why I am motivated to think this way...
Is it something genetic? Something to do with how I was raised? Maybe just a combination of both plus my life experiences? I will probably never know.
These are things that weigh upon my mind, heart, and soul. Sorry if they bore you.

3 comments:

  1. You shouldn't stop posting the things you feel strongly about, regardless if people read them or not, there may be a day the right person stumbles upon it and it may help them or spark their interest in one way or another. And just like you have your interest in religion and politics, one may have their interest in sports or something else, probably the way you were raised so basically in your genes. Sometimes there are people who do care about those things but you can care, and stress yourself out about the direction the country is going but instead maybe for a day you should let that little cough drop be the worst part of your day!

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  2. Why? Intelligence and devotion. You have both; the vast majority of people don't. It is just that simple

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  3. Maybe you should ask God about your passions. I think the things we are passionate about are often God's way of guiding us. (If we are seekers and followers of Him.) So...if He has given you these passions and interests, seek Him to know what you should do with them. :) Who knows, maybe you are SUPPOSED to think differently than most other folks and just maybe you will change the world--and not in just a "little way" either. ;) There is something very fulfilling about pursuing one's passions and equally depressing when you cast them aside because they aren't shared by the masses.

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