some things are good, other(s) not so much

Lately I have been working really hard at finding the blessings in things, working to be content in all situations. Its easy when things go well, not so easy when things fail.

Like my again broken washer... Same problem as last time, the motor has fried. It makes me wonder if there is a different issue that caused the motor to fry, and I wonder if the service guy last time should have been more thorough. But its all too late, as the warranty on the parts was only for 90 days. How do I find the blessing in that? Okay, on one hand, I don't have to do laundry, because I can't. That frees up time to do other things, like write this blog entry... However, its only a matter of time before I will need to do laundry... I guess a trip to the neighbor's will be in order until we find the means to repair or replace the machine.

But other things are going good. Hubby and I are getting along very well. We have both re-focused our attention on each other, and do much better at treating each other with respect and honor. That is a wonderful blessing.

We had 3 house showings last week, that is cool. One person in particular has shown a lot of interest, and perhaps an offer is coming, now *that* would be a HUGE blessing!

I start a new part-time job this week, that pays more than either of our current jobs. In fact, in order to maximize our time and what we get paid, hubby will also work his current job only part-time. The two of us will then share my current job... Seems strange on the surface, but the benefits outweigh any confusion and annoyance. First, we don't have to put the other car back on the road, as the days I need the car, hubby works next door, and vice-versa. Second, because we will be working a total of 11 days out of the week (combined) and my additional wages, we should be able to take home almost $200 more per week! Another blessing.

Our relationship with our neighbors is very strong, such they aren't just neighbors, or a boss, they are friends. This has proven to be beneficial for both families, as we are able to share, and help each other out when in need. Blessing.

Due to necessity our spending and consumption of resources has diminished. This could be seen as a bad thing, little money... However, I think that once we are in a better financial position it won't make any difference to our consumption, as we both recognize that we were somewhat wasteful in the past. Saving money, saving resources and consuming less is only a win-win for us and the environment. Yep, you guessed it, Blessing!

Okay, keeping tabs? That's 5 things I can easily find the blessings in, and 1, well not so much... I'd have to say that 5 out of 6 is good. Better than good. I'll take it.

"un"wisdom for the ignorant

I have thought about this post all day, but I am still not sure I will be able to keep my thoughts as coherant as I would like. Bear with me...

The idea started a few weeks ago when I became a more "regular" attendee of LifeChurch.tv. There was this 4-part series called True[ish]. You can watch them via their archives! The pastor was talking about things in this world, in this day and age, that we (even us Christians) hold as true, but in fact they aren't really true at all. Over the few weeks I began to reflect on things that I held as virtues, and I began comparing them to who Jesus was and what He held as virtues. I would like to be able to report that I am "right on track" but I am a sinful human, and I am not anywhere near close to Jesus in those regards. (Nor is anyone else I suspect. And no, that is not a judgement, just a fair comparison of where we ALL stand next to Jesus' examples. Unfortunately we all come up short.)

This pastor of LifeChurch.tv is not what I would refer to as a typical pastor, at least not typical for the denomination I grew up in. Honestly, I don't really think his preaching style would be overly appreciated by most. However, I appreciate how he was able to highlight the absolute truths found in the Bible. He pointed out his own, and all of our flaws, and while doing so, he never once made me feel berated. He did however, remind me how much we fail on a day-to-day basis to act as Jesus' example showed us. How much we fail at "doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our Lord." Micah 6:8.

I don't really want to get into too much detail on the specifics of his sermons, I really encourage you to watch for youself. What I wanted to focus on is the outstanding question I have, the same question I almost always have when I leave church.

How?

We hear sermons that reflect on Bible passages. We hear what the scriptures mean in layman's terms. We hear how we don't measure up. But to me something is still missing. How do we do it? Where is our tangible check list of things to do or try, our guideline?

Yes, we have the Bible itself, however, it doesn't have these nifty little lists. If you start a new job, or go to learn a new subject in school, you have a trainer/instructor. Then you run through examples to explain the theory. The next step is running through some of those examples on your own, to see how you do, and where you need to make adjustments. One would never try to solve the square root of a number without knowing (or at least have written down) the quadratic equation.

Where is our equation, our list, our instruction manual on the HOW? I get the why. I understand the theory. How do you put it in practice?

has anything changed... for the better?

Recently I watched this video on YouTube. It is a speech by Severn Suzuki at the 1992 UN Earth Summit. I would highly recommend taking 6 and a half minutes from your busy schedule to listen to this (at that time) young girl, barely a teenager, who says things we should all be saying.

It amazes me that this speech is from 1992. The issues she talks about are still very much present today. I asked in the title of this post - has anything changed? Not for the better if you ask me. Things have really only gotten worse. All of the issue she talks about still exist today, and there are even more issues on top of that!

She is a well-spoken, bold young lady. The things she says really made me pause and think of what I can do about things, now. I do some things already to help the environment. I recycle, big time. I conserve, big time. I re-use things. And with all of that, I try to educate people. However, it is never going to be enough, even if every household in the world conserved as much as possible, there are still all those industrial factories consuming more than I ever thought possible.

I have shared before the website called StoryOfStuff. There is another great video there too, but you will need to set aside about 20 minutes. Educating ourselves and each other is one way that we can hopefully stand united against the governments and businesses of this world that are consuming at such an alarming rate, its scary!

I think that especially as a North American society, we need to stop consumerism. We need to stop planned and perceived obsolescence. What we need to do is go back to perhaps the days of our grandparents, when throwing out a used milk bag was unheard of, because didn't you know that you can wash it and then use it for a storage bag?

I will stop now, before I aimlessly go on and on. Preserving and repairing our Earth is something that we must all do together. But ultimately its a personal choice. Only you can decide if you will think twice about tossing something that really can be re-used. Only you can decide to go green.