My Pride

I don't usually enjoy labelling things, slamming them down to a word, but sometimes it's just easier to get a number of thoughts under one umbrella. Pride. Am I guilty of it? You bet. But it's about so much more than what comes to mind when you hear the word.

Pride.

It's a questions of views, mostly. For those who choose to believe in the power in their own hands "pride" might bear a whole different meaning that it does for me. I have submitted myself to God. Universal, all-transcending, intelligent truth and order.

Choice and Credit

There's a problem you can't solve with simple logic. Like in so many question of faith, you can only trust your heart on this.

You make choices. You are responsible for them. But you can't take credit for them. Build a bridge - you're a good guy, destroy one - you're bad, right? Wrong. Anything you ever do is a work of God. We're just choosing paths which existed long before us.

It's like, you wouldn't claim a discovery of land if you saw lamp-posts, buildings and roads everywhere. When it comes to life in general, there are also lamp-posts, buildings and roads, only made by God. Would you claim discovering them before Him?

As it happens, we're making choices, all right; it may seem like a hard work to some of us, but wherever we go, whatever we choose, we're only following in the steps of the Creator.

Bowing down

Every breath. Every motion. Every blink. Every twinkle. Every little and big thing. Everything you could and could not imagine. Every, everything is a miracle, His doing.

Thoughts like this are the easiest to let go of when you meet with success. We like taking credit for anything that goes right for us. But whenever bad luck strikes, we remember it's His doing in a blink of an eye, and develop an astonishing arrogance, enough to frown at Heavens.

Just measure your steps. Live with Him. Remember you live with Him. Whatever you choose, He doesn't let go. Do evil - you're just choosing a road, but He built it long ago, and He knows where it leads. You won't surprise Him, whatever you do. We're just guests in His house of life, where He built every room and corner with His own hands.

Like a good host, He likes it when we choose good roads and places, but we can go wherever we want, as there are no closed doors in His house.

Fate

In a sense, everything has already been done for us. Every invention we've made and will every make has already been done long before us. Does it mean we don't need to live anymore? It's actually for you to decide.

Life is not just about green grass and blue sky. Life is about love and wars, science and oblivion, glory and humility. God wants us to see what He prepared for us in His immense loving kindness. There are many ways to quit the journey, but there are orders of magnitude more ways to live it!

Refusing to take credit

I guess we should talk to people in language they would understand. You'll only anger an agnostic by telling him the word "God" ten thousand times a day. But beware taking credit for any success you achieve. Enjoying it should be enough.

Engineering irritations

Inventive minds often stumble open this. You think of something, dream of doing it, swimming in the ocean of fame that would, of course, be brought to you. And while you're procrastinating, someone else is "arrogant" enough to do it without even consulting you (not that you published your ideas or something, but still!) Armed with envious prejudice, your mind see the job done as completely flawed and not deserving anything but absolute and immediate rebuttal.

In the heat of it all, we usually don't see that it's a gift from Him to us. You've dreamed of something, been lazy to do it - but here it is. God brought it to you just because He loves you. He knows that in your heart, you craved not for the fame and recognition, but for the benefit your work will bring to others. And as He sees your flesh is weak and lazy, He just goes on and does all the job for you.

Nowadays, we don't often see towers of flame, walking around our office blocks. And if we did, we'd just take it for granted as some useful, natural things totally devoid of any miraculous or divine nature. So when He wants to do something, He usually make someone do it. That someone is not necessarily a righteous man. Just the right tool for a job. So when the inventor gets all the credit and fame, we are quick to believe, that it's really him who did it all; all the more kindling the flames in our souls.

Respecting others

Just keep this in mind. Nothing is man-made. "Artificial" is just another illusion we are lovingly allowed to play with.

It won't take a human mind too long before we find "rock-solid" evidence that Earth, Universe and everything else was made by our ancestors. What? Who made them? Well, their ancestors, naturally. Before that? Now, don't get foolish with me, you know it was long ago, nobody actually cares. All we should concern ourselves with now is that everything around us is completely artificial and men are almighty.

Ulch.

Next time you're angry about somebody doing something in not "just the right way", curb yourself, remember that it's His doing, that it's a kind gift, and that when we remove our stupidity out of the way, we can do nothing but be grateful for it.

PS

If you got this far, you must know who wrote this stuff. The annotated name is just the tool.

-- Main.AndrewPantyukhin - 29 Feb 2008