Monday, November 14, 2005
piggyback...
i'm piggybacking on b.anne's recent blogpost:
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
~ Blessed Mother Teresa
love, real love, is soooo not what you see in the movies. like robby's post on relationships, trust, compromise, and committment are 3 aspects that are a part of relationships. and all three are not all that easy. trust... it's easy to be scared and be distrustful, especially after many failed relationships, scars and heartaches. it's easy to be pessimistic and think that it won't work out, expect that it won't work out. but to trust is to put faith in something and just let it go. no worries. compromise... this entails sharing. sharing of yourself with someone else. an aspect of sacrifice and unselfishness, in order to give to someone else something that you wouldn't otherwise do all on your own. and committment... the ability to stick it through, even, especially when, things are less than ideal.
it's so easy to get tired. it's so easy to just give up. and love... that love... it isn't the passion, it isn't the affection or even the feeling. it's more of the longevity and the perseverance... the staying power... endurance, rather than speed. quality, rather than the quantity. hmmm... what a concept. i guess, cuz love isn't necessarily extraordinary all the time... that there are more simple moments than those "wow" moments. hmmm, and maybe through those simple moments... that's how great love comes about. that's how it becomes extraordinary... wow, huh?
i had another perspective regarding mother teresa's quote. to love... to truly love Him... yea, that sooo takes perseverance. you know when you're a new student or a new servant of Christ, you have that excited feeling of eagerness to do anything and everything. but then you keep chugging away, studying, working, serving... and after a while, well, geez, it's hard work and you get tired. yea, i'm kinda there. i'm tired of taking responsibility for the youth masses, and heck, i'm tired of being so involved in the church! i don't have very good endurance (although, i usually speak of this regarding sports and my physical ability... lack thereof). but it's kinda true in other aspects of my life. i seem to have this 2 year threshold for my committments. cuz around the 2 year or so mark, i get antsy/tired/lazy and want change. i can see that in most of my long-term relationships, and i definitely noticed that with heaven sent. so priorities change, and now we've shifted our ministry's focus toward the confirmation program. the genius of how i revamped the program is that my involvement is pretty minimal. i'm there as a runner. as someone to fill in the gaps, but i'm not assigned to a classroom to teach the kids. this past weekend, we had youth mass and i helped coordinate the music for it. i was sorta throwing a tantrum to God, whining like a child, saying, "but i don't waaaannna do it. i'm sooo tiiired!" but, i went, yes, grumpily, but i went, and did it. and in the end of it all, i was glad i went and glad that it all worked out. it always works out anyway. i so digress... the point is... well, the point is that, i need to work on keeping going even when i am tired. it's so much easier to just be lazy and just go and do what i want, without responsibility or obligation... but the fact is... i love Him. and that love is greater than lil old me. i have to keep going... and yea, i'm so lazy sometimes, and sometimes, there's not much motivation or return on my investment of time and energy... but there is joy in the work. there's always laughter... and yes... there is love.
Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
~ Blessed Mother Teresa
love, real love, is soooo not what you see in the movies. like robby's post on relationships, trust, compromise, and committment are 3 aspects that are a part of relationships. and all three are not all that easy. trust... it's easy to be scared and be distrustful, especially after many failed relationships, scars and heartaches. it's easy to be pessimistic and think that it won't work out, expect that it won't work out. but to trust is to put faith in something and just let it go. no worries. compromise... this entails sharing. sharing of yourself with someone else. an aspect of sacrifice and unselfishness, in order to give to someone else something that you wouldn't otherwise do all on your own. and committment... the ability to stick it through, even, especially when, things are less than ideal.
it's so easy to get tired. it's so easy to just give up. and love... that love... it isn't the passion, it isn't the affection or even the feeling. it's more of the longevity and the perseverance... the staying power... endurance, rather than speed. quality, rather than the quantity. hmmm... what a concept. i guess, cuz love isn't necessarily extraordinary all the time... that there are more simple moments than those "wow" moments. hmmm, and maybe through those simple moments... that's how great love comes about. that's how it becomes extraordinary... wow, huh?
i had another perspective regarding mother teresa's quote. to love... to truly love Him... yea, that sooo takes perseverance. you know when you're a new student or a new servant of Christ, you have that excited feeling of eagerness to do anything and everything. but then you keep chugging away, studying, working, serving... and after a while, well, geez, it's hard work and you get tired. yea, i'm kinda there. i'm tired of taking responsibility for the youth masses, and heck, i'm tired of being so involved in the church! i don't have very good endurance (although, i usually speak of this regarding sports and my physical ability... lack thereof). but it's kinda true in other aspects of my life. i seem to have this 2 year threshold for my committments. cuz around the 2 year or so mark, i get antsy/tired/lazy and want change. i can see that in most of my long-term relationships, and i definitely noticed that with heaven sent. so priorities change, and now we've shifted our ministry's focus toward the confirmation program. the genius of how i revamped the program is that my involvement is pretty minimal. i'm there as a runner. as someone to fill in the gaps, but i'm not assigned to a classroom to teach the kids. this past weekend, we had youth mass and i helped coordinate the music for it. i was sorta throwing a tantrum to God, whining like a child, saying, "but i don't waaaannna do it. i'm sooo tiiired!" but, i went, yes, grumpily, but i went, and did it. and in the end of it all, i was glad i went and glad that it all worked out. it always works out anyway. i so digress... the point is... well, the point is that, i need to work on keeping going even when i am tired. it's so much easier to just be lazy and just go and do what i want, without responsibility or obligation... but the fact is... i love Him. and that love is greater than lil old me. i have to keep going... and yea, i'm so lazy sometimes, and sometimes, there's not much motivation or return on my investment of time and energy... but there is joy in the work. there's always laughter... and yes... there is love.
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quotable quotes
-
"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the
greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks
nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid
suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, live, and love."
~unknown
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"live a life that others will remember years from now, NOT because it pointed to you but because of how it pointed to the One who made you."
~ Mark Hart, the Bible Geek
"we grow up learning to become self-reliant, but really we need to be God-reliant"
"we could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box"
"never wound hearts that love u, never give them the endless pain, because wounded hearts are like roses that never bloom"
"there comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving us but because we have found out that they'd be happier if we'd let go"
