listening to the fireworks...

So tonight is a festival here. It is a famous festival and although I do not know all the details I do know that there were plenty of people celebrating by putting boats out into the water that had candles on them. Now you might think that is amazing...that would be a really cool thing to see. I do think that it would have been fun. I did not spend the night enjoying this festival though. Instead I spent the night listening to the fireworks and loud music from inside my apartment wondering when it was going to stop so that I could go to sleep. As I ponder what my life means right now and just exactly what all I am learning in the midst of it I go back to the loud music. Here I am allowing the noises and distractions of the world drown out what I should really be paying attention to. Once again my life is so focused on what I can't do (sleep) that I forget to be thankful for what I do have (a bed) and what those sounds aren't (bombs or gunshots) even though they may sound like it! So as I ponder what it means to some of these people to stick this boat into the water...it makes me wonder....how do you believe that a boat with a candle is going to do anything for a spirit? I do not understand. Maybe I need to look into the logistics behind this a little bit more before I start judging. Because reality I probably shouldn't be judging at all.

It just seems to me that there are so many things in this life that seem simple. LIke the evidence that points to a creator of the world. How can you argue against there being one true creator and Lord. I look at my students and the staff that surround me and I see the differences. I am currently working with someone who hates me. Really truly hates me. Now what I did to this man I am unsure. It still floors me that you can hate someone that much that even when they say hi to you, you give them the worst look ever.

So what does this say to me as a Christian working with Christians...well I want to judge and say how could you be so mean. But in reality we live in a fallen world. Even though I claim Jesus, much of what I do and say is not like him at all. So what do I do? Press on....for when I am hated well that is when I am not shining but He is shining through me.

I guess this blog wasn't a lot. Hopefully I will have more. The music and fireworks have stopped I think...maybe now I can get some sleep!