Mark 12:30~ Love is Tough Work!

Was thinking about the theme for CCF this year... it's taken from the verse in Mark 12:30






"Love the Lord your God with all your Heart and all your Soul and with all your Mind and with all your Strength."

I've heard of this verse so many times before, but it seems rather refreshing this time. I've never really asked why it would be these particular four aspects: Heart, the Soul, the Mind and the Strength. This time, I questioned, Why these four specific words ? Why this Order ?

1. To Love the Lord your God with All your Heart
I was thinking what it meant to Love with the Heart. For both guys and girls, this means to love with every "organ" of existence..the heart being one of them...haha". As a woman, I notice that in general, our gender tends to act and view loving someone pretty differently than guys. For us, there are a LOT of feelings and emotions tied to the heart. Our brains are filled with overthought and overanalyzed situations/words/scenarios/things. In a human relationship, there is always that factor of risk in giving our hearts completely to another person. There's the risk of being vulnerable and the risk of getting hurt. With God, there's also a risk on our part to Love with all our hearts. Yet, the best part about THIS relationship is that our risk is always minimized due to his unfailing Love for us. I don't have to be afraid of being vulnerable to Him, nor do I have to be afraid of getting hurt. What assurance!

2. To Love the Lord your God with All your Soul
I was thinking of what has and doesn't have souls. Plants don't have souls nor do animals; that's what sets humans apart from all other living things. One part of loving the Lord with the Soul is to allow his Holy Spirit to move and touch us. The soul is the battle ground between God and the Devil. It is the decision maker that determines where the final destination of an individual will be. Unlike the fickle heart (which sometimes cannot decide whether we like/dislike or love/hate something)... there is no inbetween nor middle ground for the soul. So, loving the Lord with our Souls means all or nothing..

3. To Love the Lord your God with All your Minds
What can the mind be filled with ? Mannnnyyyyy things....things that can be beneficial or things that can distract. To give ALL of the mind to Love the Lord means taking hold of EVERY thought that passes through the brain. A lot of things can affect what the mind absorbs, what we see through our eyes, what we feel and experience in our hearts, what we touch, hear and even smell. For me, this has GOT to be one of the tough ones...

4. To Love the Lord your God with All your Strength
God saves the best for last...there's hope yet =) Strength can be physical strength or mental strength. Physical strength constitutes being physically healthy and fit. Likwise, mental strength takes just as much discipline. Strength can mean different things to different people. For some, it may mean to perservere in hard times. For others, it may mean to prepare themselves for upcoming hard times. Either way, the good thing is that all God asks is that we try or put our best effort to Love Him =) He's Understanding, isn't He?

So....The passage taught me that to Love Him means that these things should be treated with care:
1. Emotions/Feelings (Heart)
2. The Soul and the Spirit (Soul)
3. Knowledge and Information / Wisdom and Intelligence (Mind)
4. Effort in maintaining Physical and Mental Health (Strength)

Wow! It's definitely gonna be a big challenge...lots of work! But one step at a time =)


Blessings,
-v

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The picture was taken in ottawa last week... we were walking in the market, and I saw this butterfly land on a rack of beady necklaces. It was an "of the moment" type of thing :)

Homecoming....roadtrip ?

The weekend after Homecoming seems to always usher the feelings that our campus is even MORE ghetto than it already is. It's funny to see that there's a random couch sitting outside our house and even better...the funky smell of unknown substances once we step outside our place.(there's a bunch of football players living downstairs..ahha). This year's Homecoming festivities were rather different from the last few. Instead of treading through the craziness which is Aberdeen, (and doing some entertaining ppl watching...haha), a few of us decided to head to Ottawa for a day trip on Saturday. There were a couple of highlights on our spontaneous roadtrip :

1. Budweiser CD songs: the lovely tunes/parodies of "love songs" created by the guys from Buddy and directed to the taboos of relationships with their girlfriends. <--HILARIOUS 2. THE MARKET!!! (mmm...Pastry Shop, i love thee...Beaver Tails, and you said you couldn't finish one, Becs!)
3. Moroccan food for lunch (mmm...eggplant)
4. Whoa Bear...WHOA....
5. taking "action shots" (S CLUB ANYONE?) in front of parliament field...hehe

Thanks girls for some good spontaneous fun!

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This trip and the conversations we had during our car ride made me think of two things that I've learnt in particular this past week while spending time with the Lord

1. Disruptions and Spontaneity in life can be Blessings and oppurtunities to spread Christ's Love and Care (no matter where God "scatters or sends us"). It maybe something small like our roadtrip, or even something bigger like Hurricane Katrina (where families were displaced from their homes in New Orleans)...God can still use me/us, whether during travel or moving to a new surroundings due to unforseen circumstances, if I/we am/are willing to let Him. (Acts 8:4)

2. Fellowship and Development of Godly Friendships are so crucial to spiritual growth. (Matthew 6:21) says that "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". One of my treasures is the relationships I have in my life...with God, with family, with friends... God reminded me that if I remember Him in these treasures, he will bless them and make them grow...yay!

more for later! Cause I Ott-ta-Wa(ddle) to class.... haha

-v

Sup Deck Deck (and Chee Nup Nup)

Been a while since my last post. I meant to write this one a couple of days ago, but just didn't get around to it until now. So, the context of my title "Sup Deck Deck" literally expresses the characteristic of water or rain....wet.

In reference to my weekend, let's just say that it was very "prevelant" haha. Was up at 6:45 on Saturday morning of the Long Weekend, heading out to Niagara with the family. The skies were gloomy, and the weather was pretty chilly already. By the time we got to Niagara, it was pretty much pouring. My immediate reaction to this type of weather was that "this is suck!" (as Carrie's mum would say hehe). I really don't like the feeling of clingy wet clothes...especially since our car was packed. On rainy days, I'd rather stay at home, snuggled up or watch the rain outside rather than standing in it ! And then.....there's the thunderstorms... ooooo i like those too. Anyways, as our day continued, I realized that my crummy mood was affected by WEATHER of all things...and it was showing in the way I reacted to people and to the overall events of the day. Then, my mum said something that made my attitude towards the whole situation change.

"We should be thankful to even have Rain...".

As I thought about that more deeply, I not only realized what a bum I was for complaining about the weather, but thoughts about the quality, characteristic and importance of something as simple as rain and water filled my head and changed my attitude to God's providence.

- one drop of rain is harmless, but a big rainstorm can create destruction of great magnitude
- water and rain can have the power to destroy in situations such as hurricanes, tsunamis, but ironically, ALL LIVING THINGS NEED it to live and survive
- our world is more than 50% water
- rushing water as in the Niagara Falls contains enough power to create energy for daily uses
- bodies of water have provided a barrier and boundary of protection for countries in the history of war and establishment of empires
- qualities of water are unequated to any other element or chemical compound: it exists and can be changed into 3 different phases : liquid/solid / gas
- in liquid form, it only boils at 100 degrees C (making it safe for our bodies, when it's in there)
- in lakes/oceans, the lattice formation allows for warmth to be preserved underwater, sustaining the fish and living creatures underneath
- in gas form, it's part of the cyclic process that allows for plants to absorb nutrients and needed goods

and as I was contemplating these things, I was so Amazed...this is just something as basic as WATER and RAIN!! I often take these things for granted, but God uses the most simplistic things to humble me. How about you, reader ? Are there things in life so blatantly present that we often let pass without a second thought?

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On another note, Scrabble is fun!!! and so is making up sentences out of acronyms and random letters... haha.. RCSE (Rude Children Should Evaporate haha/ Roman Centurions Serve Emperor/Rubix Cube Solved Excrutiatingly/Ravens Crave Squishy Eyeballs haha good times... Boardgames are a great investment, especially the classic ones =) Speaking of which, haven't played Monopoly in a while...anyone up for that ? (oh! has anyone heard of Apples to Apples ..another awesome one).

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Photo is courtesy of Sam Javanrouh of Daily Dose of Imagery http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/about.htm <-- check it out if you haven't....great photographer (works with what he has) =) -v