Friday, May 8, 2009

Thoughts Galore: On Blessing and Cursing; Swim #10

Today's first workout:
  • 1000 swim (500 wu, 2×125 @ 20, 2×75 @ 15, 50 cd), all pull since I couldn't kick (I should have taped my toes) and couldn't put my right flipper on
Today's second workout:
  • 50 altitude-drop wall squat
  • 50 altitude-drop glute ham
  • 50 altitude-drop 1-leg squat
  • 50 altitude-drop push up
  • 50 altitude-drop curl, 10-lb dumbbells (after we decided I wasn’t doing rebounds :-) even though the first two were good rebounds)
Today's third workout:
  • 1 h ellip (at 45, 7.5-min Z4); HR was around 134 and 168; HR between watch and machine were WAY different; at least 10,300 steps; 6.25 miles
  • 50 altitude-drop crate crunch
Today's brain workout:

The Roberts are doing an interesting experiment, and I got to be a small part of it today. We’d been talking a little about how words are so powerful and how there’s memory in everything, and they are of the opinion that you should bless everything. And by everything, I mean everything—house, home, apartment, table and salt shakers and restaurants, the pool, food, everything. I agree that there’s memory there; who’s to say that the guy there before you wasn’t fighting with his girl while they were out, and who knows but that he or she or both weren’t doing the devil’s work. My hesitation is in blessing things rather than God and people. That, and I really don’t know how to bless things.

Anyway, back to the experiment. Will and Nancy made rice and put it in four containers—two containers for the fridge and two for the counter. One in each place received a blessing. Will let me in on that and told me to bless it. Then he pretty much had to tell me what to say to bless it, because 1) I had no idea what to say, and 2) I was thinking, “It’s rice; how do you bless rice?” I told it that it was nutritious and looked good and tasty and then he mercifully took it away.

The two that were being cursed were out on the back porch. Nancy had already cursed them, and it was Will’s turn; I wanted no part in the cursing, and after they experienced my blessing they didn’t invite me to do so. :-) Will shut the door and cursed the rice; I have no idea what he said and although I wanted to ask about it, I refrained. Then he put them with their blessed partners. In about a week, they’ll look at each of the containers and see the difference. I am convinced there will be a difference among all of them.

The really cool thing was that then Nancy prayed for him; the cursing (which if I were cursing it would have been something like you’re the worst rice and you’re going to make everyone sick who eats you and you’ve come from an awful background [perhaps I’d have done better on that part than the blessing; how sad is that?]) had to come from his own thoughts and his mouth and she wanted him to have no part of the curse. Then we talked about how she’d had to talk to the plants on the porch to make sure they knew they weren’t being cursed. And they said that Will would have to bless his hockey stuff; not only because it was on the back porch but also because who knows how many people had cursed him while he was wearing it last season.

The whole idea of blessing and cursing and items holding memory is very new to me. I know that words have a huge impact on everyone. Everything else I’m just not sure of, but that’s not because I disagree that it’s there (honestly, I have no idea; if things have been cursed by others and I’m using it, I don’t want to receive the cursing they put on the item). It’s rather that I don’t even think about an item’s having been blessed or cursed. They’re going back to the manufacturer even, as in who knows who made the shoes you’re wearing? What if it was someone who just was having an awful day and put that negative energy into your shoes? Do you want to be part of that? I definitely don’t, it’s just so far out of my thought process.

So here’s the question of the day: Does it need to be in my thought process? Are there things that I think about during the day that I could do away with and replace with thoughts and prayers about other things? How do I know? How do I find out? I imagine in something like this, I have to listen to the Spirit’s prompting on the whole thing. So is the influence of the Roberts the way the Spirit is prompting me, or am I so interested because it’s the Roberts that are influencing me?

I know that the Bible is full of Scripture on the tongue, its words, the Spirit, His work, and our thoughts.
  • For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.
  • Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love will it eat its fruit.
  • And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind.
  • For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.
  • Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
  • The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
  • With [the tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so!
  • Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
  • Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night.
There are many more, but those are the few I came up with off the top of my head. There’s evidence that spirits can work with and through words, and there’s evidence that God is the ruler of our spirit if we let Him be. We can either use our words to bless God and others and honor Him or to curse God and others and dishonor Him.

After I basically copied Will’s words, Nancy asked me if I never really used my imagination as a kid. I know I did, because we used to play with our Barbie dolls all the time and I’d have conversations among all the dolls in my head. But if I remember correctly, they were all very normal conversations; nothing was imaginative about them at all. They all did normal things, they didn’t go outside of the box, they didn’t do or say anything out of the ordinary. And as I was talking to Karthi last week, I had a very vivid memory of a recurring dream I’d had in middle school; I know my imagination was at work there.

Not that I didn’t already realize that I don’t often use my imagination, but it made me remember that I am a very practical person. I like black and white; I like rules that I can follow. I rarely think outside of the box, but I can usually solve problems practically. I often let others do the thinking and imagining and creating and then I can help with the implementation. Is that a bad thing? It’s the way that God has created me. Should I try to be more creative because I know he’s given me an imagination to use? Is that like Robin saying she should try running a marathon because God’s given her two legs like he has given me? Is it like Michelle saying she should be an editor because God’s given her two eyes and a hand to hold a pen? How different is this from the passage in Corinthians where Paul talks about the body? If everyone were a hand, where would the feet be? If everyone were an eye, where would the sense of smell be? If Robin and Michelle were both runners and editors, we’d have the best connection and the most boring family; we’d talk only about running and we’d only run. We wouldn’t get to go out and enjoy the other things that we enjoy. There would be no softball, no card games, no entertaining others and being hospitable, no leisurely walks, no reading, no nothing that someone does to show that they love someone else even if they hate or are uninterested in the activity.

Yes, God can and does and has been stimulating my imagination; this is evidenced in my dreams. But is he changing me so that I’ll think about every little thing and bless it or ask Him to bless it before I touch it?

It shows how similarly and differently we each relate. He is the same God for all of us; He loves us the same, He sent His same Son to die for each of us who accepts Him, and He has given us His same Spirit to dwell in us and to draw us closer to Him. But that same Spirit gives to each according to His will. This causes us to relate to Him differently; not bad different, just different. It causes each of us to know Him differently and gives each of us a desire to know Him more. But the way we relate to God is understandably different among people. I as an academic worship God when I study. My cousin as an artist worships God when she dances. As a result, I’m going to talk to God differently than she will—I’m going to come to Him with honor and respect and love from the right side of my brain, asking practical questions; she is going to go to Him with honor and respect and love from the left side of her brain, inventing and incorporating new moves into her presentations. And the amazing thing is that God still loves each of us the same.

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