Christian Music

“I recently came across the comments of an American pastor objecting to new trends in worship music: ‘There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly…The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style. Because there are so many new songs you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money-making scheme, and some of these new music up-starts are lewd [coarse, vulgar, rude] and loose’…This comment comes from a pastor in 1723 attacking Isaac Watts, regarded now by many to be the father of North American humnody.” Found this article in Worship Leader Magazine May 2006.

Makes you go hmmmm!

Anger

Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy. Aristotle
My mother used to say, "He who angers you, conquers you!" But my mother was a saint. Elizabth Kenny
The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. Eric Hoffer
Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. Frederick Buechener
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. Thomas A Kempis
I was angry with my friend
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
A Poison Tree ~ William Blake

Was I dealing with anger this week...maybe just a tad!

The Monkey Trap

A coconut is hollowed out and attached by a rope to a tree or stake in the ground. At the bottom of the coconut a small slit is made and some sweet food is placed inside. The hole on the bottom is just big enough for the monkey to slide in his open hand, but does not allow for a closed fist to pass out. The monkey smells the sweets, reaches in with his hand to grasp the food and is then unable to withdraw it. The clenched fist won’t pass through the opening. When the hunters come, the monkey becomes frantic but cannot get away. There is no one keeping that monkey captive, except the force of his own attachment. All that he has to do is open his hand. But so strong is the force of greed in the mind that it is a rare monkey which cal let go. [J. Goldstein]

It is the desires and clinging in our own minds which keep us trapped. Can we learn from the monkey? What are you holding onto?

Will Power

"...that there is is no such faculty as will power that can be relied upon becomes obvious to any student of human activity who would observe that it is entirely lacking in most people most of the time and only marginally operative in a few under favorable circumstances..." Dr. D. Hawkins
Hmmmm yup!

Constellation

"Examine the so-called 'signs of the Zodiac' and 'constellations' which supposedly exists in the sky. If you photograph the starry sky at night and look at it with no preconceived notions, it is obvious that arbitrary lines could be drawn between any group of bright spots so as to produce the outline of any familiar figure or geometric shape. One can draw on a map of the stars a dog, a cat, quadraduplets, or whatever! These do not exist in reality in space; in fact, there is no such thing as a constellatin except to the imagination of the observer. From a different viewpoint in space, not a single one of the famous constellations with fanciful names can be seen by anyone!" Dr. David R. Hawkins
Okay then...that's more like it!

"The Essence of our Experience...

...is change. Change is incessant. Moment by moment life flows by and it is never the same. Perpetual alteration is the essence of the perceptual universe. A thought springs up in you head and half a second later, it is gone. In comes another one, and that is gone too. A sound strikes your ears and then silence. Open your eyes and the world pours in, blink and it is gone. People come into your life and they leave again. Friends go, relatives die. Your fortunes go up and they go down. Sometimes you win and just as often you lose. It is incessant: change, change, change. No two moments ever the same." H. Gunaratana Mahathera

Such is life...and I love life!

Joy

Maybe there’s something else to life than just getting what you want all the time . . . That something else is finding the joy within oneself, rather than as a result of life circumstances. Cheri Huber

Maybe? Hmmmm....most likely!