Tag: thoughts

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Life

OF LOVE AND JUSTICE

Last night, my good friend asked me one of the most difficult subjects I can ever reflect upon.  She asked me if I could ponder on the relevance of justice and love. 

In my mind, it would’ve been easier had she asked about love and mercy, or love and grace, or love and forgiveness.  But love and justice?  Wasn’t it a question as old as whether God is either loving or just?  Or whether there is  a hell in the afterlife that will punish the wicked forever and ever into eternal fire?

 

How do I reconcile these things?  Can love and justice exist at the same time?

 

While I was pondering this, a blessed thought suddenly came upon me:

 LOVE would never ever desire anything that is UNJUST, but LOVE can embrace even the UNJUST, and in its power bring forth JUSTICE in all things. 

The first premise is clear.  Love is good and justice is good.  Love only desires that which is good, and justice is good indeed.

 

The second premise is harder but is still possible to be grasped.  Love understands.  Love forgives. As God maketh it to rain on both the just and the unjust, love is capable indeed of extending its graces and awesome mysteries, its mercies and its kindness even to the unjust.

 

But the third premise is indeed difficult, if not impossible to comprehend.  How is it possible indeed for love to bring forth justice in all things?  How can a love that embraces and forgives even the unjust bring forth goodness from what isn’t good?

 

And then I realized, that our difficulty lies in how we view justice.  What is justice anyway? A tooth for a tooth?  Revenge and due punishment for those who have wronged us?

 

If we look at it more carefully though, if we try to feel what’s inside of an aggrieved and hurting heart, we may catch a better glimpse of understanding to the questions we have asked.

 

What does a hurting soul desire?  How does it define the justice it prays for? In its anger and confusion, the person may believe all she wants is to punish the offender.

 

Yet if we try to ask further, why the desired punishment?  Because such a one deserves it?  Because such an act can help alleviate one’s pain?

 

I would like to believe that there are two kinds of pain.  One is the immediate effect of the offender’s sin, which may be a physical wound or another kind of suffering.  And the other is the pain of not being justified.  Now which of these pains is eradicated by the punishment of the guilty?

 

If we say the second one, we should try to define that pain further.  The pain of not being justified is that pain of a meaningless suffering.  And by meaningless we mean not only the absence of good fruit but the absence of the offender’s true understanding of the consequences of his actions.

 

In truth, deep within us, we desire the offender to be punished so he may know the kind of suffering we went through, so he may understand, so he may repent, so he may finally choose what is JUST!

 

Now the question that herein remains is, can LOVE do that?  By now I am certain you’d have realized the answer, but if you ask me still how it can, I would like to tell you honestly, I have no more words to tell you how.

Categories
Life

Times like these

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Why does it seem so hard

to be loved

to be accepted

for who you really are?

I am sad

I am lonely

I am misunderstood

Maybe times like these

only the man in the cross

can fathom my tears

and honor them

as though coming

from a sacred fountain

both sorrowful

and divine.

Categories
Life

Unblocking your flow

Much had been said already urging us to discover our desires, pursue our interests, nourish our gifts, follow the passions God has given us.   Find your flow – that is the way to succeed and live a fulfilling life.  We then have a pretty picture in our minds of that day when we need not do our boring jobs anymore, and when we shall find abundance pouring in in ways we could never have imagined.   We feel the excitement pulsing in our veins, finally doing what we’re all supposed to do, living the glorious destiny to which we have been born into.

 

Then all of a sudden, we find ourselves living just the opposite life we dreamed.  We find ourselves in a rut, a deadend, or a yellow light that has kept us waiting longer than we have expected for us to realize the vision that has been given us.   What went wrong?  What sin have we committed for us to deserve this kind of punishment that has fallen upon us like a thief in the night stealing our dreams and the life that has been promised of us?

Continue reading “Unblocking your flow”

questions…

Who are you? Who do you want to be? Where are you going?

Categories
Life

What I learned

Having just celebrated my birthday, I would like to take down some of the things I’ve learned in life.

1. I learned that growth is a continuous process, and that the process usually means undergoing some sort of struggle, pain or difficulty.

2. I learned that though the process of growing is usually difficult and involves some kind of sorrow or pruning, the result is always towards greater happiness and empowerment.

3. I learned that one of man’s greatest need is to be loved, and one of the greatest hindrance to being loved is our inability or lack of willingness to understand one another.

4. I learned that many times, it really doesn’t take much to make people happy. A single rose could make someone’s day just as much as a million dollars can.

5. I learned that the greatest enemy we should conquer is our very selves. If we can face our shadows and our fears, we can face everything else.

6. I learned that however happy we are in the life we’re living, we should always have a dream.

7. I learned that there are times when our love for another person is that which inspires us to love ourselves more.

8. I learned that no matter how hard I try, I cannot cause the night to end any sooner. On the other hand, even if I do nothing, the morning will surely come to give me a brand new day.

9. I learned that no matter how my friends and I try to think my problems through, there are problems that won’t immediately go away, and all we can do is to wait and weather the storm through.

10. I learned that if there is one thing we should strive to build, it is a home right within our hearts; a home that we can always take with us wherever we may go, a home that nobody can ever take away.