Hope in God

"You are my strength when I am weak, you are the treasure that I seek, you are my all in all."

Such a simple lyric that has been constantly passing through my head today. So easy to hum, but tough when our own desires are put in the balance. How easy it is to run to the path of complacency, the path of this world, that alludes us with an easy fix. "Instant happiness this way," it says. While the road to Our Lord seems like one that is heavy. Yet, why is this so? I ponder this within myself many times and find that, for me, it is my own stubborness and impatience. Why can't I have the answers now? Why isn't the road covered with roses? Why the thorns? Yet must we be so blind to not see that our very own Master chose the road with thorns - for us? Don't we realize He wants us to be happy? Yeah, confusing, but we are not called to always understand. Why are we asking to have a road of roses, according to our standards, when He had one of thorns? Do we think we should have a path any different than that of our Master's? Do we think of ourselves as higher than our God? Why do we place our standards on God, when He knows everything! Way more than our little selves. We cannot begin to fathom His greatness, what is it in us that then wants to place our small standards upon such a great God? Why do we try to do this? Is it pride? Is pride, rebellion, or stubbornness the root of that heaviness? Is it a lack of trust that maybe God doesn't know what He is doing? Doesn't exactly know what I need?

Before we even begin to answer these questions, we must first look inside ourselves. Where do we place our hope? Where do we place our trust? In the passing pleasures of this world? In a world that can be seen constantly chasing after the next high? As one of Stacie Orrico's songs goes, "There's gotta be more to life." And there is.

If we feel pulled in two directions, we need to step back. We must look beyond the feelings and emotions (vessels that at times can be used to blind us if we fall asleep), and inside to our inner desires. What will fulfill my soul's longing? It can't possibly be the things of this world. All I have to do is look to things I had chased before thinking those would make me "whole" and see that obviously they haven't because well, here I am, stil left pondering. So what is more constant? What is more fulfilling? God. He is the only one. We just need to let go. Let go of our fleeting desires for instant happiness and strive for eternal joy. Happiness is a passing thing of this world, one brought about by those passing moments in life and defined by good feelings, but joy - joy is a decision, a form of being, an action. We can chose to be joyful in all things, even in those times when we may not feel so good, how? By placing our hope in God. If we have our hope in God, in His goodness, in His decisions in our lives, than we can be joyful in even those moments where we are troubled or just feel down. Yes, even in sadness we can have joy. Why? Because we can be excited to know that He has control and knows what He is doing. We must not let our human minds deceive us, or rather, let the evil one deceive us, by telling us that the past is going to be the best thing we can ever imagine. No. There is a future and God is in charge. Get excited! God is in charge and has a great plan for you! Just trust. Hope in God. And feel that joy again knowing that the future ahead is better than any past.

Alright, so how do we chose this every day? How do we refocus our hope in God? Well, I don't have a long, convoluted answer. It's actually quite simple, but involves our acceptance. We refocus our hope in God by first accepting that He loves us, no matter what. This is something we need to actively accept. Only then can we tackle the second part, this may be the hardest of all because it involves letting go of our own "plans" of happiness, and that is, to realize and accept that God truly wants what is best for us. He wants what is best for us! Just think of this for a second. God wants what is best for me? Me? That's amazing! We need to remind ourselves of this reality, this fact, this truth. We must not let ourselves be blinded but rather just let the passing feelings and emotions go by, because they will, that's what they do, and remember that our hope in God means our salvation, our joy, and yes, our happiness. There is so much more ahead if we are with God, and today shall pass like yesterday, while tomorrow will be yet another chance to say yes to God, and yes to a future of fulfillment and hope.

Hope in God. He loves you. He loves me. Drop the weight and let go.

An old post brought back to life

An old post that I'd like to share once again for anyone who crosses my blog (ca. 2006):

Random pondering:

You know, sometimes I stop and think about the things of this world. Crazy how things are these days, and sometimes how they are not. Life's tough, that's for sure, but the funny thing about it is that when things seems to be getting real bad, something, though you can choose to ignore it (even when you feel like you are not choosing to ignore it) seems to be whispering in your ear that maybe you aren't seeing the entire picture. Like there is a curtain over something better that you just can't see, maybe just not ready to see. And so your left in a stupor, a wonder. What am I missing? What is there before me, right in front of me, that I am not permitted, or rather, not permitting myself to see. Yet it's there, and the agony that can come from wanting to see the beauty that can come from behind that curtain is sometimes hard to get through. Yet you do, because deep down inside, there is a reason, a hope, the realization that there will be another day, that today will end and when it does, you will realize that you have lived and are yet one more day closer to that mystery behind that curtain. Yet, then I think, what is behind that curtain? You may be surprised to see just another day. And really, that's what it is. Another day, and that is the beauty, the mystery, the sometimes heavy feeling of it. Yet, why should it be so? It's another day. An entirely new day. Another start. Another chance. Try to make the best of it, no matter how hard it may seem at times, how blurry things may get, you may be surprised to find yourself hit by the little surprises of love that can come your way if you just focus on what is good. Yes, they are there. It's a day, a door you can pass in which you can find yourself or lose yourself through the complexity that is life. Yet that's how life is. When you least expect it, when you are busy doing other things, life happens. That's the beauty, the mystery, and sometimes the root of the agony that can come from waiting for something we already have. It's just a matter of taking the blindfold off of your eyes, seeing what gifts have been given to you already, and knowing how to use them wisely. Tough thing to do, yeah, but it got me thinking today. Funny how life is.

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

Gattaca: just around the corner or already here?

So we had a very brief conversation in my lab at work concerning the potential for a Gattaca future. It was brought on by a recent study looking at the potential of finding the genetic determinants of atrial fibrillation (AF; a type of cardiac condition). In this one study, they were trying to replicate the finding of a previous group which found 2 SNP's (single-nucleotide polymorphisms, ie: genetic markers in one's DNA) that highly correlated with individuals diagnosed with AF. However, in this particular study, they not only confirmed those 2 SNPs, but also found 4 other ones. They concluded by saying that such a finding is so reliable that it has the potential of preventing AF in an individual, through proper medical treatment, who may be at risk genetically in getting AF.

Moral of the story, my PI said that such a finding can be critical in preventative medicine and that the main breakthrough would be to be able to genetically map a newborn baby. Mapping their genes would allow parents to know the risk their child has of getting a variety of disorders. Having this information, they can then raise/treat that child accordingly (ie: have a low sugar diet if the child is at risk for type II diabetes) so as to reduce the potential of them getting the certain disorder they are at risk for. Keeping this in mind, one of my lab members posed the question: What is to stop people then from mapping their children and saying, "Well, I don't want to raise a child with the potential of getting that disorder. It's too much to think about. It think we'll just give them up for adoption." My PI took it one step further saying, "What is to stop them from mapping their fetuses?" The answer to this last question is without a doubt a scary one since, as may be common sense to some, the parents may not choose to adopt but to abort. Sadly, this notion is not a new one and in the world of IVF, there is selection and mapping already occurring. I tried to bring this up so as to open the eyes of my lab members to the notion of eugenics, but the topic was quickly changed. How frustrating. Nonetheless, I took the liberty to send the following article to my lab member (who happens to be the administrator of my lab) in regards to her question about parents wishing to give their children up for adoption. I briefly mentioned to her that I had read this article similar to the topis we mentioned in lab, so she got a heads up and it's not completely out of the blue.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123439771603075099.html

God help us and bless us all, especially our children.