During dinner one day, I was reading the directions, warnings, and general labeling of a package of paper towels. (I'm of the nature to read whatever happens to be in front of me, btw.) Help me understand this. This particular brand of papers towels proclaimed the slogan: "Wipes dry fast!"

            Do correct me if I'm wrong, but this strikes me as the most ungrammatical sentence. Below is my logic in deconstructing this slogan.

            The subject is missing. Add subject: "Towels wipe dry fast!"

            ....Direct object is missing... "Dry" is place of the direct object?

            So what is wiping dry fast? The towels... As they are wiping, the towels dry fast.

            Haha, um, that doesn't make sense.

            Wait... "Limpia y seca rapidimente"? At least, they used the Spanish correctly.

*

During another day, I was stocking lovely, scented hygiene products on the shelves. Right beside the space for my product was an after-shower spray for men. Like one of those scented perfumes that is half oil/half smelly. While not noteworthy on its own, the particular flavor of this manly body spray made me do a doubletake.

Ripped Abs. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Ripped Abs scented body spray. My train of thought naturally went down this track.

What exactly do ripped abs smell like?

Wait a minute. Never mind. I don't want to know!

Ripped abs may look nice, but do they smell nice? Moreover, who would want to smell like ripped abs anyway?

And what happens if saggy geek were to smell of ripped abs?

Wrong! Stopping train now.

 I concluded that marketers have thoroughly suckered men into buying beauty products.

*

            During quite another day, I was busying myself with my morning routine.

While washing my hair, I released the shear annoyance of it all. People the world around every day wash the oil from their hair only to slather more oil on in the form of conditioner. Why not just skip washing hair altogether and simply rinse it out?

            Moreover, is it just me, or are more and more people washing themselves with food? Have you noticed the flavors of conditions and shampoos? Strawberries and crème smoothie conditioner? Oatmeal bodywash with butter beads? Pomegranate vanilla soap? Lemon lime deodorants? Americans, instead of eating their breakfast, have turned to bathing in it.

            Then, while brushing my teeth, it dawned on my that I was in fact rubbing my teeth with plastic and a mild poison (fluoride). This is supposed to be healthy? Sometimes I wonder if people have teeth problems because of toothpaste and not because of cavities. I do wonder...

*

    My finally conclusion of the day has come to me. Only a person with absolutely no life notices this kind of things, or moreover takes the time to right a post about them. Aren't the fruits of summer vacation grand?      

 I wish I had time to write a longer post, but I have to go make dinner. A quick note will have to suffice today.

    I love God. I love everything about Him. I love to watch Him work. I love to hear Him speak. I love His kingdom, His children, and all His ways.

     God takes such good care of my friends and my family. And He takes such good care of me too, even though I don't deserve any of it. I've never known another being who could be so gentle, so kind, so steadfast, and so deeply good.

    No one is like God. No one else will ever gain my whole heart, because God has all of it.

     The power of words fails me. No amount of elequence can express my thankfulness for all God has done for me. Even these three simple words -- I love You -- do not suffice. They are not fitting... 

Only You know how much I love You, God.

Amen.   

Truth, by its very nature, is not always a comfortable, pleasant thing. Sometimes you'd rather not know the truth. The truth will not always agree with what you think. And the truth will continue to be the truth independent of what you want it to be or don't want it to be.

You can choose to believe a fact, an opinion, or a religion, but it's not guaranteed to be the truth. And, even after being confronted by truth, you can go on believing in something contrary to truth's evidences, but it won't be the truth that you're believing in. ((Don't you find it amusing that in the same way you can believe in truth you can also believe in a lie? In fact, it's easier to believe in a lie because lies are often more comfortable, more acceptable, less absolute, and safer.)) If you've always been entirely comfortable with certain a truth, that should be an immediate red flag. All truth takes some degree of acceptance.

Truth exists. And truth is going to be the truth independent of you, regardless of what you think, feel, or want. You don't like it? Well, you don't have to like it. That's why it's the truth.  

      Don't you ever wish you could just break away? Completely and utterly, just drop all that nasty baggage that's keeping your feet on the ground. Pain, unforgiveness, fear, hatred, wounds, selfishness, sarcasms, apathy. Junk, trash, icky smelling baggage of every mental, emotional, physical, spiritual sort. Don't you ever wish you could just drop it all on the floor and walk away, walk into a brand new, clean life, where you don't have to carry all that around? 

So many things have been happening lately. Not easy, not comfortable things, but something is happening to me. My soul is trilling with change. I have been carrying around so many things. I've been caught up in so many things, things I never knew were effecting me negatively, things that we dragging me down, slowly destroying and twisting me. I been seeing all this anger, pain, fear, bitterness, unforgiveness, lies, ancient baggage from my childhood rising to the surface and falling off. All of it, I feel it just shedding off me.

Haha, I feel like I've been slingshotted towards a higher plateau, and I've busted right through into a bright and beautiful sky. All this horrible, nasty, festering stuff inside my soul has just been scraped right off when I broke through. And suddenly I'm light. I'm free.

What struck me most was just how much stuff I was holding onto. I mean, me. I had thought I was a pretty unburdened person, that I never held onto things and never let them fester inside me. But I've been getting pieces of baggage cleaned off me that I never knew was there. Only in hindsight do I realize that, "Whoa, hey, that's why I was always so insecure/driven/sensitive/depressed in that area."

So I have a challenge for you, dear readers. All the nasty festers I've been finding in myself were festers I had been holding onto. Harmful ideals, injuries, negative emotions I didn't want to let go. So here's the challenge:

 If you could let it all go -- and I mean drop every little tiny bit of baggage, heal every hurt, root out every speck apathy, ect, ect -- would you choose to be entirely free of it? Do you want to let it go?   

            I recently finished up a short class at my church. One of the pastors was teaching on spiritual gifts. These were my top three spiritual gifts:

            Singleness.

            Enduring Suffering.

            Voluntary poverty.

My first thought was, "AWESOME! Those are the most perfect gifts for a novelist! Hahahah!" Just goes to show that God often equips you for what you're meant to do. ~.^

It was a very enlightening class. Did you know that 80% of the churchgoers are not even aware they have spiritual gifts? And every believer is guaranteed to have at least one gift.

But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

 [[1 Corinthians 7:7B]]

There are lists of gifts in the Bible as well.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and  there are varieties of service, but  the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of  wisdom, and to another the utterance of  knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

[[1 Corinthians 12:4-11]]

Wisdom, knowledge, healing, tongues, prophecy, discernment is only scraping the surface I'm sure. No list in the Bible is complete.

The tests we went through as part of this course showed that I had some very peculiar latent gifts as well. (In other words, these gifts I weren't actively using for some reason or another.)

As Christians, we're all responsible for our gifts. The more gifted you are, the more responsible you are. So if you're a Christian with profound gifts like deliverance or prophecy, you better use those gifts very, very carefully.

It's kind of sad really. Spiritual gifts have been given such a bad reputation by people who've fallen off the path. People have tried to use a gifts they don't actually have. They have used a gift for the wrong reasons. Or they have stepped outside the bounds and used it without consulting God. Physical, emotional, and spiritual disaster resulted. Those types of disasters sour everyone's opinions of gifts.

And yet, an enormous potential for good exists in these gifts when they are used the way God intended. I mean, look at prayer. Prayer has shown itself to be awful powerful. It just works. (That's always been important to me that spiritual practices not only have tangible results/evidences, but also positive, helpful, or otherwise good effects.) It's the strangest thing, wandering through life and watching reality line itself up for you, no matter how hopeless or tough a situation is. If simple prayer can do this, think of what other gifts can do.

The disasters left behind by others who have misused God's gifts stand as a grim warning. This is not something to be taken lightly. And yet, a door has opened. My mind is full of "What if?" My curiosity is intrigued. I want to see and find out. After all, what do I have to lose? Before anything else, I intend to give my latent gifts a thorough exploration.

This is going to be interesting~!

Other Gift Scriptures:

[Romans 12:3-8 & 1 Peter 4:10]

            I have been in a severely philosophical mood of late. Many interesting little tidbits, several of which have been indelibly helpful, have risen out of life's recent, seemingly plain experiences. In the midst of this, a theory has approached me and my mind has bent itself to turning this idea to all angles. I'd like to expound on it here, hopefully to receive much needed feedback.

It's a theory of effective reality. It's massively applicable, exposes the core of the balance between human perspective and reality. But, first. I must build a foundation.

            Psychology and beliefs have never been separate. Psychology, at its heart of hearts, is about exploring the human mind -- it's finding out how people think about everything and the effect of that perspective of their life. Beliefs or religions are pre-constructed patterns of thought. A person's beliefs are a matrix or a template and their thoughts are directed and focused through that matrix. In turn, those thoughts effect a person's life. The most powerful force man has is the idea; thoughts are the seeds of actions. Because thoughts are so powerful, the matrix which directs those thoughts is perhaps the only think more powerful than the thought itself, simply because what you believe controls what you think which controls how you live and die. So, to me, psychology and beliefs have been two pieces of the same life.

This is the main question. How do you discern the difference between two belief templates? Or what a good way to think and what is a bad way to think?

To answer this, I need to re-establish the credibility of reality.

I want to begin at the standpoint of relativism, namely because it is a belief centered around human perception. In essence, it relativism says whatever you choose to believe becomes reality. A big part of relativism came from the quantum physics and the study of photons. Scientist wanted to research photons as a wave, and photons appeared to be a wave. Other scientist wanted to research photons as a particle and they appeared as a particle. This brought about the philosophical question: Is reality what I want it to be at the moment?

This should be test on a larger scale as well with something more common. Say I conduct an experiment. I believe 2+2=5. Taking an empty jar, I put two paperclips inside, add two more, but I don't get five. Here, reality is disproving the notion that reality is simply what I want it to be. Indeed, reality has disproved me many other in objective and subjective experiences as well.

Evidence exists to support that there is a reality which arches over human perspective. Human's can take whatever perspective they want, but a firm reality exists apart from human perspective, and the reality will punch through human perspective like paper. (Gravity and inertia are other excellent laws beside mathematics which support this.)

 Once we know reality to be credible, or at least separate and dominant over human perspective, we ask, "What is the relationship between reality and human perspective?"

            Let's begin with a metaphor.

            A questionable painting hangs on a wall. One critic dislikes it greatly and thinks its an insult to the world of art. Another critic loves the painting and thinks its an invaluable piece. Both critics are obviously being influenced by their own perspectives. Which is true? Is the painting good or bad? How do you tell the answer apart from their perspective? The answer could be neither of them are right. The painting might just be the work of an artist trying to make a living.

Regardless of what the critics think, there still is a reality to the painting -- a reality that is above the critics' perspective. How can you determine the reality of it? In this case, is the reality of the painting either good or bad?

A person would have to step entirely out of their perspective, and keep their perspective out of the matter, to clearly see the reality of the painting. Unfortunately, I've find stepping ENTIRELY one's perspective is unattainable, making perfect objectivity impossible. So what do you do?

You determine whether the painting is good or bad by its effects. Even though we humans cannot escape our beliefs, reality can cut through that. If the painting is bad, you will find the majority of people coming away from it bored, depressed, hurt, or discouraged. The painting will have a negative effect. Whereas if the painting uplifts, encourages, interests, and inspires, then the painting is good. The effects of the painting stand as a testament to its reality.

 Unfortunately, with actual paintings, many other factors like culture and attitude effects how it received. That is why the painting is only a metaphor. With a thought matrixes or beliefs, their effects are universally the same regardless of the social influences.

How do you know the difference between a good and a bad perspective? Or even universally, how do discern the essential reality of anything

"Wisdom is known by her children."

Likewise an action, a belief, a lifestyle is shown to by its effects.

Are you being weakened or strengthened by the way you think? Do you destroy or heal people with your actions? What effect is your lifestyle having on others and on you?

I cannot stress how unfathomably important it is to walk carefully in life. It is way to easy to fall into a bad thought pattern. You can destroy yourself and not even realize it. Everything in your life is influenced -- directly or indirectly -- by what you believe. By what you focus your thoughts around and what you bend your thoughts to.

And everyone has a thought matrix of some kind. Everyone has a system of belief. Even atheists fall under religion because they avidly disbelieve in a God.

I encourage everyone: Know what you believe, why you believe it, and what it does both to you and others. The first step in anything is discernment. Whatever you believe in or whatever thought matrix or religion you examine, remember that wisdom is known by her children.

Good and bad, regardless of their appearance and regardless of your perspective, are always known by their effects.   

            Yay! I'm an officially licensed driver now! What a load off my mind... With that out of the way, that means... I'm through the deluge of grown-up initiation tests! I've survived the GED Tests (practice and real), I've survived the slew of COMPASS and other college entrance tests. And, finally, I've survived the Drivers Knowledge and Ability tests. (And mind you, the only reason I survived was because I received no small measure of help from various sources. Thank you guys for all the encouragement and cheering -- you know who you are! ~.^)

            It's all down hill from here. No words can express my relief. The only really nasty thing to survive is having my wisdom teeth out, but seeing as they're not bothering me, it could easily be another thirty years. For now, I'm just going to lay of the floor for a few moments and thank God that I've made it through...

...

......

.........

            Now I can actually start focusing more on FUN grown-up stuff. Like school! Like socializing! Like getting on with life! Like writing!

            Writing.... *dreamy eyes* When was the last time I could actually focus on writing? Oh my... Not since last summer, when I started cramming for the GED. Since then, I've been bouncing around nonstop, preparing, defending, and tackling this onslaught of TESTS. I don't really even remember what life is like without a test looming in my mind. @.@ Dude... This is nice, this whole... being free thing...

            *content sighs and chuckles*

            Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to turn up my music, shut my door, and attack the nearest story with a vengeance. 0.0 Or maybe some world-building... World-building sounds nice...

Aahhh, so beautiful...