3.10.2008

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, how great thou art...

Here's a nice thoughtful Mara-felt-pondery-today post.
 
It's amazing to me how God designed us.  Everything about it is just crazy.  Extraordinarily beautiful and complex and rich and abstract and poetic.  I adore it.  I love seeing what God has created and being so overwhelmingly inspired by it.  It's an amazing feeling.  Feeling is amazing.  To feel, to know, to comprehend, to discern, to sympathize, to love, to  hate, to misunderstand, to laugh and cry and do it out of sheer emotion.  It's astounding.  Think of all the things we, as people, feel.  And think of how you can just look at a person and, depending on how well you know them or they conceal it or whatever circumstances, understand their feeling.  Obviously, no one person can know everything someone is feeling all the time, and no one person is ever going to understand someone perfectly well from the get-go, but think of the depth there.  Think of how complicated emotion can be, and how easily we can sometimes pick up on it, or shift into it, or cause it.  We are meant to feel.  Emotion gives life color.  It makes things more real, more impacting.  To love makes things so much more beautiful (to be loved even more so), to hate makes things so much more bitter (to be hated? That seems different somehow.  Hmm...).  To love and lose makes both, but differently.  Think of the differences in perspective of people who have felt one emotion so strongly and how it altered their entire being.  Think of how God uses emotion to tell us things, to show us things about ourselves and others that we would otherwise never know (or even need to know, maybe).  What would life be if we didn't feel things?  Would it even be worth it?
 
Think, too, about how we feel for each other.  A friend was having a bad day of sorts today, and it altered my own feelings.  How amazing is it that someone else's feelings matter to me, because I care for them ('care' being a combination of emotion and conscious decision to be good to someone, to act as well as to feel?  Love is a verb, yes?  And love is a feeling?), and that beyond that, I feel them too?  Because they are hurting, I hurt.  Because they are uncomfortable, I am as well, even if it has nothing to do with me and my circumstances personally, aside from knowing that person.  Beyond sympathy or empathy or even just being sensitive to others feelings.  To feel for someone.  To bear one another's burdens?  To hurt when they hurt, (even without understanding.  Is that the same?  Does that change things? How much?) and to laugh when they laugh.  How amazing is it to love (any sort of love) enough that that person's feelings become your own.  Become a part of your feelings.  A part of who you are.  How is that possible?  Aren't my feelings my own?  Why should anyone else understand or know them, much less feel them as well?  How can someone even do that?  That astounds me.
 
How can anyone believe that we have no purpose when such complexity exists in us?
 
Sincerely,
Mara Tenille
The Butterfly Child

6 comments:

  1. I appreciate your ponderings, Mara. I, too think it's awesome the way He created us.

    You mentioned that we are meant to feel and that emotion felt strongly can and has altered peoples' lives. Maybe this is one of the unique ways in which we reflect that we are made in His Image. And, since He is holy and perfect, I am imagining His "feelings" and "emotions" are even more life-altering for the rest of us. He loves purely and perfectly, never sins in anger, and never misunderstands those He loves. He always "gets it" with us and His compassion is complete and perfect as well. Man! It blows me away!

    Think I'll go sit and ponder this for awhile. Blessings to you, Mara.
    Free in Him,
    Summer Lee

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  2. I was actually thinking about that too. The part about how that reflects the fact that we were made in his image. I definitely second everything you said. :) It's crazy stuff to think about!

    Mara

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  3. I am sobered (and more than just a little bit delighted) by the fact that we will spend the rest of eternity...E-TER-NI-TY...in absolute awe of all of this and more.

    And I know exactly what you're saying about how curious it is to feel someone else's feelings. Often they are more vivid than any feelings of my own. Surely that is the Holy Spirit. To feel compelled to pray for them and to cry for them and to rejoice for them.

    Anyway...

    Your new pajamas are cute and pink and heart-y.

    You are a well-oiled cookie machine.

    I can't believe you watched that movie with all the spiders.

    I am sorry you were so hot in your sweater.

    You are turning into a gameaholic.

    I am excited that you get to cuddle Lewis tomorrow and play with Owen.

    I also freely admit that I am jealous.

    It is fun watching you color.

    It is also fun listening to you chastise your colored pencils.

    The owner of Blumster's called about the website. He is going to try reaching you again tomorrow. You're like...a business woman or something. It's a bit freaky.

    Speaking of freaky, I am still not over the trauma of 17, dear. Let's not be talking about your 18th birthday. OK? *cry*

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  4. Wow I never really thought about emotions this hard until now. It's amazing how complex God created us. Wow this one is going to take lots of thinking/pondering. Do those words mean the same thing? well you opened something that i am going to think about for a long time. i completley 3rd everything summer said. This stuff blows me away. How could people not believe in God when he created us so complex? I don't understand it. We are studying the cell in biology and that is just remarkable there are so many little things but without one of them are body's would never work. Its just amazing how something so small can make such a big difference.

    Jessire

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  5. What has gotten in to you? For real? You are acting like a giggly, crazy person. *laugh*

    ************************

    M.Belle: I know what I want instead of a rat.
    Me: Oh, yeah? What's that?
    M.Belle: Two rats.
    Me: *rolls eyes*

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  6. I have given up on saying something relevant and meaningful, and will settle for just saying that it was a fantastic blog entry. Because it was, even if I never came up with anything good enough to put into a comment.

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