Sunday, February 27, 2022

Your Curiosity is someone's business!

 

There is this famous saying "curiosity kills the cat". Being too curious most of the time lands us in multiple problems. Yet, as humans the urge to know all, possess all, experience all and be in all places at the same time is unrestrainable. What are you curious about? What are you longing to have? Usually the tangibles, that we see, touch and feel are the ones that get our attention. And especially, what we don't possess and what we don't know that we want to know are the ones that stirs up our curiosity.

As I quoted earlier, the business enterprisers use the curiosity of the people to satisfy their curiosity for a cost. Let me quote this for example, there is a caller ID app that provides useful information in terms of identifying spam callers and saves people from wasting their time and energy. But at the same time in order to urge people from using the free services to paid services they advertise and promote its helpfulness in many other ways. Most importantly, a feature that constantly reminds the users that someone, has watched their profile and then give a blurred picture of the person who has accessed our profile. This triggers our curiosity and people are longing to know who that could be. On valentine’s day the commercials were even more alluring, indicating probably someone special has looked at your profile. It has an impact on the lonely and desperate and people contemplate to probably subscribe the feature for at least a short period of time.

Man is curious about less satisfying things, which creates longingness and demands to be satisfied. Unfortunately, man fails to understand that curiosity and longingness can never be satisfied by the fulfilment of this world. In fact, people know it, but just keep trying to fulfil all their desires including the crazy ones to fulfil what their eyes desire and longing of their hearts. The Bible in the book of proverbs says like this, "Sheol (the place of the dead) and Abaddon (the place of destruction) are never satisfied; so [the lust of] the eyes of man is never satisfied."

Man, constantly fails to understand that the desires, longings and fulfillments can only be found in God who created his/her soul. C S Lewis the brilliant writer remarks, "You do not have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body." Let this remind us that we are a soul, which needs to connect to a living God. Inviting Him to our heart, satisfies man to the fullest. Not the gods whom we carve and make with our hands, but the one who is God incarnate and lived among humans, died and resurrected. He gave us hope that we can live eternally. Solomon the wisest person on earth, whose book is found in the Bible remarked, "But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion." Jesus lives and you have hope in Him. You can talk to Him and He reveals Himself and satisfies you perfectly. I am not referring to the religious building but a God who can fulfil all your curiosity and all your longings.

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Sunday, February 20, 2022

IT IS A DOG-EAT-DOG WORLD

 

Fairness has become a forgotten term in relationships. Although we are wired to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly before our Maker, the world will sneer at us if we were to adhere to this character DNA pattern of our Heavenly creator. We are constantly cornered by people preying upon our vulnerability and taking advantage of our goodness, to meet their selfish agendas. Our inner voice cries out in frustration saying, “All are cheats and liars”. Our depravity has reduced to levels where even animals showing kindness to one another is awe inspiring because even such levels of kindness has eroded from human race.

Most of us are convinced that we have to repay wicked people by being wicked. But where does that place us in the godliness measurement? Most of the religions give us a way out to wash away this guilt by performing rites and rituals. But does that really remove the guilt? Our conviction to remain wicked only becomes stronger with overcoming every obstacle by being wicked. We lie, cheat, manipulate, betray and use treachery all because we feel that is how the world treated us and it is ok to do the same.

Have we ever paused to question ourselves what is it that makes us unfair in a situation? If not I would recommend you to do so right away as this is very crucial to our existence. The answer to this question will reveal your real motivation in life. When our pursuit is money or power or anything worldly, fairness is irrelevant but if our motivation is to reveal the character of God in us then our attitude would be generous enough to overlook the treachery done to us and repay with goodness. I am not trying to inculcate timidity but urging you to exemplify graciousness. It’s a choice and a direct implication of our level of intimacy with God.

Jesus is a God who came in human form and excellently modeled fairness in an unfair situation. I would like to bring the focus on His “human form” because it implies that what He taught us in humanly possible and not exclusive to Him being God. He humbled Himself before His very creation and died in their hands without any resistance. His motivation was not to show Himself as supreme power, which He was, but it was to honor and fulfil the purpose, i.e. to save sinners like you and me and provide salvation from our wretched life. Being God, it would have been easy task for Him to wipe out the whole human race for the humiliation He was put through. But His purpose and character was way above the treachery and betrayal He faced. Our purpose in life and our noble intentions should far exceed revenge and retribution. Again, it all boils down to our choice on how we want to react. I want end with a quote from the Bible that really refines our mind and character, "Finally brothers and sister, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is commendable – if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy – dwell on these things”.


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Sunday, February 13, 2022

Sacredness in secular zone!

 

Life is so compartmentalized today, that we bring demarcation in every facets of life. Our goodness and virtues are limited to place, situation and context. We sometimes, believe we need to put different masks and portray images to make our survival better. I can understand, our roles can be different based on our responsibilities, but why do our goodness and virtues need to bend to vices with our position?

Dr. Richard puts it beautifully, “To separate the sacred from the secular, to remove religious belief from social discourse and public intercourse is to arbitrarily divide sacred and secular, private and public. Human life, individual and corporate, grounds the connection. Distinguish but don't divide unless you want to devalue life!

This life is not conditioned and a result of physical union alone. Medical Science & human intelligence does not have the ability to create a new life, it is only striving to find what is available and see how best it can sustain life, even that too for a temporary period. I heard an atheist stating that “death is a technical error”. Oh really, do you think so? We are limited and finite compared to the infinite.

The grandeur design of God, the universe is a display of divine goodness and we are His Masterpiece. God expects us to be who we are and integrate life, and not devalue it by separating Sacred from secular. Conflict of roles, character and position can have a serious effect on our children too. Let your time with the sacred transform you as a person in order to make this world a better place not use the name of the sacred to revolt, terrorise and make the life of the vulnerable and poor miserable. Your Life can be transformed when you confess who you are to God who is holy and sacred. Jesus is perfectly holy and all who encounter Him are made new and their life transformed to a brand new person. 

We live in a world where people are attacked for maintaining truth and sacredness. The one who politicises God and religion are lifted high. So rightly G. K Chesterton puts this, “We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.”. Nevertheless, trust Him and allow the maker and the creator of the universe to help you maintain the sacredness and dignity of being a human being.

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Sunday, February 6, 2022

Expectancy and Reality Gap!

 

We wish to live in a state of complacency with nothing to complain about. We wish, our long-awaited dreams coming true are completely worth it. We wish, the job that pays us well, will gives us immense peace and mental satisfaction, to live without regrets. We wish the love for which we were head over heels about ends in a lasting, happy relationship. We wish being rich with no lack does not end in restlessness and apprehensions for more. 

The wish list could be endless but there is no guarantee that all our yearnings would bring the desired outcomes. There is always a large gap between expectation and reality. We expect certain things, and we may even work towards it, but there is no guarantee we will receive exactly what we expected and desired for to satisfy us. Since, we are comprised of body, spirit and soul, all our expectancies are not in perfect sync with the need of the body and the satisfaction of our soul. A lot of contradiction takes place and we fail to understand this. Solzhenitsyn points out, “We are approaching a major turning point in world history…it is a juncture at which settled concepts suddenly become hazy, lose their precise contours, at which our familiar and commonly used words lose their meaning..”

Unless all our expectancies and wishes understand the need of our soul, it will permanently cause a vacuum within us. In our pursuit to match the expectancy and reality, we will try to bridge the gap with money, pleasures and relationships for our satisfaction. It just does not hold up. Only a God and a Savior can bridge the gap and fill the vacuum in your heart. You can keep dreaming for a perfect, tranquil scenario and even try your best with all your efforts. However, unless you make a room for the Savior in your heart, life will be utterly meaningless and futile. The Bible says, “For in him we live and move and have our being” Further says, “we are the temple of the Living God.”. All religions find their identity in the religious places but here Jesus promises to dwell in human hearts to bring meaning, satisfaction and perfect peace that the world cannot give nor take away from you. Would you invite Him in your heart for hope and direction?

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