Hula hoop kitten. [video]

oozey mess

blake kathryn
hello vonnie
macklin celebrini has autism

★
cherry valley forever
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her

JBB: An Artblog!

JVL

❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open

if i look back, i am lost

Kaledo Art
taylor price
h
Sade Olutola
AnasAbdin

No title available

roma★
ojovivo

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Russia

seen from Canada
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Argentina

seen from Spain
seen from Netherlands
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom

seen from Malaysia

seen from Türkiye
seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from United States
@gilligank
Hula hoop kitten. [video]
Get rekt grams.
Her name is...
There is always an opportunity for an excuse. A reason (whether true or not true) why you “can’t” do something. I wonder how many opportunities have been lost because of an excuse. How many fond memories will never be spoken of? How many kids have been disappointed?
Then again, our culture encourages excuses. Before an excuse is given there is this expectation burning inside of the individual receiving the excuse, and simultaneously a sense of obligation in the pit of the excuse giver’s stomach. It has become a currency exchange of sorts. An evil that is only spoken of in public when the individual receiving the excuse is negatively impacted.
Excuses are the elephant in the room at family reunions, business meetings, and political press conferences. Excuses are everywhere and spoken by everyone. The question is, how do we kill excuse? Or better yet, should we kill excuse? Contrary to popular opinion, a lot of the time the excuses given are valid. People really get caught up.
With that in mind, I want to pose what I feel is the most important question. How should we respond to excuses? How do we react when excuses come across our desk? I can only think of one word when thinking of how I want to respond to excuses going forward. GRACE. May grace abound, in all of our lives. Chances are, we’re going to need her real soon.
-dm
What We Wear 2 Church.Tumblr.com
Where are all the Happy Christians?
Once again my mornings and evenings with CH Spurgeon are challenging my heart while the Spirit convicts my soul. Here is a gem from my morning reading:
The life of the believer is here described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than “holiness” and “delight.” But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them.
There thought that pierced my heart was this: I don’t know many happy Christians.
What Do I Mean by “Happy”?
Happiness, in a religious context, can get pretty tricky to try to explain. I know plenty of Christians who attend a church service, partake in a redeemed rock concert, get pumped up by a motivational speaker, and then ride the adrenaline wave to their Sunday afternoon nap. That may count as a euphoric high, but it falls greatly short of the happiness described by the Psalmist when he says that the Lord has anointed lovers of righteousness with the oil of gladness. Gladness is not a worship-high. It is a state of being.
This happiness I speak of is more than a mood - for moods come and go. I can be in a foul mood in the morning (you know, pre-coffee) and see a mighty improvement by the afternoon. Happiness is, by definition, a temporary state of emotion. Words like gladness, delight, and pleased, are experienced in short bursts as well. Of course, Christians, like all people, experience short bursts of happiness, but I find it troubling that I find very few Christians that can be defined by the word. The majority of Christians I know would far better be classified as angry, worrisome, anxious, determined, dutiful, driven, and others. But rarely joyful.
Substitutes of Joy
I have been surrounded by Christians my entire life. My parents were Pastors and they enrolled me in a private Christian school. I went to a Christian University and I have been employed by churches. We are starting a church with my very close Christian friends. These are my credentials, I suppose. 30+ years of living in the middle of it. Here is one of the things I have learned: Christians are lousy at being joyful and fantastic at substituting joy for some other emotional outlet.
I’ve worked for a Pastor who found meaning in the duty of Christianity. His work was his life and it all boiled down to the mission. There was no joy in the mission, I think because the intrinsic meaning of the mission was that it was supposed to be difficult. The harder it was the more meaningful it was. Rarely did we talk about the joys of following Jesus. Often we talked about the difficulty and sludge of pastoring our community. I wouldn’t have a hard time counting the number of times I saw him smile.
Other Christians that I am close to are more defined by their worry and anxiousness. Everything is an opportunity to enter crisis mode or at least settle comfortably into a calm shallow depression. The newest threat is the biggest threat of all time and suddenly the God of Salvation seems to be inadequate for the task of saving his people. They may spend two hours a week singing triumphant songs but the rest of their life is defined by their own pre-determined defeat.
The place where joylessness creeps in the most is when it comes to the area of the spiritual disciplines. Now, admittedly “discipline” isn’t the most joy-inspiring word, but the words of David in Psalm 119 allude to the joy of reading the Bible. That is a foreign concept because “no one has time for that.” Some saints have found joy in spending countless hours in prayer, but many find it annoying to bow their heads in thankfulness around the dinner table. Going to church on Sundays is a struggle done only to avoid nagging phone calls. The joy of tithing? You can stop laughing now.
If Spurgeon is right, that true religion overflows with happiness and joy, then the tenants of true religion should be joy producing. If his words are true, and I believe they are, then why does following Jesus seem to suck so much?
Reality Check
As much as joyful should be the predominant descriptor of the Christian, it is obvious by reading the Bible that joy is not the perpetual state of humanity - Christian or not. The Psalms vacillate back and forth between sorrow and joy, triumph and defeat, longing and fulfillment. Please don’t misconstrue my words into saying that all Christians must be happy all the time and through every season of life.
What I am trying to convey is that I don’t joy being the overwhelming attribute in the lives of many Christians. Many Christians that I have come into contact with are consistently joyless and defeated with periodic spikes of joy on their chart. Ironically, the most joyful Christians I meet are the ones that subscribe to the Joel Osteen measure of spirituality. The one guy that self-proclaimed “real Christians” proclaim as a heretic is actually producing a joyful congregation! (Though I will attest that I wish he was more doctrinally sound and less pop-psychology centric, there is no denying those who listen to the Osteen message are generally more joyful and believing they will overcome).
Enough Pointing Fingers
While I have lived among many joyless Christians, it is my own joylessness that Is what prompted me to write these words. I have previously described my realization that my flipping of Christian priorities led me to confess my attitude is what is really wrong with the church. This post stems from my confessions in that one.
Substituting work for worship has been my attempt to find joy and meaningfulness in something other than God. It has not worked. The oft-paraphrased quotation of Augustine comes to mind, My heart stays restless until it finds rest in thee. Restlessness is a word that I am finding has many synonyms. My heart stays peace-less, satisfaction-less, and yes, joyless when it searches for peace, satisfaction, and joy in everything else but Christ.
I have often been convicted that my lack of true joy is the reason why most of my friends won’t follow Jesus. There is simply not much different about me because of my faith. Not only have I not been able to give an answer for the hope that I have often I find myself encircled with feelings of hopelessness and joylessness. My life is a poor hermeneutic of the gospel that I cling to.
Repentance leads to joy
The last 12 months of my life has been a time of constant confession and repentance. Many sins were held in place by snarky justifications and I do believe that the source of my joylessness is the sin that weighs down my soul. Confession and repentance, through the Holy Spirit, liberates from the shackles we rarely admit are even there. Joy is the result of that freedom. An example may be helpful here.
As previously mentioned, I have been constantly surrounded my Christian doctrine. I told myself that I knew enough of the Bible that I didn’t have to read it because I already knew it. As the call to start a church gripped my heart, I realized something that devastated me. I can’t legitimately tell people to read their Bibles as a source of life when it is not the source of my life! I had to confess to God that I was relying on what I had been taught while ignoring that I still needed to be taught through his Spirit and his word. Confession was not enough. I could admit, but I must change the patterns of my life - I must repent - and start in a new direction.
With great regularity, I now find joy as I read my Bible. Yes, I find joy in the arduous task of reading the Bible. It didn’t happen on day 1 or even day 51, but the more I read the Scripture the more I am happy and satisfied with life. Of course, this is one example taken from the many confessions I have had to make in the last year. The more I confess and repent the more joy-filled I become. In the midst of one of the hardest 6-month stretches that my family has ever gone through, I say an increase in my joy and happiness, not the expected decline into depression. I stopped longing for God’s “approval” and started accepting his grace. The more I respond to his presence the less I feel like I have to earn his favor. This is becoming my source of joy. I am grateful that the Spirit keeps leading me and I am praying that you can begin to respond to his leading too.
About the Author | Josh Schaidt Twitter – Facebook – Instagram I love cookies and I still buy music one album at a time. @EmptyChurch is one way I live empty, talk faith, and opt in to follow Jesus. Please remember our Rules For Discussion when commenting.
A lot of people view your positive as a negative because it challenges their mediocrity. If we’re honest, most of us don’t want to get better. Better is hard work. Better is on the narrow path. We like the wide road.
Everything Went Wrong
I started losing confidence in myself the summer before my junior year in college. One of my assistant coaches had just professed to a gym full of teenagers that, “Dre Murray will be an All American next year.” When I heard it, the part of the brain that is responsible for holding every ounce of confidence in the human body began to hold on a little tighter. It was almost as if this part of my brain knew that I was about to enter in to the craziest mental battle since 8th grade (Kids turn into savages once they hit the 8th grade). Shortly after my coach made this comment, I started to feel doubt and fear slowly crawl up my back, making their way to the right earlobe, and ultimately in to the confidence holder portion of my brain. They were polite at first. They would ask questions like: “Do you really think you can be an All American? Didn’t you choke in the playoffs last year? Didn’t Frank Jackson embarrass you on the Edgewood park court in 5th grade?” You know, simple stuff like that. I tried to fight it daily. I would go to the gym every week and try to remind myself that I, Dre Murray, would be the next “All American.” To do this, I would find the best player on the court during open run and wait for him to verbally remind people of how good he was. Then I would grab my cape and mask and prove to everyone, including myself, that I was indeed the All American they had heard about. It didn’t work. As a matter of fact, it FAILED. For some strange reason, during this particular summer, that scenario rarely happened, and the guys I guarded were usually pretty nice, and just happy to be on the court. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. What did happen though would change the rest of my college career, and ultimately would become the straw that broke the back of the confidence holder in my brain. Or maybe it was the hands that were broken? Whatever it broke, I felt it! I knew that something had happened. I knew I wasn’t the same. I knew I wasn’t Dre Murray.
Last night I had a dream that I was in the graveyard Looking at my father buried in the ground I’d swear that I could hear him tell me he was sorry He told me he was sorry and everything has changed
William Fitzsimmons (via dremurray)
Re-Group
Sometimes you have to take a step back , look at everything you’re involved in, and make some sacrifices. You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Last week I felt overwhelmed. I felt pressure. When creating, those are two things that can hinder the process, and ultimately cause you, the creative, to shut down. Don’t let that be you. Take a step back today if you need to. Re-Group.
I gotchu fam. [video]
Literally thought the bigger dog was gonna pull a Mufasa on the puppy.
People who feel they are productive in their jobs, regardless of pay, are about five times likelier to be very satisfied with their jobs than people who don’t feel this way. Of course, when we are being productive, we often get paid more. But the money is a nice side effect, not the cause of the happiness we enjoy.
Arthur C. Brooks (via dremurray)
FAME is...
Fascinating, yet frightening. On one hand, I’m amazed at how one person can be held in higher esteem over someone else that is, at the end of the day, just as valuable. Then, I look at my left hand, and I’m frightened. I’m frightened not because we choose fame over skill when deciding who to follow on Instagram, but I am frightened because fame is now how we choose who we will follow, PERIOD. Our leaders, our relationships, our careers, are slowly becoming more and more about fame instead of substance. We are building a future that is sitting on a foundation made from nothing more than fame. Let me tell you, I’ve done the math on this thing. Fame is one of the worst investments we can make, EVER. It’s like taking the bait from Billy Ray Valentine, and then realizing that the oranges actually weren’t affected by the winter at all(A reference for my 80s babies). Unfortunately, there are a lot of us that are taking the bait. Every race, religion, and creed. From every background you can think of. In some way, we all have bought in to this notion that fame is a stock that we have to invest in. Let me be the third to tell you, that notion is absolutely false. Fame, like everything else in this natural world, will fade away. To buy into it is to invest in a company that you know will fail. -dm