A favorite topic

Paper made from poo...

Mr. Ellie Pooh - paper that is composed of 75% elephant dung and 25% consumer paper in Sri Lanka (map). How's that for brown- I mean Green.

Jason's parallel to deeper thoughts on "what comes out"

One of the most memorable sermons I heard mentioned care-taking of Elephants (thanks Pastor Woody!) He mentioned that if you are taking care of elephants, there will be poop, BIG poop. The church cares for people. With people, there is MESS; oft times - BIG mess. It's part of the equation.
The natural progression from these statements would be to prattle on about how it's noble to get in up to your elbows in ministry and be a good person for God, helping others sort through their messes. That's where I want to take the discussion. However, what I appreciate about Jason's musings was how you have to pull out a mirror and examine the self. What is coming out of my life? More importantly, what am I doing about what I see? In the mature age of late-20's (scrambling away from accepting that my days of a 20 something is whittled down to mere months) I feel as though I am more aware than ever of my temptations, pitfalls, unuseful (apparently that is a word I made up) habits and tendencies, shortcomings, etc. What I struggle with, or more often fail to struggle with, is how to go about addressing these hindrances. Sadly, not addressing my struggles make me far less useful to God. Ironically, if I am at least open and vulnerable about my struggles I am most useful to God. In my weakest is when HE is strongest. What?! Yeah, crazy cool. But if you look at examples in life it starts to make a bit of sense. I don't think God intended for it to make sense but on certain levels it does. After all, who wants to learn something from someone who acts like they are above you and are perfect but have pity enough to associate with you? That's crap. We know no one is perfect. There is commonality in admitting one's struggles because we ALL struggle. No one wants to feel alone. When a friend comes along beside us and relates to us on a real level or has 'been there' before, how uplifting it is!

Wait... this sounds familiar. Yeah, Jesus! HE knows what its like. He's been here. Had real feelings. Experienced life. Lived, breathed, walked, worked, cried, got angry... and pooped. Now, he never sinned but He truly was perfect. And humble. And unconditionally loving and grace giving. You don't have to become perfect to get his love. He loved us when we were still his enemies. Crazy. Cool. Really cool. He did it, he wants us to WANT HIM to help us be like him-- knowing full well that we can't ever achieve it. With man, nothing is possible. With God, it is possible.

Shew. Gotta take a break for that to settle in. And go admire the beautiful sky light show He's putting on. And get groceries. Life goes on. We can choose how to experience it.




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