The Non-Negotiables

Maybe it's because Christmas is around the corner and one of my favourite movies is "White Christmas", but today I've been walking around school thinking of Bing Crosby singing to me... When you're worried and you can't sleep Just count your blessings instead of sheep And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings. I don't often have trouble sleeping (unless you count trouble waking up lately!), but the message is a good one just the same...not to mention how lovely it is to have Bing's smooth voice running through your head all day. I can be such a self-focused person - emphasizing my lack, comparing myself with others, counting my concerns and inadequacies like Scrooge counting his coins (since we're on a Christmas story allusion kick). What was up with Scrooge anyway? He was totally miserable counting his money, but isn't money a blessing? Maybe, like so much else, it depends on whether you notice it and how you view it... For ...

Today was one of those days where I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked to, but I'm alright with that because I took some time to really settle some things and 'smell the roses' in my life, as my dad would say. The over-arching theme of my musing lately has been around the issue of contentment: I'm not content, I would be content if...(fill in the blank), I was content until...(again, fill in the blank), and Why has my mindset changed when the circumstances of my life haven't? This all came to a head over the weekend (oh the irony of wrestling with contentment on Thanksgiving weekend!), but felt wholly unsettled until I was driving home just now. Amazingly, the most simple way to explain the conclusion that I've come to is by telling you about a class I'm taking at school! I should add a small disclaimer here: There are two things that you should know about me. First, I'm the type of student who actually really loves school, and as ...

I like to think of myself as being a pretty 'down with it' person - I've got swag, I like to rap nursery rhymes, I even use the peace sign to say hi to my friends. All in all, I'm pretty gangster...at least according to me. And since I'm so gangster, I have it on good authority that my title for this post is, quite simply, epic. Why? because it has two meanings. Firstly - it sounds super gangster! 'word.' (I'm imagining a super g'd up from the feet up guy saying it right now...and now I'm picturing my good friends, Mark and Jeremy, laughing at me for even trying to be gangster at all. Come on guys, work with me here!!)...word. Secondly (and more to the point) - it is, in fact, a part of my life that I cannot survive without. The Word. The Bible. Literally God-breathed words that challenge my will, change my mind, and settle my heart. I haven't performed the study, but I can tell you that based on observation alone, there is a stron...

I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what topic to start off with in this blog. (Of course that’s not all I’ve been doing – I got a little busy with the whole school–work-sleep-life balance too!) You see, I’m a real believer in firsts: first job sets precedent for your work ethic; first 10% sets precedent for your finances; first blog should set precedent, or at least set the stage, for the ones to come.  So I’ve mulled over this idea or that revelation, many of them seeming less than relevant to the place that I’m in right now, and none of them seeming quite so revolutionary as they were at the time when I scribbled them down in my journal or the side of my Bible.   And then today I had a run-in with the whole point of having non-negotiables in my life in the first place: once you’ve set them in place, they aren’t intended to be revolutionary anymore – they’re reviving.   Think of places that are constantly wrought with wars. Governments or generals are...