I don't know where the term began, but I do know that it now refers to two or more separate entities working together in unison and harmony for one single purpose or cause. Synergy creates and accomplishes what one entity by itself couldn't possibly do. It is the the power of teamwork.
Sometimes I wish that my mind, heart, and soul could somehow "synergize" perfectly. Imagine how great it would be to be thinking and focusing on something, to be passionate about it, and to know deep down that it is the right thing. Ever been so focused on one particular thing that every part of you just completely unleashes itself into its completion or undertaking?
No... I haven't either. Not yet anyways. There's always some part of me that disagrees or has second thought. If it's something good, it's the sin nature of my heart pulling me away. If it's something bad, it's my soul or mind telling me somewhere in the back that what I'm doing is wrong. But there's always that tension. The three parts of me never work in unison towards one direction, there's always some angle between them.
It reminds me of the four way tug of war we had at orientation. Each focus group (split by majors) was to take one of the sides of the rope which together formed a plus sign. In this version, there is only one winner, and that is whoever can pull the rope farthest back up their direction. My focus group (the engineer group) ended up winning, so that was a lot of fun.
The problem we encountered was when only three teams fit into a particular round. Instead of changing the angles to 120 degree spreads, the angles remained the same at 90. Of course this gave one team a completely unfair advantage being that they had nothing tugging against them. Everytime it occurred, the one team in the center would always pull the other two along with ease.
It seems like in the worst of situations my heart and my soul are going at it like that, straight across from each other evenly matched. When faced with a problem, I remain at a standstill until my mind steps in from an unfair point. It doesn't have trouble deciding what to do based on the circumstance because it meets no resistance from anything. The problem is that I end up going wherever my mind decides is right and best to go, and my mind is no more perfect then my heart or soul. Let's just say a majority of the time I make a hugely wrong decision.
I sometimes wonder if it's possible to be truly "synergetic". I think the goal is to aim to be truly focusing everything on God and furthering His kingdom. We all fall short, me especially, as parts of me start pulling in different directions. My only hope is that God will work through me to decrease the angles between my heart, soul, and mind that are pulling me in different directions and slowing me down.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
The Omnipresence
Ever really sit and contemplate the idea of our omnipresent God? It's like trying to picture eternity, the vastness of space, or the beginning of time. It's so hard to imagine once you really try to wrap your mind around it. You can't really grasp the idea, but somehow that's OK. It's just awesome.
The change of being around other believers on a Christian college campus in a very spiritual atmosphere has made me really begin to feel this omnipresence of God. I see God in other people, I see God at work on the campus, and I see God in the faculty and staff. It's really changed me, and I've only been at college for 5 days...
But that's not even scratching the surface. God is actually sitting right beside me as I type this up. He's around my room, in my dorm, and all around the campus. He's even next to where you were at this time and He's there now as you're reading this. He's everywhere. And the sad thing is, despite the fact that God is always with me, I am not always with Him.
In fact, it's quite the opposite most of the time. I may acknowledge God at meals when I pray, thank Him when He helps me through something hard or stressful or thank Him for something great that just happened, But God is not generally on the top of my mind. He may be the top priority way down deep in my heart, but that hasn't reached my head yet. It bothers me to think that this amazing, all powerful, mighty, loving, merciful, friendly God is always with me, and I don't even acknowledge Him or think of Him for more than 5-10% of my day (or less).
I have to admit that God has been put on my mind more just because I'm surrounded by it on campus. But that only helps to a certain point. I need to... we all need to keep ourselves in communication with God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to "pray continually". I mean, God is always there to talk to and be with us and guide us and help us, and all we have to do is look to Him.
I talk to my friends at Geneva a lot everyday. In fact, I'm largely in some type of conversation when not occupied with other things. I may not talk all that much compared to my friends, but I listen and talk and give my two cents. I figure our time is mostly spent doing and being with those we love most. So why is it that in conversation God, who should be our number one and may be in our hearts, He gets the short straw? He never is busy on the phone, He's never preoccupied with someone else, He's never needs to go anywhere, He doesn't live far away, and He's never unwilling to hear what you have to say. Why if He's always at any given time right where we need Him to be, do we not communicate and be in relationship with Him more? It shouldn't be the case that I put him last, and I mean to fix that.
Perhaps it will be through a more consistent Bible study. Perhaps it will be through more prayer time. Perhaps it will be through more constant awareness of God's presence. Whatever it may be, I think it's important that the omnipresence of God is not just realized and revered, but acted upon and used to our advantage.
The change of being around other believers on a Christian college campus in a very spiritual atmosphere has made me really begin to feel this omnipresence of God. I see God in other people, I see God at work on the campus, and I see God in the faculty and staff. It's really changed me, and I've only been at college for 5 days...
But that's not even scratching the surface. God is actually sitting right beside me as I type this up. He's around my room, in my dorm, and all around the campus. He's even next to where you were at this time and He's there now as you're reading this. He's everywhere. And the sad thing is, despite the fact that God is always with me, I am not always with Him.
In fact, it's quite the opposite most of the time. I may acknowledge God at meals when I pray, thank Him when He helps me through something hard or stressful or thank Him for something great that just happened, But God is not generally on the top of my mind. He may be the top priority way down deep in my heart, but that hasn't reached my head yet. It bothers me to think that this amazing, all powerful, mighty, loving, merciful, friendly God is always with me, and I don't even acknowledge Him or think of Him for more than 5-10% of my day (or less).
I have to admit that God has been put on my mind more just because I'm surrounded by it on campus. But that only helps to a certain point. I need to... we all need to keep ourselves in communication with God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to "pray continually". I mean, God is always there to talk to and be with us and guide us and help us, and all we have to do is look to Him.
I talk to my friends at Geneva a lot everyday. In fact, I'm largely in some type of conversation when not occupied with other things. I may not talk all that much compared to my friends, but I listen and talk and give my two cents. I figure our time is mostly spent doing and being with those we love most. So why is it that in conversation God, who should be our number one and may be in our hearts, He gets the short straw? He never is busy on the phone, He's never preoccupied with someone else, He's never needs to go anywhere, He doesn't live far away, and He's never unwilling to hear what you have to say. Why if He's always at any given time right where we need Him to be, do we not communicate and be in relationship with Him more? It shouldn't be the case that I put him last, and I mean to fix that.
Perhaps it will be through a more consistent Bible study. Perhaps it will be through more prayer time. Perhaps it will be through more constant awareness of God's presence. Whatever it may be, I think it's important that the omnipresence of God is not just realized and revered, but acted upon and used to our advantage.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Mind's Eye
All the millions of little things I see that prove to me God's existence and presence in my life are hard to name as they come, and even harder to describe and recount. I get reminders through my thoughts, through the words of others, through the little pieces that fit together just too perfectly, through answered prayer, through blessings, and from the coincidences of unimaginable odds. The list stacks up, but it is an un-recitable list. I can't describe all these little things that happen, for most are personal things or things on the fly that I forget shortly after they happen. I steal from an old dc Talk song when I say that these things come from my "Mind's Eye". They aren't visible or describable, but they are there and they make sense. I see God through my Mind's Eye. Whenever I get a sliver of doubt about God in any form, I look everything I've seen for reassurance.
I believe this type of evidence is clear to believers and also to those who seek God and look for signs of His existence. They have an eye open for God to be seen through. But then I think about those who don't believe and aren't looking, and I wonder why it is shut. I can guess that they see the world through the scientific perspective, and that science disproves God. The idea of God is just some simplistic idea made up that explains everything and instills hope in people. Let me just ask, is the idea of God as phony and random as saying that we all have little invisible black hats (thank you Elijah) above our heads that created us and control us? No. There's evidence, fact, history, and account for the existence of God and the truth of the Bible.
I think the problem is not whether most people have in their minds or on paper disproved the Bible/Jesus' divinity/God's existence. I think the problem is that most have shut their mind's eye to it. It just isn't in option to think or look into the idea of "religion", for one reason or another. For some it may be just a mindset that God doesn't make sense/is too simple/is unlogical/is unscientific. They haven't disproved it through fact because they haven't looked at all the facts or because they have and they can't. They just refuse because something else makes more sense to them. That's fine I guess, although in my opinion from a scientific point of view, God makes much more sense than evolution, but we won't go there. I think for most though, people have trouble accepting the idea of God because if they accepted it, it would mean they were not in complete control of their own lives. Perhaps it scares many to think that if they ever really sought God their lives would take a turn, perhaps a 180 degree turn in the other direction.
Maybe it bothers me when people decide to debate undebatable faith issues, because when you boil it down, evolution, Christianity, and any other belief or theory one may have about life requires faith, because nobody can prove any of these black and white. But it concerns greatly me when people have personal issues with the idea of God, things keeping them from a relationship with Him. It's one thing to know the facts from both sides and to take one side when all is laid out. It's another for someone to reject the facts for one side simply because they couldn't personally accept the changes that would result from a change in belief. I've just come to a realization of this recently, and it's been on my mind ever since... I pray for those close to me that don't know Jesus, that they would open their mind's eye to the idea of God.
I believe this type of evidence is clear to believers and also to those who seek God and look for signs of His existence. They have an eye open for God to be seen through. But then I think about those who don't believe and aren't looking, and I wonder why it is shut. I can guess that they see the world through the scientific perspective, and that science disproves God. The idea of God is just some simplistic idea made up that explains everything and instills hope in people. Let me just ask, is the idea of God as phony and random as saying that we all have little invisible black hats (thank you Elijah) above our heads that created us and control us? No. There's evidence, fact, history, and account for the existence of God and the truth of the Bible.
I think the problem is not whether most people have in their minds or on paper disproved the Bible/Jesus' divinity/God's existence. I think the problem is that most have shut their mind's eye to it. It just isn't in option to think or look into the idea of "religion", for one reason or another. For some it may be just a mindset that God doesn't make sense/is too simple/is unlogical/is unscientific. They haven't disproved it through fact because they haven't looked at all the facts or because they have and they can't. They just refuse because something else makes more sense to them. That's fine I guess, although in my opinion from a scientific point of view, God makes much more sense than evolution, but we won't go there. I think for most though, people have trouble accepting the idea of God because if they accepted it, it would mean they were not in complete control of their own lives. Perhaps it scares many to think that if they ever really sought God their lives would take a turn, perhaps a 180 degree turn in the other direction.
Maybe it bothers me when people decide to debate undebatable faith issues, because when you boil it down, evolution, Christianity, and any other belief or theory one may have about life requires faith, because nobody can prove any of these black and white. But it concerns greatly me when people have personal issues with the idea of God, things keeping them from a relationship with Him. It's one thing to know the facts from both sides and to take one side when all is laid out. It's another for someone to reject the facts for one side simply because they couldn't personally accept the changes that would result from a change in belief. I've just come to a realization of this recently, and it's been on my mind ever since... I pray for those close to me that don't know Jesus, that they would open their mind's eye to the idea of God.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Everything is going right...
...and I don't know why. Why is God so good to me despite how messed up I've been? Too much has been going right for me to begin to say anything, so I'll spare all of us the time. I only hope this undeserving mess can turn himself around in the coming days in response.
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