An Intrinsically Designed Heart

The heart is this masterpiece full of deceit and hatred, and of love and passion. The heart is this organ that beats, that keeps you alive. But it's more than that. Your heart is tricky, fickle, and full of darkness. Your heart wanders, it burns, and it lusts. Your heart never learns, it's almost as if it keeps going back to what it wants, over and over again, in order to realize once again that you are back where you started. There are those who have the biggest of hearts, and those with the simplest of ones. The one's with the big hearts usually tend to get in a little more trouble than those with the simpler one's. Big hearted people tend to love more deeply and more openly, and emotionally than simple hearted people. Simple hearted is not bad, simple hearted means you are able to distance yourself from those around you and think about what is best for you instead of sacrificing yourself for others happiness. But, I think that big hearted, simple hearted, average hearted, we are all intrinsically and intricately designed. We are designed with the freedom to choose, the freedom to choose love over hate, passion over anger, truth over deceit, forgiveness over bitterness, and happiness over self pity. So why is it, I ask you, if we are in this thing called life, where we are supposed to cherish and uphold others. Where we are supposed to love and encourage. Where we are decreed by God to take care of our own. Why is it, that the more we try, the more we get more tangled up in ourselves, in our hearts? I personally think it's because we second guess ourselves. I think that people have this giant, GIANT capacity to love because whether we believe it or not we were created by a loving God. We were created in love. And I think that that thought right there scares the living crap out of most people. I think that everyone has the ability to love because we were created with this intrinsic beauty, this intrinsic, intensely personal, precious love. We all have unique hearts. Hearts that are scared. Hearts that are courageous. Hearts that quake at love, whether it be natural or through experience. Hearts that melt. Hearts that are gold. Hearts that are sacred. Hearts that hurt. Hearts that grieve. Hearts that care. Hearts that love WAY to much. Every single one of us has an intrinsic, special and personal heart. So mine and God's thing is, and has always been, "Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it comes the wellspring of life."

hmm.

So, I had a friend ask me a few days ago why I do not have much of a problem saying things like: Oh my God. She thought I would since, yes, I do believe in God, and I go to church and so on. And truthfully, at the time I had no direct answer that would make any sense. So I said I would have to think about it. And, think about it I did. Truthfully I thought I would forget about it, but for some reason it has been continually on my mind. So. My answer is this: While I agree that God's name is reverent, and holy, and that it should be cherished and held higher than the average name, I also think that perhaps we tiptoe around his name to much. If God is love, do you really think that you will be struck by a lightening bolt when using his name in vain? However, I definitely have more to say on the subject. It does say in Exodus 20: 7: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." I think that people take this scripture verse far, far, far to literally. Basically anything can be using God's name in vain. For example, there are the sayings like: Oh my God, Jesus Christ, or God Damn, and so on that most Christians think abhorrent. But what about other things? Like: "God told me today that I should tell you that you need to stop working at Starbucks because you work with so many gay people, and since they are horrible people because they live in open sin, you won't be able to go to Heaven because you work with them." (that has happened to me by the way) Or how about the Crusades? Or, Catholic priests raping innocent little boys? Or the people who burned innocent woman who were supposedly witches, because God said so. Or, cults where the leader does horrible things under the name of God (Warren Jeff's anyone?) Besides those major things, there are others. Like, I only got that parking spot because I prayed and God magically moved the car that was there so I could have it (sarcastic yes, but people do believe stuff like that.) Maybe it's me and my lack of an innocent mind, but I really don't know if God cares about that stuff (call me hypocritical), maybe he does and I'm really really wrong. But if one really thinks about it, how on earth does that make sense?
I bring all these things up (and there are SO MANY more) to prove my point. While I agree we have to watch what we say, I don't think that saying Oh my God is the end of the world. I take that verse from Exodus like this: Do not do things in my name that deserve punishment. Do not hate, judge, or persecute people in my name. Do not abuse people in my name, just because you think they are wrong. I think that what God was trying to say was: These are my people, my precious, imperfect humans, and just because you think that you know better, does not mean that you are allowed to use my name in order to bash others into the ground.
So, while my answer could be called vague and hypocritical, for myself I have definitely been challenged by that question, and for once in my life, I am relatively content with my answer.

Angry

I am angered. I am angered because this world thinks more about Amy Winehouse and her hairstyles, then about the 83 FRICKEN DEAD TEENAGERS IN NORWAY. I am angered because there are more news articles about how Amy Winehouse should have gone to rehab, but her daddy thinks she's fine, so she said no no no. then there are telling us about the tragic losses in Norway, in Africa. How, Somalia is suffering from a FAMINE. Or how Sudan, yeah, Sudan where thousands are being SLAUGHTERED daily because they are fighting for basic human rights.  I am angered because a drug addicted musician gets more press then children who are starving to death, because a drug addicted musician gets more attention then innocent people who are being Murdered by the thousands. Shame. Shame shame shame on our society. We claim to be leaders. We claim to be SOMEONE's hero. But where the hell are we? We are mourning the loss of a musician, who spent most of her last days being completely shot on drugs. Yes, sad. Yes, I get it. But not when there are fifty other things that should rank far more importantly are shoved to the back, because Amy Winehouse and her beehive hair have exited this world. I am ashamed to live in this society. Ashamed. We take the smallest things for granted, we take take take take take, and never ever barely give. We take that is NOT ours, and pass it over as "help". What is going to happen to us to make us see? What is it going to take to get us to see that it is not OK to pass things over as insignificant just because they are not happening right in front of us. Amy Winehouse lived a sad and tragic life, and she deserved the chance to choose things that would bring her life. But she didn't. There are people, right now, at this very moment, whose lives are being snuffed out, who have NEVER had the chance to choose life, and those are the people I choose to be sad for. What do YOU choose?????