lost in translation

the world has succeeded yet again in deceiving me.
love is not meant to be a difficult thing.
it's only when we try to love people for their worldly aspects and judge them by superficial standards that we find love to be arduous.
but when we keep our focus on what is real and perfect, our hearts should naturally overflow with a great abundance.
and that's where love comes in the picture.

I used to say this a lot: "it's so hard loving people."
well, it's not true.
it shouldn't be.
and that's that.

look what a mess we've made of love.


"And it is my prayer that your love abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment"
phillipians 1:9

"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith"
1 timothy 1:3

some kind of wonderful

I had a chance to hang out with my parents today.
because of my crazy weeks and equally busy weekends, I hadn't really been able to spend as much time with them as I wanted to.
on the car ride to la, my parents were helping each other memorize bible verses and learn the lyrics of new praise songs.
I couldn't help smiling at how cute they were.
the fact that at their age, they are still in the process of learning and developing their faith fills my heart with so much joy and thanksgiving.
that is a hope I have for my own future.


here's an inspiring quote I found on a church bulletin yesterday:
"forgiveness is giving up hope for a better past"

so simple, right?

hot then you're cold

bipolarity.

I'm just gonna say it:
I really don't like it when you do that.

shed that shallow skin

simplicity.
it's kind of a silly analogy, but I had to restart my macbook the other day, and my 10+ tabs were lost.
instead of feeling anxious, angry, or empty, I felt really free.
in the past, as I kept on adding to my collection of tabs on my window, I couldn't bring myself to close any of them.
but when they were taken from me without my consent, I really had no choice.
I feel like once we are somewhat forced to start something over, it's really not that hard--it's just working up the strength to do it ourselves that's the difficult process.

I think it's the same in our lives too.
we feel that we have to save and collect all these useless things of the world, because we think that we'll need them sometime in our future.
but in the end, they'll all be taken from us, and we should feel the same sense of peace and freedom.

it's something I think we all know, but we just need a reminder every now and then.

we were meant to live for so much more,
have we lost ourselves?