THE SIMPLE LIFE

MATURITY...

So I was just surfing blogs and came across Kobie's. I gotta say, the guys I interact with continue to amaze me - what you think & how you feel and how awesome it is when you actually allow yourselves to be vulnerable and open. After reading that post, it kind of made me step back and reflect how I look at life.

Don't you ever think that we have such a childish perspective in the sense that we're always looking out for ourselves? That our decisions only affect us. I think that true maturity starts to reveal itself when we think of how our actions and their consequences will affect others.

I was reading about maturity recently; more specifically when a boy becomes a man in an article by Albert Mohler. It's an interesting read and the magazine also touches upon the importance of the father figure in a man's life. I wish there's more stuff like this for females. It mentioned one thing about the role of wives which I think is very challenging. Anyway, I've always liked looking at the differences between men & women...I guess most people are; both genders totally find each other a mystery (hence the reason for attraction in the first place no doubt).

A great analogy came up recently in a conversation that I thought works pretty well. We should simply looked at the opposite gender as a piece of art. We know it's meant to be beautiful and creative, we just don't have the knowledge to fully appreciated all that. But we can continue to look at the little subtleties and find new things to study and learn...and sometimes, it's just meant to be enjoyed.


On a completely different note:
Have you ever wondered what the difference was between Catholic and Protestant theologies? I came across a site that sort of summarized a conference talk on justification. Most of it was over my head - the idea of being saved by faith alone vs. faith + works.

Catholics believe that there needs to be both, but I find that there's a danger on emphasizing works and so often, the more important aspect of faith is overshadowed. Hence the general belief that "If I'm a good person, I will go to heaven".

The Protestant doctrine believes that faith alone will save you. Although "justification is not accomplished by a profession of faith. It is the posession of faith, not the profession of it, that saves. We must not give people a false sense of security by making them believe a profession is enough!"

Saying that you believe is easier than actually living a life that demonstrates WHO you have faith in...and even then, I find it difficult just to profess. This idea of posessing faith is going to take a life-time to perfect. I still maintain that Catholics have very similar views to Protestant - at least on paper. In practice however, different things are emphasized. If anyone's interested in discussing my thoughts in more detail, just bring it up the next time we see each other. I need to get ready for class now.