(no subject)
It's finals time here at Cal. It's a time of transition. My high school friends are winding down to the end of their relatively innocent lives under the protection of the institution of K-12 instruction as they go through their AP tests and senior prom. For us college students, we have a unusual, almost sadistic grim on our faces as we see them yanked out of their shelter world and begin to, at least in part, share in our miseries. In the same way, college seniors who are graduating to the workforce, like my friends Luis Gallego and Andrew Laffoon, are leaving us relatively-to-them-sheltered-but-not-sheltered-relative-to-high-schoolers undergraduates. There are many reasons to feel pessimistic as we witness the air of passing time and feel it more strongly than we have just merely a few weeks ago. I am no exception. I too have my business cycle of emotional states, with my boom days, bust days, peak days, trough days. Drawing an economic analogy to this situation, I just coming out of a trough and currently going through a boom, an economic good response would be to stabilize some of this boom so that the next bust wouldn't be so bad. This is why I'm writing this particular journal entry. Though I do not have nearly the number of hits as my economics history professor J. Bradford DeLong, http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/, but I hope this entry might help some of those going through a bust period, and certainly I hope it helps my future self as I will inevitably go through another one of my bust periods.
My study here is the Book of Colossians in the Bible, http://www.biblegateway.com , where Paul is addressing the church in Colos. It's mostly a very happy letter by Paul, who is rejoicing in God and encouraging us to keep up the good work. In Colossians 1:16 it says in the Message Bible, "For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels--everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." This is an especially encouraging verse because it points out two very important things. First, it says that everything was started in Him, this addresses our origins. Second, it says that everything finds purpose in Him, and this addresses the future and destiny of our lives. If you're like me, if you're reading this for the first time or for the first time in a long while, you'll feel that big rock being lifted off your shoulders. We came from him, so we need not worry about our past. And because he gave us a purpose, we need not worry about finding our own. What our purpose is specifically we can not know the full extent of this side of heaven, but what we can be absolutely sure on is that we have one, and not only that, but we've been given the fullness of what He has to offer us, and trust me, it's more than what any man can imagine.
What is interesting to note is the fact that we find out in the end of Colossians that Paul writes this tremendously joyful letter as he was in jail. How opposite that is to what most of us expect. What is in Paul's head is very simple, as it was stated in Colossians 1:27, "The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory." Paul, in a period of perhaps where most of us would be most annoyed, frustrated, or downcast, was anchoring himself to the truth that Christ is in him. That's all. May all of us be like this, to have our sight so far ahead towards the true path that we cannot be led astray by the many diverging paths in front of us.
My study here is the Book of Colossians in the Bible, http://www.biblegateway.com , where Paul is addressing the church in Colos. It's mostly a very happy letter by Paul, who is rejoicing in God and encouraging us to keep up the good work. In Colossians 1:16 it says in the Message Bible, "For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels--everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." This is an especially encouraging verse because it points out two very important things. First, it says that everything was started in Him, this addresses our origins. Second, it says that everything finds purpose in Him, and this addresses the future and destiny of our lives. If you're like me, if you're reading this for the first time or for the first time in a long while, you'll feel that big rock being lifted off your shoulders. We came from him, so we need not worry about our past. And because he gave us a purpose, we need not worry about finding our own. What our purpose is specifically we can not know the full extent of this side of heaven, but what we can be absolutely sure on is that we have one, and not only that, but we've been given the fullness of what He has to offer us, and trust me, it's more than what any man can imagine.
What is interesting to note is the fact that we find out in the end of Colossians that Paul writes this tremendously joyful letter as he was in jail. How opposite that is to what most of us expect. What is in Paul's head is very simple, as it was stated in Colossians 1:27, "The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory." Paul, in a period of perhaps where most of us would be most annoyed, frustrated, or downcast, was anchoring himself to the truth that Christ is in him. That's all. May all of us be like this, to have our sight so far ahead towards the true path that we cannot be led astray by the many diverging paths in front of us.