So once there was this guy, a pretty smart guy, who said "It's all relative." Well if we're being honest, I'm actually not sure that he said that, but he theorized it, so I'm attributing it to him. I think that some of Einstein's wisdom was dropped on my head yesterday. First, that whole relative thing, and then a quote that I arbitrarily put on my facebook a long time ago, but didn't really think about it until recently: "Life is a like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving."
I mean think about it. How much of our life is objective? Almost none. We perceive the world through our own filters of experience, opinion, and emotion. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, it's one of those "it makes us human" qualities, but I do think it's important to remember that we have a limited view at our lives and the world. That's what it means to be finite and to have finite knowledge.
I've been really stressed about a lot of things lately: this week I was really stressed about friendships and exams, as well as the constant stress of life direction. What I really need is a little perspective. Of those three things, two matter. Exams have almost no relevance whatsoever in the grand scheme of things, so why worry about it? Friendships obviously matter a lot. I get by with a little help from them...ok so maybe a lot of help from them. But I don't think I've removed myself from my bias very well when it comes to these friendships. I've been being selfish and not really considering how other people may be feeling. This selfishness is just another futile attempt to try to control my life. Like God would really let something that important be left up to me. I mean sure we have free will, and I don't really want to philosophize about how foreknowledge and free will can coexist, but really, God's got my back.
He's got more than that. He has all of me. My back, front, hands, sore left elbow, and heart. This is getting into life direction. Still no epiphanies. That's a lie. I realized that I'm stressing about it so much because I'm not actively pursuing God' heart like I should be. I got frustrated after awhile when I didn't feel movement, and so I was kinda just like "Hey God, ok You come to me. When You do I'll listen." But that's like training for something, not getting to your goal quickly and giving up (Plus, what nerve I have!) Patience has never been something I do well with, but I'm really going to try and work on it.
I feel like I've shortchanged some relationships (especially with God) with my limited perspective, and unwillingness to remove myself from it. I'm sorry. It's not all about me. It's relative to all of us with the exception of God.
As for that other quote. Pretty self explanatory right? There's a lot of stuff that's going to discourage me (us) in this world. But if we stop moving forward, then were never going to grow, never going to be truly happy. Thinking back about the past few weeks and my discouragement shed that light on me. I was pretty content to wallow in self pity. LAME. Keep on keeping on. Ride the bike and don't stop moving cause you ran into a curb and fell off, or somebody cut you off and you have to take a different, unexplored trail.
God's got me (us)
Adam
P.S. Here's another good quote from Einstein that has no relevance to this post, but my nerdy self loves: "I know not with what weapons WWIII will be fought with, but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones." Hear that scientists? Don't kill us all.
