http://threadless.com/product/483/Impossible_Love

are you the cactus, or the balloon?
// i think i'm more of a balloon. afraid of getting hurt.

the best part of work today? my desk is right near the coffee maker =]
// oh yeah, and the nice long lunch breaks. wanna have lunch?

so i finally started the holiness qt book that i've been meaning to start for a while.

Many people have found the words "let go and let God" helpful. Nevertheless, they raise a serious issue about holiness which Christians disagree. Some see holiness as a work of God to which the Christian makes no contribution. My part as a Christian is simply to relinquish control. His part is to work through me. My efforts to strive after holiness will be unavailing. In me -- that is, in my flesh -- dwells no good thing so that I have nothing of value to contribute. I therefore trust, that is, I rest in His goodness. I do not struggle to control my temper, but allow Christ to handle my angry feelings. I say with Paul, Not I, but Christ. It is as though, like a sea captain, I have been up to this point at the helm of my life, and now Another is going to take over. Even faith is seen as a passivity of the will -- a resting and a relaxing, not a seizing or appropriating.

it's that passive faith that we're all so used to. and it's not a bad thing -- it's a good thing. for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose (philip. 2:13). but there's also the verse before it -- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

i think i'm realizing lately how i tend to go to one extreme or another -- i either fall into the whole, wow i can't do anything, so i'll just be passive about my faith and let God take care of the rest. or, i'll develop this supahwoman kind of mentality and try to tackle it all on my own.

Yet to Paul there seems to be no conflict between the first part of the sentence and the second. We are to work because God is working in us.


yeeeeah man... =]