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Post by ocelot on Dec 6, 2005 11:36:38 GMT -5
"Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at our life statue, molding, modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt or thought has had its hand in molding us, shaping us." ~ Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924)
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Post by shavonfan on Dec 6, 2005 11:48:52 GMT -5
That is a powerful quote! I can't help but think about the kid's these days that grow up in gangs, and how so much of their lives are predetermined by the environment that they grow up in. Most don't ever get a chance at much else besides violence, and too many don't see a full life before being raped, stabbed or shot to death. Then I think about the new life that comes with accepting Jesus' work on the cross for our salvation. Call it grace. Call it an opportunity to not so much have to be chiseled and molded from outside influences, but rather an indwelling Spirit.....the very Spirit of God! There is a song by Rich Mullins that speaks of this very thing, and I can't remember it right now. But when I do I will post it here. However, I agree with this quote that we are being molded and shaped by everything that happens to us. I believe God is using all of those things in the same way He did with Job, to in the end bring us closer to Him. The same sun melts wax and hardens clay. So it is with the same experiences in life. A brother and sister can have the same neglegent father, and both react differently to it. In that regard, I guess it all comes down to what we are made of. Are we a product of the environment around us, or are we being moved by something within that is greater than ourselves?
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Post by shavonfan on Dec 6, 2005 12:08:49 GMT -5
"And I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man" - from the song 'Creed' by Rich Mullins on his 'A Liturgy, A Legacy, And A Ragamuffin Band' album.
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Post by ocelot on Dec 6, 2005 17:31:16 GMT -5
I absolutely agree with you. I like what you said at the end.
That is an important question to ask ourselves, because what are we changing if we are a product of the environment around us. The people who have made the biggest difference in this world are the people who were moved by something within that was greater than themselves. When I think about what you said I think about people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Bruce Springsteen, Nelson Mandela, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and others. It's not necessarily the people who have made the headlines but also the people who changed people's thinking.
This quote is amazing. It's such a testiment about the Spirit of God working through a single person, in the way the Spirit of God can work through any of us if we only open ourselves to it.
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