Like A Phoenix Rising...
...I rise triumphant, while other times I fall splat into the fire.

Well, either way, I'm back in the land of blogging.

Huzzah!

I won't try to recap everything that has been going on with me the past few weeks,
for there is too much to write about and yet not enough to say, so I'll just state how
pleased I am with life at the moment.

And how reflective.

Sometimes we have to take a step back and look at things with a clean eye. Where are we going?
What are we doing? How are we? Questions traditionally labeled as "deep" should in
reality be a daily staple in our minds, for it is the fiber of these fabrics that create the very tapestries of our lives.

In many ways, prosperity can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on if you have control of it or if
it has control of you. Do you let the things around you enrich your lives, or burden you down?
Does a comfortable life enhance you and make you appreciative of the good things in life, or have you become
complacent and spoiled due to its influences? Are you a giver or a demander? Serious questions, these.

As for me, I'm a little bit of both; however, I do not intend on staying that way.

A missionary from Asia came to our church on Sunday, and I was just fascinated.
Many of you know I love Asia, and I was like a sponge soaking in all that was said. Thailand in particular
caught my attention, and I was enthralled by the stories and pictures. The thing that struck me the most was the
spiritual prosperity of these people in the poorest of villages. They were thrilled and proud to have their
very own Bible, while so many of us here at home have 3 to 10 Bibles gathering dust on our shelves,
never to be read. They were honored to have a tiny, stuffy, thatched hut to call a church, while so many of
us can't even get it together on padded pews. In one village in Viet Nam, every minister, including the missionary,
had been arrested (the United Pentecostal Church is still an illegal, underground church there) and interrogated
for what they believe, and so many times we beg off and shuffle what we believe under the rug for the
sake of 'convenience'. And, if I may be so bold to tread on the recent TWBB sig line controversy, many of these
men and women are thankful to even have fingers to write with, while we fret about having to use one finger to
scroll past annoying images.

Makes one think.

Many times I will disappear from the 'Net World, for the purposes to rejuvenate my spirit. I have a
tendency to have tunnel-vision, and if I don't get away for breathers I will, like a black hole, collapse
in on myself. These computer fasts do wonders for me, and I highly recommend them for anyone
who needs to get a hold of some perspective. I use them to refresh and restabilize, as well as
re-evaluate what I am about. While I dearly love the communities I frequent and the 'net places I go,
they do not dictate who I am or what I'm about unless I let them. When I feel that happening,
I know it's time to go for a while.

And sometimes, we all have to let go for a while, so when we come back, we find we are better than when we left.

Isn't that what it's all about? Either way, it's good to be back.:)

3.02.2004