Reading between the….. lies!

Reading people’s CVs, personal ads, profiles and even obituaries is fascinating. They all read a happy, well balanced and amazing picture of harmony and maturity. From a ‘people person’ to ‘team player’ and from ‘outgoing, fun loving and loyal’ to ‘great parent and friend’. These are not lies and are not exaggerations, this is the way WE see ourselves, or the way we WANT to see ourselves.

I don’t think you will ever find a CV that says, ‘ I am a nightmare to work with’ or ‘I can only work when people listen to every word I say’. Personal ads is another one, no one will say that they are ‘indecisive, immature and got a lot of issues around commitments’! Instead, they like to see themselves as ‘easy going’, ‘a child at heart’ and ‘will only settle when I find my dream match’!

The good thing is that when God created us, he saw it was GOOD….all of it. With every part that we may not like or people might find it difficult to cope with, HE still finds us GOOD and longs for a relationship that last with us, just as we are, no pretends and no lies.

Micah Challenge

(I first wrote this post back in 2007).

Isabelle Caro posed for a series of provocative photos to highlight the tragedy of anorexia. She says she now weighs almost 4 1/2 pounds more than she did when controversial photographer Oliviero Toscani captured this image.I was shocked by the images of this anorexia campaign. It aims to ban size zero models from all fashion shows. But the fact that as a society we became so obsessed with our image to the extent that some people are dying trying to achieve their ideal weight is really hard to understand. In the mean time, still our actions or in-action a lot of the time, causing the death of people who live thousands of miles away, people who are now "size zero" not because they choose not to eat but because there is no food for them to eat. I think the idea to help them is there, but we must be really ashamed that now in this day in the 21 century there are still people dying of hunger in Africa. Join the Micah Challenge http://www.micahchallenge.org.uk/, let us stop both hunger in Africa and size zero models. Let us move from being self obsessed to acting justly, loveing mercy and walking humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).

Cinderella, Snow white and lots of dwarfs

Are fairy tales good for girls and boys or not? After all, what are the values that we are teaching our kids by these stories (Fairy Tale Princes Turn into Beasts,http://www.boloji.com/wfs3/wfs402.htm). For girls especially, some experts are saying that fairy tales are not good for girls self-esteem and ideas about the future, after all, Cinderella married a guy she only met twice and the princess in the tower sat there doing nothing waiting to be rescued (well, she actually concentrated on growing her hair). Psychologist also say that “the beauty and the beast” culture, is behind lots of abusive relationship where women believe that accepting the behaviour of a beast and loving him enough, will some day turn him into a handsome prince.
I think this could be over simplification of real issues and in the middle of trying to find out reasons for people’s behaviour there is a real need to explore lots of tings that could be behind certain way of behaviour, may be fairy tails are part of the problem.

Jesus taught in parables, and in every story, you can see what your eyes want to see. God has created us, men and women, in His image, and unconditional love is in the heart of His love for us and what He is asking us to do in loveing one another. In all the madness that the world is throwing at us, fairy tails sometimes enrich the imagination as long as we keep some sense of reality and keep foucs on what matter most.