Thursday, January 26, 2012

Flushed Away!

Had an experience in a public place that struck me about something for the first time...

It's something that I think happens to all of us...unless it's just me? But, I think it's something in the "no-big-deal" category...something that...if I were to post the story on Facebook there'd be lots of comments beneath it like, "LOL" and "LMBO"...but it just struck me last night that it's actually not funny...

Imagine this...you're in a public restroom with one of those wonderful automatic-flushing toilets (that have scared many of my kids!). You sit down and set your cell phone on your skirt...do your business...and then forget that the phone is there and you stand up...dropping the phone <pluuunk!!!> into the toilet. Imagine your horror! You would turn, think, "eew" for a second, and reach for the phone...only then to have that toilet...that wonderful modern toilet...make that little "click" and "WHOOOOOSH!" and suck your phone away in an instant before you could even get the tips of your fingers into the water.

Would that be funny? Maybe later you'd tell the story in retrospect and laugh. But, at that moment, would you be laughing?

Some people might...but I think most people would be pretty mad. And, depending on the phone and how personal it was...sad, too.

Well, now let's say you're not you...you're 6...and the phone is your $3 laser pointer that you have been enjoying and dragging around with you for several days now. And, let's say this actually happened to you...how do you think you would feel?

Yesterday, I saw a 6 year old girl rush out of the bathroom crying hysterically...and her older sister, a young woman in her early 20's, was following behind her stifling giggles.

As I mentioned earlier...if I were to post this on Facebook that one of my kids had had this happen to them...the comments beneath would for sure have at least one "LOL" in it, true? And, I myself felt a bit like smiling...when I heard the young woman tell their mother what had just happened in the bathroom. But, it struck me suddenly how not actually funny that was...

The little girls' pain was real...and what she'd just experienced was obviously very upsetting to her. And, had she just flushed her pet hamster down the toilet, or if she were crying hysterically because she'd just seen her cat get run over by a car...we wouldn't laugh. I think it is that if we identify the event as something we'd think is worth being sad over we have empathy. But, if we think it's no big deal, then we don't really "care" about what the child is going thru.

The other thing that struck me is that I do this. I listen to my kids sometimes when they cry hysterically and I don't connect with them "there". I turn my head and giggle a little. I sort of look at them from afar and detached and rather than "feel" their pain and hug them and offer them the emotional support they need at that moment because I think the thing they're upset about is "unimportant"...I brush it off. I laugh. I tell them to "quit crying". I tell them not to worry about it. I tell them "it's OK". I think a lot of times when I'm at my "wits end" not knowing how to handle a situation with my kids is simply because I'm not seeing the situation from their perspective and so of course, I can't handle what's going on.

It makes me sad when I think about my own reactions just because I don't "get it" and how alone that can make my kids feel. And, it makes me sad for all the kids in the world because a LOT of kids out there in the world not only feel "alone" when they're this hurt or upset...they get punished/rejected/spanked when they're feeling these feelings...such a sad world...

It just struck me that this is one very empathy-less world we're living in....that kids don't get respect...and that I still have so much to learn and grow...I'm hoping I'll remember this moment every time they cry from now on...and treat them how they feel not how I would feel in their elementary school age situation as a 40 year old...



Light in the Darkness

I just had the most awesome experience tonight! (It's 1am, Dara!) OK! Last night. Whatever…

Light show at Disney... Sitting there on the uncomfy pavement in front of Cinderella's castle waiting for the fireworks display and they did this…thing…where they used Cinderella's castle as a…screen! They showed photos and videos on it. It was WILD. And, the wildest part was the part where they shone lights on the castle that completely changed it's appearance. At many points the castle looked fake…like it was a cartoon. It was the original meaning of awesome…it inspired awe. We're used to Hollywood taking fake stuff and making it look real, right? Computer animation like Avatar we're used to. But, what they did before my eyes in the real world was they took something real (the building that looks like a castle) and manipulated the light hitting it and it made it look fake. Made it look like it was a cartoon. It was so flippin' AMAZING! 

Check it out! 
(Sorry the pics aren't the best!)




They played videos and pictures that had been taken in the park "today" all over the castle...




Here, the castle was in flames!




Here, it started off all dark and then we heard chalk noises as the castle was outlined...

Then, it was colored in...


When it was time to change to something different it was "erased" and chalk blew away...




When the castle looked like this it looked like it wasn't real...it looked like a cartoon...









And, that…got me thinking as I sat there… 

Romans 1…
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made 

THIS amazing awesome thing I experienced isn't an accident. Isn't…like…by chance. It MEANS something. This thing I experienced is "science" and it means something in the spiritual world 'cause God designed it that way to teach us something… 

And, so… 
The Bible says that...
Jesus…is the light of the world…
Those who hate Jesus live "in darkness"…and their eyes are blind…
Satan comes as an angel of light and blinds those who don't believe... 

There is a lot of imagery in the Bible to that effect. A lot of spiritual imagery in the Bible…and tonights show at the castle was the physical example of it. 

There was a building there in the daylight. When the SUN shone upon that building and I looked at it I saw it. I knew what color it was and how the building was structured and I could see that there were still some of the Christmas light nettings on one of the spires. I could see…when the true light of day…the light of the sun…was shining on it I could correctly see what was actually there. 

THEN… 

It's 8pm. It's dark. No more sunlight. They announced that in order to do this thing (show us this light show) they would have to turn off the lights. Get that? Turn off the things designed to help our eyes be able to see what's actually there. In order for them to show us something that wasn't there…they had to turn…off…the…lights. Get that? 

In order for me to sit there and have my eyes look at something and see it incorrectly…in order for my eyes to be deceived and to NOT see what's really there but rather, to see what the person doing the showing wanted me to see…they had to outen the lights. (Outen's not even a word is it!) 

We have eyes so we can see physically. And, we see physically when light bounces off that object and hits our eyes. A whole area of medicine is dedicated to the eye because the eye is so awesome. But, without a source of light to create light to bounce off of an object to return and enter that eye…the eye is useless. 

Depending on the light type…and intensity of it…your eyes can be deceived or they can tell you the truth. My experience tonight was that my eyes were SOOOO deceived…but in a way that was sooooo amazing!!!! 

So, if we back up to them turning off the lights so they could do the show. In order to be visually deceived we have to have the source of LIGHT shut off. Extinguished. That's the physical world... 

What about the spiritual world? If you think about it…all the religious views will acknowledge "God" or some "higher power" but they all have one thing in common…they say "no" to Jesus whom the Bible refers to as the "light" of the world…

Jesus used to tell parables and say, "Let him who can see see…" He touched them and allowed their eyes to begin receiving the input that sunlight bouncing off of objects carries.  He healed the spiritually blind, too... He was speaking spiritually…and that is why He healed the physically blind. The physically blind cannot perceive the light which is bouncing off of objects...and the spiritually blind cannot see spiritually or they see what's not there...

I said that the deception my eyes experienced tonight was amazing…and it was…and I bet that technology could make a house that looks like a pile of garbage look amazing. But, who wants a pile of garbage that looks beautiful in false light? Don't we all want a "house" that looks beautiful even in the brightest sun of day? Sometimes, what's true and right doesn't look as "amazing" and "awesome" as the false thing...but real is always better...

And, getting back to last night...although I was "powerless"…powerless as I sat there in the dark to tell my eyes that I was not seeing something real. 

My mind received that input thru my eyes and believed what it saw…and no amount of the following things would have made my eyes stop seeing what they were seeing:
- telling me
- preaching at me
- pamphlets revealing the truth about the light show
- accusing me of believing a lie
- posting blog postings like this on their walls
- protesting at the light show that it was showing something untrue
- holding signs by the road that would tell me that the light show deceived my eyes
- telling me God hates me because my eyes see the castle as it is not
- judging me for seeing what I was seeing and stop being my friend
- giving me CD's of your pastor's latest sermon explaining all the technical reasons why the things my eyes were perceiving were false

...none of these tactics or any such thing could have made my eyes stop seeing what they were seeing that night!!! My eyes were seeing what they were seeing because someone purposely turned off the lights and showed me what they wanted me to see and I was seeing it...right?

The only way to stop a deception like this...beautiful tho' it may be...




...is quite simply to turn on the light...



"But if the light in you is darkness...how great is that darkness..."


You are to be the light of the world...you are to shine for Jesus. Shining for Jesus isn't about what you do for the church or what you do in Jesus's name...it's about who you are when you do those things...


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The fireworks after the light show were amazing, too!!! There were fireworks in the shapes of hearts and stars...it was just awesome!!!









Videos I took of the light show:




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I feel like there is so much truth in just the concept of "light"…that a whole book could be written on it…but that's all I have to say about it for now! 

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