life aint always beautiful

Life ain't always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart
Life ain't always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggle makes you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has it's own way of takin' it sweet time

No,life aint always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride

reconciliation

This past Sunday, the pastor preached a message on reconciliation... it was pretty powerful. There was one particular statement that caught my attention and still has me thinking.

When we are reconciled to God, we do not have to work inorder to restore His trust, because He has completely forgotten the sin we have committed.

I don't know about you, but I know that I have always struggled with forgiveness. I generally trust people very easily, but once the trust has been broken I find it very difficult not to hold that against a person. I have grown up with the mentality that you should forgive but you don't forget. I have always felt that it's the responsibilty of the person who has hurt you or betrayed to try and rebuild the relationship and trust.

True reconciliation, God's way, is when you completely forget what has happened and start with a clean slate. No matter what.

An extremely hard concept to grasp, but imagine how freeing it would be if we could actually do it...

in dedication to steve irwin

In the summer of 2002, I spent every Saturday night watching Animal Planet just to see Steve Irwin face incredible dangers. I loved his "crikey" saying and would just be memorized with his unflinching attitude towards animals that I would have nightmares about. Now the unsinkable ship has sunk, so without furthur adue, I dedicate this post to him.

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.
The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the "apex predator" in its natural eco-system, can still fallvictim to implemented 'team work' strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and "survival of the fittest pack mentality," bred into the canines over the last several hundreds of years by natural selection.
See the attached remarkable photograph courtesy of Nature Magazine ...
Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling.

Maybe if he had a trusty side kick like these little guys, Steve would still be hunting those crocs.