And the earth shook...

"And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel from the Lord had descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it" Matthew 28:2

An earthquake occurred during the resurrection of Jesus, which we celebrate today as Easter Sunday. Coincidentally, this Easter Sunday, the earth shook, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Mexicali.  After a series of earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and now Mexico, it comes as no surprise for some people to question what the point of all of the earthquakes are. Yes, scientifically, earthquakes happen because of a shift in the earth's plates, but is there some kind of meaning behind all of this?

If I found any meaning behind all of this shaking, I would say that the recent earthquakes can serve as a reminder for everyone to cherish life and to be prepared for whatever rolls our way. I do not see it as any sort of punishment, as I have heard some people say, but I do see the earthquakes as a sign from God. Maybe that we should treat our Earth, each other, and ourselves a little better.  As we have seen, life is nothing to take for granted, and rather than think of the earthquakes as a punishment, I see them as a wake up call. A wake up call that reminds us that life can be taken from us in an instant, without warning. Because of that, we should make sure to live life to its fullest.

So what does that even mean? Living life to the fullest. Well, in my world and in my perspective, living life to the fullest means taking any opportunities that come your way. Take the good with the bad, and let the bad become lessons for you to learn. I tend to try and live my life to the fullest by having a positive outlook on life and not dwell on the negative. It takes a lot of faith in God in order to have a positive outlook, especially when there are so many negative things that can or will occur. I have the belief that everything happens for a reason, so even if there are bad things that happen to me, I put my whole faith in God that that is part of His plan and everything will work itself out. God doesn't necessarily live my life for me, but I have faith that He has put me on a path. This path is filled with opportunities and it is up to me to take my positive outlook and encounter them. It may not always work out, or I may make mistakes but life is about living it to the fullest and learning.

"If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?" -Evan Almighty

So let us take what is thrown at us, whether it be an earthquake or a simple mistake, and learn from them and take the opportunities to grow so that we can live our life to the fullest.

Seeing What Isn't There

“Hope and faith sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

I could not have said it better myself. As I have been trying to make it clear with my previous blog posts, having faith in God or whatever higher being you believe in is more than just believing in something you can physically see. You can’t see it at all, but with the faith and hope you do, you see what cannot be seen. No, I have not physically seen God Himself, so you may be thinking how can I have faith in something I have never seen? Well, to tell you the truth I have seen God in the acts of kindness I have encountered. I feel God in the positive vibes people give off. And I have achieved everything I have thus far because of the faith I have in myself, the belief I have in God and that things happen for a reason.

Getting into the subject of faith and acts of kindness, I want to talk about Lenten season. It started just a couple of weeks ago and for those who don’t know what Lent is, it is a period of forty days leading up to Easter that starts with Ash Wednesday.  During Lent, many Christians and Catholics do some sort of fast.  A lot of people I know give up some of their favorite things, for example some of my friends have given up: fast food, sweets, soda, facebook, etc. sometimes the meaning of fasting is lost in the act itself rather than what it means to give it up. Lent is a time for penitence and the reason for the fasting is to follow in Jesus’ footsteps who was on a forty day and forty night fast leading up until his crucifixion.

I have taken it upon myself to do more than just give something up.  Despite missing my late night trips to Del Taco—I gave up fast food—or my almost daily serving of cookies with milk—I also gave up cookies—I have chosen to try and do one kind act a day.  This may seem a little difficult for some, but I think this is something all people should try.   Rather than getting too involved with my daily stresses, and myself I have made it a point to do at least one small thing for something else.  I’ll have to admit, I may not have done it everyday since Ash Wednesday (February 17^th) I have tried none the least.  Sometimes I’ll make sure to keep the door open for the person walking behind me, say hi to a random stranger, or volunteer my time and help tutor children.   

In the midst of trying to keep up with doing nice things, I’ve realized that acts of kindness are not selfless because I always seem to feel better, not selfishly about myself for the sole purpose of doing something good. But I feel better because I see the reactions of those who I have helped. Just last week I went to the shelter I volunteer at on Wednesdays and played with the students there. Simple things like turning the jump rope for them or helping them get a math problem correct were very rewarding. Their smiles are what made everything worthwhile.  I could tell the children appreciated my presence there and knowing that I could do something to help them made me feel good.

So going back to what I originally discussed about what Lent truly means, it’s more than just following the easy way out of giving something up, doing something out of the kindness of your heart is really what its about and seeing the reactions you can get from your actions helps put things in perspective. 

What I Have Seen...

My faith is inevitable. There have been a lot of things that I have come across just within this last week that have shown me why I have faith. Lately, within the past month, I have had some not so great experiences. To let you in on what I am trying to say, I’ll give you a summary of some of those experiences. It has been a month since I have been single, why is this relevant in any way you may think, well it’s because it was almost a five year relationship in which the person was not only my boyfriend, but my best friend. So that has probably been one of the most difficult things I’ve had to deal with not only in the past month, but also maybe so far in my life. During this time, I felt like everything was crashing down on me, a typical time for me to lose my faith in God just because it seems like everything was going wrong. I’ll have to admit that during the first couple of weeks of my breakup, I was a mess; totally turning away from my faith because I felt like my life was over. Yes, I know it seems a bit dramatic, but I was so consumed in this situation that it really did feel like everything in my life was ruined. Then one day it was like a switch was turned on inside of me, and I realized that instead of dwelling on my newfound single status I should take into consideration that this was an opportunity for something new.

So this is where my faith came into play and the presence of God can be seen in the simplest of things. After I came to the conclusion that I should take this “tragic” ending and turn it into a new beginning, I realized how great my friends were. I’m not one to have a million friends, I’ve always been more keen on having close, few, and true ones then many, not so true acquaintances.  My friends were there for me; they kept me busy, took me out to lunch, to dinner, made me laugh and listened to me gripe about my horrible “ex”. So you see, God may not be physically standing right in front of me, but he was in the presence of my friends.  Their comfort helped me realize that life is worth living and not worth crying about.

I really feel that I have a lot of faith in God because of the relationships I have with others. I see the goodness in people and know that there is always something deeper than just the presence of the friend…it’s the connection. This connection that one has with a friend is the invisible connection that God has with you. Obviously, God is not physically visible to people which is where many questions raise for people because they cant see something so they shouldn’t believe in it. However, friends are God’s way of taking care of us and because of friends, I have faith that there is a God.

 "A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out." ~Grace Pulpit

Bookmarking Soulmate

Trying to find my bookmarking soulmate was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It seems if people have any tags about religion they tend to really be into strictly religious topics or they just might be a little weird. So I did the best I could to find my soulmate... it probably isn't a match made in heaven, but there definitely is some sort of connection. 

Bunamama:

Bookmarking topics are religion, humor, faith, catholic, and blogs

This relates to myself because all of those tags are included in my own bookmarking.

They are not very thorough with comments. Most of their blogs are interrelated with religion, but they do not comment on any of their bookmarks.

There are eighteen bookmarks.

Their bookmarking practices is very infrequent and it looks like they have not done so in quite a while (roughly 2 years).

Their tags are well organized. There are roughly forty tags many of which relate in some way with religion or family life. There is even a tag for college, which definitely relates to me. 

Two interesting sites I found through this person is: http://www.stuffcatholicslike.com and http://www.conversiondiary.com

This person is a mediocre resource for my readers just because they have not really updated their tags or bookmarks in quite some time. Although most of their bookmarks are relevant to my blog, I do feel like it is an older person just because they also bookmarked blogs related to family life and mothers.

Jessica Melgey:

This is a more broad type of bookmarking soulmate. Lately I have just been bookmarking sites that are relevant to my blog with tags such as faith, religion, catholic, and humor. However, if I had the freedom, I would also bookmark more sites that I find with tags related to culture, food, fashion, etc.

Jessica’s bookmarking includes many different subjects, many of which I too find interesting. Some of those include religion, food, blogs, recipes, faith and culture.

Jessica has over five hundred bookmarks which explains why she has no comments for them considering how much she loves to bookmark and probably has no time to comment each one. She also bookmarks quite frequently within every few days and her last bookmarking was just today.

Her tags however, are a bit all over the place. There is just not one specific area of interest, which made it a little hard to find our compatibility. 

Two interesting sites I found through her are:

http://www.soulpancake.com/ and http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/

These are great resources for my bloggers because religion is talked about amongst other subjects such as culture and humor.

For the Soul Pancake site, instead of being more about the Catholic religion, it infuses a more faith oriented and philosophical viewpoint. The idea of this site is “a place to speak your mind, unload your questions, and figure it out what it means to be human.”  

The Shakesville site is a little less about faith, but raises some great questions that I am sure anyone might come up with. It also incorporates politics and pop culture, which are all interests of mine. 

Trifecta

Hello, World.

God. Who is He? Let alone, why should we even care? There are many tragedies that occur in our world today, in the past, and many that will happen in the future that it’s hard for many to say that God even exists. Growing up in Catholic school from the age of three up until my sophomore year in college when I was nineteen, I was groomed to believe that God inevitably exists. It may have been with the help of the nuns that used to teach me the sign of the cross and how to pray or the academic professors I have had in theology classes, but I certainly do believe in God. Having faith in God is something I struggle with at times, but at the end of the day I have faith.

I’m not going to preach to you on why I think you should have faith in God, instead I’m blogging for myself, so that I can understand why I do. I am using this blog as a way to keep up with my daily findings that reiterate why I have faith or why I might not.  In my everyday life, there is something I will encounter that will support my beliefs or threaten them, but it is up to me to come to the conclusion of that and why that happens.

There are many things that happen to each one of us that can oftentimes cause people to lose faith if they once had it. In the news, you hear of the most heinous crimes, so it’s understandable when people doubt that there could be a God. Why would God allow for children to be murdered, people to be killed in car accidents, etc.? I, myself have experienced many deaths of family members and friends, heartbreak, and other tragedies, so why is it that I still have faith? Let it be known it does not come easy; there are times when I have doubts. Like a few years ago when my two best friends died in a car accident, only a week after seeing them for my birthday? How could God let that happen? Why would He? But ultimately without knowing, there is reasoning for everything and when I can finally come to an understanding for certain things, that is when I get back on track. What is it that even helps me get back on track? Well that is what I am going to find out here. In my regular days of being a college student and having struggles, what do I see in the world around me that gives me faith? It may be the tiniest thing such as a hug from someone when I’m secretly hurting inside, or something bigger such as the work of people coming together for those in need, like the help many are trying to give for those in Haiti right now.

I also might encounter days when there is just too many bad things happening that causes me to have a little doubt. It’s my experiences with my faith, how it can grow and what happens if it doesn’t. It’s up to me to figure it out and to take you along for the ride. There are going to be a lot of questions too. I don’t just wake up in the morning and have 100% faith that everything is okay or know why not so good things happen to me sometimes. So there will be questions, concerns, and doubts. But this is my place to let that happen.

So here is to the beginning of my blogging journey. Hello world. Come see through my perspective and my experiences on what it means to have faith. My everyday life shines light to help me gain new ideas and perspectives on faith. What I experience will either help strengthen it or it may weaken it, but ultimately there is something that is learned. Maybe it just might help others see things a different way too.

Profile

Got God? He does. When searching for some similar blogs to mine, I found one about faith reflections. Fortunately, it was not too hard to find considering the name of the blog is Faith Reflections and the subject is about religion and faith. The author is David J Claassen and he blogs about spiritual issues. In his introduction he states that he:

“seeks to give spiritual leadership to a group of people called the Mayfair-Plymouth Congregational Church.”

The church is in Toledo and from what he says, seems like its directed to a very specific reader. The blogger posts quite frequently, mostly every other day. Unfortunately, I don’t think this blog is too popular because on the most recent posts there is no comments or very little (meaning one). One reason as to why this may happen is because the blogger comes from a very smaller town and since this is a faith-based blog, not many readers are interested or aware of it. I feel that this blog is interesting, however, mine will not solely be about preaching religion, as he seems to do. You don’t have to worry about me shoving the Bible down your throat.  Instead my blog will be about my daily life, it can relate to others and I can explain to my readers from my perspective of what it means to have faith and what I see around me that gives me faith.

One interesting post that I read of his, was one of the most recent ones entitled Grounded in the Ordinary in this post he talks about the different things we can do to have a therapeutic/spiritual feeling. He mentioned President Barack Obama and how he plays basketball with his daughters as a way to keep him grounded. I think that this was really good insight and a good comparison because doing something spiritual does not always mean getting down on your knees to pray. It could simply be taking a walk outside and enjoying what is around you or spending time with your family. Another interesting post I read of his was one entitled Detours of Life. In this post, he describes a quote about detours and how oftentimes it’s so easy to get annoyed by detours rather than see the beauty of it, which could also be related to life. I also want to be able to talk about the detours I encounter in my blogs and what about them makes my faith weaker or stronger.

This blog relates to my work rather well because not only does the blogger speak about religious issues, he also finds ways to relate them to reality. Although his blog was really well written, I feel like I want to have my own personal voice shine through by using whatever mood I am in, whether that be happy, sad or sarcastic. His blog posts do seem a little dry.

The blog could be considered somewhat academic just because he also mentions other issues and media context that relates to what he is trying to say. His posts are rather simple and not too long. It definitely could be a little more detailed without having to be a novel. But his posts do vary so I guess it just depends on the subject matter of each post. The audience in which he is trying to address is spiritual people who have some sort of religious faith, although it is not specified what religion he is. The blog is completely relevant to a spiritual audience because of the context in which he addresses issues, all of which are faith reflections. This blog may feed my work because it could bring up an issue I may want to talk about or relate to something that I have discussed in my posts in relation to spiritual faith and why I do or do not have it.

My site will differ because it will be more personal and through the perspective of my daily experiences. His blog takes on an issue and then discusses it, but I want to talk about my point of view and also have my voice come out through it. I want to be able to convey my emotions about the issue I am discussing and have a more lighthearted discussion rather than a preachy, authoritative one.

Voice Critique

Where are you, blog? Looking for a blog similar to mine with a distinct voice was a little harder than I thought it would be. Many of the blogs I came across were very dry or preachy about religion. Although my blog may be deemed a spiritual/religious blog, I feel that it is more of a journal than anything.  A journal, where I can be able to write down what it is about my day that gives me the faith that I have. What incidents in my daily life as a college student hurt or help my faith? In recording those moments, I want to be able to capture the emotion of what is happening, to be able to carry a distinct voice in what I’m trying to portray. For this reason, it was a bit difficult to find a blog that talked about faith, in a way that was not condescending or dry. 

The blog that I came across is called Catholic Chicks. In its description it is deemed:

“A social network where Catholic women of any age, race, ethnicity, and background can come together to celebrate God's love and build a support group for each other. This is an enemy-free society!” 

The blogger, Monique seems to be very honest and tells it like it is.  What attracted me to this blog is that it does not sugar-coat faith, even in Monique’s description she admits that at times she was distracted from the Church but at this moment she has a lot of faith.  That is exactly how I feel at the moment myself.  There have been many times in which I have been distracted from my faith, not because I didn’t believe in God anymore, but just because I was too busy or going through a tough time.  However, as she says everything does happen for a reason.  I truly believe in that. There will be days when something bad may happen to me, but in the end it does all happen for a reason. 

The Catholic Chicks blog in no way is a preaching script of Catholic thoughts, however, Monique uses it more as a journal.  This is clear in her most recent post about her best friend. She describes her best friend and what they have in common in such a genuine and honest way.  It is through the presence of her friend, that she is able to see God in:

“I thank God for her. He has brought me the sister I never had. It's so amazing how God works to bring certain people into our lives. For good or for bad, there is a reason for every person that has crossed our paths.” 

This is what I know I will be doing a lot of. In my daily life I have come across many people who I feel I see God in and that somehow they were brought to me for a reason.  I want to be able to bring that perspective to others with writings like Monique’s.

In another one of her posts she brings up the rain that all of us just recently experienced. She also makes sure to add a little humor:

“We really need this rain, but we don't need the floods, tornado warnings, and mudslides. Maybe I shouldn't have said that prayer for rain...oh oh. If you know me, then you know I love the rain. Probably a little too much.” 

This is what I hope to accomplish, to be able to add a touch of my personality in what I am trying to say. 

Compare a Blog

Looking for a blog similar to mine with a distinct voice was a little harder than I thought it would be. Many of the blogs I came across were very dry or preachy about religion. Although my blog may be deemed a spiritual/religious blog, I feel that it is more of a journal than anything.  A journal, where I can be able to write down what it is about my day that gives me the faith that I have. What incidents in my daily life as a college student hurts or helps my faith? In recording those moments, I want to be able to capture the emotion of what is happening, to be able to carry a distinct voice in what I’m trying to portray. For this reason, it was a bit difficult to find a blog that talked about faith, in a way that was not condescending or dry. 

The blog that I came across is called Catholic Chicks. In its description it is deemed, “A social network where Catholic women of any age, race, ethnicity, and background can come together to celebrate God's love and build a support group for each other. This is an enemy-free society!”  The blogger, Monique seems to be very honest and tells it like it is.  What attracted me to this blog is that it does not sugar-coat faith, even in Monique’s description she admits that at times she was distracted from the Church but at this moment she has a lot of faith.  That is exactly how I feel at the moment myself.  There have been many times in which I have been distracted from my faith, not because I didn’t believe in God anymore, but just because I was too busy or going through a tough time.  However, as she says everything does happen for a reason.  I truly believe in that. there will be days when something bad may happen to me, but in the end it does all happen for a reason. 

The Catholic Chicks blog in no way is a preaching script of Catholic thoughts, however Monique uses it more as a journal.  This is clear in her most recent post about her best friend.  She describes her best friend and what they have in common in such a genuine and honest way.  It is through the presence of her friend, that she is able to see God in, “I thank God for her. He has brought me the sister I never had. It's so amazing how God works to bring certain people into our lives. For good or for bad, there is a reason for every person that has crossed our paths.”  This is what I know I will be doing a lot of. In my daily life I have come across many people who I feel I see God in and that somehow they were brought to me for a reason.  I want to be able to bring that perspective to others with writings like Monique’s.

In another one of her posts she brings up the rain that all of us just recently experienced. She also makes sure to add a little humor, “We really need this rain, but we don't need the floods, tornado warnings, and mudslides. Maybe I shouldn't have said that prayer for rain...oh oh. If you know me, then you know I love the rain. Probably a little too much.”  This is what I hope to accomplish, to be able to add a touch of my personality in what I am trying to say. 

Blog Profile

     When searching for some similar blogs to mine, I found one about faith reflections. Fortunately, it was not too hard to find considering the name of the blog is Faith Reflections and the subject is about religion and faith. The author is David J Claassen and he blogs about spiritual issues. In his introduction he states that he “seeks to give spiritual leadership to a group of people called the Mayfair-Plymouth Congregational Church.” The church is in Toledo. The blogger posts quite frequently, mostly every other day. Unfortunately, I don’t think this blog is too popular because on the most recent posts there is no comments or very little. One reason as to why this may happen is because the blogger comes from a very smaller town and since this is a faith based blog, not many readers are interested or aware of it. I feel that this blog is interesting however; mine will not solely be about preaching religion. Instead it will be about my daily life, it can relate to others and I can explain to my readers from my perspective of what it means to have faith and what I see that gives me faith.
     One interesting post that I read of his, was one of the most recent ones entitled Grounded in the Ordinary in this post he talks about the different things we can do to have a therapeutic feeling. He mentioned President Barack Obama and how he plays basketball with his daughters as a way to keep him grounded. I think that this was a really good insight and a good comparison. Another interesting post I read of his was one entitled Detours of Life in this post, he describes a quote about detours and how oftentimes it’s so easy to get annoyed by detours rather than see the beauty of it which could also be related to life. I also want to be able to talk about the detours I encounter in my blogs and what about them makes my faith weaker or stronger.
     This blog relates to my work rather well because not only does the blogger speak about religious issues, he also finds ways to relate them to reality. Although his blog was really well written, I feel like I want to have my own personal voice shine through by using whatever mood I am in, whether that be happy, sad or sarcastic.
     The blog could be considered somewhat academic just because he also mentions other issues and media context that relates to what he is trying to say. His posts are rather simple and not too long. It definitely could be a little more detailed without having to be extra long. But his posts do vary so I guess it just depends on the subject matter of each post. The audience in which he is trying to address is spiritual people who have some sort of religious faith, although it is not specified what religion he is. The blog is completely relevant to a spiritual audience because of the context in which he addresses issues, all of which are faith reflections. This blog may feed my work because it could bring up an issue I may want to talk about or relate to something that I have discussed in my posts in relation to spiritual faith and why I do or do not have it.
     My site will differ because it will be more personal and through my daily experiences. This blog takes on an issue and then discusses it, but I want to talk about my perspective and also have my voice come out through it. I want to be able to convey my emotions about the issue I am discussing and have a more light hearted discussion rather than a preachy one.

Hello, World.

God. Who is He? Let alone, why should we even care? There are many tragedies that occur in our world today, in the past, and many that will happen in the future that it’s hard for many to say that God even exists. Growing up in Catholic school from the age of three up until my sophomore year in college at the age of nineteen, I was groomed to believe that God inevitably exists. It may have been with the help of the nuns that used to teach me the sign of the cross and how to pray or the academic professors I have had in classes, but I certainly do believe in God. Having faith in God is something I struggle with at times, but at the end of the day I believe in Him.

I’m not going to preach to you on why I think you should have faith in God, instead I’m blogging for myself, so that I can understand why I do. In my everyday life, there is something I will encounter that will support my beliefs or threaten them, but it is up to me to come to the conclusion of that and why that happens.

There are many things that happen to each one of us that can oftentimes cause people to lose faith if they once had it. In the news, you hear of murders and the worst possible crimes, so it’s understandable when people doubt that there could be a God. I, myself have experienced many deaths of family members and friends, heartbreak, and other tragedies, so why is it that I still have faith? Let it be known it does not come easy, there are times when I have doubts, but ultimately I get back on track. What is it that even helps me get back on track? Well that is what I am going to find out. In my regular days of being a college student and having struggles, what do I see in the world around me that gives me faith? It may be the tiniest thing such as a hug from someone when I’m secretly hurting inside, or something bigger such as the work of people coming together for those in need, like the help many are trying to give for those in Haiti right now.

I also might encounter days when there is just too many bad things happening that causes me to have a little doubt. It’s my experiences with my faith, how it can grow and what happens if it doesn’t. It’s up to me to figure it out and to take you along for the ride.

So, hello world. Come see through my perspective and my experiences on what it means to have faith. My everyday life shines light to help me gain new ideas and perspectives on faith. What I experience will either help strengthen it or it may weaken it, but ultimately there is something that is learned. Maybe it just might help others see things a different way too.