Just A Thought Based on Observation

2-3-11

Something I've gleaned from people-watching:

God lights up when we're around Him. He loves us unreservedly. It's evident in the things God did and does for us, in the gifts He gives us, in the time He spends with us.

But then we go and flirt with other things or other people and break His heart. Then we flit back to Him and act like nothing's wrong, like He doesn't have eyes and can't see what we've been doing. Even when He brings it up, we just smile and nod and pretend everything's okay--and keep on doing what broke His heart to begin with.

And He keeps on loving us anyway. Unreservedly. Even though it breaks His heart because, like He says, He's a "jealous God" (Exodus 20:5). He loves us anyway, despite the fact that we hurt Him, despite that we either don't notice or don't care when our "harmless" flirtations hurt Him.

I get it (mostly) when it's God taking the action, but when it's a friend of mine being hurt by someone they care about, well, it just frustrates me. Actually, no, it exasperates me to no end to see it happen, and so the analogy only works up to a point since dealing with imperfect humans is much different than dealing with a perfect God. I doubt the friend(s) sees themselves as being Christ-like in the situation. Still, all I can do is pray that the situation is resolved by that patient and perfect God who lets us keep coming back to Him even we're being almost blatantly stupid and flagrantly flirtatious with stuff that shouldn't be distracting us from Him.

Just an observation.

People Watching

5-26-10

One of the professors at my university overheard me talking to a fellow student about writing, and she poked her head into our closet-sized office (that I dubbed the 'cloffice') and said, "You have to learn to eavesdrop and people-watch and not feel bad about either of those," and then went back to her work.

I've appreciated that. I've always found people to be fascinating, and the best way to see how people actually are are to observe them while they're unawares. (Not in a creepy way, mind you. People-watching can be done [and should probably only be done] in public places.)

The experiences one has fills the writer's mind with threads of potential for great stories. It takes skill to weave those threads, but the potential exists. That is a powerful thing.

Any of you ever observe anything or anyone that you've ended up using in a work?

~Ashlee