Infusing Faith ~ Closing Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

Infusing faith into every aspect of our being is like getting that perfect balance of fresh sliced fruit in clear clean water.  It enhances flavor, nourishes us, and creates a healthier being all around.  Remember that at the outset of this I mentioned that this is directed at those who share my faith.  If you do not it is a guide as to how my fellow Christ-followers should behave.  Please remember that we can do nothing to earn the Father’s favor but it is faith that connects us to him.

If then, I am to live by faith, it must be part of my thinking in every area.  It must be my heartbeat, my respiration, and muscle memory.  I spoke with someone yesterday who resists following Christ because they do not wish to do anything that requires faith. 

As I draw in more faith, breathe it in every aspect, it becomes obvious how vital that is to life.  When I fail to use that faith, I see quickly how difficult life is without it.  Faith creates the path we walk.  It is the substance of things we hope for as we journey home. 

During this time of common distress, faith can give us somewhere to stand.  I invite you, Dear Reader, to give it a try.  Ponder how faith can be a part of every thought, emotion, and action.  Consider with me how we can make faith a part of every choice. 

It is one of those things that only makes real sense from the inside.  I am not saying that to be cryptic or trying to be mystical.  The deeper I dive the easier it is to understand that simple unyielding faith fuels us better than anything.  As we turn to Holy Week tomorrow, I ask that you keep walking with me, keep asking questions, and sharing your thoughts.  You are one of the reasons my faith works.  We can infuse faith into all we do and take in the sweet nectar that it produces.  We can get through this together if we deal with one another in the faith that draws us to Christ.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

#aramisthorn

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          

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Infusing Faith ~ We Still Breathe

Greetings Dear Reader,

If we look around at all the masks, gloves, and distancing, then we see things that try to make us fearful and faithless.  In the midst of that, however, we still breathe.  We will still do what is necessary to live.

What I am seeing is that no matter the circumstances, I must do whatever is necessary to live well.  We let what is going on around us infect our thinking, emotions, and actions.  What we have to do instead is realize that we can weather anything if we do it in faith. 

How we treat each other is the outpouring of what is in our hearts and minds.  Whether it is the family we are sequestered with or the clerk telling us that we cannot buy 700 rolls of TP, how we treat each other shows our faith.  If we lack it, we will lack the ability to process that the only thing we control is our thoughts that lead to our actions.

It is in how we treat others that our faith is revealed. We are to be known by our love.  It is our benchmark.  If we do not act in faith in every situation, we will not transact in love and kindness.  We cannot fail to live out our faith and claim to follow Christ.  The only way to follow Christ is in faith.

We cannot control the climate whether we mean weather or social situation.  The process is to see that our thoughts determine our actions.  How we act is what infuses faith into our lives.  The current distress is unnavigable without faith.  If we are to walk together, Dear Reader, we can better do so if we treat each other well.  We can breathe easier if we make faith the breath of our actions.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

#aramisthorn

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          

Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com

Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com

Facebook       Twitter        

Medium         Instagram 

This BLOG:  http://aramisthorn.blogspot.com/ 

Infusing Faith ~ Sunset Solution

Greetings Dear Reader,

As we capture our thoughts as discussed yesterday, there will be feelings associated with those thoughts.  We all feel but feelings need nurture to continue.  This is not just negative feelings.  We nurture all of our feelings through thought.

Let us examine this through a good feeling.   When anticipating the desired event, like a vacation, we feel excitement and exhilaration as we ponder what we will experience.  The thinking feeds the feelings.

This is how we develop all of our feelings.  We dwell, for good or ill on things and trigger our emotions relative to them.  If you keep feeling anger over something, examine your thinking over that event or person.  Ponder if you have forgiven or made things right with someone.  Remove the thinking that holds resentment and anger and the anger will go away.

The same is true of fear.  It is our thinking that triggers our fear.  It is how we use our faith that determines our thinking.  Faith is what allows us to face fear and not give it lease.  It is not wrong to feel afraid.  It is unhealthy to give fear any measure of control over us. 

I am practicing a sunset solution.  As my day closes, I think through my feelings about the day.  I ponder any negative feelings and forgive others or express faith in the Father as necessary.  I refuse to let the feelings of the day camp with me overnight.  We can get through this current distress if we give our hearts as well as our minds to the Father at night.  It makes the rest during our journey better, Dear Reader.   We all need better rest right now.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

#aramisthorn

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          

Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com

Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com

Facebook       Twitter        

Medium         Instagram 

This BLOG:  http://aramisthorn.blogspot.com/ 

Infusing Faith ~ Soaking the Mind

Greetings Dear Reader,

This exercise of capturing every thought, ebbs and flows in successful application.  The essence of what we say and do flows from those thoughts, so capturing them is vital.  If we are going to infuse faith into our actions at any time, we must first bring faith into all of our thoughts.

In thinking through this, a scroll through some social media posts might help us understand.  As we scroll, what we see coaxes a response from us.  It is our thinking and patterns of thought that inform those responses.  What we have trained ourselves to think becomes what we express.

Infusing faith in our thinking can look like this then:

A friend posts about the terrible behavior of people at the grocery store.  Our thinking should be prayer for that friend, pondering how we might help practically, and considering in what ways the Father provides for our needs.  It is training the mind to love the Father first and then love your friend because of that.

Someone puts up something unkind about someone else because of an action judged socially wrong.  Our minds will try to judge as well.  If we have not trained our brains to love first, we cannot infuse our faith into the need to be kind in every situation.  It is our obligation to refrain from negative judgments and condemnation.   I must control every thought if I am going to think well in this situation.

Worry and fear make their way to our feed inviting us to ignore faith and join them.  It is vital that we use our faith to think through the fear.  It is not wrong to feel fear but it is always wrong to let the fear be in control.  When we think fearful thoughts, we are wasting creativity.  Instead, we must recognize that our fear cannot do anything to change the situation.  We must embrace thoughts that express faith over fear and live them out.

Faith gives the mind clarity and freedom.  It allows us to be shielded from the things that would distract us.  If we do not capture our thoughts then we will be unable to resist the ones that are harmful to us.  We will develop dangerous patterns of negativity that hurt us and those around us.

If we are going to infuse faith into this current distress, we must do so by thinking well.  Begin to analyze the thoughts as they surface and see if they belong in your life, Dear Reader.  I am doing this as well.  Together we can capture our thoughts and turn them into a chance to live. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

#aramisthorn

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          

Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com

Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com

Facebook       Twitter        

Medium         Instagram 

This BLOG:  http://aramisthorn.blogspot.com/ 

Infusing Faith ~ Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

My mind has already turned to what will be a very different Holy Week this year.  Before I begin that series, I want to address the underpinning thing that makes it all possible.  I have written often about faith.  I suppose I want to be a little practical about how we can actually use faith in a time where things seem so out of control.

I want to call to mind that we all believe in something.  We all have faith in an ideal, a thing, or a person.  As someone who has chosen to follow Jesus Christ, I put my faith in him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  I do my best to live out that faith and when I fail to, I count on the grace and mercy promised by the Father. 

I am not going much deeper down that path but I want to be clear about where I am coming from as I begin these few days of practical faith concerns.  We can say that we do not do anything that requires faith.  We do.  We eat food that we have not prepared.  We drive on the road next to others at high speeds.  We sit on chairs without testing them first.  We exercise faith every day.

What I wish to do to prepare my heart and mind for Holy Week is to examine some practical ways to use my faith.  I wish to be very simple and clear that faith must be a part of every aspect of what we do.  There are no issues or incidents that are outside of our faith. 

Please journey with me through a few days of practical faith application so that we can better prepare for the challenges ahead.  If you do not share my faith, Dear Reader, you will at least learn how those who claim to follow Christ should act. We are all crooked sticks, so please do not judge us too harshly.  As always, your thoughts and questions are welcome.  You make the journey sweeter.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

#aramisthorn

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          

Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com

Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com

Facebook       Twitter        

Medium         Instagram 

This BLOG:  http://aramisthorn.blogspot.com/ 

To Be or Not to Be – I am Designed to Be

Greetings Dear Reader,

I do not want to ignore that Hamlet is talking about death.  We are designed to be.  We are created to live and to live that life fully.  It is the courage to truly live life that is the greater courage. 

Photograph: Public Domain

We live in a world where it is easy to hide.  It is easy to escape and not engage with the beauty and wonder that is the human condition.  We avoid the pain and suffering of life instead of seeing that through it we can grow.

It is vital that we ponder that we are to be.  We are to grasp life and live it.  It will have pain and suffering.  It will possess disappointments and hurt.  We are to choose to live.  God designed me to be.  I must therefore be.  To be means to live in this moment.  To be is to search each moment for Christ to follow him.

In that following there are things I am required to be.  If I choose to be then I must become those things in my following. 

It is best that you read this aloud.  It was meant to be heard.  Here is his entire thought at the juncture where he asks the question:

Hamlet – Act III – William Shakespeare

To be, or not to be, that is the question—

Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer

The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,

Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,

And by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—

No more; and by a sleep, to say we end

The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks

That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,

To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes Calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,

The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely,

The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,

The insolence of Office, and the Spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his Quietus make

With a bare Bodkin? Who would these Fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn

No Traveler returns, Puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others that we know not of.

Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,

And thus the Native hue of Resolution

Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment,

With this regard their Currents turn awry,

And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in all thy Orisons

Be thou all my sins remembered.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)