Clothes For My Pimples

Photo by Justin Veenema. Source: unsplash.com

Treat it for what it is. A minute real estate on your face with very little resale value for the next few weeks.

Why do we wear clothes?

Go ahead and google it. It’s amusing to see how the web manages to give relevant answers to questions like these.

We wear clothes for protection, for decoration and mostly to keep what’s private, private.

When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit. they lost the glory of God that clothed them and they clothed themselves with leaves.

I sometimes wish I had clothes for other stuff. Like pimples and scars.

My skin has a thing for pimples. Despite my mother’s incessant instructions not to pop them, I still do it. And because of this habit I had trouble walking with my head held up high when I was in school. People sometimes don’t see how much pimples can affect someone. It was torture for me. My face used to shrink to the size of a small spot. Metaphorically, of course.

Here I was, a teenage kid with a lot of potential. I had everything going for me. I mean, I did struggle a bit during high school with academics (regardless of which I ended up at my dream university) but other than that, I was doing great. I loved meeting people and having a good conversation. The only thing that kept me from enjoying every single minute of my day most days was the number of pimples on my face. That’s sad.

You do get better at living with your pimples. It gets easier. But I didn’t want to live with them. If I was not responsible for them and they were going to be a part of my life regardless, I could not afford to let them be even the slightest of my worries.

I learnt, though at a very slow pace, that nobody actually cared about my pimples. At least not as much as I thought they did. I also learnt that sometimes not every part of who you are will serve your confidence and that you have to choose what to focus on.

Me being a born-again Christian, realised that it is in God that my value is found. It is his glory that now clothed me and made me who I was. That realisation helped me a lot.

You, dear reader, have to realise that I am talking about a problem that is nothing compared to the millions of problems that are out there. But it definitely is one. Which is why I thought I should talk about how hurtful it could be when you stare at somebody’s pimple or even point it out in public. Even when it seems like it’s no big deal.

Before I go, to all my friends with pimples: Really, it’s not a big deal. Don’t worry too much. Treat it for what it is. A minute real estate on your face with very little resale value for the next few weeks. If you really want to make a mountain out of it, call them volcanoes of purity or call yourself pompously pimplified. I hope that was not gross.

Anyway, if you’ve actually read till here, you deserve an award. Please claim my respect by saying a hi in the comments. Joking. You don’t have to do that. I love you all nevertheless.

Have a blast just existing!

Called to Uniqueness

We are all made to function in a unique way that will nourish life in a way that is in sync with the very blueprint of life. This goes beyond all jobs that has been or will be. If needed, we must be ready to create our own job!

This was a reply I made to one of the recent comments on my post, The Right Shoes https://thefourthdimensionoflife.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/the-right-shoes/

I’m Aching To Be Out There

Metamorphosis Behind A Window. Photo by Suzanne D. Williams. Source: unsplash.com

I’m a butterfly. I used to be a caterpillar. Before that, I was an egg. But you don’t know me. Yet. But I know you. I see you through the transparent chrysalis that envelops me. In time we’ll meet. I’m nearly there. I’m a complete butterfly inside a cocoon. How did I get here? It was inevitable. It had to be done. That’s how God made me. It was important for me to shut myself in a cocoon so that I could develop into a butterfly. But now, it’s nearly done. I don’t understand why I have be here anymore. I’m complete. But all in time. But make no mistake, I’m aching to be out there.

Metamorphosis Behind A Window is one of the tracks I made during this summer holiday. I’ll link it at the end of this post if you guys want to listen to it. I couldn’t upload it.

What inspired me: I had been stuck in my room for the past 1 month. Only going out on Sundays to attend church. After going to college, I had a really vibrant social life and being back home and not even going out, I felt trapped. I was looking out of my window, seeing all the cars honking at each other, a sight quite normal to the average Indian citizen. We spend a lot of time in cars stuck in traffic. I was looking out and seeing all this activity and I was back home, stuck in my room. No one shut me in. I just had nothing to do outside. I didn’t have many friends from school that I could go meet. But i had my passion for music. I spent the last two months in my room, playing my guitar and experimenting with music. It was from this, that the track came.

Now, through this track I wanted to convey a message. Here is a butterfly, fully formed, inside a transparent cage( The chrysalis of a butterfly, is usually transparent). Just before it comes out, it has the same potential as it will have when it has come out. I would imagine a butterfly really struggling to come out, considering how it must feel, knowing that it’s complete and yet not being able to go outside. But if you actually look at a butterfly coming out of it’s transparent chrysalis or cocoon, regardless of the amount of movement you see, it looks graceful. It looks like the cocoon and the butterfly are working together to create a release of potential into nature. That inspires me.

We are all undergoing a metamorphosis of our own and there will be times when we feel like we have reached our ultimate potential but are being caged by systems. It’s hard. Because we know what’s out there and we know we are meant for it, just like the butterfly in the transparent chrysalis. But like the butterfly, we must learn to work together with the chrysalis to release our potential.

God loves us. More than we could ever imagine. And sometimes, he gives us cocoons to develop in. We must learn to use it to vitalise our potential. This has a place in every situation in life, be it work, study, or personal development. I believe it is key to enjoying life and reaching great heights at the same time. And I hope that you never ever forget to enjoy life.

Do check out the other tracks and tell me what you think. I really appreciate it. Thank you once again for taking time out of your life to read the stuff I write. It means more than you know. God bless you!!!!

My Instagram page is over at @stefguitargeek

You can listen to the track mentioned in this post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxxArFJDY70/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Some of the tracks are also there on YouTube at Stef Guitar Geek

Never Cliché

Dear …………………………,

I saw a great movie today. A beautiful one.

The sun’s almost down here. The birds are all returning to their modest abodes. If every day was a movie, then this would be a very cliché ending. But yet this is beautiful. Every day is filled with ephemeral clichés that we seem to enjoy with a satisfaction that makes no sense at all. Stefan, haven’t you gotten tired of seeing the sunset, the flying birds, and the full moon? You’ve been loitering on this earth for 18 years. But no, you still enjoy them. They still make sense to you.

The movie I saw today ended with a cliché. And yes, I would have liked it to surprise me, but it didn’t. But yet, it was beautiful, full of meaning. Today, films are trying to survive. Everything is becoming cliché. Around a lakh movies are made every year. New clichés are made every day. Playwrights and directors are rocking their brains left and right to find something new.

Why do I never stop loving a good sunrise? Why do I never get bored with nature?

Is it the acceptance of my unawareness of many of the delicate details I have yet to see? Maybe.

I have a feeling that a cliché becomes annoying only when you are aware of a better possibility. If this is indeed true, then it is the limitations of my imagination that makes me fall in love over and over again with nature, love, beauty and another human being.

And that, I find extremely beautiful. In a world that keeps changing in time, I find it comforting to think that my sheer oblivion to an alternative for many things and my sheer inability to form one, makes what is there everlasting and beautiful.

God, you have indeed painted your glory in the skies and in the most minute vestiges of nature. I can’t find anything to replace it.

Yours,

Stefan

 

 

 

A great quote

Hey guys,

Just wanted to drop in and share with you a great quote I just read over at the blog of one of my dear friends, Stuart L. Tutt. It just brightened up my day 🙂

‘You will also realize that despite the fact you can’t find pants that actually fit you, your body size is perfect. It is exactly that way God designed you to be. You will eventually come to terms with it.’ – Stuart L. Tutt

Go check out his blog at https://stubaby777.wordpress.com/

I’m sure you’ll be inspired. God bless you all! 🙂

A Word On Why Your Words Matter

Dear……..……….

It’s me again. Today I had a really long class. I was so tired after that, that I just walked back to my room and dropped on my bed. After food today, I felt like going out. The night was so young and beautiful. I decided to sit down for some cold lemon tea. I took the longer road this time to get to the tea stall. It’s always nice to take the longer road. You get to say hi to some people and make some small talk. Leaves a smile on your face by the time you reach your destination. I decided to go through some great posts. And I was sitting there reading, sipping my tea, I thought of how much the WordPress community meant to me. It’s such a joy to come here and be encouraged. Over the past two years, I’ve made friends like you who are so good at building people up. And that’s what keeps me hooked. I am still growing.

As human beings, we are constantly looking for affirmation from the other. Every single moment of our lives, we are looking for a smile, a wave, a nod, anything that makes us people worth something. What’s behind our hunger for attention and affirmation?

I looked around. I was halfway down my tea. I tend to do that a lot. I eat and drink faster when I am thinking. I could see the football ground from where I was sitting. Some students were kicking a ball around, getting ready for a match. I turned back to my tea. I’ve heard some people say that our thirst for approval has a lot to do with our need to survive. We want proof that we are relevant. That we are still in the game, still part of the society. I guess that’s one way of looking at it.

But then there is also the possible connection of external affirmation with the approval you give yourself. In this sense, everyone you see, is a mirror. A mirror you look into to evaluate yourself. You see someone and you immediately compare them with yourself. The standards here are usually set by society. They are in a way, universal. You see a bad character in someone and you immediately search for that character in yourself. The disgust you feel towards that character is something you do not want to be associated with. So you scrummage through your past, you comb through your present and you make laws for the future. You see a good quality and you do the same. In this evaluation, you create multiple pictures of yourself that are different. It’s a process that goes on. You are in effect, constantly updating yourself on who you are.

I know I’m boring you. But here’s the point- affirmation does matter.

It is connected with something that is so sensitive- a person’s idea of who he is.

We as human beings, should be aware of this fact. A hurtful word that you can avoid, must be avoided. A smile and a wave never hurt anyone. Of course. there are times when you will have to correct a friend. Correction when done with care, brings about respect and trust.

Teasing and making fun of somebody can seem very harmless, especially when among friends. But essentially when you go down to it, the person at the receiving end feels irrelevant, insignificant and lonely. The Bible has a verse that talks about how with the same tongue you praise God, you curse men, who were made in His likeness. We both need to work on our words, me and you.

So let’s lift people up rather than bring them down. Let’s smile and wave whenever we can and let us be the someone who always has a spare shoulder for others to cry on.

Here at WordPress, I’ve always felt love and encouragement from everyone. That’s what makes it special for me. You keep coming back here, taking your precious time and using it to read what I write. And for that I adore you. So thank you.

I would love to hear from you.

What makes WordPress special for you? Please comment. And thank you once again for reading!

God bless!

Yours,

Stefan

Sea and Sand

The wind whips through my hair combing it with cool air. The sand reaches and clings to my feet each time the water comes in. The water is cool to the ear, soft to look at and noisy to the touch. It is transparent in its beauty, but vast and without boundaries. Opaque to the eye, hiding what lies beneath the surface and where it ends. But take it in a glass and it becomes transparent.

That is how I explain the beach.

It’s a weird beauty I think. A strange juxtaposition of the fluidity of water and the solidity of the earth. They come together to create this great scenic beauty that we cannot describe in words. In this beauty we find solace, calm, even romance. We cherish the moments we spend by the sea. We love sitting there feeling the water, the sandy earth and the wind all at once. A strange yet beautiful mix.

You walk on the wet sand, your footprints leave a mark. You walk into the sea, you look back and I assure you, you will not see your footprints.

So different and yet the sand and the sea create such beauty!

I was thinking about this yesterday. I had just woken up to the sound of rain. The lightning, the water pelting on my window and the rolling thunder all forced me to remain in my bed, my eyes fixed on the window and think. It’s amazing how God has brought together all these different things to create the captivating natural beauty we see around us.

Another thought passed through my mind when I was thinking about this.

Isn’t this what our world is like?

We are all different, yet together we create such beauty.

The ‘difference’ among us adds to the beauty.

Today we see people parting ways because they are different. We see friends breaking up just because they are different. Today, we look for similar. We don’t try to find ‘different’. We don’t want ‘different’ because ‘different’ calls for effort, sacrifice and courage.

We want everything to just work out. We want relationships to just move on like a train on a straight, endless track. And it’s only normal that we should think this in an age where everything is made for comfort. But it’s not always ‘easy’ that creates value and beauty but ‘sacrifice’, ‘love’ and ‘courage’ when it comes to many things in life.

Yes, there are times when you need to part ways. But there are times when you can work things out. When you know there is hope. There are also times when you cannot part ways, like when it’s family. But when you emerge from it, in victory and in joy, you will see beauty. You will see the beauty that comes when sea meets sand.

Putting time into understanding each other is important. It just doesn’t come to you. You have to pick up the book, open it and learn. That is when the sea becomes like water in a glass- transparent. It is at the edge of the sea, where it meets the sand, that the sea is the most transparent. The more you stay together, the more you learn.

There are times when you have to part ways with people, but there are also times when you can work things out. We are all different. Understanding each other and learning to love and forgive and accept is what creates the best of friendships, the best of marriages.

God made us different. There’s a reason why.

 

I hope you guys got something from this post.

What do you think?

Comment. Share. Be a part of the movement!

God bless! 🙂

Awakening

It’s that one word we all hold at the back of our minds with some sort of strange respect. We like to connect it to some kind of internal revival. A spark, maybe.

But I find awakening to be much more. It is that moment when you start appreciating the beauty of who you are and who you are with, that moment when you become aware of reality and yet choose to be inspired by it.

Every morning, you look out the window and you see how the sleeping plants and animals come to life. How the leaves wake up and look up to heaven, glorifying God and how the flowers bloom into their surroundings, blooming into a funnel made from petals of colour, that seems to take in all the beauty and concentrate it into a unique beauty.

It’s amazing how light brings to the light, things yet unseen, how the rays of sun curve behind the clouds. giving it a golden lining. Every flower, every tree seems to be taking in it’s surroundings and uplifting it.

What is awakening for me?

It is that moment when I turn to God and I say, I am willing to do what I can, to take in what I have and lift it up. Awakening is awakened that moment when I decide to bring heavenly love and compassion into the things around me and the people round me. Into my everyday reality.

It is a call to reality, but then you view it differently. There is a touch of excitement to it somehow.

The dictionary says it means ‘waking from sleep’ or ‘the act of becoming aware’, a ‘coming into existence and awareness’. Well, all true. But the magic resides in how you view what you see when you finally become aware.

I believe the magic in the word is complete only when something amazing comes out from being aware.

The true awareness we need today is in how we are able to bring change into our lives. God wants us to live productive beautiful lives. He created beautiful beings. We are already aware to the harsh, turbulent roads of life. What we need to be aware of today, is not what is wrong, but what is right. We need to look up from the thorns and see the rose. We need to catch our heads from falling to the ground in frustration and turn it towards the heavens in hope. Only then you will be able to walk with your heads held high. Only then will you be able to see the faces of others. Only then will you be able to join hands in prayer for our nations, only then will we be able to stand strong together.

We need to ‘awaken’!

To sad reality?

No!

To potential change?

Double yes!!

I just want to encourage you today, to look around you. Things may not be all going right. You maybe asking God right now: Why?

But change and hope resides in reality only when you learn to see the right things, when you choose to be ‘aware’ of what you can change!

Awaken!

What does ‘awakening’ mean to you? Share. Comment. Be a part of the movement!

 

The Grand Canyon Perspective

Wow! It’s been a very very long time since I last got on this ‘write’ page. It’s like walking into your room after 4 years away in college( I am not there yet. Let’s slow down!)

Anyway, after about 20 reminders yelling at me to find the time to write a post about something in the sticky notes flying  on my bedroom wall and a 4 mile walk back to my house because I got on the wrong bus, I thought I should get back to this.

Today, I am going to talk to you guys about how we often appreciate beauty. Many of you who have been reading my blogs know how I like to talk about the ‘human perspective’. This is about how we look at life.

I learned earlier today that life is not a destination, it is a journey. The very theory that life is going to turn into this wonderful picture while you’re still alive and walking on this earth is what usually drives us. But the truth is that there is always something more in life. The reason why many people often feel depressed when they have everything is because they thought that once you ‘have everything’, you become that full picture that brings ultimate satisfaction. When the realisation strikes on how the picture needs a lot more strokes, you break down and with that breakdown, comes the increased attention to the missing and the lost.

Now, let me take you to your backyard garden or your city park. You are out there enjoying the wind on your face, that great big powerful force minimised to that luxurious breeze, you are breathing in the fresh air and you are enjoying the magnificent flowers. God was extremely gracious to us in making flowers. They are really something ‘extra’ like the great Sherlock Holmes said. He wants us to live life to the full and that is why he came down himself. The very beauty in the flower, I believe, lies in many things. But today, I would like to take you to the ‘smallness’ of a flower. When you look at a flower you get to see the entire thing. You can see everything from the stalk to the edges of the petals and it amazes you beyond words how this amazing picture that produces great satisfaction could be packed into something so small.

Our appreciation of beauty is in many situations, based on our visual reach. Imagine you are at the Grand Canyon. You are there in you taxi and your watching it from a kilometre distance. Now, I want you to turn into that 90s movie director who zooms the camera in like crazy. You are zooming in and  zooming in until you reach that small blurred patch of orange rock. Imagine all you could see was that small bit of rock, that bit you see when you press your face against the Grand Canyon. Not very interesting. Right? But now zoom back out. You are back to your spot and you get to see the entire thing and you just love it.

We want ‘complete’ to think about ‘perfect‘, That’s just how the human mind works.

Today, are we going after that final picture?

The Grand Canyon is amazing and will stay amazing, whether or not you look at it from your taxi or from a millimetre distance. The resources for the making of that final picture we look for has been given by God to us. They may not be materialising into a great picture today, but they are still amazing because they are what creates the final picture in the future. Is it not time yet for us to stop striving for the final picture and start thinking about what we want our life to look like today? Because that picture in the end will be great only if you start thinking about life as a journey, a mix of many todays filled with great potential, todays that are steps away from the small picture that lets us see more of what God has in store for us.

Now, I am going to talk about how we want our life to look like.

As a Christian, I want my life to look like what God wants it to look like, because I believe that none of my plans or standards of success will ever match His.

Be what God wants you to be today. Don’t worry about the final picture. The real beauty does not lie in the results but it lies in who you are, in the resources that God has given you. As long as you breath, you can believe in a tomorrow. And if today does not work out, tomorrow is still there for you. Today, may be like you pressing your face on the Grand Canyon. But with every today, considering you are true to yourself and to God, you will be seeing more of the Grand Canyon and finally somebody else is going to see it from a taxi on their journey and get inspired by it!

Daily Prompt: Priceless

via Daily Prompt: Priceless  

Priceless. The word that we often overestimate and underestimate at the same time.

Since civilization began, we have always tried to categorize ‘stuff’, which is a synonym for the unlimited things around us.

We did accomplish that to a certain extent. Which led to what we see around us. Jobs, taxes, shops. Everything. This urge to categorize was stimulated by the ‘first list’.

What in the world is the first list?

The first list is that in which everything is priceless. I believe when man started his journey everything was priceless. But as time went on many of the things that were ‘priceless’ became a daily part of our lives and new things replaced them.

As time went on, globalization thrived and individuality became fashion. Somewhere along the way, we started to look back and develop the past. The past, which we had kept at the back of our closet in our pursuit of success, suddenly became ‘priceless’. A classic example of how our priorities change with time.

Human development occurs in what I call the expansion to the peripheries. We learn something, experiment it, and then move on to the next. We don’t collect the info and then develop it. This creates fluctuation in what we term as priceless. What is priceless today may not be priceless tomorrow.

But what really stands out as priceless in today’s world, is peace, love, trust and all the valuable things that came to our attention when the words ‘society’ and ‘community’ became unavoidable.

I heard someone say, you become depressed at two points in your life. When you have nothing and when you have everything. When you have everything, you become weary of pleasure. You realize what really constitutes human nutrition.

For the beggar, what is priceless to him is food, clothing and a decent home. To the celebrity, it is peace and purpose in life that is priceless.

In a world like today, what is priceless is a moral standard. Something that will hold our emotions together. But when it comes down to it I know what is priceless and will remain priceless- life. No matter who we are or who we become it will always remain so. This one point is what everything I said comes down to. So, this week love the life you have. Value it. Treasure it. I found life when I found Jesus. It’s been a ride ever since. I’ve realized there is so much more to life than we see on the outside. We often complain about life. I know it is hard to take advice from a 17-year-old but life is happening right now and you have to live it to love it.

God bless. . . .
Priceless