Ale for the Soul

As the beginning of the fall semester at The University of Texas in Arlington approaches, I can still feel the sting of rejection from The University of Texas in Austin.  With a flawless 4.0 grade point average and a commendable record of community service and volunteer work, I should have been the model student and a shoe-in for this prestigious university.  However, that was not the case.  Failing to have me as a student is not hurting UT Austin one bit.  The only person it is hurting is me.  The resulting jaded cynicism is negatively coloring my worldview and preventing the enjoyment of other quality institutions and life experiences.  This cancer of bitterness also impairs surrounding relationships with others and jeopardizes my mental and emotional health.  In addition, it prevents me from the innate capability I have to actually perform to the utmost potential.  How do I move on after receiving such a blow?  What does healing look like in regard to something like this?  Time does

"Unclean!  Unclean!".  In Biblical times, a man who had the socially stigmatic disease of leprosy would have to cry these words in public whenever approaching people or simply to move about town or his own village.  Each era in humanity's history would have its equivalent of these people, ones who were marked by some stigma pushing them into a permanent underclass.  Based largely upon ignorance or the unwillingness to understand these people, society has no qualms about alienating people who are marked for one's shunning.  Whether the issue is leprosy, AIDS, sex offenders, or the like, having the letter 'A' placed upon them ( The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne) does nothing toward discharging the innate drive in our soul to love our fellow man.  As society is driven to become more polarized, each person looking out for only themselves, hierarchy and class distinctions become more delineated causing chasms separating every one from their neighbor.  How

A few days ago I moved into a new place of residence, sharing a two bedroom house with a friend.  After three and a half years at the same address, I didn't realize how much stuff I had accumulated or how misdirected I had become in chasing what really matters.  All I wanted was to work, attend school, and then to come home in order to pursue the many passions and hobbies I enjoyed.  The former residence provided a refuge, a place to isolate and remove myself from the public eye.  It is as if I was trying to live under the radar in a city I already felt like I didn't fit in.  Have you ever experienced the feeling of being unsettled, unable to plant roots and really unburden yourself in your own fortress of solitude?  Do you still lack that place you can make a retreat too and seek solace from the whirling storms of life?  Until one does so, including myself, we can never truly find rest for our mind and soul.  My feelings as such are only exasperated by the recent move.  Re-loc

How much is too much?  At what point do I cross that mysterious and elusive fine line into the realm of excessiveness?  Living in the same house for the previous three and a half years, I have discovered the materialism of this world has influence me beyond what I would ordinarily become comfortable with.  Moving from a large house into a smaller one, I am accosted by what I see.  Too much stuff...stuff I probably will never use or haven't used in months or years.  Now is the time to become a blessing to other people by giving these things away.  Moving is similar to camping in regard to helping me to re-evaluate what matters most.  As I process through the boxes, I can re-orient priorities and get back to the basics of life: faith, hope, and love.  (I Corinthians 13)  Thank you God for orchestrating life events which usher a return to a rightful relationship with and focus on you.  I am so blessed.