#God's best

[ae-cha08]

We can trust in God, knowing He will align our heart’s desire with His and ultimately give us His very best blessings – all in His perfect timing. 💙

[momentsbeforemass]

Hardness of your heart

“Because of the hardness of your hearts.”

It’s an odd phrase. But it reveals a universal principle.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses it to explains the “why” behind a teaching.

“Because of the hardness of your hearts.”

If that’s the “why” behind something? Whatever you’re talking about may be okay, but it isn’t as good as it gets. Because there’s something that’s in the way.

That is, God has something better for you. But right now, you’re not open to it.

Because the hardness of your heart is getting in the way.

What does that even mean? How do our hearts harden?

Our hearts harden when we look backward.

When we get stuck looking at what went wrong – no matter whether it was our fault, someone else’s fault, or it just happened. When we get lost in assigning blame and asking why questions for which there are no answers.

For many of us (myself included), this is our default whenever something goes wrong. Even though we know that in the end it just gets us stuck in a place we would never intentionally go – if we gave it a moment’s thought.

And yet, whenever something goes wrong, that’s exactly what we do. Because of the hardness of our hearts.

So what do we do about it?

It can be hard to see it. Especially when we’re reacting to something going wrong. But you and I do have a choice.

Instead of looking backward, we can choose to look to God. We can pour our hearts out to God. And instead of getting stuck assigning blame and asking why, actually deal with what went wrong – with God.

It’s the only way to have a heart that’s able to receive everything that your loving Father is waiting to give you.

Today’s Readings

[haroldhighballjordan]

sometimes I randomly think about the time a girl posted in this girls only Facebook group I’m in telling everyone how she broke up with her boyfriend and he lied saying that he lost the spare key she gave him, only to then break into her apartment when she wasn’t home and steal the cat they’d adopted while they were together, but then he denied having done this and she didn’t really have proof that he took the cat since he wouldn’t let her come into his place and look for it. And then another girl saw this post and knew her ex-boyfriend, and she was like “girl. I used to hook up with your mans back in xxxx and I still have his number. If you want, I’ll hit him up and get him to invite me back to his place and see if your cat’s there.” And the OP was like “bet.”

So this woman hit up homie dog, asked him out for drinks, went home with him, slept with him, and then woke up in the middle of the night and TOOK THE CAT. Like she had only said that she would confirm if the cat was there but then she took it upon herself to steal this woman’s cat back. Like she full on Trojan horsed this man and then hit up homegirl like “I got the goods. Where you wanna meet.” And then the two of them posted a photo of them together with the cat to the group.

And I just think women supporting women is so beautiful.

[hinamie]

10 years later

[camilleflyingrotten]

𝘖𝘩 𝘈𝘻𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘦…

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[borealiszero]

People should make more doomed by narratives siblings relationship.

Like with lovers you can just sever it and not have it related to you ever again but with siblings how could you?

You grow up with them you raise them or they raised you you both know how unforgiving the world is to both of you? You would die for them but will hate them for doing the same and yet none of you would regret it and both of you know it. They could be the person you loath the most and miss the most cause you still remember how they sneaked a candy into your hands. You can sever the tie but you can never look away at what you've lost, at whom you've lost because fate doesn't allow you to be together, eating dinners in quiet peace, if only there's another life, another time, where i can make you another plate of pancakes i would im sorry im sorry im sorry —

[chloesimaginationthings]

Man this scene in FNAF 2 movie is gonna be wild-

[mad-serotonin]

Take It Easy☀️

[affixjoy]

My darlings, my loves, my fellow weirdos, I am begging you all to REST after you have covid.

I know it is very hard, and our society asks you to get back up and running at full speed as soon as possible, before you’re even done testing positive even.

But please my friends, please rest.

If you push too hard too fast you might be sicker for longer, you might be doing long lasting damage to yourself.

So please my beautiful nerds, take care of yourselves and REST.

[maxgicalgirl]

Being a “Fun Fact !” kind of autistic is all fun and games until you get halfway through sharing an interesting tidbit and realize that it probably wasn’t appropriate to share in polite company and now you have to deal with the consequences :(

[ae-cha08]

When we become frustrated with God’s apparent delay in answering our prayer, it is good to remember that He is interested in developing faith and perseverance in our character (James 1:2-4). Wait on the Lord!

[momentsbeforemass]

Concrete

What’s your greatest obstacle to faith?

What gets between you and God?

It’s a classic question for spiritual direction. For pastoral care. And for next-level confessions (the kind you make an appointment for).

The first time it gets dropped on you, it’s tempting to answer with things like a sin that you’re struggling with. The way that certain things set you off. Or a habit that’s working against you.

And while there’s no doubt that those things can definitely get between us and God, they’re usually not the whole story. That is, things like that are usually symptoms, caused by something else.

If we ever want to get past them, we’ve got to look at what’s causing them.

So, what is the something else?

For a lot of us (myself included), the something else is our ideas about how things are going to work.

I don’t mean our hopes and dreams. “I’ve always wanted to” and “wouldn’t it be great if” by themselves aren’t the problem.

The problem comes with our plans. Not in having plans, but the way we plan. When we map it all out. When we decide – not just where we want to go – but what the steps are to get there. Exactly how those steps are going to go. When we figure it all out. In detail.

And then pour concrete around it.

The thing is, we almost never consciously do this. But it’s like there’s something in us that says – “I’ve used up all this creativity and emotional energy to figure all this out, and I just don’t see how it can happen any other way. So it can’t.”

Once we’re locked into THE way that it has to happen, we have no time, no room, no patience for anything that doesn’t track. Anything else is (at best) a distraction. Or worse, sabotage.

That some other way might also work (much less yield a better result) doesn’t even occur to us.

This is precisely what Jesus is dealing with in today’s Gospel.

People who have figured out how it’s going to go. Who have decided what God will do, how God will do it. And who’ve poured concrete around it.

The thing is, when you and I do this? Just like them, we set ourselves up to be frustrated. To be disappointed. To miss out on God’s best for our lives.

Because God doesn’t always do things our way. God doesn’t always follow our plans, the ones we poured concrete around.

But there’s something about us that gets bent out of shape when God doesn’t do things our way. Which is why – every time we feel this way – we need to ask ourselves,

What if God does it different?

              Can I accept that God knows things that I don’t?

What if God doesn’t do it on my schedule?

              Can I accept that God’s timing is perfect?

What if God gives me something different, something better than I asked for?

(totally a God move, BTW)

              Can I accept that God knows me better than I do?

If this is something you struggle with (like I do), then these are not easy questions to wrestle with. But they’re worth the effort.

Because it’s the only way I know to escape the pride that pouring concrete around ideas will smuggle into your life.

The pride that’s one of the surest ways to close yourself off from God. And God’s best.

Today’s Readings

[mejkosmos]

why has 2024 literally been THE summer of toxic old man yaoi i'm genuinely tweaking rn

[hinamie]

morning glory

[snek-eyes]

Can we go back to this for a sec? To Aziraphale having to explain the concept of being in love to the other angels? Because I cannot imagine what a trip it has to be, falling in love with someone when that is literally not something you are supposed to be able to do. When it is something you barely understand. When the object of whatever this is isn't supposed to be able to feel this way either, except as time goes on you start to realize it's happening to him too. And neither of you can actually talk to each other about it.