#Hardness of the heart

[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

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

"descended into madness" um actually i climbed here? yeah it was a pretty steep journey. yeah the air's pretty thin up here. i think im getting altitude sickness. pretty dizzy actually

[dudedidujust]

Au where Damian comes to Gotham with the goal of infiltrating and eventually overthrowing Batman instead of inheriting the mantle. Not much changes from canon except for the fact that he views everything that batman owns as his. That's his future cave and his future batmobile. This also includes his robins. After all everyone knows Batman wouldn't really be Batman without them.

Cue a very bewildered Tim being lectured on his eating habits by a righteous Damian who won't let one of his people take shortcuts with their health.

[betterthanbatman1]

Reminder that Little!jason loved Superman

[crowkip]

ᯓ★

[natjennie]

something about "your anger isn't scary to me" is making me so emotional. something about as above so below, cassandra as a mirror of kristen. something about "I've been dropping the ball a lot lately" and kristen's struggles with adhd. something about teenage girls and rage and fury and justice. something about adaine's vision of ruining fallinel and the sylvaire looking for revenge. something about sadness and doubt and anger and love. something about "I choose to understand" being the absolute core theme of d20 in general. something something.

[electrozeistyking]

"She's Gone"

This bad boy was started on the third of November, and finished on the seventh. In total, there are thirty panels (all of which were drawn separately).

A good chunk of N's dialogue near the end came to me after I did some improv to figure out what he should say. I have since dubbed it "N's Failure Monologue."

[free-my-mindd]

Never beat yourself up for believing people are genuine as you think they are. Even if it turns out they aren’t, your good faith in their actions is a reflection of your kind heart and how you feel. It doesn’t make you crazy or naive, it just shows how compassionate you are.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Are you more of FNAF or Jojo? (Ofc you will then say, I can be both-)

Why pick when they are so similar/hj

[deep-space-lines]

One, two, three, four, to the floor

I give blood for blood but you want more

[amid-fandoms]

viewfinder vs real life

[importantbreadgardener]

Something heartbreaking about Fabian’s worst fear in the nightmare forest is being forgotten and ignored by everyone he loves. To then come home after being away for 4 months to find his mom and step dad leaving for months without telling him. If he didn’t come home that night they most likely wouldn’t have told him at all maybe just left a note. His moms not even bothered to stay a full day after he comes home from being away for so long. I know elves live for thousands of years but Fabians got roughly 180 and he’s in some of the most vulnerable years of his life pay attention to him !!! stop forgetting him !!! stop reinforcing that his fear are valid and effectively true !! he’s worth caring about !!!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Good morning, Sleepyhead.

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[beif0ngs]

surrounded by idiots (affectionate) everywhere

[dreamsy990]

you know i used to think it was weird how sora and roxas have such different personalities for supposedly being 'the same person' but after playing a few games i sort of realized that they do have similar personalities, because roxas acts how sora does when he's under extreme stress.

compare roxas to sora in, say, kh1. that's where a lot of peoples idea of sora's personality comes from. sora is generally very upbeat and optimistic in that game. not very similar to roxas, right?

but let's switch the game and talk about a game where sora is ABSOLUTELY GOING THROUGH IT. chain of memories.

sora's resting state is melancholy in com. he only ever cheers up in short bursts, usually when he's joking around with friends. just like roxas.

he's quick to anger, and tends to lash out at the organization members. best example of this is when larxene makes him 'remember' namine, and he swings at her repeatedly, even after she's gone. he only stops when jiminy is able to snap him out of it.

you know what scene that resembles?

sora, while a bit more on the angry side and less sad, continues to act like this in kh2 when he's in stressful situations. (he also has a tendancy to insult people which, while it's not very related to the point, is very funny and sora saying 'gonna cry?' to xigbar is great.) i cant comment any further than that about kh2 off the top of my head.

so, roxas acts like sora does when he's stressed, right? but why is roxas always acting like that? to which i say, he isnt!

he only ever acts like that when he's also in fucked up and stressful situations, which happens to be a CONSTANT in his life. but when he's hanging out with axel and xion, a decidedly NOT stressful situation, he's a lot more like sora. he's teasing his friends and insulting his coworkers and joking around and acting like a normal kid. not really important, but unless i misremembered some sora lines which is VERY possible, both roxas and sora respond to friendly insults with "oh thanks!" a lot. just a funny little detail that felt relevant.

the biggest differences between roxas and sora boil down to environment and... i dont know how to put it besides volume? roxas is very quiet and tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself, while sora is very loud and expressive in comparison.

there is one other huge difference i noticed, which is less character based and more story. sora wanted to get off destiny islands and explore with his friends, but roxas just wanted routine. sora wants adventure, and roxas wants things to stay the same, for days where he gets off work and eats ice cream with his friends to last forever, to keep having conversations about nothing and watching the sunset. roxas wants normalcy, sora wants excitement. it's just interesting seeing their contrast.

not sure if this is very well said or anything i just wanted to talk about my boys

[kidovna]

Favourite fandom trope of the day: wisdom teeth removal