Communication Before Confrontation

I just watched Captain America: Civil War with a handful of my siblings, and it seemed apparent that many of the conflicts in that movie could have been avoided if the characters had communicated better. In several instances, characters fought against each other when they might have been on the same side, if they had had the same information. This served as a good reminder to me that communication should always at least be attempted before a physical confrontation takes place. Thankfully, I don't get into many physical confrontations, but even in the case of lesser confrontations, like verbal arguments, I think that many of them could be avoided if the parties involved managed to talk things out before things escalated. I will try to apply this lesson in my own life. Next time I start to get frustrated or irritated with another person, I'm going to try to talk about the problem before it escalates to the point of actually becoming a problem. Rhody told Spiderman that there's usually not a lot of talking during fights, but if they talked enough before a fight, they might not have ended up fighting at all.

The Purposes of God's Gifts

Tonight, my D&D character was given an opportunity to trade away a gift given to him by a goddess, and he did. Normally, this is something that he would never do. When he received the gift, he planned to keep it for the rest of his life as a sort of memento, to remind him of all the things this particular goddess had done for him. However, when the opportunity arose, my character consulted with the local priestess of this goddess. He asked her whether this might have been the reason he was given the gift in the first place, and the answer he got suggested that it probably was. So, seemingly with the goddess's blessing, my character traded away the gift she had given him.

God has given us many gifts, and the question of how we use them is a very important one. We might want to share this gift with as many people as possible, or we might want to keep it private and sacred. We may even, under some circumstances, use our gifts for our personal gain. After all, if God granted a person a gift for painting, God would probably want that person to paint, but what happened with the paintings after they're painted may be up to the painter's discretion. Should the painter put the paintings on display for all the world to see, or should they be kept for private audiences? Would the painter be justified in selling the paintings or prints of them? I think so. God gave the painter the gift of painting for a reason, perhaps multiple reasons, and giving the painter a way to make a living might have been one of those reasons.

To understand how we ought to use the gifts God has given us, we should consult the One who gave them to us. God knows how He wants us to use His gifts. Often, He gives us gifts to use for the betterment of mankind. Sometimes, the gifts are meant to be more personal and private. I suppose that, sometimes, God gives us gifts to use for our own benefit as well as for the benefit of others, and if the benefit to use happens to be financial as well as spiritual, perhaps that's what God intended. To know for certain what God would have us do with our gifts, it would be wise to ask. It could be that God intends us to use His gifts in exactly the way we think we ought to use them, or it could be that He had something else in mind. The only way to know how God wants you to use the gifts God has given you is to ask Him. Just try to be ready to accept whatever answer He gives you, even if it's not what you might have expected.

Examining a Fault

You remember that fault I mentioned a few days ago? I think I'm ready to dwell on it now. Or, rather, I'm ready to examine it and try to think of ways to overcome it. The problem is that I get frustrated/annoyed/irritated far too easily. I have a bit of a short fuse. And while I don't "blow up" very often (at least, not at people), I have enough trouble controlling my anger that I know that I need to learn some strategies for overcoming it. Fortunately, I already have.

One solution is to let the negative emotions out in non-harmful ways. Some people accomplish this by yelling, but I don't want to use that as a solution. Yelling and swearing when one gets irritated can become a habit, and I don't want to get into the habit of raising my voice or saying this I wouldn't want my Mom to hear me say. Thankfully, there are other outlets. Some people unleash their emotions through art or games or physical activities. I've found one way to discharge negative energy harmlessly, and it works for me, when I remember to do it.

For times when I don't want to let my bad feelings out, perhaps because I don't want to let them show, I can practice another exercise: breathing. Breathing deeply and evenly can be a good way to calm oneself down and release negative emotions in a way that's more spiritual than physical. Many forms of meditation and prayer involve controlled breathing, and if we can control our breathing, we can also reduce our heart rate and control ourselves.

Of course, actual prayer helps, too. Turning to God is a good way to tap into His power of self-control and His patience, helping us to gain some patience and self-control as well. God can helps us overcome any and every weakness and shortcoming, including any frustration-management issues we may have. As I turn to God, He can help me overcome all of my faults and weaknesses, including this one.

I know that these methods won't immediately solve my problem. I expect to keep wrestling with this issue for as long as I can learn from it. But eventually, with God's help, I know I can overcome it. No fault or failing is a permanent part of me, so it makes no sense for me to dwell on my faults as if they make me a bad person. Everyone's human, and every human can become perfect. I can overcome my faults and weaknesses. As long as I work diligently, it's only a matter of time.

Difficult Moral Decisions

Recently, I've had an opportunity to think about decision-making. Specifically, I've seen how difficult it can be to make decisions when there are multiple good options or no good options.

When there is exactly one good choice, the choice is easy, but when there are any more or fewer good choices than that, one has to decide which is the best or "least bad" option. This can be difficult, as it forces one to prioritize their values.

However, having to make these tough decisions can be valuable. Having to make tough decisions forces us to consider what our values are and which values we hold most dear. For example, do we value loyalty over honesty? Kindness over fairness? Liberty over duty?

Fortunately, these values don't always come into conflict with each other, but when they do, they force us to decide which values are most important to us. These conflicts can help us determine what our values truly are. Decisions like these can be painfully difficult, but they can be shockingly self-revelatory as well.

Where Mana Comes From

Manna is a substance that exists in Biblical history as well as a type of energy that exists in many magic systems, including that of Magic: the Gathering. In the Bible, manna came from Heaven, but in Magic, mana comes from the opposite direction, from lands. When a spellcaster in that game needs energy, they pull it straight out of the ground. This has previously prompted me to wonder how the mana got in the ground in the first place. One thought is that mana could be generated in the core of a planet, but there's a more scientific answer that I like a lot better.

I like imagining that the mana in Magic functions much like energy on Earth. On Earth, energy comes from the Sun. This energy is then absorbed by the ground and by the plants that grow in it. The plants use the energy for nourishment, and when we or other animals use those plants for nourishment, we are effectively absorbing energy that was ultimately derived from the Sun. If we consider all this energy "magical," then it's easy to think of magic infusing everything, especially the ground and plants that experience direct exposure to sunlight most of the day.

Yet, whether we're talking about bread from heaven or magical energy derived from the center of the planet or from the Sun, all of this originated from a single source, its Creator. The Bible's manna was created directly by God, as were the Sun and Earth, which then spread energy elsewhere. Magical energy is created by the imagination of those who dream it up, and those authors and creators were themselves created by God. God is the ultimate source of every substance and all the energy in the universe. So, no matter what kind of mana we're talking about, what form it takes, or where we find it, we can be certain that it ultimately came from God.

Dwelling on Faults

Carrying on the same theme from earlier, I considered making tonight's blog post about another flaw of mine, but then I thought: What's the point? People often dwell on some negative aspect of themselves in a way that just serves to discourage them. If I plan to explore a fault of mine, I should do so with the intent to learn how to overcome it, rather than simply beating myself up about it. It is wise for a person to consider their faults, as I did yesterday, but only if that consideration has a positive effect on them. Learning how to overcome a fault is a good thing; just being negative about it is not.

An Exercise in Poor Decision-Making

Yesterday, and last night more specifically, I had an experience with making poor choices. I was playing a role-playing game with a few friends, and my role was the captain of a starship. We learned that three colonies of civilians were about to be attacked, and we decided to help them evacuate, earning the ire of their attackers, who proceeded to attack us. Throughout the game session, my character made decisions that, despite seeming wise at the time, only led our party deeper and deeper into trouble. However, one of the worse decisions I made that evening was playing that game before (and, as it turned out, instead of) blogging.

 I have maintained a daily spiritual blog for years now. There are very, very few days that I have failed to blog for any reason other than not having access to the Internet. I could have blogged yesterday, easily. I had access to my blog the whole time. I even tried to blog from my phone at the last possible minute, but our starship was under attack, and a rationalized that a lot of my blog posts end up being late anyway, so I could just blog when the adventure was over, or when I got home. But the adventure took longer than I had expected, I stayed out much later than I had intended, and, ultimately, I failed to blog yesterday because I spent that time playing a game instead.

I'm not even satisfied with how the game turned out. My character made what turned out to be terrible decisions, and I dread what the repercussions of those decisions will be for him. I'm tempted to not participate in this particular game in the future, just so I don't have to deal with the consequences of what happened over the course of that game. But that would be cowardly and uninstructive. My character should deal with and learn from his mistakes, and so should I.

Rather than ignoring the fact that I didn't blog yesterday, I should call some attention to it and use the shame of my admission of guilt to encourage me to do better, to blog earlier, or at least to manage to blog at all. I should make my blog more of a priority, or at least a higher priority than playing a game with friends, even friends I rarely get to spend time with. As important as my social life is, my blog is more important, and it shouldn't have been too hard for me to pause the game long enough to write a paragraph about one's duty to help those in need, or some other trite nonsense like that. I should have blogged yesterday, but now I should at least learn from the fact that I didn't.