Sweet and Contradicting

There are two equal and eternal ways of looking at this twilight world of ours: we may see it as the twilight of evening or the twilight of morning....

There are times when we are almost crushed, not so much with the load of the evil as with the load of the goodness of humanity, when we feel that we are nothing but the inheritors of a humiliating splendor.

- G.K. Chesterton

Did you know National Doughnut Day was Friday? Well, me either, so I missed it. But over the weekend I made up for it by getting doughnuts from a local spot, Hole-in-One Doughnuts. They make their doughnuts each morning on-site, so they are super soft and delicious. But as I munched and read some Chesterton, I had a few thoughts, like aren't doughnuts sort of contradictory? Frying something and making it sweet? But somehow it works. It becomes some delicious.

Leave it to Chesterton to set so many contradicting words and phrases together to engage your mind toward something eternal and timely. Each of our lives (to the outside world) may seem sweet. When we get to choose what we post on social media and what we share in an email or text, we have control over what our lives look like to others. But we are really full of contradictions. We give advice and do not heed it for ourselves. We say we are good when someone asks "how are you?" when we are actually struggling with something.We put on the happy face and sugar coat our contradictory nature.

We all do it. It is something of our culture, and I suspect it goes even deeper. However, I want to try to be more intentional about what I say to those who are closest to me. If I am indeed struggling with something, I want to turn that into an opportunity to ask for prayer or to ask the other person how I can pray for them. In other words- I want to bring God into the focus. Recognizing and acknowledging God in all circumstances. Didn't Paul write with instruction to pray without ceasing?

That is what I am working on in my life. Prayer. It's not that it is absent, but I just need more of it. But it's not easy, is it?
So, how are you doing?