Obsession
If a person becomes obsessed with money, sex, power, ideology or ‘self’, then a pandora’s box of dangers is opened up. Indulging in these leads to destructive forces of greed, compulsive pornography, jealousies and even murderous thoughts.
Tag: purity
Washed Clean
Any idea how long you spend cleaning whether that be personal hygiene, vacuuming, housework, the car or garden path? Some estimates are at least 10 hours a week which is more than 200 weeks for a person living to the age of 70. Power washing is a satisfying experience but no matter how clean you get the path, it doesn’t take long for it to become dirty once again. Even if you do a very thorough Spring-clean removing all the ‘hard-to-get’ cobwebs, those spiders are watching and their webs will be back, never mind the other crumbs and detritus. Take your finger nails – while short-clipped nails show an average of 370 germ colonies, even samples taken from underneath chewed nails showed an average of 16.6 germ colonies. Bugs and dirt seem to be part of life. And then there’s dealing with the soil of the soul that also comes through daily grind.
- ‘At the end of the day, I have to wash my face. I hate going to bed after a long day not washing my face. It's something I've grown into. When I was younger, I didn't care’ – Selena Gomez
- ‘We are washed both on coming into the world and on going out of it, and we take no pleasure from the first washing nor any profit from the last’ – James Stephens
In a heartbeat
How much do you know about your heart? It began beating before you were born, 22 days after you were conceived! Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 35 million times in a year. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. The human heart has been described as ‘very deep’ which maybe apt when you consider its ability to pump 2,000 gallons per day. An Olympic swimming pool holds about 450,000 gallons so it takes a heart 220 days to pump this! In 70 years, a heart pumps 51,100,000 gallons – this is an amazing 114 swimming pools so it’s not surprising we can get a bit weary with every extra year! The heart has inspired poets, lovers, writers, scientists and philosophers. Aristotle identified it as ‘the seat of the soul and emotions’. How much can happen in a heartbeat?
PURE
This is not a beauty product advert – it is somewhat less superficial! Most of us want to be pure and know that we are meant to be pure, but what does it mean to be pure? The simplest dictionary definition gives this: ‘not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material’, stating that it can be applied to matter, colour, sound and morality. For the child of God, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.
‘God is looking for clean hands and a pure heart’ – Monica Johnson