The Point of Friction

First, last night, as I was talking with a good friend, the question of wishes came up. Specifically, whether or not we would wish to change something in the past, including all the real life consequences of such a change. Would life really be any better if one significant thing that we desired was changed? Aren't the bad things in our lives part of the good things in our lives? Would it still be our life if we changed it? If someone had a regret in their past and chose to go back and erase it, would they not make the very same or only slightly different choice/mistake later without learning from it? If right now was the only moment that we could change something in our past without destroying the spacetime continuum, what would it be like? Would our knowledge or memories change? Would we know that anything was different? Would we feel the old regret slip away only to be replaced with another? 

As I thought about it more, the sovereign nature of God kept coming to the forefront of my mind. God has a perfect plan for everything. EVERYTHING. He allows and orchestrates every decision we make, guiding us into his perfect plan for us. Take this analogy, if you will: our lives are a delicious meal in the process of being cooked. Each part of the recipe may not be pleasant when it is added, but when it is mixed with everything else, it turns into a tasty and nourishing meal. If we decide we want to replace the olive oil with maple syrup, it's not going to taste right. Also, if we try to eat the meal before it's finished cooking, it's probably going to be fairly nasty and even dangerous. Like I have told one of my friends before, "God is cooking awesome sauce in your life right now, you will just have to wait to taste it." Patience, I think, is the lesson here.

So at first I decided I would formulate a change in the past that would not have any negative consequences, but now I think I'll just rest in God's plan and learn from the hard things in life. He can see the big picture, we can't.

Second, as I was talking to another of my good friends earlier this evening, the question of questions came up. We began talking about how to find things out by asking questions of people. There's a lot of information out there, we just have to be willing to ask the right questions to get at it. I realized that I often know what kind of information or knowledge I want to get, but I almost never know what questions to ask to get it. Sometimes, I think, you have to ask completely different and seemingly irrelevant questions to find the information you want. For example, if you asked someone what their philosophy of life was, I doubt you would get a coherent answer. Who formulates an answer to that question? "Oh yeah, I'm a neo-Platonic Nihilistic pantheist, but I also believe in original sin and karma." Mmhmm... You would probably have more luck asking about what books they like, what their family is like, what their priorities in life are, and what their ideal mode of transportation is. 

The point is, you can learn a lot about someone by asking questions, and not just questions like, "So how was your day?" and "What are you doing this weekend?" and "What classes are you taking next semester?" Questions that matter, for example "Are you happy?" and "How serious are you about your faith?" and "How do you get along with your family?" 

To recap:

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