Post 2024-05-01

.gitea/workflows/hugo2netlify.yaml

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ jobs:
             DESC=$(awk -v pat="description" -F":" '$0 ~ pat {print $2}' $SUBDIR/index.md)
             echo "Posting the following to mastodon"
             echo "Check out my latest blog post $TITLE about $DESC read more at https://allisthewave.com/posts/$POST"
-            curl https://fosstodon.org/api/v1/statuses -H 'Authorization: Bearer kdKxV9v4Cv-GwhAd5YHDqI6xJsKT4KkFX89FlhPvBzw' -F 'status=Check out my latest blog post $TITLE about $DESC read more at https://allisthewave.com/posts/$POST'
+            curl https://fosstodon.org/api/v1/statuses -H "Authorization: Bearer kdKxV9v4Cv-GwhAd5YHDqI6xJsKT4KkFX89FlhPvBzw" -F "status=Check out my latest blog post $TITLE about $DESC read more at https://allisthewave.com/posts/$POST"
           else
             echo "The commit message is not in format 'Post YYYY-MM-DD' or failed to parse..."
           fi

content/posts/2024-05-01-jolly-and-the-sanguine-serenity/index.md

@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ description: "Sanguine: because life's not always happy go lucky, but joy is mag
 >
 > Matthew 5:44-46 ESV
 
+## The Rain Falls on the Just and the Unjust
+
 It seems to be one of life's greatest mysteries. Why do good things happen to bad people, and bad things keep happening to good people?
 
 I'm going to speak in general stories but these are all real things that have effected people in my spheres in life, and recently.
@@ -31,6 +33,8 @@ Meanwhile the rich get richer. The powerful retain and grab more power. The laud
 
 Why then do we see so many awful people doing so well while the rest of us hardworking and good people suffer?
 
+## Rest for the Weary
+
 > If never you find what you’re looking for  
 > Come on back to the front porch  
 > Say my name through the screen door  
@@ -48,14 +52,20 @@ For starters, I'm a believer that there are no such things as "good" people, and
 
 One thing I've learned about Jesus's kingdom is that it's very much inverted. Pastor Mike at my church once said Jesus may seem to turn everything on its head, but it only looks that way because we are so used to our upside down perspective that we miss him turning things right-side up.
 
+## Whatever you Face, God can Handle it
+
 Modern Christianity often shies away from the difficult and the deep, the sad and the inexplicable. A friend of mine at church mentioned that he analyzed the word content of "contemporary christian" music and contrasted that to the Psalms, that have a lot of language of suffering, and pain. Much of modern christianity cannot be bothered to address the painful, the difficult, the misunderstood.
 
+## Emotional Intelligence
+
 In visiting a new church closer to where we live I heard the pastor say something that I disagreed or thought may have been a misunderstanding. He was making a joke clearly - talking about our sinful nature. It was something about if sinning doesn't bring you joy, you're not trying hard enough. This is where nuance and modern science can actually help. You see it's understandable to conflate pleasure, happiness, and joy all together. Why is that? Simply put, they are separate distinct emotions that all share the same universal facial expression 😄. Contrastingly most other basic universal human emotions have their own unique universal facial expression. Take for instance sadness 😭, contempt 😏, surprise 😮, fear 😨, and disgust 🤢. In short one thing that makes joy different is that it more akin to a mood though can present as an emotion at times. By definition emotions only last a moment. By definition of joy, it is a pleasurable state that depends less on the immediate stimuli, environment, or circumstances. So joy can't come from the very real pleasure of sin, it's always temporary, and fleeting.
 
 > Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.
 >
 > Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
+## True Joy
+
 What is then actual joy and how do we experience it?
 
 > But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy.
@@ -68,12 +78,18 @@ What is then actual joy and how do we experience it?
 
 It is a gift from God, but it's also a state of praise and pleasure in knowing God's promises for us.
 
+> Sanguine (adjective)
+> marked by eager hopefullness: confidently optimistic
+> [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanguine](Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
+
 But the bible also provides us the counter points:
 
 > Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. **Joy** has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from the land.
 >
 > Isaiah 24:11
 
+## Jesus, Long Suffering Man of Sorrows
+
 You see God does not prevent us from suffering but instead suffers along side us. A while back I think it was pastor Elliot at my church that said when you suffer for God you aren't a sucker: you look like your savior. And it's true. God humbled himself to become a human just like us and was willing to lay down his own life to take on our sins and die the death we should have had. But Jesus, being *the life* could not be held by death and resurrected to offer forgiveness and life eternal to us too.
 
 It's not that Jesus is not the happy blessings, it's that he's not *only* those things. So to forget his long suffering nature and to live in denial of our own struggles and hardships is diminishing our own lives.
@@ -82,6 +98,8 @@ It's not that Jesus is not the happy blessings, it's that he's not *only* those
 >
 > Vanilla Sky - Cameron Crowe
 
+## The Fullness of Life is not the Absence of Pain
+
 Likewise not acknowledging the full nature of Jesus is watering down his full power and majesty. It's similar to what author Chimimanda Ngozi Adachie says about stereotypes reducing us to only be a fraction of who we are:
 
 > The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.
@@ -96,6 +114,8 @@ So instead of succumbing to the inevitable pains, sorrows, and despair in life,
 >
 > Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
+## Pain is an Inevitable Truth; Beauty, Light, Life and Joy are also Inevitable Truths
+
 Embrace who you are and where you are. Know that you won't always be in the current circumstances. This too shall pass. Until then, know you are not alone. Even if I'm just some rando behind the keyboard of my computer, know there are people out there that care. If it's not me, I guarantee there are people in your life.
 
 Learn to be jolly and find the sanguine serenity in knowing you are loved. Let it start with the truth that the creator of all is always reaching out in love to you, and is long suffering alongside each of us in all the pain we may encounter. That which you have done to the least of my children, you have done to me. This is the true meaning of joy. Embracing the pain and heartache and choosing to hold fast to the love that will not let us go.
@@ -117,6 +137,8 @@ Learn to be jolly and find the sanguine serenity in knowing you are loved. Let i
 >
 > [Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise - Avett Brothers](https://songwhip.com/the-avett-brothers/head-full-of-doubtroad-full-of-promise)
 
+## Rejoice in Pain, Rejoice in Pleasure
+
 And I'll close this epic for the ages with a bible verse that one of my dear friends suffering from an illness she may never recover from in this life had shared, because it's the most beautiful summary of anything I've said so far.
 
 > “But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy.”