I Take Off the Mask

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery— even if mixed with fear— that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man. -Albert Einstein

“Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.”   -Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Herein is the secret to the fullness of life – that one be born again, and again, and again…  🙂 – www.itakeoffthemask.com

HEALING Why won’t God give me what I ask? Why won’t he answer my prayer? – Job 6:8 TEV In trouble like this I need loyal friends. – Job 6:14 TEV You have gone far enough. Stop being unjust. Don’t condemn me. I’m in the right. – Job 6:29 TEV Month after month I have nothing to live for; night after night brings me grief. – Job 7:3 Job TEV My days pass by without hope… – Job 7:6 TEV No! I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak. – Job 7:11 TEV After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant Job did…” – Job 42:7 TEV …the Lord made him prosperous once again and gave him twice as much as he had had before. – Job 42:10 TEV The Lord blessed the last part of Job’s life even more than he had blessed the first. – Job 42:12 TEV In the past I ...

PRAY With prayer, all things are possible. Faith can move mountains, and miracles still happen everyday.As I pray, I feel relieved of my worries. I feel assured, at peace, and safe. God is with me, and we are walking together. I am never alone or helpless. LIVE Live life to the very full! Cherrish each precious moment and passing day. Explore, experiment, create, risk! This life is all you’ve got, so why limit you potentials? Why be afraid to try and achieve your fullness? One day you will look back and ponder on the life you’ve lived. May you look back then, with no regrets in you heart. LOVE It is our greatest privilege and our greatest gift. It is the essence of our humanity and the substance of our soul. I may forget many things, but I will never forget love. It has cast its mark upon me, it has left a song upon my soul. MAKE FRIENDS When you have found true ones, you will find how blessed you really are! I’m glad I was able to reach out to you. And I’m glad you were able to reach ...

Seasons of happiness In this life, we will pass through many seasons of happiness and sorrow, day and night, springtime and winter. What’s important is to keep our hopes up that the sun will shine even more brighter after every storm. Happiness comes from… There is a happiness that comes from knowing all is well, and you are surely walking in a path that will lead you to your dreams. And there is a happiness that simply comes from knowing all will be well, and whatever comes, you can be able to deal with it and handle it well. Now that’s confidence. That’s faith! Our Heart’s Desire There are times when God doesn’t give us the things we ask for because He knows the things we truly desire; desires we may not even be aware of because we do not truly know ourselves. Trust Love Trust love: real love, pure love; something good always comes out of it. Someone to Trust Joy is knowing there is somebody right beside you whom you can trust with your life, especi...

I got very stressed yesterday.  I was utterly down, and I guess I wanted to be down.  I wanted to know what will happen when I’m down. Will somebody lift me up? Will somebody make me laugh and distract me from my woes?  I knew I acted childishly, and I just let anger consume me to the point that I really cried. Well, crying helped somehow, but it didn’t help me much to get over my “downness”.  I feel sad that when I start behaving like this, and when I’m not my “responsible” self anymore, no one seems to take on the role of being responsible for me.  No one seems to notice where I’m spiraling downwards into. But I guess that’s really what it is, a spiral downwards.  Anger, fear, negativism, they magnify each moment you let them in, and the more you entertain them, the harder it is to float back into the surface and breathe. Yet for what it’s worth, I’ve realized God didn’t really let me down at all. For in the eveni...

I don’t feel so good today. Sometimes I feel so cold working within the confines of these tall buildings.  Our building is not that tall. Still it feels so cold and empty, as though I’m an invisible ghost roaming around its rooms. My friend here seems to be resigning soon, and that makes it all the worse.  With no one to bring some warmth into your monotonous days, what is there to look forward to everyday that you drag your feet to the office to earn something for a living?  

Sometimes we’re guilty of wasting our time in the internet no matter how much we desire to make the most of our time and blog about topics that help and inspire our readers. In view of that, I’ve written an article about activities that most commonly waste a blogger’s time in my new website. Read more about Time Wasters for Bloggers

They say that a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. Have we ever wondered then how dangerous our present knowledge can be? What have we discovered so far? What minute portion of the universe have we been able to explore? Aren’t our questions still far more numerous than the answers we possess? How definite and proud can we really be? How certain indeed that the things we do are right, and the things we hold on to would hold true in times to come?

We can search for hope in the strongest of places, and in the best of people, and they shall fall one by one. Only God suffices. Only God.

As we close our eyes and clasp our hands in prayer, as we lay bare our deepest sorrow and our highest praise, as we move from our anguish and brokenness, and enter the solemnity of God’s Divine Presence, I don’t think we differ ever so greatly. I don’t think we pray ever so differently.

Und Gott sprach: Es werde licht! And God said, let there be light!

Why must old wounds be opened up to inflict me with pain I thought I’ve long gone over with? In anger, I’ve asked this of God, and in shame I’ve learned that there are still inner wounds, deeper wounds that need to be sought and healed.

For what kind of man could ever find it so easy to let another one touch his very being at its weakest? Man would defend his wounds as he would defend his life. To trust is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to die. And few would ever risk dying in order to find new life.

If I can only embrace each wounded person as God has embraced me, I would do so. But my strength is not enough, and my heart is not big enough to bear all their sorrows. I can only be a friend to some, a soothing light to few, and hope that by God’s Grace, I can at least comfort one grieving soul in my lifetime.

I saw a world crying out so badly for redemption. And then I saw towering temples and halls whose cold walls could only utter judgment and condemnation.

I tried to seek the cause of my discontent, and I discovered that the darkness that covers the world comes from the numbness of so many shattered souls whose hidden griefs could not bear to see the light.

It is so unfortunate that the world’s beauty should only be as great as its misery.

  Have you ever felt so sleepy, and all you ever wanted to do is lie down in bed for as long as you feel like resting? Times like that you don’t worry about what deadlines loom closely before you. Times like that and the world goes by as it does and you find out its okay to be left behind from the rat race that never seems to end. Times like that and you find silence. You find peace. You find what you’ve always wanted to have. Sometimes all is quiet And all is peace, And there is nothing much to say In the rustling of the leaves; A child sleeps, And a bird flaps its little wings; And there is nothing much to say In the rustling of the leaves.