God and your neighbor

 We are asked two things in life.  "Love God" and "Love Your Neighbor".  These were the Greatest Commandments by the central figure in the world's largest religion.  We didn't need to interpret if these were the most important rules.  He said these were the Greatest Commandments. Everything else in morality, culture, belief, faith, and action should roll up to this. If you are a Christian, everything should be evaluated through these two imperatives.  If they are, in fact, the Greatest Commandments, we should see them carved into stone in every church in the country.  And onto monuments in courthouse lawns throughout the Bible belt.

But we don't.

It turns out that loving your neighbor is much more difficult than "Do Not Murder".  It requires action rather than the inaction of the 10 Commandments.  It is easy to finish your day and say "I didn't steal, or murder, or worship idols today" and continue your life believing that you love God and follow his commandments.  The most important commandments to Christians are to love.  This is so much harder, because there is no point where you have fulfilled the action completely.  There is always more love to give, more neighbors that need love.  We can never be satisfied that we have completed everything that is required of us.  That was never the point anyway.  It is an ongoing lifestyle.  An outlook on life.

Where is My Super Suit?

"Knowing your purpose" can sometimes seem like an unattainable ideal.  It sounds like "fulfilling your potential" or "living an inspired life".  A platitude that is never actually fulfilled, just sought after and pursued through a lifetime of struggle.   

However, there have been times where I have known my purpose.  When the background din of meetings and text messages and responsibilities step aside to allow a purpose driven focus to emerge in my life.  I'm not sure if being younger allowed that type of focus.  And I don't know that the lack of purpose is caused by the multitude of purposes that I willingly agree to pursue every day.

My biggest hope is that I am just "between purposes".  That my driving purpose will coalesce out of the multitude of tasks, and the focus and passion of it will push it to the front of my consciousness.  

News Blackout

Over lunch, I heard the following on NPR:
"The White House Press Office building in Washington, D.C. has been evacuated. There has been no official word from the White House on the reason for the evacuation."
It just made me wonder who they were calling to get the "official word".

Speedbump on the radio

So, I've been listening to Rolling Stone Magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". And once you get past the fact that you will be listening to a LOT of Beatles, Stones, and Dylan, the list is pretty enjoyable. Most of it sounds like a typical oldies station with a few new ones thrown in "for the kids". Today, I'm listening to songs 400 to 500, and this morning I found myself in the following rock block and thought, "One of these things is not like the other":

413. The Girl Can't Help It, Little Richard
414. Young Blood, The Coasters
415. I Can't Help Myself, The Four Tops
416. The Boys of Summer, Don Henley
417. F**k tha Police, N.W.A.
418. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Crosby, Stills and Nash

I had actually never listened to that song before, and only knew it "by reputation". Turns out, using the F-word almost exclusively in a rap song works pretty well. If you can get past the content, the song is really catchy. Which is the reason I will probably never play it again.