Meditations on God

  • Robert Van Valkenburgh

  • Fair Warning

    If you associate with someone who treats others poorly, do not be surprised when they treat you the same way someday.

    A person who consistently shows you that he or she is willing to be intentionally unkind to others is doing you a favor.

    They are giving you a warning.

    They are telling you that they will eventually treat you the same way.

    Do not assume you are exempt from their unkindness simply because you are presently on their good side.

    Someday, you will do something to get on their bad side and you will no longer be safe from their cruelty.

    People like this do not make exceptions forever.

    The only person they do not turn on is themselves.

    For people like this, you are only safe from their wrath for as long as you agree with them and align yourself with their cause.

    If you ever confront or challenge them, you will immediately fall out of their good graces.

    You will become the enemy.

    To people like this, anyone who does not help them get their way or maintain their illusions of perfection is the enemy.

    The day will come when you will have to choose between your own integrity and their dubious and one-sided friendship.

    Either choice has its consequences so you must decide what is more important to you, your own dignity or the companionship of someone who does not understand the meaning of the word.

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    November 15, 2023
    friendship, relationships

  • Consuming Ideas

    Be careful what information you consume.

    You are more easily persuaded by outside influences than you would like to think.

    We are all grasping for certainty in this life.

    To this end, we tend to latch onto ideas, ideals, and values that give us comfort.

    Over time, these ideas begin to shape the way we think about the world and how we relate to it.

    If you are not highly disciplined or discerning, your attitudes and opinions will begin to change in order to conform to the ideas that you attach yourself to.

    Before you know it, your thoughts are not your own.

    They are merely a reflection of that which you consume.

    With your thoughts, your actions begin to change, followed by your relationships.

    Soon, your life no longer belongs to you; it belongs to the ideas that you have adopted.

    This is all well and good if the ideas you consume and conform to are true, but the truth is rarely, if ever, consumable.

    More often, truth is something discovered within yourself.

    It is better to start there.

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    November 14, 2023
    consumption, ideas, truth

  • True Strength

    Lean into the things that expose your weaknesses.

    Relationships and experiences that show you where you are vulnerable are doing you a service.

    There is no way to be truly strong without knowing where and how you are weak, and then addressing those areas of your character.

    Strength may cover up vulnerability, but it does not resolve it entirely.

    No matter how strong you imagine yourself to be, someday you are going to come across something or somebody that will expose the truths that you have ignored or kept hidden.

    Do your best to uncover these aspects of your character now to avoid being blindsided by them when you least expect it.

    Seek out that which teaches you the truth about who you are.

    Embrace that truth, get to know it intimately, and make friends with it.

    This is the path to true strength.

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    November 12, 2023
    strength, vulnerability, weakness

  • Suffering Meaningfully

    Do not stop others from going through the pain they must go through in order to grow.

    Everyone deserves the opportunity to live a full life.

    This is only possible by facing our fears, by pushing past difficulty, and by overcoming the challenges in front of us.

    It is natural to want to protect those we love from pain.

    Some pain is necessary, however.

    This is the type of pain that must be experienced in order for us to grow to our fullest potential.

    To attempt to save others from pain is to attempt to save them from life itself.

    Not only is this impossible, but it is also impractical.

    You are merely delaying the inevitable, and even if it is out of love, you are robbing them of the opportunity to live their fullest lives.

    While not always pleasant, pain is necessary, challenges are necessary, and difficulty is necessary.

    If you love someone, you must be willing to let them suffer meaningfully.

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    November 12, 2023
    love, meaning, purpose, suffering

  • What You Can Change

    Set longterm goals, but focus on the work in front of you.

    The future is not knowable.

    Tomorrow out of your control.

    In fact, tomorrow may never come.

    The only thing you have the power to affect is the work that is directly in front of you.

    Focus on that.

    Put your effort into what you can change, what you can improve upon, and what progress you can make in this moment.

    You have no idea how things will turn out, but that is not your concern.

    There is no sense in concerning yourself with that which you can neither control nor change.

    Your only concern is what you can do now to improve your life, your circumstances, and yourself.

    The rest will work itself out or it won’t.

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    November 10, 2023
    change, control, goals, in the moment, life, power, presence

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