Congratulations!

Graduates, congratulations!

Whether it be from middle school, high school, college, or secondary school, we congratulate you on a well-earned diploma.

Now go and do good with it!

June - Summer!

SO, it has been a very long time since I posted. I hope everyone's had a great spring season! I know some of you are getting through finals soon, so best of luck to you! And to those of you who just finished school, congrats on another year finished!

I just recently finished reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, the 3rd installment in the Robert Langdon series (remember The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons?), and the end of the book brought to light something very important. It is not important in only the Bible and in religion, but also in oneself. Here are a few excerpts:

"When you start to understand the cryptic parables in the Bible, [...] you realize it's a study of the human mind."

"When the Bible tells us to 'go build our temple'... a temple that we must 'build with no tools and making no noise,' what temple do you think it's talking about?"

"[T]he Scriptures are well aware of the power latent within us, and they are urging us to harness that power... urgin us to build the temples of our minds."

"[T]he gnostic Gospel of Mary: Where the mind is, there is the treasure."

"You're familiar with the Bible's account of 'manna from heaven'?"

Langdon saw no connection. "You mean the magical substance that fell from heaven to nourish the hungry?"

"Exactly. The substance was said to heal the sick, provide everlasting life, and, strangely, cause no waste in those who consumed it." Katherine paused, as if waiting for him to understand." Robert?" she prodded. "A kind of nourishment that fell from heaven?" She tapped her temple. "Magically heals the body? Creates no waste? Don't you see? These are code words, Robert! Temple is code for 'body.' Heaven is code for 'mind.' Jacob's ladder is your spine. And manna is this rare brain secretion. When you see these code words in Scripture, pay attention. They are often markers for a more profound meaning concealing beneath the surface."

"This is a great gift [...] and God is waiting for us to understand it. All around the world, we are gazing skyward, waiting for God... never realizing that GOd is waiting for us." Katherine paused, letting her words soak in. "We are creators, and ye we naively play the role of 'the created.' We see ourselves as helpless sheep buffeted around by the God who made us. We kneel like frightened children, begging for help, for forgiveness, for good luck. But once we realize that we are truly created in the Creator's image, we wil start to understand that we, too, must be Creators. When we understand this fact, the doors will burst wide open for human potential."

All of these quotes combine to make us realize that our body is a temple. Our mind is the temple that needs to be built, that has an outer temple called the Holy Place and an inner sanctuary called the Holy of Holies. Once we realize that our mind is what guides us, and our spirit is what drives us, we can do great things. Once we understand fully that God is within each and every one of us, and that we ourselves are Creators, we can do God's work and fully realize our potential to do good in the world. This Young Adult Ministry is all about coming together as a community and sharing our stories. It is about being able to do God's work in our own communities and together as a whole. If someone does God's work in Taiwan, it can be shared and felt here in California. As long as we can harness the power of God within us, we can do anything we want. This is the message presented here at the end of The Lost Symbol. The context in which the character, Katherine, is speaking of the power of the mind may be in future science, but if we break it down and actually consider what is being presented, it will tell us that our mind can do anything, and if we have the will power and the belief, we can do anything. We can influence anything to do God's work with and for us.

I think if all of us can just shed a little bit of light on the dark unknown abyss that is our mind and brain, we can understand just a little bit of the potential that is there. But we must look to great thinkers and doers, like Mother Theresa, for guidance. Yes, we praise God, and look to the heavens above to speak to God, but if we can comprehend that God is within us, and that he speaks to us from within, we may be able to get closer to God and finally understand what it is we are to do.

Comment some thoughts, please! And read the book if you get a chance!