I made this...

It's a parmesan pound cake that I found online, liked, and recreated in almost exactness and it was delicious. It even looked as aesthetically pleasing.

I've come to discover that we are much more capable of things than we give ourselves credit for. There is potential energy (in the philosophical sense, not necessarily the scientific sense) burning within each of us and waiting to unleash its unstoppable power in this desperate world.

I have a friend who, when I first met them, seemed entirely put together. There was an inspiring sense of accomplishment in this person's moral and secular life. The more I got to know them, though, the more I saw cracks in their confidence. It became a real source of confusion for me because I had placed a lot of my own insecurities into the idea of this person I could become. I very much disliked where I was going with this mindset when another friend of mine spoke to me about this said individual and told me, "I just don't think they realize how normal they really are."

Normal. That's why it hadn't fit together. This person was not the super-being I had initially imagined them to be. No one is. They have fears, insecurities, and idiosyncrasies like the rest of us. But isn't that the beauty of the human condition? It seems like I originally saw many of this person's positive qualities and was later taken aback when I saw the rest of their qualities because I simply didn't think those other qualities existed. We all have those "other qualities." We have doubts about our spiritual capacity to change, about our social abilities to extend ourselves and love, about our body image, our (lack of) talents, our ambitious futures, our projected selves, and our overall essence. Are we good enough?

After much praying about this said individual and why I might be feeling such confusion and reluctance to understand all of these other qualities, I realized that, while we all have those qualities, we also have the positive--which is what I originally saw in this person. I saw every good aspect of them magnified, and then I saw it again, but in a fresher perspective with the wonderful knowledge that we all have these good aspects inside of us. There are sides to everyone that seem like a super-being. What keeps us from seeing those sides in the people we interact with everyday and, most importantly, in ourselves?

Good gracious, it is hard enough to make it through this world unscathed by our circumstances, but to be inflicted with inner turmoil every time we magnify an unrecognized goal, a flaw, a shortcoming, will leave us broken pieces of ourselves by the end. Think of how much good we can do to others when we realize and expand the good in us.

I made a parmesan pound cake today. I love to bake. I saw this recipe and it looked like it would be hard. I was intimidated by the fancy chef language and expensive equipment. But the recipe was fairly simple, and it all tasted good, and everyone enjoyed themselves. So I'm glad I tried.

Perhaps most of us will succeed when we try.

This post has a bit of a mindless structure to it. I can't exactly pinpoint what my theme of this might be except this:

We have so much potential in ourselves that it's absolutely wasteful to spend our energy on the qualities we fall short on. There is something to be said for a little bit of confidence.

You came from a good God who keeps His eye on you. It is by faith that miracles are wrought so how in the world do you expect for God to step into your Great Test and do the work for you?

I am a kick-butt baker. I can cook pretty well too. Now isn't that a start?