"A man is just a man, filled with faults and weakness..."

So, I just wanted to take some time to expound on some of my recent thoughts. Mostly taking the form of replies to several of the comments that I received to however-many-posts-ago-it-was. I am feeling pretty tired, so hopefully any lapses in logic or grammar will be forgiven.

1) Ross:
I have had similar experiences as well: times of surrender to God. You are right, it certainly does bring God's order to life. The problem there is that the surrender to God is not a one-time act so much as it is a state of being. And one of Satan's most proven strategies is simply to distract us from God enough that we lose that surrender and the peace that comes from it. It is rarely something big, either. Just a gradual drift that one day you wake up from and realize: "Hey... What happened to the promises that I believed in?" So, thanks for the reminder, bro. I can always use those. ;)
2) Erin:
Ditto what I said to Ross for the first part. Thanks for the reminder. :)
Also: on the issue of high-standards, I know some people who would say that I have very high standards for requiring that the girl be a practicing Catholic, but I see that as a pretty basic compatibility issue. So the question of how /high/ standards are is largely subjective. I also have yet to be successful in making random, I guess what you would call "platonic attractions hiding a constant desire to find 'the one' ", conform to any sort of standard. All that I can do is submit those attractions to God and do my best to act as the Spirit leads. Which can be very confusing when emotions are involved.
I would agree that cynicism does seem to be "the mind's coping mechanism in matters of the heart". Certainly not the soul's response, but the rational mind's, yeah. It is generally a basic-instinct level survival response that delays pain in the moment but ultimately does nothing helpful. The relationship to stoicism interests me. I guess it all depends on whether or not you give the word "stoic" a positive or negative definition. With a positive definition (such as "bearing peacefully with your passions by confronting them and realizing their fleeting nature"), stoicism becomes the exact opposite of cynicism, which is a form of cowardice that seeks to create a fiction that will avoid pain. With a negative definition (such as "seeking to eliminate all forms of passion in an attempt to eliminate the pain that they cause"), stoicism would seem to be the next step in severity after cynicism in the continuum of "measures taken to avoid pain". If that makes any sense. I was assuming that you were using one of the several more slangish meanings of "stoic" rather than actually referring to the Greek philosophy, though perhaps that is not a safe thing to assume about /you/. :)
3) So yeah. The Father has me in the palm of His hand. Through His mercy, He works all things for the good of His children. I am just going through a period of resurrender, which is a pretty regular occurrence. Every so often, we get so distracted from God's glory by the world that we need to refocus on those promises. Yeah. I'm not sure what else to say. We can make as many plans as we want, but they all become completely irrelevant in the face of Divine Grace. Ultimately, no matter who approves or disapproves, God made us for His plan and only He can give us permission or denial.

"Nightime, nobody's home, roam the streets in darkness..."
-L