Grabbing Lisbon with My Grubby Mitts

To call Lisbon a great place is to insult the beauty of this marvellous sunny city almost to an libellous degree. As soon as I arrived here, I knew that it was here that I was going to fulfill my God-given mission. Not only was it free from that punishing northern darkness that had been numbing my mind for so long-the city was close to the beaches where Europe's best waves for surfing splashed ashore.

I felt alive for the first time in along time. All my senses that had been numbed by the monotony of a grey city existence life burst violently into life.
I was blind, but now I could see. I felt reborn.

The next month was one the happiest of my life. Life was simple and life was great. Occasionally, I'd have another beer, and order some wonderful seafood with crabs, or have a surf in those cold wawes.

Why for God's sake was I and everyone else in Northern-Europe putting up with another hideous winter rabbiting about unimportant shit and getting stressed?

We spend our lives working in jobs that we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. No more of that.

The Roman Character: Confidently Facing the Future, Conserving the Past

ROME NEVER FOUGHT TO IMPOSE a political idea or a religious creed. On the contrary, she left local institutions and manners of thought untouched.

In Rome's imperial expansion, self defence was accounted the first motive; but trade inevitably followed and the first motive was mingled with that of commercial exploitation. True, reasons of safety safety were sometimes alleged in order to hide greed and ambition.

Rome fought to 'impose the ways of peace' and by peace she meant the positive blessings of settled order and security of life and property.

We can't say that a religion such as the old Roman religion promoted greatly the religious development of man; it carried no intellectual appeal and was therefore unable to contribute a theology. But it is certain that with the associations and habits which clustered round its contribution to Roman character was great. Great men were almost canonized for their characters or for their achievements.

To the beliefs and manners of these days we must ascribe that sense of subordination  or obedience to exterior power, whether a god, or a standard, or an ideal, which in one form or another - marked the Roman to the end.

To the same source must be traced the feeling for continuity which preserves the constant, assimilates the new and refused to break with the past. For the future could be be faced with greater security if the values of the past were conserved.

 

Photo by Vek Labs

The Roman Character: Let this determine what you do and say and think

NO ONE EVER SAID THAT life is fair.

As for you, do you gain strength from Nietzsche's adage ’that what does not kill you makes you stronger’ ? Or do you put your fists in the pocket and boil for the next hour, or days?

If you want to master this day, understand from those that have been and predict those to come.

Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many times you have given way to confusion. At some point you have to recognize what world you belong to; what powers rule it and from what source you are made of. There is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself, it will be gone and will never return. Everyone gets ONE life. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

Ignoring what goes on in other people’s soul – did anybody ever come to grief that way? No. But if you won’t keep track of what goes on in your mind and what your own soul is doing – how can you not be unhappy.

Concentrate every minute – on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine conviction - tenderly, willingly, with justice. Yes you can – if you focus and do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life. Stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you – stop being hypocritical, self-centred and irritable.

Then you see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life.

 

The Roman Character: Firm and Righteous Will

The Romans were bound up with the duty laid upon househould and state. Here is to be found the root of that sense of duty which marked the Roman at his best. It might have made him unintersting, but he could become a martyr for an ideal. He did not argue about what was honourable or just; his notions were traditional and instinctive and they were held with an almost religious tenacity. Thus the Roman was hard.

The man of firm and righteous will,

No rabble clamorous for the wrong,

No tyrant's brow, whose frown may kill,

Can shake the strengths that makes him strong

Romans had no sacred writings beyond the formula of prayer; there was no myth-made morality to be undone. The individual's purpose was to establish right relations with the gods, not to speculate about their nature.

The Roman attitude was always the same - Tolerance, provided that no harm was done to public morals and that no attack was made upon the state.

Salvation

IS IT POSSIBLE TO DISCUSS the price of salvation? Is it appropriate to ask whether salvation is a cheap or valuable thing?

In no way is a person believing in Jesus Christ unaware that saving his (or her) soul has required more, been more expensive than any other thing. To God, saving your soul certainly was not cheap. Heaven gave his best, Christ – who by no deed nor thought made himself guilty of sin.

But can we follow Christ without paying a price? Is not Christianity specifically that we can throw us in the goodness of God, and Christ who has done all for us.Why should we talk about something that we have to do - is not all done for us by Christ who died for our sins on the cross?  Can we not only receive his goodness – be thankful and feel blessed? Yes. Yes, indeed we can only do this. When talking about receiving salvation; being saved. This is the foundation. You cannot take any of your pennies nor any deed and by that increase any value for yourself. You can only receive salvation by the grace of God. Period.

However, there are 3 challenges to those who, after being saved - wish to follow the path of Christ and apply their belief in daily life. Heaven expects that you do something, that you don't only receive - but also give. Yes, when you have a foundation in Christ the words ‘have to’ and ‘must’ cannot be left out from your life … (to be continued).

 

Photo by Bruno Martins