Creative Paper: Pascal's Pensees

Pensees 

I. MORE THAN BASKETBALL

1. Selfishness. Trying to play an entire game of basketball all by yourself is impossible. The only way to participate in the game is to acknowledge your other teammates and play with them. You have to rely on them and expect them to rely on you. This is how a team functions. Family is the same way. Family relies on each other. You should rely on them and expect them to rely on you. 

2. In a game, you make many mistakes. However, the biggest mistake you can make is giving up on a play after you make this mistake. This leaves the rest of your team working while you are standing off pouting about the error you made. You can not do this. The most important thing you can do in a game is getting over it. When you make a mistake, you must simply get over it. This also applies to life. There is no way that anyone can go through life without making a mistake. Instead of staying back and pouting over what you have done, you have to get back up, get over it, and move on. 

3. In order to play a basketball game, you need two teams. No matter what, you have teammates and opponents. It’s easy to be kind to our teammates. These are the girls that we love and want to succeed. We pick them up when they fall down, celebrate their accomplishments and support them in their failings. However, how do we treat our opponents. Do we help them up when they fall down, celebrate their accomplishments and support them in their failings? No, because that seems crazy. However, we should be treating them with as much love and support as we do our teammates. It’s easy to love our teammates because they love us and are just like us. However, how easy is it to love our opponents who most likely do not love us are not seemingly like us? It’s not, but Jesus did not command us to do easy. He commanded us to love our enemies. This even includes the players who wear a different jersey than we do. 

II. GRIEF

4. When we lose a loved one, is it really losing them if we know where they are going? The true loss is when they leave and we do not know where they are going. The only way to ensure we never lose our loved ones is to make sure we know where they are going to go when they do leave. 

5. Peace. Loss tends to hurt us. Anger can feel as though it consumes our entire bodies and cripples us. The only way to put out the fire is with peace. 

6. Grief can come in many forms. Grief is coping with a loss. You can lose many things in your life. You can lose a loved one through death. You can lose a spouse through divorce. You can suffer loss of normal through a stroke. You can suffer loss of faith due to tragedy. Grief comes to all in any form. 

7. Do we ever truly appreciate something before it’s gone? We only notice it’s presence when it is no longer there. When we lose someone, do we only appreciate them in their absence? 

8. If it were not for the comfort in Heaven, how do people cope with loss? Where does their comfort come from? 

9. Death is not a scary word. Death is one of the only constants in our lives. Death does not care who you are, it comes regardless. When we accept this, we can let go of fear. When we accept that ourselves and our loved ones are not free of death, we can avoid shock when death does come. 

III. HAPPINESS

10. Happiness is temporary, joy is lasting. Enjoy your happiness, but invest in your joy. 

IV. THE MIND

11. The mind is the strongest muscle in the body. The mind controls everything. Most people say that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body, that it can bring great destruction. However, the mind is where it all begins. 

12. If you are injured, you go to the doctor. If your arm is broken, you put on a cast. If you sinuses are acting up, you take medicine. What do you do when your mind is ill? 

13. Mental illness is not a sign of personal failure. You fail yourself when you neglect to take care of yourself. 

V. RELIGION

14. If God never gives us more than we can handle, then we do some people feel the only option for them is ending their life? 

15. If God simply handed everything we need to us, then Heaven would not be a reward. 

16. Everyone wants perfect love. They search everywhere on earth for it, but it cannot be found on Earth. The only way we can obtain it is through God, because God is perfect and God is love. 

17. If God can give up His only Son to be sacrificed, how much are we willing to give up?

19. I would rather live my life as there was a God, and be wrong, than live my as there was no God, and be wrong.

20. Who do we turn to with our excitement and happiness? Who do we turn to with our sorrow and pain? The answer should be the same for both: Jesus.