Social Bookmarks
a sorrowful refrain
As I sit and listen to the quiet piano refrain, and stare at the taupe wall in front of me, I can’t help but wonder if I’m ever going to earn my stripes.
Will I continue to be lazy? Will I continue to ignore needs that I see pressing around me for my own selfish reasons? Will I continue to just hope that the next opportunity literally falls in my lap, so I don’t have to do any real work? Will I continue to look up to those who are out there working, loving, serving, while I sit in front of my computer a blog about high handed topics?
It’s easier in the empire. I’ve decided this. It’s easier to just go along with the way things are, to respect those who are doing things outside of the box, but continue living in the box myself. I’m sure you already knew this though, I’m sure everyone knows this. The question is, why do we keep living in the box.
Why do I keep living in the box?
i’m still alive
I haven’t had time to do any good blogging lately, sorry. I spent most of my time today with my knees wrapped around an engine that has the ability to lean. Let me just say, I stinkin’ love riding the bike.
I went for the first real ride yesterday, down to the movie theater, then back (by a different route). Little scary at first, but after about five minutes on the bike I was getting pretty comfortable. I made a fifteen mile loop around town today, pretty good time. Tomorrow a buddy and I are going to head up to a local mountain/state park that has some well paved twisty roads. Good times.
Since I’m not posting, Thirdwatch did a pretty good series on What the Kingdom Isn’t, check that out. Reclaiming the Mind has a post about Hell. And here’s a nice bit of emergent humor.
batton down the hatches!
Starting today, Monday the 19th, there will be a change of pace in US politics. Probably not a big one, but certainly one that we are not use to here.
The United Nations will be sending an independent inspector to decide if there is racism within the US system. Why now? Because Obama is mathematically the Presumptive Democratic Nominee, and whenever a person of color attains a national leadership office, the UN inspects that nation.
So what will the inspector find? Well, thank God he won’t be traveling to West Virginia, or else we’d certainly fail the test.
But outside of that hickish lovely state, what will the inspector find? Well… he’ll probably find nothing. But lets face it there is racism, and it’s on both sides. For every white supremacist voter who refuses to give Obama the time of day, there is likely a black voter who is voting for Obama solely because he is black. I’ll probably get some flack for that statement, but come on, it’s true.
So what do we do? Well… you can’t really change a bigots mind unless their mind is open to it, and fighting them does nothing but give them more press coverage, so, you should vote for your candidate and be willing to discuss your voting decision with the open minded. So, get out there a vote (Obama) in November.
futures
Where am I headed?
If you had asked me a few years ago where I wanted to end up, I probably would have responded with something like a restaurant owner, police officer, or world famous musician.
How funny are the changes with time?
Two of those things would have involved large amounts of wealth for me, something that I was quite desirous of for nearly all of my life, the other would have been enjoyable for me, and I’ll admit sometimes I still think about how I’d enjoy being a police officer. But the crazy thing is, none of those are really possibilities in my life any longer.
I went from having a fairly certain life (with a goal of financial gain) to a life of uncertainty. We may be moving to Baltimore in a few years, which for us is a fairly big deal, I think it was kind of always assumed that I wouldn’t be traveling to far from “home,” yet Maryland is pretty far away from Georgia.
While I wasn’t wholly certain on where exactly I would end up, and what exactly I’d be doing, having a feint notion of a future path wasn’t at all comfortable to me. Really it wasn’t. I remember long miserable swaths of time where I would yell at God about not revealing my future to me in whole. Funny thing now is, I’m not at all certain what I’m going to be doing in a year, let alone the rest of my life, and I’m completely fine with that fact.
I’m completely comfortable with a completely opaque future. Sure, I have some things that I’d like to see happen (more on that in a second), but if they don’t happen I’m fine with that. There’s something far more exciting and intoxicating about not caring if you know your future or not. In a day in age when college messages revolve quite often around knowing “God’s plan” for your life, I’m somewhat of an intriguing dichotomy to that system. It feels good that way.
So, what are the things that I’d like to see happen? (Note: I’m quite interesting in coming back to this post in a few years and seeing if any of these things actually happened).
Well, I want to go to seminary. I’m a bookworm, I love knowledge, and while I doubt that I’ll ever be in a ministry position with a Church (As their known today), I still desire to know as much as I can.
We also want to travel, similar to Nick Fiedler and his wife, we’d like to spend some time just going around the world, doing whatever we’re given the opportunity to do, meeting friends and hanging out. There is something romantic about traveling the world, something beautiful and wholly thrilling to my mind. I desperately hope that we’re able to do so.
Finally, I kind of want to open up an alternative fuel shop. Kind of weird sounding, but it’s been there for a few months now. I really want to open up a bio-diesel location somewhere in Atlanta. Convert over some veggie oil and make up for some of the crap that I’ve put in the air with all the big trucks I’ve been driving since day one.
Will any of those happen? Who knows?
Will I be distraught if they don’t? Not at all.
who’s getting one?
iPhone? Ha, pathetic.
iPod? Even worse.
Zune? The crux of awful.
Me? I’m getting an iCross.
ht: Third Watch
yeah… i’m a pomo. so what?
Ok, apologies to all of my readers who are already postmodernists (pomos), this post isn’t for you. No, this post is instead for those who know me (in person), but don’t quite know what I stand for anymore, and have likely heard some negative opinions on my viewpoints.
Ok, so what do I stand for?
The desecration of all things sacred, and the destruction of America.
Ok, just kidding.
Truth:
Seriously, let’s run over it. You’ve probably heard some negative connotations associated with post modernism. The biggest of these is normally “Post-modernists deny absolute truth.” While this may be true in some cases, you’ll find that most Christian Post modernists do not deny absolute truth exists; instead a generalized opinion is that we don’t quite have a full grasp of what absolute truth is. In my personal opinion, God represents absolute truth, and since we can’t know God wholly we can’t quite fully grasp absolute truth. I am completely fine with saying that I don’t have a grasp on truth, and that I’m (likely) wrong on many things.
Church:
I’m still working through a lot of the things I think about when it comes to the gathering of “Christians.” What I do know is that church isn’t confined to meetings approved by elders, pastors, or any other leadership, rather church can (and should) happen in coffee shops, pubs, houses, and any other place where believers can talk. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with singing corporately (in fact I think the bible applauds it), I am not a fan any longer of building services around the format of 45 minutes of music, 30 minutes of talking, and another 5 minutes for a feel good song to send them out on. That’s personal opinion, I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with it, I just don’t like it. (If you like it, then it’s cool with me)
The Bible:
I grew up with the whole inerrant view of scripture (God breathed meant perfect and without flaw or error). My opinion has been changing for some time, but was strongly altered after reading “Misquoting Jesus.” I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the topic of inerrancy.
So with that out of the way, how do I view the Bible?
As God breathed and divinely inspired. ☺ Yet, one cannot deny the human aspect of the scripture, it becomes evident when comparing just the gospels to one another. I feel like we can gather a ton of light from studying the holistic themes of the Bible, as well as trying to see each individual author in light of their human bias and audience.
I’m sure there are plenty of other themes out there that need to be discussed, and I’ll do those in due time, but that’s the down right basics of what I am now.
Questions?
As always, post em.
oh bobby
That’s right, Bob Barr has thrown his hat in the political ring (again) under the banner of the libertarian party, giving me momentary pause in my push to vote Obama.
Yeah, that’s right, I said I (have) thought about casting a vote for Barr this November. Now, before you start screaming that the sky is falling, lets talk through.
I’ve always been a fan of small government, I think it works the best when there is less crap in the system to muck it up, and such. Libertarians are also big fans of personal freedom, in other words, they’re ok if your ok. Sure, (to be fair) there is some homo-bashing to be found within the party at times, but for the most part you’ve got a generally high level of social acceptance. Finally, ‘ol Bobby wants to get us the hell outta Iraq, which is a big time issue for me. So he’s got some good stuff going for him (As far as I’m concerned).
But then, of course, we have to take a gander at the negatives. Libertarians are big fans of laissez-faire control, which brought us some big ills at the turn of the industrial revolution. Then of course with small government comes no socialized health care, which I am a big fan of/would help me quite a bit (As of right now I have to avoid going to the doc if it’s not an emergency). (Note to all the non-healthcare fans out there, if you would actually like to discuss it rather than repeat “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” then go ahead)
So, after doing a quick comparison/contrast between Obama and Barr, I’m back to Obama. Sure Barr would get us out of the war, sure he’s a proponent of smaller government, but lets face it, I’m voting for socialized health care, racial reconciliation, and maybe, just maybe, finally showing the world that we’re not all religious bastards intent on blowing up all who don’t believe actually good people too (along with showing Americans the same about the world).
Why go to church?
Third Watch has got an interesting post going on asking his readers if (and why) we/you/they/all should go to church.
For my part, it’s still a question I’m working through. I’ve stated before my idea of what church should be and what church is are different, and I’m not a huge fan of mainline churches these days. I’ll reiterate a few points for the sake of the conversation.
I think we should go to church to fellowship, to expand our knowledge of God, and to find a community of support. What we get is instead a nicely packaged show, complete with lights (if your church is into such) video and that emotional high which seems to be the focal point of all services. (Not knocking on music, but it’s not really my cup of tea anymore).
His third question is “If a person does not experience those things, should they not attend? Or is church/worship a waste of time?”
To which I’d have to say, it feels like it certainly is at times.
a week?!
Wow, it’s been a whole week. I haven’t gone this long in updating… ever (in the whole history of my blog… since January ☺), but I kind of needed a break, and my life got a little hectic after Thursday. In case you weren’t paying attention to the twitter feed, we brought home a new family member on Wednesday.
A 2000 Kawasaki Ninja 250. (For the uninitiated… it’s a motorcycle).
I promise that I’ll post about it soon, as I know my grandparents (who frequent the blog more than anyone else, which is great) are quite desirous to find out what’s going on with the bike.
But, there’s kind of another reason I haven’t been blogging too much recently. It appears my blog has attracted some attention (finally) of those that I actually know personally, and not all are too thrilled. To clarify, I run in evangelical circles, and those who adhere and look up to the thoughts, theology, and ideals of John MacArthur and Ravvi Zacharias (and probably Al Mohler, but I’ve never actually heard anyone besides myself speak of him). So there are some out there that aren’t too thrilled with the theology that both Becky and I are discussing.
I’ve also run up against those who aren’t pleased with some of the words I have expressed over my church, there were some posts all the way at the beginning in which I expressed distress over the level of social justice in my church, as well as more recent posts where I discuss issues with the college group I’m volunteer for. I was chastised for expressing my thoughts on such a public forum where those that know me could read it and would know exactly what church I’m talking about. I was then encouraged to take my concerns to the leadership, a move that I have not done.
It’s not that I’m scared of controversy, or of differing opinions (just the opposite in fact, I find myself listening to opposing opinions quite often just to hear their points), but it’s the fact that sometimes it’s easier to go without it. I was worried about balancing my posts between what I actually have in mind, and what’s not going to piss off the people who are pretty easy to piss off. I think if they had their way, I’d keep all church issues I disagree with private (tell that to Martin Luther btw), and I’d keep my theological mindset within the boundaries of the established Evangelical Systematic Theology.
Well, I won’t. I’m curious though, if any of my blogging cohorts have run up against similar issues.
thoughts on challenges
There’s been some conversation in my life over the past few weeks that has disturbed me quite a bit.
There seems to be a prevailing belief that whilst someone is a “new Christian” we shouldn’t challenge her or him, seemingly at all. It appears like we’re in love with setting up the good old bait and switch, making new “converts” believe that this life is so easy, only to latter in life open them up to challenges (or in some many cases, we never do so).
I’m not saying that we should force people to move beyond where they are, but we should at least give them the opportunity. I’m all for meeting people where they are, but I think we should be constantly challenged, and not freaking sheltered. When someone protects me from an experience that I may learn from, it hinders me more than helps me.
I’ve heard a couple examples of this recently. In the first there was some disappointment in a small group that had a “new Christian” (please forgive me for all the quotes, I’m not a fan of certain language, but it’s usage is seemingly necessary), but the group was reading through a book that could cause “doubt.” I’m not talking about “Misquoting Jesus,” which could change a person’s life, I’m talking about another book which can be seen as challenging certain aspects of “orthodoxy.”
The other example is of a whole ecclesiastical organization that refuses to corporately push for a goal, which their leadership claims to embrace. The reason? (In fairness, a lower echelon leader of the organization gave this reason to me) Many of the members are “young in their faith.” Seems like a copout to me.
Like I’ve mentioned before, I believe in a God who is meets us where we are at and invites us to take the next step forward. I think when we are discouraging challenges we are essentially slapping God in the face. We’re not to coddle our brothers and sisters; we’re to help challenge them.
Growing up I would hear sermons on “The storms of life” and through them you would grow, even today I can hear the occasional storms of life message (but I guess that’s getting a little less common now that we’ve moved towards the happy life junk) in regards to financial crisis’s, death, sickness etc, and we’re all expected to learn and grow through such experiences. Yet, it seems, we are to be protected from actual faith challenging excursions until a date yet to be determined.
Why the dichotomy between the two? Are we worried about people running away from the faith that we cling to so strongly? Are we scared of the doubters infecting our flock?
I think it’s the doubt that we’re afraid of. If we find doubters around us, we may be forced to face our own doubts. While some of us have grown to embrace the doubt as growing experience, others seek certainty. It, I think, is truly the epitome of the modern/postmodern dichotomy.
When Jewish students were asked a question from their teachers the proper answer would be another question. This form of constant questioning is, to me, the purer form of knowledge. If we don’t learn to question then we never really learn to grow. If I take everything I am given for granted than have I really learned anything? It’s actually through the process of questioning that I find I gain more certainty. It’s through challenges of my beliefs I find which ones I actually believe in. Not just believe in thought, but in action, in faith, and in life.
So lets stop hiding from challenges, and face them head on. They’re not easy, they’re not always fun, but we were never promised ease and enjoyment.