I'll be updating my travel blog with photos, etc. (http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Fort-Fun-Granola-Boy/) as I am able!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
1st Travel Blog
Just finished up the first of several travel blogs. No, I haven't gone anywhere yet. Thanks.
And yes, that is my shower curtain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja6P_XYx8G8&feature=channel_page
Now in HD!
And yes, that is my shower curtain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja6P_XYx8G8&feature=channel_page
Now in HD!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wanted - a Shedding of Pretenses
The following is something which I wrote a few years back, but it is more true to me now than even it was then.
It seems that most people, Christian or not, end up having small vision, small dreams, and, consequently, small impact in this world, because they hold onto this "life" too tightly.
Each man or woman, by necessity, will by degrees do one of two things: clutch desperately to what they think they have earned or deserve in this life, or lose his or her life, for His sake, and in doing so find their true self.
Those who understand this truth, and proceed to live it out, are fewer in number than I once thought. Like John the Baptist, who knew and acted: "He must increase, but I must decrease". Or Mary Magdalene, who never pretended to be worthy to wash Jesus' feet, but knew there was nothing but rags to lose, and infinite purpose to gain.
I now believe, at the risk or pretension, that most never live. Few are the number that hold so loosely, who have even once known the touch of the Father as they spread themselves before Him, stripped bare of hindrance, and with joy can proclaim, "It is well with my soul; O my Lord, it is well".
YHWH, help me find these people, who wish to live as I do.
It seems that most people, Christian or not, end up having small vision, small dreams, and, consequently, small impact in this world, because they hold onto this "life" too tightly.
Each man or woman, by necessity, will by degrees do one of two things: clutch desperately to what they think they have earned or deserve in this life, or lose his or her life, for His sake, and in doing so find their true self.
Those who understand this truth, and proceed to live it out, are fewer in number than I once thought. Like John the Baptist, who knew and acted: "He must increase, but I must decrease". Or Mary Magdalene, who never pretended to be worthy to wash Jesus' feet, but knew there was nothing but rags to lose, and infinite purpose to gain.
I now believe, at the risk or pretension, that most never live. Few are the number that hold so loosely, who have even once known the touch of the Father as they spread themselves before Him, stripped bare of hindrance, and with joy can proclaim, "It is well with my soul; O my Lord, it is well".
YHWH, help me find these people, who wish to live as I do.
Monday, May 25, 2009
A youth pastor parody
This isn't so much in-your-face funny, more like "Ugh...I think I know this guy" awkward-funny. It's especially revealing that some people don't realize it's a pardoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTn8FDoKBL4&feature=channel_page
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTn8FDoKBL4&feature=channel_page
Enjoy.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Social Anxiety
Now that the semester is over, I feel finally able to sit back and process a little. These times are good.
I know that sometimes I will hide behind a very structured schedule, and life, to avoid down time. I guess I've come full-circle, since I used to be neurotically anti-social and heavily sought out alone time to avoid others...now I'm more likely to spend my time neurotically hopping from activity to event to class to avoid being alone.
Yea neurosis!!!
Some of those close to me know (some don't, or at least didn't...) that I have dealt with some form of anxiety disorder for all my adult life. I don't make a huge deal about it, since it's something like 40 million adults in the US that find themselves in a similar boat. In fact, I used to think that "anxiety disorder" was just a clinical term that we make up.
It's always so much comforting to know that your seemingly unexplainable, irrational physical symptoms and emotional crises has a name...plus it's a lot easier to say, and saves us all some time.
Which is why, when my god speaks of my becoming a new creation, when He says that "creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God...", that it means a great deal to folks like me.
Which is why following Christ, for me, is hardly a crutch to help me through life, as some have claimed. I've never understood that argument, and dispute it more now than ever. The Jewish concept of redemption, and I would argue, the Biblical concept, has as much to do with today as it does eternity.
On my best days - my most confident days, the days where I truly feel connected to something deeper than myself, the days where I know the lives around me are better because we share something - on those days, I can literally sense the new creation taking shape, and the old begins to fade.
Days like today...like Paul emotes so eloquently in Romans 7, the old creation is not completely gone. Some days, it is as if redemption takes a back seat. I want nothing but to be left alone, and the wall grows thick. I don't want this, I know it isn't rational or right or anything resembling who I have become...yet here it is.
"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, the help of my demeanour, my God."-Ps 42
I know that sometimes I will hide behind a very structured schedule, and life, to avoid down time. I guess I've come full-circle, since I used to be neurotically anti-social and heavily sought out alone time to avoid others...now I'm more likely to spend my time neurotically hopping from activity to event to class to avoid being alone.
Yea neurosis!!!
Some of those close to me know (some don't, or at least didn't...) that I have dealt with some form of anxiety disorder for all my adult life. I don't make a huge deal about it, since it's something like 40 million adults in the US that find themselves in a similar boat. In fact, I used to think that "anxiety disorder" was just a clinical term that we make up.
It's always so much comforting to know that your seemingly unexplainable, irrational physical symptoms and emotional crises has a name...plus it's a lot easier to say, and saves us all some time.
Which is why, when my god speaks of my becoming a new creation, when He says that "creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God...", that it means a great deal to folks like me.
Which is why following Christ, for me, is hardly a crutch to help me through life, as some have claimed. I've never understood that argument, and dispute it more now than ever. The Jewish concept of redemption, and I would argue, the Biblical concept, has as much to do with today as it does eternity.
On my best days - my most confident days, the days where I truly feel connected to something deeper than myself, the days where I know the lives around me are better because we share something - on those days, I can literally sense the new creation taking shape, and the old begins to fade.
Days like today...like Paul emotes so eloquently in Romans 7, the old creation is not completely gone. Some days, it is as if redemption takes a back seat. I want nothing but to be left alone, and the wall grows thick. I don't want this, I know it isn't rational or right or anything resembling who I have become...yet here it is.
"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, the help of my demeanour, my God."-Ps 42
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Newly Created
We seek commonality. Do we not latch onto that which is familiar?
I would argue that even our differences become commonalities, when those differences intrigue us. Why would someone intrigue us, unless we identify a part of ourselves within them?
Maybe they excel in that which we aspire to. Is this not inspiration?
I have heard the idea tossed around that, to be truly progressive, we should rid ourselves of preconceived ideas about what "this" or "that" mean.
I maintain that not all preconceptions are bad. Our instincts communicate to us, alert us to universal truths.
It has been said, for example, that the only universally despised quality in a man, across any culture alive, is cowardice.
When men see that quality of "beauty" within a woman, he cannot help but to look. This is not a rational decision.
We rise above some of our instincts - greed, lust, any quality unrestrained. These are the instincts which, as new creations in Christ, belong to what Paul called "the former self".
But do we not also see that the New Self shares some of the qualities of the old? It does not lust, but it is sexual. It does not envy, but it is still ambitious and assertive. It does not descend into bottomless appetites, but it still appreciates flavour and beauty and taste.
I find that the Old Self makes a damned big show of its appetites. Its rationalizations to this end are rather tiring and irritating.
I thereby contend that part of our responsibility as Christians is to be INTRIGUING and INSPIRING to others. If we truly share the qualities of the divine, how can we be boring? If we truly love another as we love, how then can we be careless in seeking common ground?
I would argue that even our differences become commonalities, when those differences intrigue us. Why would someone intrigue us, unless we identify a part of ourselves within them?
Maybe they excel in that which we aspire to. Is this not inspiration?
I have heard the idea tossed around that, to be truly progressive, we should rid ourselves of preconceived ideas about what "this" or "that" mean.
I maintain that not all preconceptions are bad. Our instincts communicate to us, alert us to universal truths.
It has been said, for example, that the only universally despised quality in a man, across any culture alive, is cowardice.
When men see that quality of "beauty" within a woman, he cannot help but to look. This is not a rational decision.
We rise above some of our instincts - greed, lust, any quality unrestrained. These are the instincts which, as new creations in Christ, belong to what Paul called "the former self".
But do we not also see that the New Self shares some of the qualities of the old? It does not lust, but it is sexual. It does not envy, but it is still ambitious and assertive. It does not descend into bottomless appetites, but it still appreciates flavour and beauty and taste.
I find that the Old Self makes a damned big show of its appetites. Its rationalizations to this end are rather tiring and irritating.
I thereby contend that part of our responsibility as Christians is to be INTRIGUING and INSPIRING to others. If we truly share the qualities of the divine, how can we be boring? If we truly love another as we love, how then can we be careless in seeking common ground?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I have given up nothing
There are times where I begin to truly count the cost of following this Christ. There are things I don't "do" as a follower. There are things I don't say. My ambition in certain areas is curbed.
The stakes are raised. Some in my life don't understand my faith, or pretend not to. Some scorn. Some talk behind my back.
So why do it?
Lately this world seems to be calling me, seducing me, with intense ferocity. It wants me. It speaks sweetly to me. Every rationalization seems to be at my lips.
Here is my answer.
"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
"More than that...I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
"And I count them but garbage, so that I may gain Christ." - Paul, Phil. 3
That word, garbage, is in the Greek skubalon. Refuse. Excrement. A polite way of saying "shit".
In other words, I have given up...nothing. Rather, I have gained everything. I begin to grasp the slightest understanding of the WAY, the דרך, the journey towards G-d. Whatever I have given up to get this far: IT WAS WORTH IT.
As Hebrews notes of our fate, we are but wayward travelers, passing through. This strange firmament is not our home. Thank YHWH.
The stakes are raised. Some in my life don't understand my faith, or pretend not to. Some scorn. Some talk behind my back.
So why do it?
Lately this world seems to be calling me, seducing me, with intense ferocity. It wants me. It speaks sweetly to me. Every rationalization seems to be at my lips.
Here is my answer.
"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
"More than that...I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
"And I count them but garbage, so that I may gain Christ." - Paul, Phil. 3
That word, garbage, is in the Greek skubalon. Refuse. Excrement. A polite way of saying "shit".
In other words, I have given up...nothing. Rather, I have gained everything. I begin to grasp the slightest understanding of the WAY, the דרך, the journey towards G-d. Whatever I have given up to get this far: IT WAS WORTH IT.
As Hebrews notes of our fate, we are but wayward travelers, passing through. This strange firmament is not our home. Thank YHWH.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
