In Religion and Worlds

I don't care about debates and arguments. I could win debates and arguments. I have a quick wit, effective critical thinking skills, know how to communicate ideas, and in all honesty could probably BS my way through anything if I felt I had to. But winning arguments and debates get me nothing. There is no value. There is no satisfaction. There is no reward I win. I have no interest in wasting my time in arguments and debates for the simple satisfaction of winning them. Especially when dealing with spiritual, eternal concepts - what does it matter if I win an argument? What I say - whether right or wrong - changes nothing from the way things really are.

I care about Truth. I care about honesty - both with others and with myself. I care about genuineness and seeing things for the way they really are. I care about transparency. I care about discovering these things even if they are hidden in lies, mistakes, opinions, and beliefs of others.

If you want to know something about what I believe - ask me a direct question, and I will give you a direct answer. If you do not understand my answer, then I will freely explain it to you, but do not get angry with me when you do not wish to follow my explanation, and do not judge my motives behind giving it. Every belief I hold, I hold for a reason, one in which I will gladly share with others if they so desire. But do not misinterpret your lack of understanding of what I believe - and my defense about that belief - as an attack from me about yours. I criticize no belief - only the reason and motives behind possessing it. If someone tells me they believe something, I do not find it an extraordinary request for them to explain to me why.

The problem is, most people cannot discuss religion (or Christianity) without making it personal - without making it about them. Problem is, it isn't about us. It's about God. And He is absolute. God never changes. People do change - as well as their beliefs about Him over time.

Am I Seeing This the Wrong Way?

• There is an ever increasing scrutiny and suspicion of our government, and an ever increasing dependence on it.
• There is a super saturation of sexual references from the Internet, to commercials, to music and movies, and to education, and yet we wonder why affairs, divorces, teen pregnancies, and sexual crimes are the highest they've ever been.
• We want a world that is ultra-fast, ultra-easy, and ultra cheap. Yet we have no idea what to do with our free time or money once we get it.
• We have the information of the world at our fingertips, yet fewer people are actually using it.
• It is not important who or how much you love others, or even who it is, as long as you love yourself first.
• Don't judge, unless you are judging the judgmental (birthing another judgmental person).
• Accept everything, except those who are rejecting(birthing another rejecting person).
  
• It is no longer important what you believe, but that you simply believe in something.

Thanks to the Boss

Okay, my boss, Jeff, really likes Bill Simmons. So I decided to read one of his most recent Q&A with online readers who email him. From this article, this question was pretty good. And yes, I realize the irony that this post is fed through my facebook account.

Q: Can you think of the sports equivalent of the spouses of buddies whose Facebook friend-request you accepted who constantly update their status on the topic of taking care of their kids? Like "Jenn is watching her little ones nap" and "Sarah is playing 'Bob the Builder' with her kids! Yay!" As a 28-year-old unmarried man, it's not that I don't appreciate females or motherhood, it's just that I don't care. For the same reason that I don't update my status with "Kully just put on jock itch cream."
-- Kully, Guangzhou, China

SG: Wouldn't the sports equivalent be like ending up with an undesirable throw-in for an NBA trade (aka Marcus Banks)? The more interesting angle for me is how Twitter and Facebook reflect where our writing is going thanks to the Internet. In 15 years, writing went from "reflecting on what happened and putting together some coherent thoughts" to "reflecting on what happened as quickly as possible" to "reflecting on what's happening as it's happening" to "here are my half-baked thoughts about absolutely anything and I'm not even going to attempt to entertain you," or as I like to call it, Twitter/Facebook Syndrome. Do my friends REALLY CARE if I send out an update, "Bill is flying on an airplane finishing a mailbag right now?" (Which is true, by the way.) I just don't think they would. I certainly wouldn't. That's why I refuse to use Twitter.

As for Facebook, I don't mind getting status updates and snapshots of what my friends' lives are like -- even if "Bob the Builder" is prominently involved -- as long as they aren't posting 10 times a day or writing something uncomfortable about their spouse/boyfriend like "(Girl's name) is … trying to remember the last time she looked at her husband without wanting to punch him in the face" or "(Girl's name) is … just going to keep eating, it's not like I have sex anymore." Keep me out of your personal business, please. Other than that, the comedy of status updates can be off the charts. Like my college classmate who sends out status updates so overwhelmingly mundane and weird that my buddies and I forward them to each other, then add fake responses like, "(Guy's name) … snapped and killed a drifter tonight" and "(Guy's name) … would hang myself if the ceilings in my apartment weren't too short." It kills us. We can't get enough of it. We have been doing it for four solid months. And really, that's what Facebook is all about -- looking at photos of your friend's kids or any reunion or party, making fun of people you never liked and searching for old hook-ups and deciding whether you regret the hook-up or not. That's really it. All in all, I like Facebook.

The Chronicles to Christ - The Paradox of the Truth

I couldn't believe she had said that. I am trying to remember even where I was at. On the trail? At a picnic? Maybe I was just hanging out at the church on the weekend. I can't even remember, come to think about it. But it didn't matter where we were at, but what she said. Rachel, one of my best friends, and I were having a discussion of some sort and she told me - "You make things so complicated." What?!?! Oh no you didn't! She could never have been more wrong - and more right - at the exact same time.

I remember exactly 3 things off the top of my head from Chemistry, even though I made A's in the class in college.
1. Water is H20.
2. Hydrochloric Acid is HCl. and
3. Sweet tea is sweeter if you sweeten it when it is hot (and not when it is cold) because of the hydrolysis that occurs with the sucrose when heated, with the resulting sugars fructose and glucose forming a combined sweetness level of 250 between the two.

This sweet tea thing is just so cool. I know most people think it's because the "sugar dissolves" and it doesn't when it's in cold tea. This is what yankees just don't get, and even some southerners. It's a special recipe. And even though what it is may be simple, why it is like that, is not. The fundamentals of why sweet tea is sweeter when sweetened when hot may seem complicated, but it essence, the fundamentals are quite simple. Everything in this world, has a complex system of simple reasons why things are the way they are.

In my quest for Christ, I have been through what many have not. That was a major premise behind this blog and the Chronicles to Christ series. However, I have learned that nothing is ever actually as simple as stated, and the same holds true with my faith and it's origins. The biggest question every person deals with, whether a Deist or not, is why? And it just so happens I like to take the argument a few more "whys" that most others do.

I do know why sweet tea is sweeter if you sweeten it when it's hot rather than sweetening it when it's cold. However, I do not know why heat causes hydrolysis. I ask the "whys" to know more - to know God more and to know more about Him. To know more about other people and their faith. To understand. Challenging my faith to the fullest has always brought me the most joy because it gives me a fulfillment of being genuine with myself, my faith, and my God.

In essence - the paradox of the Truth is so simple, yet so complicated. With God we take joy in His intricate, perfect plan. His intricate, perfect, complicated plan. And yet we want to make it so simple. We want to make Him so simple. God, how I wish You were, sometimes!

Redeeming the Ragamuffin Shack

I have completed 34 books within the past 4 years (excluding textbook material in school). Now, I know this does not qualify me as an avid reader, but I would say I am an average, if not above average adult as far as how much I read.

But I think that I've decided on the literary trilogy of Michael Morgan's soul. Basically, if I had to sum up my life with 3 books, these three would probably be it. The irony of these books are that they do not support my best qualities or bring to surface my strengths. Instead, they magnify my weaknesses, and humble me to see just how little that I know about God and this world that he created. And those that know me best know just how long and how hard I have studied and wrestled with God's character and my acceptance, or thereof, of who He actually is. My strengths are theism, intellectualism, and skepticism. And yet these books that touch my heart the greatest and most describe my life have nothing to do with those things.

One of the major obstacles I had to face in my theistic quest was this concept that God can be (and is ) more than just absolute truth as we know it. He is more than we can measure, fathom, and nowhere near anything we can understand. His love was far beyond me and these three books pierced my heart like none other in their attempts to explain His love. Together, these 3 just about cover it, I feel.

The Ragamuffin Gospel - by Brennan Manning (read in 2005, 2007)
This book first opened my eyes to exactly what kind of person I actually am, and in comparison showed just how great God's love is to me. It is not until you fully realize just what you are, and what you did in comparison to Christ, that you realize just how great His love is for you. At that point we realize we are nothing is the point we realize we need everything. And God is everything, therefore we need Him.

Redeeming Love- by Francine Rivers (read in 2005)
Perhaps the largest challenge with love? Learning to love others like God does - and sometimes what's even harder - how to accept His love. All of us have that feeling that we are un-lovable. But God's persistent love overwhelms us and all we can do is fight it until we are exhausted and can fight no more. And we finally accept that even us as the unlovable - we are loved. He desires the undesirable.

The Shack - by William P. Young (read in 2008-2009)
Allowing God's love to heal the brokenness inside. Accepting that love does not always mean good things will happen. Accepting that love can be in spite of and not the cause of pain. This book only encouraged me that God still loved me and stood beside me in the toughest times of my life. And His love has the power to heal those wounds, and allows freedom for me to love others.

I am a stubborn man. I am very prideful. And often I think all the bad things about myself that if God ever knew, He would love me no more. And at that point where I realize God's love extends beyond all of that, that is where I don't know if I could love Him any more! And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Tonight

...a prayer

Today brought burden, and I got through.
Tonight I lay my head down, and it's just me and You.

I know tomorrow I will "feel better."
Tomorrow I will "know more."
Tomorrow I will wake and believe it will go on just like any other day.
Tomorrow I will trust myself.
Tomorrow I will still not be happy.

But we are still in tonight. And tonight I am with You.
And I never want to leave tonight - for it is tonight that I call out to You.
It is tonight that I do not know what to do.
It is tonight where I have no choices but You.

Tonight, I am tired.
Tonight, I am weak.
Tonight, I pray for You to watch over me.
Tonight, I pray You will still be here in the morning,
and then we will talk more about Yesterday.

The Lost Ballads - Gomer's Theme

In this place, I saw her face.
He was more than happier.
Made for Him.
It was a sin she was not faithful.

She couldn't be foolishly more unfaithful if she tried.
He did not care. He wanted her despite her wandering eyes.
He deserves the very best.
But He loves her none the less.

She's forgotten her first love (maybe one day she'll return)
He's forgotten that she ever went away and broke his heart.

Lavished on silver, gold, and anything she needed.
Wasted thoughts and broken hearts.
Love was not acknowledged.

God only knows that He has shown her more love than she deserves.
There will come a time when she will find that He's not there to give her love,
And He'll be gone away from her forever.

(a song by Third Day)