7 (Mostly) Natural Places I’d Like To See In Real Life

{ February 5, 2010 @ 3:04 am } · { Dreams }
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These are some places that I would love to visit before I die…otherwise, maybe there will be something much better in Heaven to visit once I get there!

Iguazu

Iguazu Brazil: just...wow

Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe: no words...

hawaii

Hawaii: chill on the beach in a hammock, maybe try surfing, find out what all the fuss is about.

vineyard

California Vineyard: Pretty much any vineyard in California, I'm not picky. Also, Santa Barbara sounds awesome, and I have to admit it's partly because of Shawn and Gus.

bora bora

Bora Bora: Just chill and relax on the beach, maybe kayak around the area...that'd be sweeeeeeet

Fjords

Fjords of Norway: I would love to hike this area! Also, it'd be cool to see what Slartibartfast won an award for ;)

New Zealand

New Zealand: Again, hiking...and maybe take an epic quest to destroy a ring.

Left Unhealed

{ January 24, 2010 @ 1:01 am } · { Theology }
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I’ve been preparing to give a message on “Simplifying Your Life” and in the process I have been challenged to simplify my own life.  This is good, and I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s always the teacher that learns the most.  One of the most freeing things I came across while I was researching was this idea.  Jesus left people unhealed.  Think about that.  The God-man.  Fully God, had the ability to heal, yet fully human, couldn’t do it all himself.  If Jesus had to take time to rest, so do I.  If Jesus didn’t fix everything for every single person he came across, why do I feel like I have to?  It’s such a difficult thing to wrestle with.  When do I need to help people and when do I need to say no?  Do I need to give money to every beggar I come across?  If not, then why do I feel guilty when I tell them I have no cash and I really don’t!?

Bottom line, I can’t save everybody (that’s ultimately Jesus’s job anyways), but I also don’t think God ever wants us to get to a place where it’s easy to deny people.  I think there’s a healthiness in always wrestling with “can/should I help?”

Music Is Powerful

{ January 20, 2010 @ 12:13 am } · { Current Affairs, Life Theories, Prayers }
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I remember this very clearly.  I was in 1st grade at Tanglewood Elementary in Fort Myers.  Our music class was at the end of the hall if you walk in the front door of the school and turn right down the first hallway.  So we’re there and we were taking a test and one of the questions was “Can [instrumental] music tell a story?”  I answered “Yes” but I was wrong.  I remember being angry because I thought the teacher was dead wrong about this.  I still believe she was dead wrong about it.

There’s something about music that is powerful.  It might not tell a story in audible words, but it invokes emotions if it’s good.  And given a title to the piece, it can tell some of the best stories.

I’ve made a playlist on grooveshark.com that is only for epic instrumental soundtracks.  Right now I’m listening to “Black Hawk Down.”  Wow!  Talk about epic.  The music style, chosen instruments and tone of “Leave no man behind” are causing some strong emotions.  I think about the conflict in Somalia that raged throughout the 90’s and it makes me sad.  I think about my friends in Naivasha who are no stranger to conflict in their own town.  I hate that the world is such a violent place.  There’s no winner in war, and that seems so dumbly obvious to me that I find myself asking “Why do people/nations/tribes/ethnic groups do things that will cause war?”  The best answer I can come up with is a struggle to fill an insatiable need for love and acceptance (which is sort of an ironic answer on the surface, I know) coupled with a need to protect ones-self and their people group.

The worst cause of conflict comes from individuals, or a small group of people, who are corrupt and try to achieve power and money (are they separate things?) via stepping on the backs of anyone and everyone they can.  Not that the US is perfect by any stretch of the imagination (I could write a book on problems with the US), but in this country there is a fairly decent infrastructure of checks and balances for power that prevents corrupt leaders from obtaining/maintaining said power.  In many developing countries the checks and balances are not in place and the result is far sub-standard living, famine, rampant disease (many that are curable), and general extreme poverty because a corrupt few (many?) have taken much for themselves.  I’m not just talking about leaders from the countries in question, I’m talking about business men in the US, and pretty much any 1st world country, that deepens poverty through unethical (sometimes illegal) business practices.

Are these people rotten to the core?  Maybe some are?  Maybe some are so far removed from the effects of their deeds that they can’t really feel the evil they are breathing out on the world.  Mostly, I think it’s the need for love and acceptance that drives them.  “Acceptance” to them means a relentless pursuit of power and a relentless pursuit of wealth.  The epitome of this idea are warlords.  Play the game Modern Warfare 2 and you will see, what I think, is a fairly accurate depiction of corruption and warlords given (or taken) free reign.  They themselves are killing hundreds, even thousands themselves just so they can get that much more power and that much more money, so they can try to satisfy their need for love and acceptance just a little bit.

How can people do this to other people?  I know the reasons, but how do they do it?

That is what powerful music causes me to hurt for and pray about.  Epic.  God, when will this sort of thing end?

Selling Christianity

{ January 5, 2010 @ 11:35 pm } · { Entertainment, Theology }
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Have you seen the commercials for the “Prayer Cross”.  The one where you look through the cross and the entire Lord’s prayer “almost miraculously” appears?  I think this sort of thing is the downfall of American Christianity. Why?  Glad you asked, let me tell you!

First off, this commercial is über cheese.  Just listen to the music, I feel like I’m listening to the soundtrack in Soarin’.  Also, they use some of the most basic terrible-product-TV-commercial-call-signs where the people in the commercial are way over enthralled with the product, to the point where you wonder if the actor even likes the product at all.

Second, it’s a mediocre product they try to pretend is incredible.  Almost miraculously?  Really?  Are you trying to say that your product is edgy technology? ’cause it isn’t.  Then you must be trying to say how holiness and buying this product go side-by-side.  If you want your product to be a good product, than make a good product, don’t try to pass off a mediocre one as better than it is.

Third, it’s part of the “must have” Christian gear.  Why is there “Christian” gear (other than books).  Why do we need Christian-radio-stations, Christian-t-shirts and Christian-jewelery?  Are they not for Christians?  Wasn’t Jesus always going TO the people who were the religious castaways?  Why are we creating a sub-culture (usually of products that are not as good as their secular counterpart) where Christians can disappear into and never come in contact with non-Christians ever again?

Forth, this is what people are spending their money on.  Now I know we can’t always be giving money to places where it’s REALLY needed, but commercials on the air like this tell non-Christians that Christians would rather spend their $40 to get a useless, cheap piece of junk instead of helping feed starving kids.

Now let me take a moment to say that I don’t think all Christian products are bad, but too often they become a symbol of status or the goal rather than tools to help our faith.  What I mean is we are taught (because Christian products is a business and we live in a society of capitalism) that the more Christian products you own/wear/carry the better Christian you are.  That becomes what Christianity is, instead of these things being a tool to help remind us of a deep truths that we’ve already connected to without the product.  I have a cross necklace, now the cross is small and when I wear it I almost always wear it under my shirt.  I do that because it’s not my advertisement to the world that I’m a Christian.  It has a personal meaning to me and I wear it for the thing of which it reminds me. But my necklace was made by a friend and given to me by my parents as a specific gift.  It’s not trash or mass produced.

That said, when I see this type of “Christianity”, it makes me embarrassed to call myself a Christian.  It makes me sad to think this is how Christianity is being portrayed and that people are going to believe it.  I think Christianity is so good by itself that there should never have to be a commercial or an advertisement of any kind for it.

Black-Box Theory

{ December 17, 2009 @ 2:39 am } · { Life Theories, Theology }
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In my engineering classes, when we were learning new concepts we’d often use “black boxes” to be place-holders for more advanced things we hadn’t gotten to yet.  We’d know what it did, but not how it worked.  Example, a transistor would be a black box, we’d know that if there was voltage on one pin voltage would flow uni-directionally through the other two.  We didn’t know why for a long time, but it was helpful to get off the ground with.  Later on it became necessary to open the box and learn about the guts.  I’m gonna attempt to liken the black box to ministry.  It seems to me there are many systems trying to work (with varying degrees of success) independently, or maybe with some degree of cooperation, but by and large are all working on their own with little cohesion.  One of the best phrases I picked up in ROTC was “Centralized command, decentralized execution”.  Basically, in the church, we need entry points all over the place that all lead to a centralized “processor”, “brain” or “command” and then are sent back out to the appropriate place.

The idea came to me when we were discussing our “Idea Incubator” at Hatchet.  We were trying to define exactly what the Idea Incubator should be.  In my mind it is this black-box.  I also think the “Task-force for Children and Poverty” is similarly a black-box.  I love diagrams, and I think one would help now.

Black-Box Theory

Essentially, there are many many entry points for someone to enter into the church and there are many many places for someone to end up.  The responsibility of the black-box is to serve as “DNS” server.  The black-box is the resource center that knows where and how to connect people with problems to a solution.  The black-box keeps information ABOUT these solutions, or ministries, but it isn’t the solution or ministry.  Also, if a problem is presented to the black-box, this is the entity that produces the initiative to solve this problem because the black-box knows where the resources are.  It also ensures that the wheel isn’t reinvented.

This is simplified, of course, real life is much messier, but if the church could adopt a model like this, much more work could get done much more efficiently.

x-Friends

{ December 11, 2009 @ 1:15 am } · { Friends and Family, Life Theories }
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I think this term “friend” gets thrown around a bit too much.  This thought occurred to me in the car yesterday.  Take the term x-friends, where x can be just about any word describing the friends.  So for example, school-friends, work-friends, church-friends.  This means that one has compartmentalized this particular friend or group of friends.  What’s the problem with that?  I think we miss out on the fullness of what friendship truly is when we have x-friends.  Someone might think, “what if I take my school-friend to church, or my work-friend to a theme park with me?”.  Usually when that happens people cease to refer to them as x-friends and start referring to them as friend-from-x.  It’s subtle to be sure, but think about it, friends are supposed to be involved in every aspect of your life, otherwise they’re just people you tolerate while you do a particular activity together.   Do you have any x-friends?

True Friendships

{ December 10, 2009 @ 1:12 am } · { Friends and Family, Life Theories, Theology, Uncategorized }
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It’s recently occurred to me regarding a huge danger for Christians.  It has to do with bible studies (or other small groups) and friendships.  It seems like there is a temptation to think that if we’re going to a weekly small group, then that is sufficient effort to put into a “friendship” with the other members of the small group.  If ya think about it, it makes sense, but then if you keep thinking about it, it’s stupid again.

The assumption is to think that you’re at a bible study or at least a place that discusses biblical topics so what could be deeper, more essential, more fundamental discussion than that?  The problem is that for some reason the natural tendency is to leave the discussion on the table and not have a whole lot more interaction with the other members until the next meeting.  Is it merely that assumption or does it have more to do with maybe, this group of people really aren’t as close of friends as they claim (or believe).  They like the idea of having a group of friends like that, but do little throughout the week to truly be friends with anyone else.  To boot, the discussions don’t even get all that deep often times.

Certainly there are outliers.  It would be against all odds for no one to emerge from a group true friends.  But for the most part, the group thinks it’s “ok” as long as they continue to meet once a week.  True friends spend time with each other, true friends communicate regularly, true friends are involved with each others’ lives, true friends know the little things that are happening in each others lives and aren’t simply “catching up” on the big points every week or 2.

From another angle on this, it seems to me (and maybe I’m generalizing here, maybe not) that non-Christians rarely have this problem of weekly surface “friends”.  Maybe those friendships are just as surface, but they do a better job of keeping in touch?  Maybe there’s a more pressing need for non-Christians to find companionship compared to Christians because Christians have fooled themselves into thinking they’re satisfied?  I dunno.

Forrest Gump

{ December 5, 2009 @ 2:22 am } · { Entertainment, Friends and Family }
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What a brilliant movie!  I was driving tonight listening to my ipod and the theme song came on, so I came home and turned it on.  I love this movie, I have sort of an odd attachment to the movie.  I think melancholy is a good word to describe how it makes me feel.  I think this is why I’m attracted to the movie: it reminds me of my dad.

The story is saturated with major historical events.  Forrest is interleaved with historical figures like Elvis, John Lennon, JFK, Lyndon Johnson and Nixon and events like the Vietnam War, Watergate and was a charter owner of Apple computers.  My dad seemed to have this other extraordinary life that I only started to learn about the last 10 years or so.  He was part of the Army Air Corps before it was the Air Force, he worked in the shoe business and was in the office when the idea of roller blades was first pitched, he had another marriage with 2 kids, he was Mayor of a town in Indiana!

Even with all of this extraordinary things going on, there’s a great deal of sadness and loss.  He becomes friends with Bubba who’s later killed in the Vietnam War, he loses his mom to cancer, jenny is in and out of his life and eventually he loses her too.  There’s something so real about it.  There are all sorts of things in my life that I struggle with and that make me sad and/or cause pain.  I miss my dad a lot.  I’m thankful for the time I had with him, and I’m sad that that time is over and it never will be again.  It makes me sad to think of how big of a whole it’s left in my mom’s life.  I would take my dad back in a heartbeat, but since he has to be gone, I enjoy the times of sadness in a weird way.  Sometimes ya just need to experience the bluer shade of human emotions.

Get A Clue Ref!

{ November 29, 2009 @ 6:31 pm } · { Life Theories }
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So the saying goes… “get a clue ref!”. People say this when they are mad at the ref for making an “uninformed call” and they are politely reminding the ref that he is an ignoramus. My question about this is, if the ref is truly clueless, shouldn’t we be telling him to get the whole picture? I mean if he’s just getting a clue, there’s still more figuring out to be done on the part of the ref. Think about that next time ya yell at the official!

The Price Of Receiving

{ November 22, 2009 @ 1:40 am } · { Theology }
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I had coffee with a couple friends this morning.  Normally I don’t drink coffee.  Love the smell, hate the taste.  But Austin’s Coffee has a pretty commendable Latte.  Also, I’m normally not a morning person, but I had good company, and being the brilliant people they are, we ended up having a really good conversation.  One of the things we discussed was regarding giving and receiving.  Here are my thoughts:

I think people in our culture generally do 2 things: Take (or earn) and/or they might also give.  Rarely do we see true receiving going on.  Our culture is so programmed to earn what we have (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing); it’s part of being a society built on capitalism.  A recent (in the last couple decades) trend has to do with the realization that we’ve gotten good at earning, and maybe even realize that we have much, much more than we need.  This leads to giving.  I think this is an absolutely wonderful trend; I blogged about it a couple of weeks ago.  What I think is so difficult, largely because of our cultural training, is to receive something that is truly free.

My friend recounted a time where he was giving away fast passes at a theme park.  People could not believe, or accept, that what he was doing was giving them something truly free.  We’ve been programmed to always ask “what does it really cost”.  It might not cost money, but it might cost time or effort in some other area.  Or at the very least, it’s being paid for by an advertising budget somewhere and we’re obligated to at least look at it.  Part of our confirmation curriculum is for each group to participate is some sort of mission project.  One group gave out free car washes.  People were blown away that the cost of the car-wash was nil.  If people asked they would tell them where they went to church, but it was never pushed on them.

What makes it so hard to receive?  I believe it has to do with pride.  To receive something freely given requires us to sacrifice our pride and admit that we are in need, that we aren’t completely self-sustaining, that we aren’t “an island”.  For those of us who have set our whole self-worth system on our pride, this is devastating.  This is the same reason why Jesus says that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  It’s not that there’s something fundamentally wrong with money, or being wealthy; it’s that, generally, for those people, the cost of their pride is too high a price to pay to receive the most wonderful, truly-free gift ever: eternal life!

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