Podcasting and the way things are

For those few people who read this blog but aren't on the Twitter bandwagon, you may not know that a couple of friends and I started up a new podcast about religion and the many questions we have therein. If you have a little time, head on over to our website and poke around for a bit, maybe even download a show or two.

Aside from this new podcasting venture, most of my life has been spent in classes or working on homework (read: playing games). I've got some ideas for updating the blog but I keep getting sidetracked too easily. Perhaps one day I'll finally write down all these ideas I've got.

Videos

I know it has been forever, but that's not the point right now. Some friends and I compiled a few videos wherein we asked different people some questions about the Christian faith just to see what everyone would say. Here is what we got.









What other questions would you ask? How would you answer those questions?

Religion Friday: Cop Out

Here for your consideration, are the lyrics to quite possibly my favorite song of all time. Take a moment to listen, read along, and relax today:

When I was young, the smallest trick of light, 
Could catch my eye, 
Then life was new and every new day, 
I thought that I could fly. 
I believed in what I hoped for, 
And I hoped for things unseen, 
I had wings and dreams could soar, 
I just don't feel like flying anymore. 
When the stars threw down their spears, 
Watered Heaven with their tears, 
Before words were spoken, 
Before eternity. 

Dear Father, I need you, 
Your strength my heart to mend. 
I want to fly higher, 
Every new day again. 

When I was small, the furthest I could reach, 
Was not so high, 
Then I thought the world was so much smaller, 
Feeling that I could fly. 
Through distant deeps and skies, 
Behind infinity, 
Below the face of Heaven, 
He stoops to create me. 

Dear Father, I need you, 
Your strength my heart to mend. 
I want to fly higher, 
Every new day again. 

Man versus himself. 
Man versus machine. 
Man versus the world. 
Mankind versus me. 
The struggles go on, 
The wisdom I lack, 
The burdens keep pilling 
Up on my back. 
So hard to breathe, 
To take the next step. 
The mountain is high, 
I wait in the depths. 
Yearning for grace, 
And hoping for peace. 
Dear God... 
Increase. 
Healing hands of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again. 
Jesus Christ, light of the world burning bright within our hearts forever. 
Freedom means love without condition,
without a beginning or an end. 
Here's my heart, let it be forever Your's, 
Only You can make every new day seem so new.

Religion Friday: Making Choices

After being accepted this week, I have decided that I will be attending Columbia Theological Seminary this fall.

It's been a long road to come to this point. After originally being accepted at Candler, I thought my whole quest was pretty much at an end, but when I saw the price tag for the school, I realized that I was nowhere near done. Once I had completed a ton of scholarship applications, someone mentioned Columbia to me. I filled out their application without honestly expecting too much.

It was through this that God really showed me where I was supposed to be. I went to visit both schools last Friday, and pretty much the minute I stepped onto the Columbia campus, I knew where I was supposed to go.

It really shouldn't surprise me how twisted and difficult this trip has been. God has been pretty active in letting me know that changes come within my life pretty often. On the other hand, all of my worrying about what is the right decision is also made pretty clear when God wants me to know what to do.

I guess that is the biggest lesson learned throughout all of this. Even though I was constantly worried about what the next step would be, God was already 500 steps ahead and was leading me on the right direction. Now, if only I can remember this and stop trying to figure everything out before it's time.

Religion Friday

Today is about rest. After having our first two foster kids come and visit starting two weeks ago today and ending on Sunday, tonight is my first actually really free night with no obligations.

As you may have noticed by my non-posts yesterday and the day before, I'm still trying to catch up with everything going on.

So be like me, and go ahead and take a break. You deserve it.

Religion Friday: Good Friday

Coinciding with Good Friday was another extremely difficult question that came from Rachel's nice list a couple weeks back... "Why did Jesus have to die? Why was that the only way for him to save us?"

Now, I know that Good Friday is a day for reflection on Lent and the beginning of the awesomeness of Easter, but this is a difficult question. My reflex answer is just to say, "he didn't HAVE to die," but that's only because I think that God can work out a bajillion different ways to do what God wants.

Because of that reflexive answer, it leads into the actual question of why did Jesus die on the cross in that way as a sacrifice, and why was that way chosen as God's choice. My answer always comes back to what Jesus said in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (NIV).

We all remember the earlier quote from Jesus back in John 3:16, about God loving the world so much that God's son was sent into the world to save it. I think that in the writing of the book of John, the author new that these two quotes would have to be connected by the readers as a way to see into the master plan.

Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone who witnessed his death (both in text and by sight) would be able to make the connection that the reason for his death was, in fact, love.

Another reason for the death was a way to show the power of God. Because death is consistently thought of as that undefeatable power that is equated to this thing called sin - the wages of sin is death (a heavier topic for another day).

By dying, and then bringing forth the miracle of the resurrection 3 days later, Jesus was essentially proving the power of God. He showed that even the things we fear most (sickness, death, loneliness) were easily conquered by an ever-present God.

Do you agree? How far off do you think I am? What do you think about the reason for Jesus' death?

Religion Friday: What is Heaven Like?

Rachel posted a bunch of good topics to discuss here on Religion Friday. We'll start off today with the question: What is Heaven Like?

Well, I wrote a paper on this at some point, but the only thing I really remember writing was that the actual number of references to Heaven (as a thing that is life after death) within the Bible are pretty minimal. The quote that I based my paper on was from Luke 23:43 where Jesus is on the cross and says to one of the criminals being crucified near him that "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

First, I have to say that aside from this scripture, I can't think of much else that relates to our current idea of Heaven as being this place that we go to after death. A lot of Jesus' talk about the coming kingdom of Heaven seem to be more about the bringing of the new law of grace that was given at Easter. Then again, I don't claim to be any sort of expert on this subject, so here are my thoughts:

Now, I think that we base a lot of our current thoughts of Heaven as a post-life place on this one passage (and if you can think of them and post them in the comments, it is more than welcome - although be sure to explain your reasoning). I'm sure there are more answers if you are willing to dig and look into metaphors and such, but I'm not.... that would warrant an entire research paper, what with looking stuff up and all that sort of effort.

Anyway, what I did in my paper, and what I'm about to do now is ponder what is exactly meant by that word "paradise" (or Heaven, for that matter). For myself, the word conjures up images of the pre-fall Garden of Eden, a place where we are able to see and hear God, whilst living in the beauty of God's creation.

I have placed my entire thought process on this word of paradise and the thought from Revelation of the creation of a new world (yeah they probably don't really relate at all, but it works for me).

So, how far off am I? What are your thoughts and theories on the idea of Heaven?

Religion Friday:

You know, there are just some days where nothing really comes to you. I've spent all day today (and even yesterday, since I didn't have time to write, but had plenty of time to think) trying to figure out something new to talk about today.

Turns out, I drew a blank.





But that led me to something interesting... Why do I spend so much time trying to find something new to talk about, when all my old stuff still isn't figured out yet? Yeah, that doesn't help much since most of these weeks tend to be the same thing over, but maybe one day I'll have something concrete to discuss.

That's my main problem with (my) faith. I always have such a problem just finding something to talk about and without that basis, I get my discussions lost very easily.

So at some point here, I'm going to need to just make a list of topics and go through them one by one, even if I have no real answers. Any suggestions?

Religion Friday: Talking about Me

A lot of the scholarship and school applications that I've been filling out lately require you to write an essay about yourself and your faith. Now considering how much I like to write about myself here on this blog, you might not believe it, but those essays are frustrating and hard.

For one thing, it is really hard to boil my life and faith down to a three to five page essay, even with just hitting the highlights. Also, it is hard to structure life itself into a cohesive paper format. As you may have noticed, my blogs tend to ramble and get off subject pretty easily - just like me.

When I try to write out all this stuff into an essay that I hope will bring me money to fund my schooling, I always feel that it falls apart.

So, what is the problem with trying to piece all of this together? Part of it lies in the idea that I want my life to sound exactly like they want for the scholarship, just so that I can win, but I think it is more than that.

I think what it comes down to is the inability to produce faith as a linear progression throughout life. Faith tends to move and jump, progress and regress, duck and weave, abbott and costello (okay, too far)... but I think you know where I'm going. Is it hard for you to put down your faith story into a cohesive narrative? Maybe it's just me.

Now as I go back to writing these papers, I'm wondering how I can justify my journey of faith as a nonlinear object and still make it understandable.

...I also think I'm being a bit obtuse, but that's just because I don't like to write essays.

Religion Friday

It's official. I found out last week that I was accepted into seminary at the Candler School of Theology. And that's also why I didn't post. The whole thing I had written was about waiting and being frustrated (which I still was, since it took an entire month before I heard from them), but it didn't really work, so I scrapped it. Now, I just have to scrape up enough money to be able to attend school.

Anyway, on Wednesday I had to do a little devotion at our church fellowship supper and I talked about how I feel like I've been stuck within my own Lent season of waiting ever since I graduated from college. It's like I have been wandering through the wilderness for four years with no clear direction and Easter way out of reach.

When I started applying for grad school last year, it was like something was beginning to change. Even though I still have no clear direction for where I want to end up, I finally think that I'm moving somewhere.

And with that, I think that it was fitting for me to receive this news during Lent, because while it can be a painful time of meandering as we wait for the glory of Easter, we have that glimpse of the joy to come that we can hope for. While the Easter may never really be understood, we know that it is what we have been waiting for. It becomes a time of celebration. Not only of the Resurrection of Christ, but also of our own rebirths. Those times where it seems that everything can start anew.

So even though I'm sure once classes start I'll go back to complaining about something, at this point I feel ready for something new. I'm definitely ready for Easter.

Religion Friday: Lent

Lent has begun. Normally this doesn't really mean all that much, but this year I decided that I would try to go deep and try to give up a bit and take in a bit more.

Normally my Lenten requirements are quite easy like giving up soda (which I hardly drink anyway), but I thought about it a lot this year and realized that sacrifice should require some sort of pain (kind of like Jeremy Bentham learned this week on LOST). Either way, the point of Lent shouldn't be about my pain and suffering, but more about drawing closer to God.

Yeah, I know everything I've said so far is obvious. It's just that sometimes I forget that even the hardest parts of my life are so much easier than I deserve and by complaining and never recognizing how well I have it, I'm giving in to my selfishness way too much. So for this Easter season, I'm going to try to change my focus away from myself (as hard as that is) and try to become someone better... which is the entire point of Easter.

Religion Friday: Valentine's Day

I can't think about Valentine's Day without thinking about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Yeah, I know that probably makes me a little bit crazy, but I can't help it. I know that Valentine's Day (albeit primarily a Hallmark holiday designed to spend money) is supposed to be a remembrance of those we love and cherish. But, for me it also brings up that underlying human condition of distrust and violence.

Love and trust are two things that are easily associated with one another, right? You trust the ones you love, and those you trust are easier to love. This comes to be a problem whenever we try to live out the commandments to love our neighbors. I mean, what if I don't know them... or even worse, what if I know them, but don't trust them? It's really hard to find it in your heart to express love to someone when you know that at any moment they could turn their back on you and rat you to the coppers.

And violence, what does that have to do with Valentine's Day? I think I've mentioned before, but I read police incident reports every day for my job, and there is barely a day that goes by that I don't read a report about family violence (primarily between spouses with alcohol involved). Now, I am not exactly a knowledgeable source on this, but there are so many times that there are no charges filed or the victim only wants the report for future reference, and life returns to the way it was.

This is going to seem like a really cheap analogy, but sometimes I think that we go for the same sort of abuse with other things. We give up our relationships with God and others in order to pursue something that seems better, and even though we are burned by this desire, we continue to go for it. I'm sure everyone can think of their own example to go along with this analogy, and even though it may never be as severe as an abusive spouse, we do find that we hurt ourselves pretty easily for the stupidest of reasons.

All of this comes back to love, though. Love is the source of our joy and also the source of pain. God (in God's love) asks that we give up our wants in order to pursue greater things, and in that love our pain becomes temporary and insignificant in contrast to the rewards that come from service.

Religion Friday

I'm impatient.

My application for seminary was completed this past weekend and now I must play the waiting game. I would prefer that the school would just call me and let me know either way this week. I understand that they might need time to go through the many applications that they get in, but I'd rather they just read mine and decide. That way, I don't have to go through this stress hell of not knowing.

Like I talked about a bit last week, a lot of my time is spent waiting for something new. I'm getting tired of all this waiting stuff. There are a number of things that I waited for and already have: a wife, an education, 2 cats. Why am I now sitting around waiting for the next step?

Maybe one day I'll be at a point in my life where there is nothing really left to wait for... but I doubt it.

Religion Friday: Having a Shadow

Today at work, I had a job shadow from a local high school. To be honest, I've been dreading it all week. I didn't really know how it was going to go and I wasn't sure what exactly we would do at work all day to keep him interested and busy, but everything went smoothly and I think he had a good time.

This guy who came to work with me is getting ready to go to college in a year, and he's pretty sure of what he wants to do with his life. It made me a bit jealous.

I thought I knew what I wanted to do when I was his age, but really I was just fooling myself and was just going with what I thought would be cool (a youth pastor). It turned out that I'm not exactly all that fond of teens... particularly those in a typical youth group. It's just not my cup of tea. So once I got past that, I realized I had no plan.

I've now been out of college for nearly 4 years and am getting ready to go to seminary. The current plan is to get a degree to teach on the collegiate level, but even now I'm not sure what is right. I know that there is somewhere that God is intending for me to end up. I also know that right now it feels right to be going back to school. So how come I don't feel all that excited.

(Stupid analogy time): Maybe it's because having a job shadow was really just like seeing a shadow of my former self. Maybe it was seeing his enthusiasm and how much I've lost that affected me.

I ride a lot of waves of enthusiasm. One minute I've got a great idea for a book or documentary and the next I'm back to work and trying to figure out where to go. Perhaps this moving forward into school will restore something and help me to find some sort of purpose (well purpose isn't quite the word, but close enough).

Religion Friday: Frustration

Roger got me addicted to this today.

What was an exercise in incredible frustration (my high score now is 450) is now also one of my all-time favorite flash games. It's a lot like Snood and Bubble Bobble, only with the added annoyances of spinning and extra bubbles.

What does this have to do with religion though? Well for me, religion is an incredibly frustrating thing. I can never get it just right, and any time I think I'm coming close to figuring it out, it spins on its head and I wind up looking at a completely different angle from what I was aiming at with 12 new targets appearing in place.

Yeah, it's kind of a silly example, but that's how I have been looking at this thing called faith recently. Maye at some point I'll be able to wrap my head around the game (for lack of a better term) in its entirety, but until then I think I'm fine playing it and just getting really mad when things turn on me.

Religion Friday

There are times in my life where I've been alternately mute, deaf, autistic, blind, had OCD or ADHD. I mean, I've never really been any of those, but out of nowhere I would act as though there was any number of things different with me. Before I got glasses, I thought that it would be awesome to have glasses (I was wrong) before I had braces, the same (again I was way wrong).

What brought this on? Low self-esteem? Perhaps, but unlikely, I've been pretty fine with myself throughout most of my life (aside from high school - but how is that different from anyone). I think it comes from a full on curiosity of how it is to be someone else. See, I've spent my entire life being me, and I never got the chance to be someone else. I think when I was at the character creation screen at the beginning of this game, I accidentally went too fast, and I never really thought out my attributes well enough, and I worry that I might have missed something important in beating the game of life.

As Confucius once said, "Be sure to know others, otherwise you'll never know yourself" (okay, I totally made that up, but it sounds kind of like something he'd say, right?) It comes down to this thing called empathy. I want to understand what everyone in the world is going through so that I can relate to them better. But because I've led such an easy life, I feel like I have to pretend in order to place myself in new shoes all the time to learn a new experience.

Yeah it's extremely stupid, I know, but I also know that part of my calling (and everyone's calling) is to be open and loving to my neighbor and sometimes I think that unless I understand someone else's experiences, I can't love them correctly. Instead I wind up with my foot in my mouth and a kick in my ass (although I'm not sure if its my other foot or someone else's).

So, how can I continue expressing love for strangers without knowing all of their life story? Currently, it comes down to a kind word or gesture, but I think in time I might be able to develop better ways to be open to people. Maybe I'll order a couple hundred Chick tracts to keep on my person at all times...

Christmas Week

Since it is Christmas week and I don't know how often I'll have access to a computer or time to think up posts, I thought it would be a good week to take some time off. I might pop up a random post or two, but probably not on topic.

Enjoy your Christmas week!

Religion Friday

As part of my job, I have to read through Police Reports every day, and every so often I come across some funny stuff. Other times, I find things that are truly upsetting. A recent example of this (and the focus of today's post) was a report in which Officers were called to a church over a case of criminal trespassing. When they got to the church, they met with a member who told them that the pastor had told him to call the church if homeless people came by looking for help/shelter. Being a good parishioner, the member called the police who came and arrested the man for coming to the church for help.

Now because I was not there for any of this, I can't say how much of what was said was true, but I can say that when I first read the report I was pretty pissed off. I understand that there is hesitation and fear when someone needs help and you aren't exactly sure what to do, but to be a pastor (someone who is called to be a leader of the church) and to specifically tell someone not to help... I don't understand. I don't know the full story of the church or the pastor, so there may be circumstances that led to this decision, but I can't think of any that would have someone believe that God didn't want them to help.

I admit that I am nowhere near perfect or a source of knowledge for this subject. I (stupidly) don't seek opportunities to help and rarely do situations come knocking on my door, but I would like to think that if the opportunity presented itself, I would be a willing servant.

What is this fear that prevents us from helping? Why do I not go out every night seeking people who need shelter? Is it right to go with the standby answer of "you can't help everyone all the time"? What can be done?

All of those are questions that have been flying through my head, and I have yet to come up with a satisfying answer to any of them. Is something obvious just escaping my thoughts? Let me know what you think.

Religion Friday: This American Life

For today's post, I refer you to last week's episode of the amazing radio show This American Life.

While it wasn't the best episode ever, the focus is on a Pentecostal preacher (Carlton Pearson), who went from friends with Oral Roberts to a man who is convinced that God told him there is no Hell, and it makes for a very interesting story.

It is a hard thing to argue against what people think they have heard from God. Pearson, who is a well-read man, builds his arguments well and truly believes his theology. As such, I don't know what to say against him. I don't necessarily agree with his theology, but I also don't think it is my place to argue and tell him that he's wrong.

Since theology is an incredibly personal thing as is, it's very hard to argue against someone's beliefs, and that's not a bad thing. Instead of reading me ramble on about this though, I recommend you go back and just listen to that episode. Hey, it's free!

Bookish Tuesday through Religion Friday

Happy Thanksgiving. I will be away without interwebs for the Thanksgiving break, so rather than try to write up a post for everyday, I'll do it all here.

The book I'll be reading over break is Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. So far, it's as good as any other Pratchett book and I'm ready to get some time to just read without the distraction of work and such.

News for this week is from this story (thanks to Rachel for the heads up). There isn't much to discuss on this aside from the fact that we know that Pandas are dumb creatures, but that doesn't mean you can just climb over a protective fence to try to pet one.

Gaming over the weekend will consist of a lot of Rock Band, some Trivial Pursuit, and hopefully a few sessions of Left 4 Dead and the tabletop game Zombies!!! (the exclamation points are part of the name).

Finally, the focus of Religion Friday is (obviously) to take some time to think about all we've been given and be thankful for what we have.

See you next week!