Friday Thoughts

1) Sorry this is the only post this week.

2) Kat farted Wednesday morning and it was loud. I was in shock. Has anyone else ever had a cat straight up fart?

3) Watched V for Vendetta on Monday. We had eggys in a basket before. #legit

4) The Election happened. Facebook told me. So did Twitter. And all the complaining Christians. Guess the world just fell off God's map there didn't it?

5) Planning international flights is stressful, thank God for help.

6) I want to meet Charles Koch. Just 'cause I think he's neat.

7) Last week I bought all 8 Harry Potter movies for half the normal selling price. Groupon.

8) The Beard is garnering a lot of compliments this year.

9) Budgeting. And sticking to it.

10) Remember all that stress I wrote about 3ish weeks ago? Well it's gone. Still doing all the same things, but something about the greatness and the goodness of God being, or supposing to be satisfying has gotten a hold of my heart. Like my 2-year-old nephew being carefree in everything should a Christian be in life. "Papa, He's got it." (Says the Community Group) I only wish I would've believed in the midst of depression that God is good even still - but He forgave me that too. 

Dangerously Important

"Be assiduous in reading the Holy Scripture. This is the fountain whence all knowledge in divinity must be derived. Therefore let not this treasure lie by you neglected." Jonathan Edwards

Scripture that blessed gift of God to man wherein he reveals himself to us, he teaches us the gorgeous reality of the gospel and the shameful existence of our depravity. Giving flight to the life which was yet unknown under the safety of his wings.

This book which is too often misread and misused and disposed of. This book which ought never to, “be applied to us,” yet rather we ought to always be applied to it.

We are not the solid line or are we the consistency to which it must be judged. No, the plum-line is not we it is itself. Scripture, this we know yet forget to do, is the interpretation of Scripture.

It’s a book about God.

He is the main character, the main actor. Scripture is the story of God to man.

Far too often we see it as the story of men to men. No, it is the story of God redeeming his Church. Yet to read the Bible and think solely of man is to read Harry Potter and think only of the Weasley twins, or to read Lord of the Rings and think only of the Shire, or to read The Hunger Games and think only of Katniss’ mom or to read The Chronicles of Narnia and think only of what was happening in London.

Do you see the point - the point of missing the point? The reason for Scripture is not to give us helpful hints and models to attempt to be like, no, the reason for Scripture is to teach us all that God has revealed to us.

All we can know of God is within its pages. This does not mean we’ll know him completely, it means we’ll know him partially, but the part that we’ll know is exquisitely beautiful.

And yet the quote from last week’s post is still wonderfully true, ““We have scarcely begun to see all of God that the Scriptures give us to see, and what we have not seen yet is exceedingly glorious (John Piper).”

Friday Thoughts

1) Friday! I'm sleepy.

2) My friends from India are in town!

3) The book of Romans. Whoa.

4) Restarted Calvin's Institues of the Christian Religion, it's basically FREAKIN' AMAZING.

5) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Dear Sirus Black, you're my favorite.

6) 'Member that one time we lived in hell, I mean, Kansas?

7) Hung out in a dang cool church on Wednesday. (Look at da pichure)

8) I wanna see Brave. If you judge me I'll do something.

9) If you're not doing anything tomorrow night, be here.

10) Christianity shouldn't be man-centered. If it is, it's not Christian.

Friday Thoughts!

1) Writing a series is fun, but it's nice to be done with it. Give 'em all a read would you?

2) There's another one coming up.

3) I turned on the sink thinking it'd turn on the lights... It's been a busy week.

4) I'm excited about tonight because of this.

5) Have you seen the What Nots page?

6) Dear Lord, I need coffee like a fat kid needs insulin. (Too much?)

7) Reading Harry Potter is like going on vacation in my brain.

8) My friends from India are coming to Wichita, Yay!

9) I got a Gandalf pipe.

10) Mission isn't safe, or is missin clean; don't expect to be the same.

Weird & Odd

Getting all my goodies in order for applying to Grad school. It’s been an odd summer so far.

For five years I worked and went to school and did homework and had a life. Now I just have a life and work… Woah. Re-reading Harry Potter has been wonderful, it’s like walking down a path, now familiar, but so deeply loved. Getting a new roommate has also been nice (2 out of 3 of the last done got married, I’m not saying I’m good luck, I’m just saying I'm good luck).

But what I’ve enjoyed the most has also been the weirdest: relaxing.

I don’t do it well. If I’m not doing something I think there’s something terribly wrong (I suck at taking naps).

Last night I sat on my porch with no book and no phone (!) watching the sun go down. I rented a movie and cooked some steak. I got myself hooked on TV series. I read myself to sleep.

Peaceful, right?

A friend of mine always says, “I want a peaceful soul.” And I agree with him, I want that too. But until it comes I’ll settle for some peaceful evenings.

‘Cause right now there’s no love to keep up, no pretenses to uphold, nothing to demand my time other than the job and a life, which, even though it’s odd, is nice.

So, sometime soon, I think I’ll go catch some fireflies and put them in a jar on my mantel. Because God is sovereign. 

Thoughts-ish

1) Have you ever just wanted to keep driving? You know, away.

2) This was my first week of working just a job. No classes, no homework, just work... I think I'll start a coffee shop with my extra time.

3) Re-reading Harry Potter.

4) I had deja-vu all day on Thursday.

5) The Killers: Sam's Town. Fantastic album. The Horrible Crowes: Elsie. Another fantastic album

6) "Am I more than the sum of the things I have and haven't done." ~Abandon Kansas

7) Come to me you weak, you broken, you messy lives, you weary, you heavy laden; I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

8) This slow unstoppable march to our ends from our beginnings makes our middles the adventure (and makes them flutter with butterflies), the time when closing your eyes, shutting out the outside, is the worst possible sin.

9) Went for a walk. Saw fireflies. Now it's time to capture them!

10) Fight the good fight of faith. Fight to believe. Fight to see Jesus as your only hope. Fight.

Mid-Trip Thoughts

Here's some mid-trip thinkings I've had thus far. It's just a short list, but it's a list nonethelesss.

1) Whoever decided boots needed zippers was a freaking genius.

2) Rule #1 don't get on the wrong plane.

3) Texas: Home of the over the top, loud, & occasional cool person... Or the birthplace of pride, arrogance, and big hair; whichever floats your boat.

4)"Kansas, is that in Texas?" German fellow on the plane next to me.

5) Harry Potter on the plane? Yes, please!

You'll get the rest when I get home!

The Worst Christmas

"O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death's dark shadows put to flight."

Christmas time! What with all the trees, lights, gifts, family and friends is always an exciting time of year. As a kid dreaming of what might be in those boxes under the tree you helped mom and dad decorate. Bundling up like Eskimos to go to school. Sipping apple cider with a favorite book in your hand.

The dark mornings and the darker evenings, the cold nights and the freezing car rides (or at least until the heater gets going), singing the music of this time of year.

The music. It's always extremely interesting to me, I used to not like it, but now - after reading Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia - this music draws me to remember the moments leading up to the enemies demise.

The deep breath before the plunge of battle. When warriors courageously died for what would come if the evil one fell. When sword and shield were shattered and rattled in pursuit of freedom.

It’s right to see this time of year in this light. For from the beginning of time the prophecies, the promises, and the people of God yearned for the coming deliverer. One who would cause the stronghold of the enemy to shiver in fear, to quake at their final abolishment and defeat.

All the great stories take their bow to this idea, this theme:

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.” (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Christmas is the worst thing that ever happened to the devil, thank God.

Literary Things

I finished reading the Harry Potter series over the weekend, and then I promptly began reading Dracula (you know just reading books pop-Christianity has damned at some point but are now classics) at the recommendation of a good friend. But back on the track of Harry Potter I wish to relay something, something that I feel, rather know to be truer than the weird legalism that tells people certain books send you to hell if you read them.

"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, &, above all, those who live without love."

Love. We over use the word to be sure. In Harry Potter it is the only thing, which kills Voldemort (Ahhh! I said his name!). In The Count of Mounte Cristo love is the only thing that keeps Edmond Dantes from carrying out his revenge (Yea, the movie screwed that up bad). In A Tale of Two Cities love is what presses Sydney Carton to be executed in the place of Darnay saying, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.” In the Christian narrative the thing that brings about the end of Satan, sin, and death is the love of God. “For God so loved the world…”

This ethereal thing, this love, is powerful, in literature it proves to be the downfall of the antagonist; in Christianity it presses God to save man; and in life we are pushed to give up dreams and fight for those we love. To sacrifice and compromise to see the good of another carried out.

But more than these nifty little things it must be highlighted that love is the reason God saves anyone. Yet we expect it to be love for us, when reality speaks to the love of himself being the cause for redemption. Egomaniacal? Yes, thank God. ‘Cause if God is to be God he must worship what is most worthy of worship and if God is most worthy of worship then he must worship God or prove to be in contrast to his own law of idolatry.

Pity those who live without love. Pity because there is no power, no hope, and no joy. Pity because there is nothing more exquisite than love. Pity because the love of God has proven, will prove, and is proving itself to be the end of the fall.