Thoughts of the week

1. Shell shock.

2. Seminary seems to be more about developing a good root than about fancy words & big books.

3. "To be a son or daughter of Abraham you have to have the faith of Abraham." -Greenham

4. In America we call it ministry; internationally we call it missions; in reality they're both apart of the Mission. We must not separate the idea mission from our culture.

5. Classes started, gonna be good stuff.

6. Sometimes it's better to be ignorant of a situation when the alternative of knowing means sinning.

7. It's regular for my wife & I to work our way through 3 mugs a day.

8. Ever had to do too many grown-up things in a week? #buildafort

9. The order of words in a sentence shows the order of loves in one's heart.

10. "Amidst all our pursuits & designs, let us stop & ask ourselves, For what end is all this? At what am I doing? Can the gross & muddy pleasures of sense, or a heap of white & yellow earth, or that esteem & affection of silly creatures, like myself, satisfy a rational & immortal soul? Have I not tried these things already? Will they have a higher relish, & yield me more contentment tomorrow than yesterday, or the next year than they did the last? There may be some little difference betwixt that which I enjoyed before; but sure, my former enjoyments did show as pleasant, & promised as fair, before I attained the,; like the rainbow they looked very glorious at a distance, but when I approached, I found nothing but emptiness & vapor. Oh! What a poor thing would the life of man be, if it were capable of no higher enjoyment." ~Scougal 

Kinda Nostalgic

I started The Lord of the Rings again this last Saturday. It's like walking down an old familiar path from my youth, in a way nostalgic and in another remindful - remindful about the person I once was and who I am now, which is revealing of the changes that've taken place.

Do you remember the things you got excited about as a kid? For me it was Star Wars for a little while then it was Lord of the Rings. I had action figures of both - the Lord of the Rings ones are still in my closet at my parent's house, I gave the Star Wars ones away. Remember the way we'd get caught up in our fantasy worlds of wherever we'd imagined?

Part of it was innocence and part of it was ignorance. Innocence in that we'd never lost love before, never been betrayed before and never known uncertainty. Ignorance in that we didn't know how the wide world operated, we didn't know the time demands or the way our dreams would be warped or killed.

But at the same time growing up has been an experience I don't want to trade for anyone else's. The lost loves, the time demands, the way my dreams have been shifted or changed or even killed (I suck at math therefore the dream of astronaut was a lil far fetched) it's all served a purpose, a plan, to bring me to where I am today. Does that mean it's all figured out? Definitely not. Does that mean every aspect of my life is the way it should be? No. It just means that I'm content with the adventures God has placed in my life - even though some feel daunting.

I underlined this in my book yesterday,

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black. The enemy is fast becoming strong. His plans are far from ripe, I think, but they are ripening. We shall be hard put to it. We should be very hard put to it, even if it were not for this dreadful chance."

Pathetic

I saw The Hunger Games movie on Sunday. I enjoyed it.

The books are better (duh).

It’s a 1984, Brave New World, V for Vendetta kinda deal.

O and the soundtrack is great.

It’s also got me thinking about being safe and comfortable. Maybe it’s the compilation of being back from a far away place, or just the themes of the movie/books/music. Either way we are search for safety.

This makes sense really. We organize our house and friends so that we are the most comfortable (we even try to make other cultures different so we can feel safe). Risks aren’t the American’s deal.

I’m not against feeling safe. I’m not against being comfortable (cause I’m comfortable as I write).

I’m against apathy. (Some things really are worthy dying for, imagine that.)

One of my professors said a while ago while introducing an assignment, “Pick any topic you care about, anything. Cause no one just doesn’t care.” But he said it with a hint of irony. Which got me going.

Do we care about anything? My age group, my people, do we care about anything? What would we speak out against (and by that I mean with more than a facebook post)? Would we call something truly foolish, “foolish,” or would we sit down and shut up cause disagreement is difficult?

Apathetic, also has pathetic in it. Just saying.

Don’t read this as saying, “You must have an opinion about everything.” But maybe, just maybe, we should each have something we care about, something, which presses us to disagree and agree, to discuss and to grow.

Maybe we should have something that we care more about than cheap beer and ignorance. Maybe our lives would be better served by not being our lives at all, but by being for something bigger and better than just our one self.

You all know what I think is worth living for and dying for. Jesus.

The Thinker's Thoughts on Thinking

I sometimes wonder if I had more patience when I was younger. It’s probably nothing more than the romanticization of youth, but still, in some areas I think it’s true. Also, I used to not think much. That’s probably why I had more, “patience,” cause I had no idea what was going on and was fine with it.

But I think about crap so dang much. The meanings of words, the gestures of friends, the possibilities for anything, wondering if I could or should say or do or not say or not do or passively be nothing. It’s a constant wonder and process of decisions.

Is it fine to covet the ignorance of some? To crave to not wonder, or to not be a, “thinker?”

And yet, I seek my thoughts out. I desire time in them. To be swamped by the feelings and the view of lofty thinking – I think this is a sin for me. Being much to absorbed in my thoughts… and yet here I sit writing in my thoughts.

Indeed this is a gift, but it feels so much like a curse. But is it that a musician is only thinking about music when he is playing, surely not. Surely the melody of some distant tune is floating amongst his imagination and around his frontal lobe.

So here it stands, the discipline of thought. It seems quite reasonable to discipline oneself to not think just as much to discipline oneself to think. To be indifferent to the outside stimuli, to simply be, surely this must be true, for there is a time for everything.

Perhaps this is true, truer than I’ve thought possible. Perhaps there are times and areas of life where the constant thought is to be released for the simple beauty of our dearest friend which is Trust.

To merely – yes, merely – trust what will be to be and accept the simple facts of God-created reality.