FYI

Read this on YahooNews and thought it was interesting. We'll see if anything shakes loose from it, but it does seem curious that while we're paying more than ever before because of 'higher costs,' they're making twice as much money as they did last year. Things that make you say 'huh.'

And yes, that is a picture of a viscious eye-gouge. Eesh.

Wierded Out

I was flipping through the Genesis last night in my Biblical Interpretation class, and I came across Genesis 6. I know that I’ve read the story before, but I don’t think that I’ve ever been as struck by it as I was last night in class. What the hell are the Nephilim?! In the context of the story, it sounds like they are the product of a sexual union between women and ‘the Sons of God,’ but who were they? I have absolutely no answers to these questions. I know that the Nephilim are referenced again in Numbers 13.33 when the girly men who went with Caleb gave their daunting report of Canaan, but even there the description is vague.

I have heard that the word Nephilim is derived from the Hebrew word for ‘fallen,’ and people take that to understand that they are fallen angels. If I am reading the text right in Genesis, however, the Nephilim refer to the offspring of these Sons of God that are running amok before the flood. If you have any idea what the heck these Giant people are about, I’d love to hear it.

What's In a Cross?

Right, so what was Christ really talking about when he told his disciples to shoulder their crosses? I heard this from a professor of mine in my Church and God’s Mission class, and I thought it was interesting so I’m passing it along. Just food for thought. Even though Christ had told the disciples about his coming death, even if they had accepted the fact he would suffer for all mankind, the thought of him doing it on a cross would have been obscure at best. Crosses were reserved for Roman punishment, punishment for rebellion against the Empire. If anyone were to kill Jesus, it would most likely be the Jews; the religious elite were directly challenged by his teaching and it threatened their very way of life. If Christ’s death was on the disciples’ minds, it would have probably been the traditional Jewish method of stoning him to death.

So what is the significance of taking up a cross and following Christ? The cross bearing march to the place of execution was the last act of the Roman Empire humbling rebels before they were finally brought to an end. It was the last forced act of submission before being put to death, and it was lead by the Roman centurion. Christ sets himself up as the Centurion, leading the death march. With the disciples taking up their crosses in their last act of submission before being fully losing their lives in Christ, how does this change or amplify our understanding of the passage? Interesting thought, huh?

The Weight

In Matthew 16, when Jesus told his disciples that to follow him they would need to take up their cross . . . what would that have meant to them? How would they have understood his command? What would it have been calling them towards? I will post again soon about my thoughts on the subject, but would love to hear your input.

Higher Education

When I made the jump from High School to College, I remember being really depressed. After finishing my first semester, I realized I had just covered more material in 6 months than I would have all year in a High School course. What had I been doing with my life for the past four years? Piles of busy work was my conclusion. In College, however, I knew I had arrived at accademic freedom. Freed from the shackles of primary education,I was now learning at an incredible rate, at least as fast as any human brain could hope to assimilate information. Now that I'm in grad school and going through whole text books in about a week, I realize I screwed around just as much in College as I did in High School. This realization is both comforting and again depressing to me. It means that 1) I’m smarter than I’ve ever given myself credit for and 2) Another four years of education in undergrad was spent not applying myself to actually learning scholastic material. The consequentialism of these assertions remains to be seen.

The pile of books in the picture are the books that I have finished in the first half of the semester. I give a solemn nod to the conifers that gave their lives for my continuing education and endeavour to not let them down this time. I will give their pulp efficacy!

Stoat Mania

I’ve wanted a ferret for as long as I can remember. In High School I decorated my binder with ferret pictures. I used to run around the house with a towel wrapped around my head and pretend I was a ferret, ferreting out snacks and shiny objects. Ok, so I made up the last part, but I really have always been passionate about ferrets. Relatively speaking, anyhow. While other people wanted cats and dogs and birds and other mundane pets, I always thought ferrets would be cool. It’s not like I have 17 ferrets living in my apartment or anything. And yes, I know they’re smelly and attention craving and conniving and sneaky, but so am I, so I think we’d get along just great. If you have a ferret, or know someone that does, let me know. I am subjecting my ferrets-make-great-pets bubble to the blogging community to either be reinforced or burst.

For Shame, My Brothers

How do we interpret the look on ‘our Lord’s’ face in this picture? I know that it’s hokey, something that Berean would try and get us to pay $47 for, but think about what the picture means. Is Jesus crying over the stock market? Is he crying over people ravaged by natural disasters? Is he crying over the state of our nation’s politics? Is he crying over global politics? Is he crying over the blood of his martyrs that anonymously perform the act of greatest faith every day? Or is he crying over the blood of his martyrs that is safe and sound in its mortal coils, trying desperately to find any other mode of service than being poured out for their brother?

James, Hannah, my wife and I had the pleasure of fellowship last night over my birthday dinner (I’m officially 24 as of 5:45 pst today). As the meal passed, so too did the talk of our fantasy football league and several other entertainingly prosaic topics. And then we tried to fix the world. After many long diatribes, pleas and admonitions about the role of our government in a world filled with unjust regimes committing unspeakable atrocities against their own defenseless people, James broke through the deadlock. We had discussed military intervention, economic sanctions, isolationalist policies and imperialist strategies, but then James hung a sharp left and said, “Well, I believe that what we’re talking about is really the work of the church. That’s probably why we don’t agree.”

It took some time for James’ comment to sink in, but it hit the nail on the exact head. It was beside the point whether or not our government went to war with theirs. It was our business to be concerned with the Body in Iraq specifically and the Middle East generally, and how we support them. Does that mean we go to Iraq and live, preach, and intercede with the gospel by laying down our lives? Surely not! We should be sure to make a bulletin point about it, though. To go there ourselves, though? That’s a death wish! That’s irresponsible! . . . That’s the call of our LORD! A good friend of mine for all their might tried to do just such a thing and met incredible resistance from their friends and family. Not that they were hoping to give their life up, but had shed the trepidation of such an act. I don’t know if I ever properly encouraged them due to the shame their actions brought upon my own head, highlighting the flippancy and convenience of my own faith.

Is being a martyr even on the American church’s radar? How many of our children would know what that word means? How many of our adults? Our elders? Our pastors? The most common context I hear the word in is a pejorative reference to someone who is trying to be manipulative, and yet it was the calling and result of the Apostles. It was the main goal of God’s envoy to Earth. Jesus, I don’t know even how to begin to think about how this impacts my life, but take my fear of laying what I have before Your feet for service. To die is gain, and to live is Christ, my friends. Right? I’m trying to convince myself of that as I write. What does that really mean?

Spel-unk!

I started this post talking about James Lyons and some things we talked about this afternoon concerning the future of the planet and its implication on the universe. I will now finish this post by talking about me and some things that I think about concerning the future of my universe. Namely myself.

After finally posting following my six month break, I have re-realized that I enjoy writing. I enjoy it a great deal, in fact. I enjoy it so much that I took a large amount of time out of writing a paper to write a game preview for my fantasty football league. I enjoy the compensatory action of expression without mediation. It's my neurotransmitters to the keyboard. Nothing in between. I enjoy the self satisfied sensation coursing through me while re-reading a fine bit of text I banged out. I enjoy the twinge of shame when I can't rework a paragraph to say just what I think it should. I enjoy writing a great deal because it lets me explore myself.

Today, however, as I sat down to think about what to write it occurred to me that I have embarked on one of the most dangerous and imposing tasks I have ever undertaken. I have taken the time to think about who I am and what I want to say. What will I find on this journey of self exploration? Do I faithfully believe that what is uncovered will be a new creation, unfolding like a sunday school coloring assignment? Conversely, I fear I will discover banality and void. Now that the concept has sprung into my mind, however, it owns me. I am much more terrified of my unknown self than of any lurking horror that may await me deep in my unprobed emotional depths.

So exciting, huh? Blogging, synonymous with personal spelunking. If you know me, write me an insightful comment about who I am. Not a platitude, but something that you know to be true about me from a personal experience. Heck, do it anonymously. And take the time out to explore yourself. Hannah made some super insightful statements about her life, which have inspired me and will hopefully in turn inspire you. Take the time to explore yourself.

And I promise to make the next post more personally relavant to you.

Nevada lies

I was shocked out of my self imposed cyber silence yesterday by a sight so appauling that I could not in good conscious let it pass. Blatant state-sponsored spurious propaganda. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for propaganda. I mean, look at what it's done for us in the past! Got us out of a depression, let us know that we just had to make it into space to beat those Godless commie bastards, and lets us place the blame for natural disasters singly on our Heads of State. I wouldn't trade propaganda for the world. But when I saw this license plate, I could not stand the perversion. 'People grow things here . . .' Really?! It's NEVADA! 9/10 of the state is blasted desert waste land, and the rest of inarable alpine. People grow extra arms in NV from living on top of nuclear waste disposal sites, which I guess would technically qualify as growing things, but that's a really unfair way to couch it. Not to mention the utterly horrific diction. 'People grow things here.' Unbelievable.

I've had several other scintillating thoughts in the last two days, but I couldn't possibly waste them all in one post. Stay tuned for a spate of thoughts from yours truly.

Day 1: Failure

I don't much expect by now that anybody will be reading this blog, and that is more than likely for the best. There may be the occasional college student or office loafter who is killing time by scrolling through the literally ENDLESS number of blogs online, but that's a transitory audience and I have definately not posted anything to date that would engender anyone to return for a seecond glance.

Anyway, just to get the ball rolling, I proffer my plan. I had planned to come home from work and write for half an hour on this thing, whatever it was that would come to my mind. Instead I played football on the playstation. Thus: Day 1: Failure. Stay tuned for further updates.

Yes, this is me. I recieved my degree from Texas A&M University . . . a-WHOOP! 

Back on the Cyber Scene

Well, my friends, I've been lured back. There will be no promises about how frequent or relevant any of my posts will be. To tell the truth, I wasn’t even planning on ever having a Blog again. I was perfectly happy watching other people’s lives drift by at varying rates of locomotion through cybernetic lenses, but then Eric (that darn Eric) posted something on his Latin guy Blog that required a remark from yours truly. And it sure wouldn’t let me post a comment without having a Blogger account. And you’d better believe if I spent the 3 minutes to fill out all the crappy information, I’m going to get my money’s worth and take up my allotted space on the vast expanse we call the “Internet.” So tune in, if you ever get the dial station, and see what else I’ve posted. It may just be what you need to hear.