Judging part 1

Paying Attention to Yourself

Matthew 7:1 is one of those verses that it seems almost every non-christian has memorized. But, it strikes me that maybe they wouldn't have to if we would apply what Jesus was trying to teach us about judging others here. I think the reason so many non-christians have this verse in their arsenal in the first place is because too often they feel more attacked by Christians who disagree with how they live their lives then loved.

Honestly, though, it's verse 6 that's thrown me off every time I've read it. I kind of always just ignore it. It just doesn't seem to fit. He's talking about judgment one minute, and suddenly He's talking about giving holy things to dogs and pearls to pigs the next. It seems like a jump that doesn't make sense.

But I think that this lesson presents an outline for approaching people who don't know Christ. And that last verse solidly gives us the answer to why, after He gives this hard teaching. So I'm going to try to tackle what I think is a three step process.

When I have a log in my eye I can probably make out the speck I see in someone else, but I can't very well see it that way God does. So the first step is to look at myself and see where my own sin is. God knows me very well. When I pay attention to others, I don't have to pay attention to myself. If I see someone doing something bad, it minimizes how I view my own sin and I'm not forced to deal with it.

Tonight while I was reading these verses, it was like God tapped me on the shoulder to show me where this applies in my life even today. A lady came through the drive-thru today and gave me an attitude when I asked her for her ID. Her view was essentially that she felt she was a lot more special than she really was. She felt far too important for someone as lowly as myself to not know her. I got mad. Really mad. And it took a little time but I while reading this stuff tonight God made me see that my problem was that I suffered from the same problem. Too often I feel too important to have to deal with the people I deal with daily. I feel like I'm too good to have to hear them complain about things. I think I'm a lot more important than I am.

And it wasn't until I was able to remove the log from my eye, even if it was just for a little bit that i was able to view her and her sin the way that God does. If I'm just as prideful as she is, there's no way I can love her like God wants me to. When pride meets pride, conflict is always the result. The problem seems to be that this log will continue to plop itself back into my eye if I'm not aware of this problem and praying about it.

Creation

I think one of my favorite aspects of creation is that we're made in God's image. I just find that awesome. No other creature on this planet can make the claim that God has imprinted the image of Himself on them.

Personally, I don't think I'm all that great of a person. The idea of having a kid made in my image terrifies me. I don't know if I like the idea of a little me running around. I can only hope that my wife is hot, smart, Godly and has a lot of dominant genes. But God is good. I would say He's the embodiment of love, but I'm not sure He has a body. By giving us His image He is giving us the ability to mimic Him and His goodness and love.

There are so many aspects to the image of God that show through in our actions; Christian or non-christian. But I think my favorite aspect of God's image we have is creativity. You see, God is creative. He has been at least since five days before our day one. And we have that in us. Look around at every other creature on this planet. None of them try to create anything. They survive, mate, and some even play, but none of them create. God has instilled this specifically in us. I've never seen a dog do so much as catch a frisbee and try to wear it as a hat. But humans do have that in us.

I see this in everyone. Look at the shape of the internet. It is full of places like Facebook, Myspace and countless blogs. The reason these things are so popular is because people have a desire to create something that is specifically their own. I've seen some blogs where the writing is absolutely horrible, if you're here now, you've seen that too. But that doesn't matter, what matters is that we have an innate desire within us to create, whether good or bad.

Most of the stuff we create is absolutely useless. When has a painting ever come in handy? Does a book ever provide some sort of primal survival need? Of course not, but we have them and I think the reason why is simple. They speak to our souls, which have God's image. They connect souls, which is a desire God has given us. We create so that we can connect and know that something we did matters. Whether it's fixing a house, building a car, or even something as private as keeping a journal. I'm not sure why, but when I write in my journal I always go into the mindset of writing for my daughter to read someday when I'm 70. I'm not sure why in that scenario I think I'll have a daughter, but I do. Is that a little weird?

I want to keep creating. I realize that I've never written a decent story, my drawings look like a Picasso if he had a seizure, my poems are laughable (as all amateur poetry should be) and not that many people really read my blog, but I do know that God put this desire inside of me. And I might have to create thousands of different things, but if just one thing I write speaks to just one person, I'll be okay with that. I'll know that I had to go through thousands of pieces of crap to get it right. And for some reason, I'm okay with that.

I need the clap! ...WAIT!

I'm realizing more and more that my church is white. Really white. Maybe not Utah white, but white nonetheless. I realized this on Sunday when we had an amazing performer on stage. This was a guy who had toured with Little Richard for 20 years, so he knew his stuff and he was singing a Lenny Kravitz song. It was awesome. But during the performance, I look around and the best a few of us could muster was a small clap along to the beat and an occasional head nod. It was sad times.

And then there was youth tonight. I love this scene. The lights dim as the band comes on stage. A select few students rush the stage and as the guitar starts to flare up, they go crazy and...stand there. Some of them have their chins resting on their hands as if they're admiring the singer, which is weird because most of the kids doing this are guys.

I just couldn't help thinking tonight how much I need Josh back to join me in the Baptist clap. It's been too underdone since he left me and I feel that it's causing my soul to dim. We used to rock out the Baptist clap during a worship service.

In case you're wondering (and who wouldn't be?) the Baptist clap is a dance move. It is in fact, the only dance move allowed in a Baptist church; albeit a liberal Baptist church. It involve sclapping your hands with both elbows bent. The trick is this: you never actually move your elbows. You only clap using your shoulders for movement. And you must never, EVER move any other part of your body with the beat. The hands are the only things that can dance sin free. And that's only if there are no ladies present. I've included pictures to demonstrate below. Please enjoy!





I hope you've enjoyed the show. Bye!

My request

I'd like to get more serious about this blog and really make it an enjoyable part of my life. I find that the more I write, the more comfortable I feel with it. And since my fiction has been known to get the much feared "awkward slow clap of pity," and I no longer have an authority figure assigning me to make up an opinion on a piece of literature (or in the case of Dr. Jacobe, reiterate his opinion back to him), this is my only outlet for prose. My most treasured form of writing.

So my request, nay, my plea for those of you who read this blog, if there is such a person, is to give me a little feedback. Leave me a comment telling me what you like and don't like about my blog. What could I do to make coming here a more enjoyable experience? If your name isn't Theresa or Mom, this would even help by letting me know that there are more than just those two coming here. And if there is no feedback, I'll just have to resort to randomly throwing the word porn into every entry just to get a little traffic from Google searches.


You have twenty-four hours!

Yay! Funtivities!!!

I go to work a little early some Mondays and sit down for our weekly staff meeting. This week I found we were being lead by a woman from operational losses. She felt it would be a great idea for us to "get woken up" with a great activity. So, before we got there she had strategically hidden pieces of paper within a four foot radius of where we were sitting with questions on them. What do we get if we win? Why we get to answer more questions than anyone else!

What followed were 30 seconds of awkwardly stumbling around and grabbing the highly noticeable papers and showing even more chagrin towards the activity than was probably necessary just to get across the point that we didn't want to do this ever again.

The sad part is, this could have been done so much better. I don't see Michael Scott sending his employees on a scavenger hunt without giving them a reward, even if it's just an ice cream sandwich. Did I say "just" an ice cream sandwich? I mean, AN ICE CREAM MOTHER FLIPPIN' SANDWICH! BOOYAH!!!

So what other wake up activities could we have done that might have even transcended into the highly sought after realm of funtivities?

Musical Chairs: We all remember this childhood anxiety attack. Only now, the winner gets the loser's salary for three months! I feel this will inspire promptness to the meeting and quite frankly, a trip to the hospital. So if you win injured, extra money and half-day Monday!

Who's Epileptic? or Seizure Ball!: Okay, here's the scenario. All of the blinds are closed, there are two teams, two goals, one ball with lights all around it flashing brightly. All you see are blue, green, yellow, banker's elbow in your face! Whoever is epileptic is on the floor convulsing. You've just outed them. Now others can judge them accordingly. And best of all, whether someone seized, or the resident sexagenarian got tackled to the floor, they need someone to take them to the hospital so, again, half-day Monday!

I've come a long way baby

I realize that if you read this blog you'll probably make the incorrect assumption that I only have one religion. To be exact, I have four. Of course Jesus is my first love. But my lesser three have always been of the utmost importance to me, sometimes even taking precedent over my own Christianity, sadly. The other religions include Apple, Coldplay, and Gomez worship.

These are quite possibly my three favorite things in the world. I sadly admit that in my lifetime I've converted more people to Apple and Gomez than to Christianity. Which is made even sadder if you consider the fact that it takes at least $1200 to convert to Apple. But I am narrowing the gap! And I don't feel like Coldplay needs too much evangelism anyway.

But, I feel like I'm making progress as a human being. In my eyes, these things are no longer the embodiment of perfection. Gomez is opening for Dave Matthews in July and I'm not going. In the past I would have paid the outrageous amount for the ticket, driven to Atlanta to see them (leaving before the actual concert of course, since no band is worth sitting through Dave Matthews for), and then zombied my way through the next day because of my lack of sleep.

Coldplay recently released a new album and, while I think it's amazing, I am able to point out obvious flaws in it. (Seriously, who puts six songs on three tracks? Make them six tracks. It makes the album look longer and more worth my money.) And they're coming in concert in November and I find myself unwilling to fork out $80 for a ticket.

And finally, and most amazingly, in the past few months, not only have I seen the MacBook Air and iPhone 3g, but I've understood exactly what they were and decided that despite their awesomeness, I don't need to spent my money on them.

Yay for personal growth!

Sin part 2

I've been going through a lot of changes lately and I've really been growing and learning a lot in my relationship with God. For a long time I had started to view God as a force, rather than a person. This made Him feel so distant and cold. I didn't put a lot of effort into pursuing Him because a relationship didn't seem possible. But when I made that shift from force to person, it became easier to get to know God and to really love Him. You can't deeply love and know an impersonal thing.

Now, I'm starting to view sin in the same way. My view of sin is becoming much more personal. In the same way I find it hard to hate a tree blown into a house, I couldn't hate sin when it was only a force. But when I view sin as the personality and purpose behind the results of sin, I'm able to truly hate it and, I believe, view it as God does.

As I said in my last post, I've been seeing the effects of sin in the lives of people I love a lot lately. In most cases it's not even that particular person's sin, but rather someone else's sin that's having an effect on them.

I'm seeing sin as my enemy because it hurts people I care about. I truly am starting to see sin with hatefulness and I'm wanting to stay as far away as possible. I have pictures in my head now of tears flooding from the face of people I care about. I've seen the helplessness they feel towards the circumstances that sin brings. That's burned into me and I can't get over it.

I don't think I can sit on the sidelines anymore. For too long I've lacked a sense of urgency. I've been all talk and no action but that has to stop. People's lives are being ruined out there and I have the answer. I know how to help. I know who they need!

What kind of pathetic person would I be if I saw someone being beaten by a person that I knew I could kick the crap out of but still did nothing? But that's what I do every time I see sin and it's effects, yet I do nothing and just sit on my knowledge. No, I might not be able to heal the problem, but I know the answer, and if I just bring Jesus into the equation, sin doesn't have a chance.

So basically, I'm getting fired up over this stuff and a real passion is starting to build inside of me. I can't waste time worrying about how much I don't like my job or wishing my dating life were going better. Those are all secondary to my calling. Jesus didn't call us to make disciples of all nation once we get our lives together the way we want them. Why should God trust me with the blessings I want if I can't follow the simplest of instructions?

There's a dying world out there and I can't keep doing nothing!

Sin part 1

I realize that lately most of my posts have been pretty heavy rather than reflecting my normal perky attitude that I have in real life, but I've just been really contemplative over things lately. I'm going through a lot of growing lately, so I'm trying to share the process whenever I get the chance to write on here. I promise I'll write more whenever I get a desk. If you'd like to contribute to my desk fund, I'll take any donations. But on to the point.

I've been thinking about sin a lot lately and how I view it. I feel like for so long I've thought of sin as an action. I never really hated it, but simply thought it was bad and tried to stay away...sometimes. But lately I've been exposed to sins real effects and my view of it has started to change.

I believe that the biggest lie people use as an excuse for their sin is that it's their sin and they'll deal with the consequences. I think that people can so easily give this excuse for their behavior because they're naive enough to believe that their actions have no bearing on those around them and only on themselves. People are all slightly masochistic, I think. We don't mind doing things that will hurt us in the end which is why we find it so easy to sin. We can deal with the eventual repercussions because of the immediate pleasures. But, I believe that if we truly believed our actions had effects on people we care about, we would be more likely to think before acting.

You see, sin isn't just a personal issue, it's very much a public issue because its effects leave the person's life that originally committed the sin and seeps into the lives of others.

Don't believe me? Then ask the children of a divorced couple. The dad might sit the kid down and tell him, "This is just between me and your mom. It has nothing to do with you." But the truth is, that sin is going to scar that kid for the rest of his or her life; effecting how they view relationships, how they trust, and their entire view of life. Or maybe ask the parents of a person who commits suicide if that sin had any effects on them. Or maybe the rape victim who committed absolutely no sin at all, but has to deal with the filth of another man's sin. Ask her husband if that sin has had any effect on him.

My point is simply this, when we start to view sin as more than a personal issue, we begin to take our first steps towards viewing sin with the hatred that God views it with. Sin is absolutely evil. It is the definition of death and nothing less. It disconnects us from our creator and Lord and curses us to hopelessness. We can't be followers of Christ and be apathetic towards sin.

If we, as the Church, could just grasp a hatred for sin, I feel that we would be much more effective. Rather than viewing those far from God with judgmental eyes, we could see them with compassion and see that they are trapped under a curse and in the grips of an evil that is keeping them from Jesus. We could approach them with thoughts of rescue rather than condemnation. And we might be able to remember that we too were once captives of death.

Unity, not conformity

I feel I need to preface this blog post. I'm not sure if what I'm saying is right, but it's something I'm working on and I'm hoping that I can get a little feedback in some way to wrestle out the kinks and see if there's any credence to my claims. It's a little long, so bear with me.

Lately I've very slowly been reading through Romans. Paul, in chapter 14, talks about the issue of personal conscience of believers. He gives the example of two people; one who eats meat and another who only eats vegetables. The command he gives is that the one who feels free to eat meat is not to look down on the one whose conscience forbids it and the one who eats only vegetables not to judge the ones who are comfortable eating meat. His point it that there's nothing wrong with meat or anything God has created but a man should follow his own conscience. If I'm okay with drinking beer, I shouldn't look down on someone who thinks it's wrong and think that they're not as spiritual as I am and they are commanded not to look on me as a drunken sinner and condemn me on an issue of personal conscience.

I think the whole point Paul is making in this chapter is that God wants unity among believers. But, so often we misconstrued this and begin thinking that we're all supposed to believe the same things. But God is so unique and creative. As His image bearers we also hold those qualities. God doesn't want us all to look, think and act the same. And, in this vein, I don't think He reveals who He is to us all in the same way. I'm thinking that maybe the reason so many people have a hard time seeing God working in their life is because they're looking for Him to do it the same way He's done it in their pastor's or their friends' lives. God speaks to everyone in different ways.

I'm sure that Paul knew this. He knew that He couldn't approach gentiles in the same way He approached Jews with Christ. When the Apostles preached Christ to the Jews they heavily used scripture and Old Testament prophecy to show that it was Christ that the Old Testament was talking about all along. But that wouldn't work with gentiles. God would speak to them in a different way. The Bible is still necessary, but Paul has to use different methods to bring them to it. Such as in Acts 17 when he uses their own pagan gods and literature to teach them about Jesus.

And even after they understood what he was teaching them about God, there's no way they saw God in the same way that the Jews saw Him; as their deliverer that they had followed for the entirety of their existence.

God speaks to people so differently. I've talked to my friend Brandon and he's told me that God really speaks to him while he's working out. I think that's awesome, but that just never happens to me. I usually have trouble enough remember what lap I'm on to really be able to have spiritual moments. All that usually goes through my head when I'm working out is, "She's seventy-five! How did she lap me again?"

But I've found that one of the major ways that God speaks to me is through reading. I can read practically anything and God will speak to me through it. I've even found that God likes to show off by speaking through atheist authors more so that Christian ones.

But my point is this. We, as believers, don't have to agree on everything. In fact, we really only have to agree on one thing, and that is our view of who Jesus is. God wants His followers to rally around Jesus and not make gods out of stupid issues that don't warrant more of our time than telling others about Jesus. If we just seek after the way that God speaks to us, then everything else just sort of comes with that. I think that He's blessed everyone with a unique way to hear Him. We need to use that blessing to lift up and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ, not argue over pointless things while the world goes to hell. God demands unity, not conformity.