Weekend Challenge

Everyone have a good memorial day weekend. I have been so busy I didn't realize this was a holiday weekend. Here is a weekend challenge:

1. Eat something you never would have tried.
2. Find a trail near you and walk/run/bike for a while.
3. Read a book you never would have read.

Blue Like Jazz

I am almost finished with "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. It is a great book, a more spiritual side to God rather than the feel good ra-ra stuff. It is a great read and I recommend it for everyone Christian and Non-Christian alike. Here is a quote that struck me....

"Can you imagine if Christians actually believed that God was trying to rescue us from the pit of our own self-addiction? Can you imagine? Can you imagine what Americans would do if they understood over half the world was living in poverty. Do you think they would change the way they live, the products they purchase, and the politicians they elect? If we believed the right things, the true things, the true things, there wouldn't be very many problems on earth."

Great Long Weekend

This was a very relaxing weekend.....

Friday Night: Went to dinner with Andrea

Saturday: Did some work in the morning, worked out with Andrea, went to dinner with some friends.

Sunday: Did some work around the house, read a book, rode 7 miles to help a friend with a fence, rode 7 miles back, cooked dinner and watched a movie.

It was a very nice weekend, although we did miss church on Sunday. I hope everyone else's weekend was good.

Life Story

Setting
Conflict
Climax
Resolution


Fill these elements in for your life. Story elements are universal.

Daily Challenge 2

Improve one thing you dislike about yourself today.


I am not an emtional kind of guy so it is often times hard for me to talk about anything except for intellectual or analytical things. I realized last night while talking with some friends I need to change this. The moment I got home I started my new found self; I started talking about random stuff that matters to my wife and our relationship. It wasn't too hard and it was fun. I will continue to improve myself in this area everyday.

So again, Improve one thing you dislike about yourself today. If I can do it so can you.

Pacifists an FBI threat?

This is interesting

What is Contemplation?

I started reading Thomas Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation". This book is awesome. Although it is not your average "feel good" book I recommend it for all to read. The opening paragraph hits you right in the face.....

Contemplation is the highest expression of man's intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that Source. It knows the Source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes both beyond reason and beyond simple faith. For contemplation is a kind of spiritual vision to which both reason and faith aspire, by their very nature, because without it they must always remain incomplete. Yet contemplation is not vision because it sees "without seeing" and knows "without knowing". It is a more profound depth of faith, a knowledge too deep to be grasped in images, in words or even in clear concepts. It can be suggested by words, by symbols, but in the very moment of trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has said, and denies what it has affirmed. For in contemplation we know by "unknowing". Or, better, we know beyond all knowing or "unknowing".

What does $456 billion buy?

When the Iraq War first started I was all for the liberation of oppressed people and taking out Saddam Hussien even though it was under perceived false pretenses. But now it is dragging on too long. Some say Americans live in a "Now" society in which we want everything now and for this reason we think the war is dragging on too long. Well this could be the case. Or it could be that nobody really has an answer to Iraq and think throwing more money and manpower will do the trick. I don't normally sit on the fence on issues but in this case I must. I, as well as the majority of Americans, do not know what is going on in Iraq other than spending boat loads of money and people dying. Give me a plan, give me some results, give me a perceived future of Iraq and then I can make an opinion. Right now it is just a big mess.

Check out what $456 Billion could do....

Daily Challenge

Think of 3 people you know. Whether you love them or hate them do something nice for them today. Buy them a soda, call them on the phone, send them an email, write them a poem, take them to lunch, whatever you want to do. Just make them smile. Be an example, let that Light shine!

Good Short Read

I received some books for my birthday and one of them was "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis. While Lewis is probably one of the best apologist for God this book shows the opposite side of that coin. In this book Lewis struggles with his faith after his wife dies. He likens his faith to a "deck of cards" in which he didn't know what faith was until he was overwhelmed and the cards came crumbling down. This book is a very short read and very interesting I recommend picking it up. Here are some notable quotes from the book:

Is God a clown who whips away your bowl of soup one moment in order, next moment, to replace it with another bowl of the same soup? Even nature isn't such a clown as that. She never plays exactly the same tune twice.

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?

And so, perhaps, with God. I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can't give it; you are like the drowning man who can't be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.

Not my idea of God, but God. Not my idea of H., but H. Yes, and also not my idea of my neighbor, but my neighbor. For don't we often make this mistake as regards to people who are still alive--who are with us in the same room? Talking and acting not to the man himself but to the picture--almost the precis-we've made of him in our own minds? And he has to depart from it pretty widely before we even notice the fact.

Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow a square or round? Probably half the questions we ask--half our great theological and metaphysical problems--are like that.

Better Day

I guess today was a better day. Got some things sorted out in my life, although not completely so we shall see what the future holds. Whoever tells you they have it all sorted out is lying to you. People often ask why I don't worry or how I can take life as it comes and goes. Not to say I don't stress out from time to time, but generally I am a laid back kinda guy. This is the reason:

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

It is a lot easier when you come to the understanding that control is an illusion. There is no control in life; nobody is in control of their own lives. So suffice to say if we have no control why do we worry so much about results? Do the best with your talents and let God lead the way. You will find that you are in a much more peaceful place.

Bummer Day

Ever have one of those days in which nothing goes right? Well today was that day for me. From dealing with stuff at work to family issues it wasn't the best day. Oh well.

Pastor Preaching Environmental Issues

I was talking to a friend (Who is also doing a waste sort for his church to minimize their footprint) of mine who goes to Northland Church here in Longwood, FL. I was talking about how I am viewed as a nut because I am passionate about environmental issues and God. It seems that in modern society those two don't mix. You are either a Conservative God Fearing Capitalist or a Bleeding Heart Hippie Environmentalist. There is no middle ground on either side. So I was surprised and happy to hear his Pastor is preaching both Godly principles and Environmental conservation or as he calls it "Creation Care". Here is an article written by Dr. Joel Hunter pastor of Northland Church of Longwood, FL.

Article Here