Thanksgiving was a blast

Thanksgiving break was a blast. It’s hard in the moment to realize how great things are but hindsight is great. I spent a bit of time with my girl, Andi. She always cracks me up and we had some good discussions. I spent some time with her family, they’re fun too. They are word people, what I mean by that is that they play with words and make jokes by playing on them. I beat her whole family in a game they called Swimmin’ and I almost felt bad for beating her mom, but the whole family is smart so I don’t feel bad, I was dealt some good cards. I spent time with my dad’s family in northern Ohio. My grandparents and dad would watch tv and then go off on a tangent related to what was on tv, speaking really loud, preventing us from hearing any show and giving them our undivided attention, which at the time was annoying, but now, it’s just funny. We ate lots of good food and forgot the meaning of thanks-giving, at least as it related to God in the corporate setting. I hung out with my mom back in Cinci until I bored her to sleep (she was tired to begin with) and ate spicy Panera (what were they thinking?). Now I’m back to school and am starting my routine. It’s going to be a hard two and a half weeks ahead, lots of reading and writing, but this is what I’m suppose to be doing, so I’m honored to do it. If something really hilarious happens between now and then I’ll be sure to post it. Lastly, who in the world is reading by blog in Plano, TX?

it ain't easy being cheesy

I know when I started out as a Christian I was a lot more naive as to how life would play out. I thought that being a Christian would be a cakewalk, you know where you walk around and someone just gives you a cake, man, carnivals are great… I digress. I can’t tell you that when I wake up I want to go pray, or want to read my Bible. In fact, I don’t really want to do anything Christian many days when I wake up. Now either I just have missed the boat, or the Christian walk is hard. Unlike many other things, discipline is not enough, I can’t just get up and spend time with God out of duty, I mean I can, and I do have to some days do things out of obedience, but that’s not what my life is suppose to be. It’s a battle within myself many times over. I’ve heard the inner struggle compared to war, and I must agree, it is a war. I was just reflecting on this, this morning and thought I would share.

Thanksgiving

I love thanksgiving. Almost more than Christmas. Now if Christmas was about Christ and not about presents, it wouldn't even be a contest, but alas, the enemy has taken a joyous holiday and turned it into American consumerism, or maybe we just did that. Either way, I find that I enjoy the fellowship of family and the de-emphasis on presents and materialism all that much more. I do regret that every Thanksgiving turns into a contest among peers as to who became the biggest glutton, this year I will be out of the runnings. I’ve found in myself a stronger and stronger desire to not be a glutton and to remember God’s not excited about me being a glutton either. Fasting has helped me gain a control over the food that I doubt I would have realized I needed, had it been otherwise. Anyway, there’s nothing like being with my incredibly loud family, eating great food, laughing so hard it hurts and then listening to old men gabber on and on about meaningless football while the women are having deep conversations in the kitchen (and you thought they were just cleaning the dishes, no way, it’s just a method of keeping the men out of their conversation). This holiday season will be all the sweeter spending time with my brother who just graduated high school and has been spending his first semester away from home and my sister who is in her senior year at Wright State University. I hope your thanksgiving is as good as mine will be. Praise be to God, who brought to us eternal life through the only savior of all humankind, Jesus Christ our Lord!

HP and Me, throwing down

I'm tired of my HP printer. It should be shot. I'm contemplating sending it back to HP with a note on it, "CRAP." just so they'll remember that the 3420 Deskjet is a piece of work. Normally I'm not too hyped up on printers, but I think I've finally had it. There is very little redeeming value to the printer. It will not work without a color cartrige in it, although the HP website seems to disagree, as well as not having a "Print Assistant" that it tells me I have because I have a HP printer. It starts printing a large job then stops two pages in, it has done this repeatly. HP suggests restarting my computer, which has the effect of wasting my time. All in all, HP owes me a sweet laser printer. I know it won't happen, I'm realistic. Yet, me and the junk printer need to go take a 'walk'. One of us won't return. So here's to you HP, way to make a such a terrible and difficult printer.

chapel lecturer

Another world famous lecturer came and spoke in our chapel today. It’s actually a normative thing as chapels go. I’m sure that it makes some people feel impressed, but something else has made an impression on me. The speakers usually participate in a section following the lecture, during lunch, in which the speaker dialogues with people who want to speak with them. This smaller area is used to foster an atmosphere where a deeper level of learning can take place. Beyond the annoying questions that people ask that make the lecturer out to be a god of sorts, there is a sense of learning that takes place.

The thing that most impresses me though is the way we all interact with these heroes that we get to meet, these men and women that have helped shape our thought and challenge us to look at the Scriptures in new and deeper ways. There is a sense in which we want them to know us. We want them to build a relationship with us. We want others to know that we have a relationship with this person. And it got me thinking about my motives. Why do I want a relationship with this person? What if my relationship with them was just behind closed doors, would I still want it? Am I after the publicity of being known as a friend or an associate of their work? And I can’t help but think that secretly, my motives are being driven by a need to feel important, to gain leverage to feel accepted by others. To make the world stop and say, “Whoa, that guy is special!”

And then I started to think about their source of wisdom; the source from which they blow our minds and bring us new insights. And I think, “it’s God!” God is the one empowering them, giving them insights.

And then I start to think about how God works in people. Granted he does give status and power to some. Yet, it seems to me, that throughout the Bible we are told not to seek such things, not to desire men’s approval and worship. I think of Paul and Barnabas running into the crowd and tearing their clothes, scarcely being able to stop the people from worshiping them.

And then I think, man, God is so counter-intuitive, so ironic. Only when you aren’t driven by the need for prestige, about man’s glory, then you will seemly get it. And if you do get it, you won’t want it, you’ll point back to the Creator, even at the point of getting mad at these men who are trying to ascribe glory to you. And you’ll beg them not to, and they still will. Secretly they think you want it, secretly you might even have the desire to get it, but with every fiber in you, you know you shouldn’t want it, and you glory in not getting it, but pointing them back to the one that is truly worthy of the glory.

What a God.

that special bond.

There is a special bond two people who live in the same room hold together. You talk to each other, you share theological insights with one another, and you pass gas together. There's just something special about passing gas in the presence of another. Some prefer verbose gas that could tell a story while others prefer to express themselves with a machine gun like speech. Either way, the point is at the end of the day, there's that special bond between those two people who live in the same room. Sure, some may say it's simply the funk that's infiltrated the recesses of the mind (those poor only children), while others know it's something that goes beyond what words can express.

And who can forget the methods people take to rid themselves of this special bond. Some prefer to use "air freshener", while others prefer to open a window or door, still others prefer to light a candle (if you're brave enough). The point is that you express your expulsion method together.