Archive for Religion
January 21, 2010
Filling that Good Old God-sized Hole
6:57 pm | Culture | Religion | Comments: 1
One of the greatest questions ever in the history of humanity is what does it take to bring a blogger out of retirement. Is it bribes? Is it cajolery? Is it boredom? The answer in my opinion is inspiration. Deep in the heart of every blogger is a desire to tell the world how he/she feels. That’s been the great thing about Twitter: we’ve discovered that a great many thoughts and feelings can be expressed in 140 characters or less. Micro-blogging, as I call it, is a time-saver and also enables you to offer up your musings to the world more or less as they occur to you personally. However, sometimes you need more. Sometimes you need a real blog. And if your blog has been retired for nearly two years, out of retirement you must bring it.
I have gone to lengths over the past year or so to keep my finger on the pulse of culture. It’s key to not becoming hopelessly out of touch as the years inevitably progress. The motion picture “Avatar”, specifically the 3D version, is a must-see in terms of a cultural heartbeat. As movies go it’s got all the elements of a Hollywood classic. The story has definitely been told before, and it uses plenty of Hollywood gimmicks to excite you. However, it still manages to be inspiring and thought-provoking, as well as a major technological step forward in the way people watch movies. A great piece in the New York Times today points out that no matter what kind of person you are, Avatar will press your buttons.
So let’s talk about what I walked away with from Avatar. Those slender, blue people-ish things you’ve been seeing on the internet are the Na’vi, a humanoid alien race that is intimately connected to the flora and fauna of their planet Pandora. In fact, they worship a deity named Eywa who manifests herself as a tree. The Na’vi find themselves in a struggle for survival against humans from Earth who are bent on bulldozing the Na’vi homeland in search for a rare and coveted mineral. The primary protagonist eventually finds himself praying to Eywa for help in the fight, which she then sends in the form of animals which help in fighting the humans in a desperate battle.
Make no mistake, people: this is not unusual. People everywhere worship nature. That’s not what’s interesting about the Na’vi religion. What moved me the most in the movie was that Eywa heard and answered the prayers of her people. A god that cares about its people, provides for them and delivers them from trouble, is something which all humans desire at some level. That’s what we want as creatures, and that’s what we need. Here’s the best part: there is such a god that lives, and his name is Jehovah. The Na’vi and their planet and their god are fantasy, but there is a definitely a God who has revealed himself to us in many marvelous ways.
Falling asleep after watching the movie a thought crossed my mind: “I wish God would show himself as powerfully as Eywa did in the story of Avatar.” He has, though, especially in the individual lives of people. We definitely missed out on the days when his hand of power was more freely administered among men visibly, but that power is still there. For now, you need eyes of faith to see it. The revelation we’ve been given about who God is and what he does is actually far more fantastic and unimaginable than anything James Cameron could ever put on a screen. In a way though, Cameron captured a very fundamental need of human beings: to have close communion with a loving God.
“You Saw What in ‘Avatar’? Pass Those Glasses!”
August 30, 2007
Something for August
6:53 pm | Religion | Comments: 2
Times have been slow on SIO, and if I don’t make a post some time in the next 36 hours I’m in danger of not having anything in the archives for August 2007. That would probably be some sign of decay in other webrogs, but not SIO. As many of you know by now, SIO rides the waves of the webrogging life cycle like the Ark once road the waves of divinely-decreed global devastation.
Today I’m going to make a quick point about the Pope for the benefit of some new readers. Not Herr Ratzinger himself, but rather his job. Roman Catholics use many devices by which to support their idea of a pope, one of which is Matthew 16, where Jesus passes church authority to Peter. Without even going into the whole direct-descendant-from-Peter quagmire, the problem with this is that the authority of the church (the “keys of the kingdom”) was not passed exclusively to Peter, it was passed to all the apostles. Read Matthew 18, especially verse 18, where it’s clear that not just Peter but all the apostles have the same authority.
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
It is interesting how little but very important scriptural details like plural pronouns get overlooked many times. That’s what’s great about the King James Version of the Bible with its Elizabethan English. In the KJV, the second-person singular pronoun is “thee”, and the second-person plural pronoun is “you”. In modern English this distinction is reflected in the south as “you” and “y’all”, but since only rubes put “y’all” into serious print, the distinction would be lost entirely but for the sake of context.
This is just one reason why I don’t accept the idea of the Pope. The early church was established under the Jesus Christ-appointed authority of all the apostles, not just Peter. The errors associated with the Roman Catholic teachings about the pope go beyond this particular point, but it’s one that I’ve been reflecting on lately.
July 17, 2007
Sorting It Out
6:29 pm | Religion | Comments: 3
As I had hoped, going to Covfamikoi did a good job of getting me out of the spiritual rut I so often find myself in. Most areas of life go in hills and valleys; good times and bad. I can only assume the rest of life will be this way. It seems to me the key to navigating such asymmetrical metaphysical topography is to recognize when you’re in a valley so that you can take steps to get out of it. When you find yourself on a hill, the key is to find a way to climb higher. As cheesy as that sounds, in my experience it’s true.
One thing I have perennially struggled with spiritually is maintaining an active and consistent prayer life. Covfamikoi brought this out into the glaring light of day, and a conversation this weekend with CovmaNate revealed part of the problem. He remarked on the fact that many people complain about various things, but how much time do they spend praying about those things? It was a valid question, one that made me realize that my prayer life has for some time been rather unorganized. I have in the past done a prayer journal, which was really helpful. It was basically just a list of items written down, which I would later review and mark old ones that had been answered. A prayer would then essentially amount to a one-person popcorn prayer. The idea of spending large chunks of prayer on one major theme is a new one to me, which I’m almost embarrassed to admit, and it’s an idea I hope to explore in the near future.
June 10, 2007
Remember
10:54 pm | Religion | Comments: 7
The great thing about being a Christian is that there are times in life when it couldn’t possibly get any better. The great thing, specifically, is that the Christian knows that such goodness comes from the hand of God. I wondered to myself recently, what tremendous debt do I owe to a God who blesses me so richly? What does God require in return? That I remember the Lord my God and give all thanks and praise to him. There are amazing tangible benefits to living a Christian life which come directly from the hand of God, and we must always remember the source of these benefits.
One reason for that is that the same God that sends blessings also sends trials - and since God does not change, if we remember his mercies we will have good reason to hope that his mercy will continue through whatever trials come our way. We as Christians should never stop looking to God for our help and blessing; we should always look to Jesus Christ who stepped into the gap and brought fallen man back into contact with the God whom he abandoned in the garden.
March 9, 2007
Accepting It
3:02 am | Religion | Comments: 7
Every once in a while I’ll run across something that reminds me of a person who I thought really did me or my family or somebody else close to me a bad turn in life. My gut reaction to this always used to be a mild form of hatred. Not the out-and-out fiery condemnation style of hatred, but more of a despising, degrading, and vindictive version. We all have these experiences in life.
My reaction to this for a few years now has been to catch myself in the act of hatred and tell myself I’m taking the easy path. It’s so easy to spew out all the problems you perceive in somebody, all the crap they did to you, how low and pathetic they are as people. The more difficult thing to do is to love them as fellow sinners struggling with sin, the way Jesus did. Jesus had a perfect right to despise the publicans and sinners, and yet he sought them out to teach and save them. So I tell myself not to give in to the hate, that’s for slackers. I instead decide to accept the challenge of loving somebody inspite of everything, for Jesus’ sake. In addition to fulfilling one’s calling as a Christian, this also is a great stress-reducer.
August 11, 2006
Getting a Breath
5:00 pm | Religion | Thoughts | Comments: 9
A word that is often used in the English language, yet seldom understood, is “inspiration”. You’ll hear people tell you they were inspired to do things. Such things tend to be works of art or some other creative endeavor. Ask people about why they enjoy a certain song and they might tell you it’s very inspiring. The funny thing about inspiriation is that it’s something you feel, but it’s not an emotion. So what is inspiration?
A dictionary will tell you that inspiriation means “stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.” I think we can all agree on this, but what’s really happening there? A stimulation makes me think of reacting to a certain color, or putting your hand on a red-hot electric range. Is it really as cut and dry as a mere stimulation, a programmed response by the brain? Maybe. It’s hard to know where to start with this. From my own experience, I know that alot of weblog posts, for example, are the result of what I would call inspiriation: some form of stimulus that gets me in a particular mood, at which point thoughts and feelings just start coming to me from nowhere. I remember a long time ago asking a music store clerk if he’d ever listened to Randy Edelman’s iconic sound track to the movie Gettysburg. “Only when I want to get inspired”, he replied. If I can be forgiven for stating the obvious, music is a very powerful inspirational force, which I believe nobody can escape. Getting inspired can mean having emotions evoked within you; that certainly fits our original definition.
Music, of course, isn’t the only source of inspiration in life. Life experience in general is a huge source of inspiration; you might say it’s the only source, if your idea of music is that it’s one way of relating the human experiece without words. Being in love might inspire a poet to write about his beloved. In fact, almost any emotion can be the inspiration for a poem. So we see that emotions can be inspirational in themselves. You could say, then, that inspiration is a medium by which people relate emotions to other people. It’s still not that simple though, because it’s not simply the inspiration that relates the emotion; it evokes in us that which relates the emotion. So once again the actual nature of the matter is enigmatic. To me, at least.
Inspiriation doesn’t have to be so closely tied to emotion, as it so often is, however. As Christians, we talk about the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. This use of the word is very literal; we believe in the very “in-breathing” of God, which gives us renewed spiritual life. Overall, I’d say that I’m still thinking about it all. What is it, really, that moves us when we hear a certain song, visit an old familiar place, or embrace a long-lost loved one? A good question, my friend.
August 2, 2006
Salt the Sidewalk!
5:23 pm | Religion | Thoughts | Comments: 11
Before I get written off as a criminal pessimist, allow me to illuminate you all. Work is a long, dark winter in which the only break in the clouds is knowing that we’re doing it for God’s glory. Christians don’t like their jobs or do them well because the work is so great; we do it to achieve a higher purpose. The work itself is what it is; long, tedious, frustrating, taxing, stressful, often quite a cutthroat business.
A Christian performs his calling willingly and gladly for Jesus’ sake; that doesn’t mean that Christians are all called to lives of glory and splendor - in this mortality. There’s a reason this life is referred to in the Bible as a “veil of tears”. This life is what it is: long, tedious, frustrating, taxing, stressful, often quite a cutthroat business. The only way we’re going to get through it without getting extremely depressed is looking to God for our help. All lasting joy is in Christ, none of it comes from this world.
I’m not saying that work is all bad. I personally enjoy long, dark winters. And I’m also not saying that there aren’t good times as well as bad. But let’s not get pie in our eyes and imagine that life and work is always going to be birthday cake and sparklers; it’s going to be tough and there will be lots of times when you will be looking desperately for a break in the clouds. I hope that you all know where to look when that moment arrives; in fact, I hope you will have been looking there all along.
May 31, 2006
The Basics
6:56 pm | Religion | Comments: 1
Tonite around the dinner table, my dad read the last few verses of Isaiah 40 to close the meal. Very familiar words, but today it struck me in a peculiar and powerful way. I’ve lately been feeling a heavy weight on my shoulders of unknown origins, just some kind of strange pressure. It’s like a collection of worries, annoyances, bad memories, regrets, guilt, and confusion all wrapped into one subconscious mass. How do people deal with this? Isaiah knew how to deal with this. Commit your life to the service of the Almighty God and he will take the weight from your shoulders.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
April 29, 2006
Reality Uncertain
7:39 pm | My Life | Religion | Comments: 5
Last night lying in bed I wondered what would happen if some hooligans decided to break into the house and kill my family. I know I’m not the only person ever to have had such thoughts go through my mind. I thought it through and all the scenarios ended up quite unpleasantly. Anybody can get through our side door, it’s so flimsy. I was once locked out and got it open with a woodchip. One good kick and it’s over. An experienced invader could get into any private domicile, I imagine. So how can one possibly sleep soundly knowing this?
My thoughts immediately called back to remembrance the immortal words of General Thomas Jackson: “I feel as safe on a battlefield as I would in my own bed”. A battlefield certainly offers more immediate danger to a man’s life than waiting for somebody to break into a house. What gave “Stonewall” Jackson this confidence? His faith in Almighty God. God is the only certainty in this life, for everybody and not just Christians. Christians are simply given enough grace to realize it. I’m in a very uncertain period of life, and I feel its worries, cares, and concerns weighing down upon me. At one time I thought that finishing college would really clear up some stuff in my life. Now it seems that it’s only made the waters more muddy. In spite of all of this, I have confidence that if I seek God’s face he will lead me though it all in a most excellent way.
Still, this doesn’t mean that I’ll stop sleeping with a K-Bar under my mattress. Survival is all about preparedness. It’s also why I gave up on sleeping naked. You think you’ll have time to find your boxers when your house is on fire? Not unless you’re some kind of ninja.
March 31, 2006
Chaos Revisited
1:52 pm | Religion | Comments: 0
I’ve talked before about the forces of darkness which exist in the world and seek to destroy anything in it that loves God. Living apart from God has much more subtle consequences, though. Imagine a world where life has no meaning, where no laws exist, and where there can be no basis of trust among people. Just people living their lives aimlessly in search of fulfillment for their physical needs and desires. It takes a very real toll on your life, emotionally and physically. I think Godlessness is easily the biggest creator of stress in today’s world.
God is who holds us in life. I always notice this when I stray from my Christian walk, failing to be in the Word and in prayer. Life gets frantic, my mind wanders constantly, I’m restless and discontent, stress builds up fast, I waste alot of time doing dumb stuff, people find me to be irritable and cold, and so on. I don’t consciously make the choice for all that to happen - all I do is neglect my duties as a follower of Jesus Christ. It all tells me that the comforting effect of the Holy Ghost is real; I can feel his presence when I seek God’s face, I can feel his absence when I turn from God’s face. The most amazing (and fundamental) part about the God of the Bible is that he is.
