So I got to spend the weekend in Indiana with my brother as well as a few other friends from Anderson. And of course Dean Waldron, who was my ride back...AWESOME! This was a sweet impromptu weekend for me, I decided Thursday at 3pm that I would ride down to my brothers with my Dad at 5:30pm. He was flying out of the airport in Indy to go to Florida with my Mom and some other friends for the week, so he was driving down to see my brother for a night and also drop off the pooch, Aj, for the week.
This weekend was awesome for me, I have a limited budget right now because I am making car payments on my new car, that I really like. So it was nice to go see my brother and my best friends for very cheap.
It was especially awesome because I just got some quality time with the people whom I love.
Something that many people may take for granted. Something that many people have seldom gone without. Something that many people have scheduled into their daily lives.
Something that I do not often get to enjoy.
Sure my parents live 15minutes away from my downtown home. This is really nice and I take advantage of it at least weekly. But their my parents...haha. I love them to death...but I am 21 years old...haha
But as far as friends and my brother, they are a little further away. I have to at a minimum take an hour long trip to Kalamazoo to see one of my best friends.
4 hours to my brother
3.5 hours to 2 besties
3 hours to a couple other besties
2 hours to another one
They are all over the place, just not in Grand Rapids. Except one...whom I do not hang out with nearly enough, hey Dean.... Haha
First thing I want to address before I get any further...
Depression. I am no where near being depressed. I love life right now, God is teaching me things in my silence, in my solitude.
Community, I have awesome friends. I know at a moments notice the guys listed above would be there for me. They have had my back before and will have it again if I need them. So as for this being some emo, depression writing? You're in the wrong spot.
Moving on.
Loneliness. Now this may be where I am at. I spend hours a day doing things with my time that are often meaningless. Working out, watching tv, occasional homework, making dinner, blogging?, work, school. (work and school are not meaningless...but let's be honest, it's work and school)
Very rarely do I get to hang out with people, I mean I go to school and work when my roommates are home... and I am here when they are working, for the most part. It's definitely fun when they are around..but let's be honest again.. I am in school, they all have careers. We are simply at different points in our lives. There are some people who I get to see around occasionally, even hang out with from time to time. But as far as me having someone whom I can confide in.
Someone who can be there for me at a moments notice.
Someone who pushes me to be better, daily.
Someone who I can do stupid things with but laugh non-stop.
That person is simply not here.
Quick Disclaimer: I am not talking about a girl... Girls always have and hopefully always will scare the shit out of me. I am talking about a man friend, someone with a beard...maybe.
These people are currently anywhere from 1-4 hours away. So yes, I sit here in Grand Rapids on a daily basis... and I am lonely. This is not something that would surprise the aforementioned besties, it's something that I have told each of them about. But it's the reality that I live in right now.
So as Dean and I were driving home today, and on I-96 around mile marker 60. There is a split in the road, where east and west bond lanes turn away from each other. There is a wetland in between that no highway could be built upon. This has always been the place where I say that I am officially "home".
I don't know why I chose this particular land mark, but most times I go to visit friends or my brother I pass this very specific location and it is always either me coming "home" or leaving "home". But today, instead of getting the warm fuzzy feeling of entering into familiarity. I had an opposite feeling, a feeling of uncertainty, of unease. I was not comfortable entering a place that has been home to be for 10+ years now. I realized something that I have come to accept over the past months. I realized that I was once again going back to my loneliness. I was going back to my "home"?
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Christian Community....?
In case you had not heard... Rob Bell has a new book...and it has been subject to controversy, to say the least.
"Farewell Rob Bell"
"The theology is heterodox"
"You’re creating a Christian message that’s warm, kind, and popular for contemporary culture. . . . What you’ve done is you’re amending the gospel, the Christian message, so that it’s palatable to contemporary people who find, for example, the idea of hell and heaven very difficult to stomach. So here comes Rob Bell, he’s made a Christian gospel for you, and it’s perfectly palatable, it’s much easier to swallow. That’s what you’ve done, haven’t you?"
-Just a few of the 'loving' things that have been said about Rob's book by some well known Christians.
Before I get too far on judging Rob's book or whatever I am going to do, let it be known that I have not read it. I have not even had the time to go out and buy it. I know not what it says, other than Rob is now an on the radar universalist (though he still says that he is not a universalist, cited in a Relevant Magazine interview, defending that by saying the traditional view of universalism differs greatly than his view on the afterlife.) He is saying that people can essentially choose Heaven, after they have gone to Hell. And with saying that...it is what it is, you can agree or you can disagree with it. All I know is that whether it would be a 5 minute stay in Hell or an eternity in Hell... It is not some place that I hope to ever set a foot.
Moving on from that though, to my point...
The body of Christ is arguing.
And now with Rob publishing this book with a secular label, Bashir doing an interview on secular TV, every newspaper (at least in GR) writing articles on this book and the contents of it....
The setting of the argument has changed.
Our argument, and internal conflict is now on the streets...for people all over the world to hear. People from every tribe and language and people and nation are now hearing our arguing, they are hearing the inconsistencies that we have within our Christianity Community. They are hearing that we may not have our "shit" together as we so often talk about. That we are just a rag-tag clan that cannot agree on theological issues much deeper than "Jesus wept".
I am not saying that our arguing within the 4 walls of the church was good. Sure there is a lot of healthy debate that must happen in everything, including doctrine. But why must we continue to argue questions that have been raised from 2000 years? if Jesus didn't give us the answer...then maybe we don't need the answer.
Calvinism? Arminianism? age old questions, who is right? both sides would say that they themselves are right....now if you follow very simple logic skills...considering both ideas of theological thought are opposing, that does not make one bit of sense. That is, if you confine God to an earthly logic system....
What if God is out of this world? What if our God is not confined by the laws of nature? What is our God is bigger than anything we have ever imagined? What if our God is in fact THE God of this world? wow...........wait? isn't He? isn't He all of those things? isn't He Awe-some? isn't He completely undefined?
You see where I am going? If our God really is out of this world (which He is), how could we begin to describe Him? How could we begin to put the parameters on Him? How could we say that He must conform to things like being either A. All powerful, and not all knowing or B. All knowing, and not all powerful? (cited from Bashir interview) How could we begin to limit Him by saying that He could in no way rescue people from Hell no matter how hard He tried? (wait, I thought Jesus did that once already?) How could we begin to limit God by saying that we are guided by Him along our entire journey, and that we have the freedom to choose our own journey?
All that this arguing is doing, is limiting God, well it's not limiting God. It's limiting our understanding of God. It's limiting the non-Christian's understanding of God. It's making our God look human, and that cannot happen.
So to answer the question: Who is right?
Rob- for being a Universalist?
Tim Keller- for being a Calvinist?
George MacDonald- for being a Universalist?
John Calvin- for being Calvinists?
Billy Graham- for being a Arminianist?
How about another question: Who of the last 3 made it to Heaven?
(I know that I do not have jurisdiction with this question, nor do any of you, but for the sake of thought...think about it)
My answer would be this:
They are all in left field, the answer probably does not even lay somewhere in the middle. The answer is somewhere at least 3 parsecs off of each theologians thinking. If we try to limit our God to the laws that we have come to abide by in this world, we will be wrong. By limiting our God to meaningless things such as human logic, we will become lost sheep. However, the good thing to know is that our Lord will find us. And He will do all that He can to bring us to Him, forever. For the Lord is MY Shepard, and He is ALL that I need.
-Note: this is not an exegesis work, it is no where near it. I have some very vague scripture references that are taken out of context. I have not done much research. I have only what is in my heart of hearts and what I learned from my various Sunday school classes and Bible studies that I have gone to over the years. As well as my independent study of the Bible, and study of books written by theologians from all walks of life.
"Farewell Rob Bell"
"The theology is heterodox"
"You’re creating a Christian message that’s warm, kind, and popular for contemporary culture. . . . What you’ve done is you’re amending the gospel, the Christian message, so that it’s palatable to contemporary people who find, for example, the idea of hell and heaven very difficult to stomach. So here comes Rob Bell, he’s made a Christian gospel for you, and it’s perfectly palatable, it’s much easier to swallow. That’s what you’ve done, haven’t you?"
-Just a few of the 'loving' things that have been said about Rob's book by some well known Christians.
Before I get too far on judging Rob's book or whatever I am going to do, let it be known that I have not read it. I have not even had the time to go out and buy it. I know not what it says, other than Rob is now an on the radar universalist (though he still says that he is not a universalist, cited in a Relevant Magazine interview, defending that by saying the traditional view of universalism differs greatly than his view on the afterlife.) He is saying that people can essentially choose Heaven, after they have gone to Hell. And with saying that...it is what it is, you can agree or you can disagree with it. All I know is that whether it would be a 5 minute stay in Hell or an eternity in Hell... It is not some place that I hope to ever set a foot.
Moving on from that though, to my point...
The body of Christ is arguing.
And now with Rob publishing this book with a secular label, Bashir doing an interview on secular TV, every newspaper (at least in GR) writing articles on this book and the contents of it....
The setting of the argument has changed.
Our argument, and internal conflict is now on the streets...for people all over the world to hear. People from every tribe and language and people and nation are now hearing our arguing, they are hearing the inconsistencies that we have within our Christianity Community. They are hearing that we may not have our "shit" together as we so often talk about. That we are just a rag-tag clan that cannot agree on theological issues much deeper than "Jesus wept".
I am not saying that our arguing within the 4 walls of the church was good. Sure there is a lot of healthy debate that must happen in everything, including doctrine. But why must we continue to argue questions that have been raised from 2000 years? if Jesus didn't give us the answer...then maybe we don't need the answer.
Calvinism? Arminianism? age old questions, who is right? both sides would say that they themselves are right....now if you follow very simple logic skills...considering both ideas of theological thought are opposing, that does not make one bit of sense. That is, if you confine God to an earthly logic system....
What if God is out of this world? What if our God is not confined by the laws of nature? What is our God is bigger than anything we have ever imagined? What if our God is in fact THE God of this world? wow...........wait? isn't He? isn't He all of those things? isn't He Awe-some? isn't He completely undefined?
You see where I am going? If our God really is out of this world (which He is), how could we begin to describe Him? How could we begin to put the parameters on Him? How could we say that He must conform to things like being either A. All powerful, and not all knowing or B. All knowing, and not all powerful? (cited from Bashir interview) How could we begin to limit Him by saying that He could in no way rescue people from Hell no matter how hard He tried? (wait, I thought Jesus did that once already?) How could we begin to limit God by saying that we are guided by Him along our entire journey, and that we have the freedom to choose our own journey?
All that this arguing is doing, is limiting God, well it's not limiting God. It's limiting our understanding of God. It's limiting the non-Christian's understanding of God. It's making our God look human, and that cannot happen.
So to answer the question: Who is right?
Rob- for being a Universalist?
Tim Keller- for being a Calvinist?
George MacDonald- for being a Universalist?
John Calvin- for being Calvinists?
Billy Graham- for being a Arminianist?
How about another question: Who of the last 3 made it to Heaven?
(I know that I do not have jurisdiction with this question, nor do any of you, but for the sake of thought...think about it)
My answer would be this:
They are all in left field, the answer probably does not even lay somewhere in the middle. The answer is somewhere at least 3 parsecs off of each theologians thinking. If we try to limit our God to the laws that we have come to abide by in this world, we will be wrong. By limiting our God to meaningless things such as human logic, we will become lost sheep. However, the good thing to know is that our Lord will find us. And He will do all that He can to bring us to Him, forever. For the Lord is MY Shepard, and He is ALL that I need.
-Note: this is not an exegesis work, it is no where near it. I have some very vague scripture references that are taken out of context. I have not done much research. I have only what is in my heart of hearts and what I learned from my various Sunday school classes and Bible studies that I have gone to over the years. As well as my independent study of the Bible, and study of books written by theologians from all walks of life.
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