T's journal

I don't think this is because it's Monday...

2008-05-12T17:00:07Z

...this is why I don't have one of those trendy Christian blogs (theologica.blogspot.com , that kind of thing) where I post all my musings, because most of it would be filled with T being depressed about the awful job he did Sunday night. As much as I'd love to say otherwise, I'm fairly positive that this has nothing to do with my usually self-depricating nature - things just didn't go well last night. Well, that's not entirely true, everything else went fairly well. But the talk was ridiculous. I like to be relaxed and having a good time when we do that, but I'm pretty certain that all the joking around last night happened at the expense of anyone actually hearing about Jesus. It's weird - talk to almost any pastor today, and ask "what makes you feel like a sermon went well?" and, among other things like "feedback afterwards", they'll almost always say "they laughed at the jokes."

As we've been reading through Acts with the guys' study lately, I can't help but notice that stand-up wasn't ever really a part of the role of preacher. You can make all the claims that you want that it's just letting your personality come through or adapting to your audience or whatever, but it seems like it can certainly happen at the expense of the Gospel, which is I'm sure what happened last night.

Just pray I get another chance, I spose.

T

That wide awake, give or take, five o'clock in the morning feeling...

2008-05-08T19:13:20Z

...you know what would be awesome? If everything wasn't so complicated. I was going to say "if girls weren't so complicated", but the girl has so far turned out to be the easiest part of this. People and geography and logistics, on the other hand, are really annoying. Haha. I sometimes wonder, when God was putting people together, if He didn't think it would be a laugh to only have me fall for people that it doesn't make sense to be with. "Where should we put all these people?" "Let's put them around T, he doesn't have a chance with any of them..." ... I'm mostly kidding, but a look back at the last three or four years really does have me saying "wft?" quite a bit.

But this might work out yet, we'll see what the next few weeks hold.

T

Asleep in a parking lot...

2008-05-05T19:46:37Z

...is where I found myself Sunday afternoon. I had to run into walmart to grab a couple of things, and I sat back down in my car before heading home and fell asleep for AN HOUR. Good grief. I must have been tired. Whether or not that explains my generally black mood at youth group I don't know... I was just generally out of it, and the youth groupers' ADD-ness helped a whole lot ;-)

I dunno...I felt a lot of the usual frustrations I have been feeling, but it looks better this morning than it did last night. We'll see what the rest of the week holds.

T

Why I don't protest...

2008-04-22T19:46:39Z

In the Collegian today, they printed an incredibly long piece on the nature of protest and why yesterday, on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war, there wasn't a huge crowd out with picket signs on campus. How I feel about the war aside, I wasn't motivated to pick up a placard and tell the man where to stick it yesterday for reasons that have nothing to do with the war: most. protests. don't. work.

A while ago I read a book by Mark Steel called "Reasons to be Cheerful" where he gives a pretty entertaining history of his involvement with political protests in the 1980s in England, and fun as the book was, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the ineffectiveness of the whole thing. He worked for fifteen years to get Labour back in British government, and by the time Labour did end up back in, it was nothing to do with protests over mine strikes, it was a combination of smart rebranding on the part of the Labour party and a shift in the cultural zeitgeist that the Tories didn't even try to keep up with.

There are instances in which a gathered group of people can indeed change something. But a gathered group of university students in Fort Collins changing a war? Not especially likely. There's no romance to the idea of protests - if it works, then great, but if it doesn't (and it doesn't for issues like the war), then don't waste your time, and stop calling the rest of us bad citizens for not doing so either. There was an editorial in the paper also which said it was a shame that we're so apathetic - I take offense at that in a way. The fact that I wasn't out there waving a sign and chanting doesn't mean I don't care about this country. It means time is a limited resource and that I want to use mine as productively as I can, so I'll vote in such a way as reflects the things I care about, and I'll engage conversation with anyone who wants to broach the subject, and I'll try to be as informed as I can so that when something comes up that I can practically help with, I'm in a position to do so. But protesting? Really? I'll protest something in Fort Collins or on campus if you like, I'll protest CSU's jacked up funding system that gives almost all our money to the physical science colleges, I'll protest the 3 unrelated law, I'll protest Taylor Smoot being allowed anywhere near student government... because that stands a (albeit still pretty small) chance of being effective.

But as for protesting Iraq... yeah, it sucks and we shouldn't have gone into it, but I'm going to work a job, go to school, serve the church, sing some songs, keep up with the news... and see if I can't find something more worthwhile to give my time to than waving a sign saying honk if you like peace (which is funny in itself, because such honking certainly decreases my peace, but I digress...).

/end rant. Happy Tuesday! the week is closer to being over than it was yesterday!

T

About the tree...

2008-04-16T18:36:30Z

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However, I will say, your tree analogy doesn't do it for me, because that's destruction, not creation. If the tree were fixing my car after something broke it, that would be one thing, but we're talking about some really complex stuff, here. It's not so much that something happened, but that what actually did happen is too complex and too intricate to have happened randomly.

That might not be what Driscoll was arguing... in which case his argument is rather weak. But that doesn't mean the basic premise is flawed. In fact I think it's one of the strongest arguments in favor of creation.

----------------------

Yeah the tree analogy didn't quite communicate what I was trying to get across (it was 12.30am, that's my excuse). The fact that what did happen here is too complex to have happened randomly is not in dispute - and that was the point Driscoll made in arguing against "chaos made order," my complaint was with the general idea that design implies designer. Ray Comfort (evangelist turned tv personality, if you've ever seen any of Kirk Cameron's stuff since he became a Christian, Ray is the guy with the mustache and New Zealand accent) often tries to shut down debates by saying "do you see that building? Was it built by someone? How do you know that when you can't see the builder? Ah, therefore God exists." Or, as he suggests, in a simpler to remember format: building, duh, builder (that sounds vaguely funny when said with a New Zealand accent).

And I hate that argument. Two things about it, particularly:

1. Ok, the tree analogy was bad, but I still maintain that accidents can create... if, for instance, in a high school science lab in California, two jars of chemicals were sitting next to each other uncovered when an earthquake hit. They collide and form a distinctly new compound. A tortured analogy, perhaps, but you get my point.

2. The "it is, therefore it was created" argument has a fatal flaw in that there's no good reason not to apply it to the creator also. I, Thomas, exist, therefore I was created, ok, fair enough, but my parents were created too, on into infinity, and when you get to "who made God, then?", the Christian says "He's always been", and the atheist says "why can God always have been but the universe not always have been?"

Yes, I look at the world around me and stand in awe of God's handiwork (especially in this state...), but just saying that "it is, therefore He is" is a leap that we should probably stop putting in such simplistic terms, if that makes any sense.

This whole idea of "proving God" and whether or not that's a completely worthwhile pursuit was explored briefly by John Piper in Why I Trust the Scriptures , and I think he makes a fantastic point: If I could prove one theological truth or another, whether it be 6 day creation, or the existence of God, or the Flood, or whatever, I probably wouldn't be able to do so convincingly in the time that I would have with someone to talk to them about Jesus. While I can pull out all sorts of evidence, scientific studies and primary sources from thousands of years ago, ultimately the reason I know Jesus is God is because He's saved me and given me a new heart, which should probably be more of the focus of our evangelistic efforts. Although for what it's worth if you're looking for a proof of God I still think it's much tighter case to start with the reliability of the New Testament and work backwards.

T

Give it up, Mark.

2008-04-16T06:22:55Z

Ok, small rant incoming. For about a year now I've been enjoying and learning from the teaching of one Mark Driscoll from Seattle, but he blew it this week and I just want to vent for a second.

He spoke on Creation this week (that is, something made the universe, that thing we call God), and listed ten problems with Naturalistic Evolution (that is, the universe is a closed system, no outside force happened to make it, it just came about). Now, I believe wholeheartedly that God made everything, but as Christians in particular we need to be sure to talk about this intelligently, because while the Truth isn't stupid, we have a habit of making it sound that way.

So why am I blogging about this? I just get irritated when I see Christians forming teams on this issue. Particularly with Expelled coming out this weekend...let's not have this turn into something it doesn't need to, please.

That said, Driscoll's "Ten Incorrect Assumptions Made By Atheistic Evolutionists"

1. Nothing made everything.

2. Chaos made order.

3. No designer created something that was designed.

4. Impersonal matter created personal humanity.

5. Unintelligence created intelligence.

6. Time has wasted away missing links.

7. Evolution can be replicated through experiments.

8. The earth is eternal.

9. Everything is hopeless.

10. There is no God.

I'll give him 2, 6, and 7. Yes, this planet is awfully well put together for something that, according to those who would say it just "happened", was something of an accident. Yes, there are some gaps in the fossil record that cause some problems for those who hold to atheistic evolution. And yes, attempts to replicate evolution under experimental settings usually (but not always) end up showing that while things do change even at the DNA level to adapt to their environment, they also change back when put into a new environment.

But the rest are the types of things Christians keep saying that make me want to put my head through a window. 1, 3 and 5 are the old "where there's a watch, there must have been a watchmaker" argument", which frankly just isn't true. Those who would say Earth is here by accident don't hold that it "just happened", most can detail the process they think to be true quite well. The fact that they claim an impersonal force did the creating isn't necessarily wrong (that is to say, I think it is wrong, but not because it's logically problematic) - when a tree limb falls on a car, you don't assume a person must have done it, because "something happened, it must have been a personal force", do you? No, an impersonal tree did it. The same thing could (but did not) have happened with the universe, so stop pretending it couldn't have.

Oh, I'll give Driscoll 4 as well - the fact that we have personality, emotions, the types of things we would credit to our souls, is pretty hard to explain outside of God.

8 is simply a mistake. Atheists don't hold that the earth is eternal, rather that the universe could be. I don't really know what else to say about that, except that as an argument for God ("you silly atheists with your infinite universe, why can't you see that there's actually an infinite God?") it sounds really bad. Again, I'm not arguing against the existance of God, I'm a pastor for crying out loud, I believe in, love, worship, follow, and expect to see the God of the Bible. But these are not the reasons why.

9 and 10 kind of hint at the same thing - if atheistic evolution is true, they why does anyone do anything? This, again, is one of those things that isn't true but also isn't illogical. Christians pull this all the time - "well, if you're an atheist, you might as well roll over and die" (Driscoll actually says something very close to this). While it's true - in Christ there's actually a reason for life - the fact that atheism doesn't give as clear cut a reason for getting up in the morning (either "just because" or "to further my genes" are the most common responses in my experience) isn't a reason to shoot it down. There's nothing intrinsic about life that means it needs to have an answer, or a creator. I think these things do exist, but the reason I think that isn't because atheism is intellectually impossible, it's much more complicated than that. Me getting married in the morning isn't intellectually impossible (I'm sure, if I emptied my bank, I could drive to Vegas and wander the streets until I find someone who I can lie to convincingly enough that they'll marry me in a drunken stupor), but the question of whether or not I will get married tomorrow is much more complicated than that.

So sorry about the long rant, but I feel strongly about this - as Christians we really could use to stop pretending like everyone who doesn't agree with us is stupid... wrong, perhaps, but not unintelligent. And shut-you-down-quickly arguments like the ones used by Driscoll this weekend don't help anyone.

T

Long time no write...

2008-04-14T18:57:01Z

I guess by "long time", I mean just over two weeks, which isn't really that long. Anyway.

It's been an interesting few days. Nothing horrific has happened, but it does seem like every little bit of progress that gets made is accompanied by a thousand times as much crap to wade through... a small categorical summary:

1. School - I have four classes this semester. And I have 4 papers due this week. Why the heck do they do this??!!? So unfair.

2. Music. Two interesting truths are weighing on me: 1, Expiration Date will never be anything more than something we do for fun at 3Js from time to time. 2, I don't really want to go to 3Js ever again. Haha. I love playing with the guys, and I love the songs, I've put my life into those things... but we either need some serious direction or to give it up.

3. Girls. I've said this before, but I'll say it again... I don't know any! Haha. I've never really experienced this before, but I just don't know any single girls my age. I'm not completely sure what to do about that, but then, if I'm planning on running away this fall then there's not too much point in doing anything about it.

4. Church. Wowwwwww. I found myself at work today wondering if things wouldn't have been much easier had Rex stayed. I'm just really discouraged at the moment... I'm not saying I do all that I can, I'm sure I could do more, but it sure feels like there's a huge lack of return. Not that it's all about results, but it seems to point to either me doing something wrong or... no, no I can't think of anything else that it points to actually.

And I don't know if last night was just a weird night for everyone, or if people didn't really want to be there, or...what. But it felt really odd. And I can't believe we're going to have to have *that* conversation again. I pray we don't.

There is a light that never goes out...

T

"It's easy to be cynical", she says...

2008-03-31T06:02:35Z

..."I'd love to get the chance to be cynical," he thinks.

Hector was the first of the gang...

2008-03-31T05:27:24Z

Ahh the Sunday evening afterglow. And this is rather a good one. Sometimes I get back thinking "everything's awful!" and sometimes I get back thinking "everything's brilliant!" and tonight is neither and both. It's a happy medium. I'm not sure if I was able to communicate what I was trying to communicate, but I did by best and my God's grace I hope it made it to some people's hearts.

Oh, and if the talk seemed "aimed" at anyone, I promise, promise, promise, that it wasn't - I was seeing things in the text as I was studying Saturday night and thinking "dangit...why this week...this is going to look awkward..." ... but that's just how God moves sometimes, I guess.

That's the nice thing about preaching expositionally (that is, just going through the Bible chapter by chapter) - it's all set up weeks (months, in this case) ahead, so there's never any risk of me trying to get at people.

I must say, however, that between the three services today, I saw and heard about a lot of hurt. I know it's a broken planet, but as I listened to people talk about everything from problems with friends to jail time to cancer, I can't help but wish there was more I could do to help them all. I take that back. I wish there was more that could be done to help them all. I'm not saying I wish I could fix everybody's problem because I've got a messiah complex, or anything... I've been reading "This Beautiful Mess" by Rick McKinley lately, and he talks a lot about how the world curses or doesn't believe in God because of the hardships in their life, and too many Christians go on about hoping Jesus would rip through the sky soon and put an end to everything... but maybe...just maybe...both groups are a bit off, and those Christians should take their future-hoping and use it for good... that is... if eternity in Christ is figured out... then rather than waiting for it... why not give this life away in the mean time? Someone else needs it. And can have it.

T

Post-Easter...

2008-03-25T04:28:40Z

Good service Easter Sunday. We had seventysomething people, and I hope and pray that Jesus moved in that place and changed hearts yesterday morning. I hear He did a fair bit of that among the youth group kids, for which I'm smiling.

I felt like an incompetant moron throughout the whole thing, but I'm getting used to that feeling now.

And this morning I woke up and had an enormous headache... which sadly I'm still stuck with. So I'm going to bed.

T

Weird dreams.

2008-03-21T14:41:14Z

So while I was sleeping last night, in my head I was walking through a park with Ashley, which was fine, except I had this ridiculously large pile of books I was carrying, and we had to stop like every fifteen seconds because I would drop one, then have to put the whole stack down to pick it up, then pick up the stack again, and so forth. So strange.

One more day till the weekend....hooray...I know it's Spring Break, but it's been a really odd week, so I'll be glad to get back to some type of normality. Oh, and happy Good Friday.

T

Ah, Spring Day.

2008-03-17T17:57:49Z

...is what I'm calling it this year, because my break amounts to one day off. But what a glorious day it has been so far! I woke up at 11.30! Haha. It was very nice.

Yesterday was a really awkward day, mass miscommunication at the church meant a few things went really badly. But as far as I know everyone's friends again and we can move forward. Youth group was a blast tho, I love those guys.

Worship practice should be fun today, or at least a refreshing change from the last several times I've done this kind of thing.

Oh! And the best part! SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW :-)

T

I promise to re-evaluate this in the morning....

2008-03-10T05:49:34Z

But if how I'm feeling right now is any reflection of the truth, I'm deeply sorry to the youth group kids. It was a long week, a longer weekend, and I didn't put nearly the time in I needed on any kind of preparation. I wish there were a way around this... I want to give my life to those guys, I want to see them all meet Jesus and walk with Him into eternity, but... it always seems like other stuff gets put higher on the priority list, and I'm really not sure what to do about it.

Ah well, c'est la vie.

T

I can see my reflection...in the shop window...

2008-03-06T07:26:44Z

For various reasons, I can't help reflecting a little bit this evening. Tripped over some old photos on my laptop, talked to some people I hadn't in a while, that kind of thing... and I can honestly say (even though it's midnight and I'm writing a paper) that if, three years ago, someone would have told me where I'd be today, I'd have jumped for joy. Truly. Things weren't that bad 3 years ago, not by a long shot, but it's just nice, once in a while, to look back at life and see that progressive sanctification really does happen. I still struggle, sometimes with the same things I struggled with years back, but I can see where things have moved forward.

The best thing I can see having happened is that I'm not nearly as paranoid as I used to be. There's never (well, almost never) any laying awake at night going "what did he/she mean by that?" and thinking of how all the people I call friends probably don't really like me and have been pretending all this time and someday it's all going to come crashing down... I never really had any reason not to trust people (even though every shrink on earth would point to my parents' divorce for that, I honestly have nothing but happy memories of being a kid, and while I know there was a lot of pain involved for both of them, I don't really remember ever feeling personally affected by it), but for some reason I was always suspicious of my friends. It's nice not to be in that place... I have some of the most incredible friends a person could ask for (Troy, Mike, Nikki, Jess, Becky...and so on), but I did before, too. I just wasn't able to process that, for some odd reason.

For that matter, if someone would have told me 3-4 months ago that I'd be sitting here right now, I'd have jumped for joy. I guess in this moment I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by Grace. God's been incredibly good to me, and I'm writing this right now not to sound pompous and proud, but rather just to sigh and smile, and hope that the next time I feel like the world is caving in, I can remember that every time I've had that feeling previously, I've been delivered from it. But I know I'm a stupid human, and I'll forget like I do every time....

T

I'm only posting this because it's funny...

2008-03-04T04:26:48Z

Driscoll is apparently preaching the Song of Solomon this Fall, which should be a pretty interesting few weeks for the people who are married, and a pretty frustrating few weeks for those of us who are not. He's known for a pretty literal (rather than allegorical) understanding of the book, and in case there's any doubt, recently posted this video, for which he's currently taking all kinds of heat from people with nothing better to do. Me, I think he's right, but what do I know?

Bread Truck Monday

2008-03-03T21:03:10Z

So...Sunday. Was a great day, if I'm honest. Two good church services, heard from Stan Reib for the first time, and was encouraged and inspired to remember that church means people together working for Jesus, rather than divided people demanding things for themselves. Had a good lunch with Troy, Brittany, and Jess, and Jess continued his tradition of saying weird things without thinking them through ;-)

Then, youth group happened, and that was pretty exciting. As I lament here occasionally, I don't always know if what we do there has an effect in people's lives... but lately it seems like that's more likely rather than less. Cognitively, they really seem on top of things of faith, but how much that translates into living, I'm not sure. Either way, I'm pretty encouraged by the whole thing. Let's keep doing it.

T

And her iPod started to melt...

2008-02-28T20:54:32Z

I'm sure I'm far to young too be listening to a Morrissey album, but the man's a genius. Though it does leave you with that vague aftertaste of wanting to jump off a bridge.

Life's just sort of plodding along lately, which is neither good nor bad. Things are getting done, anyway, so that's a marked improvement from last semester. Looking forward to the guys' bible study tonight, that should be an interesting time.

Oh! And I seem to be reading a lot more than usual lately, and just to prove it's not all theology, I just finished Mark Steel's "Reasons to be Cheerful", which was incredibly interesting, though probably completely irrelevant to anyone not from the U.K. (it's a pain to track down actually, because it was only ever published in England, but the wonders of Interlibrary Loan came through, haha) I don't agree with everything Steel has to say (obviously, that would be weird), but it's a great read.

This weekend is either going to be exceedingly good or exceedingly stressful, most likely both. I'd love to spend it sitting in my room with a bunch of guitars making song demos, as good things seem to be happening on the song writing front lately, but there are many more pressing concerns lately...next weekend perhaps.

And before I run back to work... easily the funniest thing I've seen in a couple of weeks: Stand By Your Ham.

T

Stupid insomnia...

2008-02-26T20:37:51Z

Ok, so I haven't been sleeping much the last week or so... mostly owing to having too many things to do. Last night, I set things up so that I could get home at about 9pm and be asleep by 10, get a good 8 hours before getting up at 6am. So you know when I got to sleep? 1am. Because I had things to do? No, because I couldn't fall asleep. And the last caffeine I'd had was...actually, in thinking about it, I didn't have any caffeine yesterday. So that wasn't it. I don't really know what it was...I just couldn't sleep. I hate that.

Luckily, Troy had lent me a book a few weeks ago that I'd forgotten about... so at some point while I was tossing and turning I picked up Samson and the Pirate Monks . It sucked me in, I must admit. I'm halfway through it, and I'm not sure whether or not I like it yet, but it's certainly interesting (if that makes any sense...). I'll probably finish it tonight... so far the guy has just been detailing how much of a wreck his life is and how it got that way... I'd love to hear something about what he decided to do about it at some point.

Although if he doesn't get to that, I suppose it's ok not to do the formulaic thing... Don Miller in "Searching For God Knows What" talked about having gone to a seminar on writing for the Christian market, and was told there were basically three steps
1. Define a crisis, explain how miserable you were in said crisis
2. Give three steps to getting out of said crisis
3. Explain how happy and content you are now you've been through your steps and resolved the crisis

...Miller goes on to explain how such an idea repulsed him and how it didn't leave any room for the book he wanted to write on a Latin American Nun who keeps falling in love with foreign evil dictators. But anyway. I appreciate the honesty of Miller's books... there's never three steps and he would never say he's got to that 'happy place' yet. I shouldn't expect Larkin to get there either.

Sleep? Tonight? Please?

T

I'm fairly sure none of them read this anyway...

2008-02-24T06:55:42Z

...but I'm beginning to question what we're doing, cuz that's twice in two days I've heard yg kids talking about how far they feel they are from God. I think part of it's a life-stage thing, I spent most of last year feeling like I was running the wrong way spiritually... I mean, at some point everyone has to take the freshman-year-in-high-school (or younger) faith and turn in into real life faith, and sometimes that can be a bit chaotic for a while... but dangit, aren't I supposed to be the one to help people through that time?

I shouldn't lj at midnight, I probably think too much. I realized something tonight, looking at the youth leader at Waypoints ... I don't think I could *ever* be that guy. The "be 30 and pretend like I'm 14" guy. It freaks me out. I've never really been one to have a "act like a high schooler" switch that I turn on there... Pardon the Martin Luther King phrase, but I had a dream that we might have a place where we could come and figure out if being a Christian teenager meant something more than just wearing certain t-shirts and listening to Christian music and getting together to play ridiculous games... but all the guys that do it that way, seem to be the people God uses. Maybe I'm the one that doesn't get it.

Maybe.

But what to do?

T

Bless you, Resurgence.com ...

2008-02-22T23:57:45Z

So, a few months back I was bent on trying to get out to Seattle for a conference that happens to be Monday-Wednesday of this coming week. Sadly, the whole trip would have cost about $500, and that just wasn't going to happen. Mark Driscoll, John Piper, CJ Mahaney, Matt Chandler, and Jim Gilmore are all speaking at it, so it's an awesome conglomeration of really cool reformed thinkers (and Jim Gilmore, who's basically a business oriented sociologist). I consigned myself to hoping I'd get a podcast in a month or two, but then this morning, they revealed on the website they were going to stream the whole conference in realtime, online. Granted, I'll not be at the house for large chunks of it, but at least I'll get to see something from the comfort of my own (well, dj's own, but it's at my desk) chair.

Not that that was relevant to any of you in the slightest. Haha. U23D comes out tonight, I'm pretty excited. I'm debating going and seeing it this evening, my mom wants to go on Tuesday, so I could wait and see it for the first time with her...but...we'll see.

Very at peace with the Cornerstone situation for the first time in about a week, as usual, Thomas' worrying was all for nothing. In fact, this was a good week of figuring out exactly what my mission was there, and so even in the dark moments, I was grateful for it. One interesting view from the field though: I've never been around the pastoral search process much, and I'm not really around it this time, but the church leadership met with the RMCBA guys (the baptist organization helping us with the process) Tuesday night, and in talking about assessing the values of the church, they were asked to think about the church's positions in four areas:

the Bible
the community
homeschooling
politics

I'm not putting my foot in my mouth one way or the other on that selection of topics, I just find them interesting (and probably reflective of the area we live in, which I've never really claimed to understand).

Here's to a good weekend...

T

Ah, Driscoll...

2008-02-19T21:04:09Z

Sermon on "A Christian Perspective on Dating" this week was really interesting. It's hard not to say "yeah, in a perfect world..." every five minutes, but at some level, we are always saying that every time someone has an idea, because it's not a perfect world. So I think his comments are valid.

I do find it funny...and by funny, I mean Rolling On the Floor Laughing kind of funny, that someone asked if they could show a sermon from Mars Hill up at Frontier, and they got a firm "no" because of the "coarse language." It's funny mostly because the disclaimer they give at some of the more 'out there' MH sermons goes like this "This may feature some content that you wouldn't find in rural homeschool co-ops where women wear head coverings and guys churn their own butter." Churn away, then...

Had a really interesting discussion in my International Law class today about the nature of human rights, and, like EVERY discussion about human rights, it got stuck. Here's the sticking point, *I* think you can't answer this without talking about the Imago Dei, but I'd be very interested to hear if any of you have heard arguments that find another way around it:

"The campaign for human rights supposes that by nature of being human, we deserve certain 'inalienable rights' - not being tortured, not being enslaved, etc. Why is that? Historically, we have not known this, certain people have been subject to abuse of their 'human rights' without a second thought. We acknowledge that those people were wrong to do so, but why? If it's consensus (the majority of humans think all humans have these rights), what if the consensus changes? If we all vote to torture left handed people, is there anything wrong with that? If the majority decides, is it then right?

Some would argue that it extends to all animals. By nature of being alive, you have 'rights.' Why, then, is being eaten not something they're protected against? If you're a vegetarian, why does the rest of the animal kingdom not give you (or other animals) the same rights you think should be given to all animals?

Others would say a human is a sort of 'ultimate animal.' If so, why do we not designate an ultimate class of human? If the only thing that gives me 'rights', like not being killed randomly on the street or something, is that I'm a human and thus 'better' than other animals, shouldn't I be able to violate the rights of humans that I am better than?

Where do these rights come from?"

As I said, I don't believe you can resolve that without discovering that there is in fact an outside force that has created humans in it's image and as such has designated all humans as particularly special. But I would be curious to know if anyone has heard any other convincing ways out of the human rights problem.

T

Don't Quit on a Monday...

2008-02-18T19:46:00Z

that's the mantra church-types always tell their pastors - "ok, today didn't go well, don't decide how you feel one day after it happened." Today I'm experiencing a new feeling, I really don't feel like quitting. There are a couple of people that I wish I could have had more time to talk to, and one girl I'm really concerned for and need to find a way to get in touch with this week, but in general? It seems like last night went well. People appeared to enjoy themselves, and we talked about Jesus. Can't complain.

The "other" church thing is getting a little concerning, I'm hesitant to rant online about it because there's always that one in a million chance that someone will google me or trip over my lj somehow and get irritated. But I feel sort of caught in the middle... things aren't going badly, per se, they're just not going as well as they could be. And I think I'm mostly irritated because I can't seem to find the place where I can have input, if that makes any sense.

On the upside, Will and I are going over to Kevin's tomorrow to knock out I Fall Down and Outdated... yes... we'll have 5 songs completed by Tuesday night, God willing....

T

Everything's blurred this morning...

2008-02-11T19:46:17Z

Ok, so yesterday. Talked through two services, they went ok although ultimately I felt like I did a poor job of articulating how the Gospel flowed out of the verses we were studying. The whole Bible's about Jesus, and I think I could have done better at pointing to Him yesterday. Then we had a business meeting that made me want to jump out the window...haha. I dearly love all those people and I think I'm being idealistic, but man, you sure suck the joy and beauty out of Christ's church when you start talking bylaws and church positions. But this seems to be the task I'm a part of, so I'll jump in...

Then, lunch and hanging out with my family later, we had youth group. I think the kids got shafted this week. Having spent most of the previous week coming home and going to bed whenever possible, getting one sermon knocked out for yesterday was something of a challenge. It being Valentines day this week, I thought we'd run through the book of Ruth, because it's an amazing story of a biblical romance. And I think we accomplished something, we looked at the story and saw a lot of things we can learn about how to live life, but ultimately? We didn't talk about Jesus (except for a couple of seconds at the end). And when it came to hanging out with people afterwards I was just done, I had no energy left. It had been a tiring week anyway and I just broke at the end of youth group. So I sat down, saw a couple of my close friends, and just talked for a couple of hours. I few of those kids, I don't know when they left last night. And I feel bad about that. But they'll forgive me one week, I'm sure...

So... yeah. On the surface perhaps not a bad day, but the Gospel got away from us, I think. Never again...(he says)

T

7 Worlds Collide...

2008-02-09T20:55:31Z

...this has been on my iPod since January and it hasn't left. You'll probably never see it for sale in this country, but it's 17 songs of absolute musical bliss. If you got an iTunes gift card for Christmas but aren't sure what to do with it, I can't recommend "7 Worlds Collide" by Neil Finn highly enough. It's pretty low key, so if you're into heavy metal, then you may not dig, haha.

Anyway, I need to get back to the sermon, but I wanted to get that out.

T

Oh yes, it's a bubble.

2008-02-07T03:58:51Z

So after my last entry of impending doom, I want to point out that that was a compilation of thoughts about things from the last several months rather than me waking up one morning and realizing the world was ending. And also, the last few days (baring this physical nonsense) have been pretty good. I'm seeing the doc tomorrow so hopefully that will get straightened out. Church is going alright, I'm intrigued to see how it's going to play out.

Also, if anyone in the youth group ever asks how they should handle dating, we have found the answer, and oh yes, it's a bubble.

T