I’m Back: Christian Rationalization and Purpose

Well, wordpress has updated everything and so have I! I purchased the 20 dollar upgrade so I could add music. However, I need to figure out how to make the music play on the blog, rather than making readers download it. If anyone knows how to do this, that would be a huge help. Anywho, this song above is a really great song. I advise you to listen to it.

I also think I am going to start a youtube where I will basically read off of and elaborate on my blog. It will start in the middle of May.

Well, it is finals time and after working all night into the morning, and I made a mistake…I had some french press coffee at 4 in the morning. Now, the problem is not that the caffeine is keeping me up. Well, at least not as you’d imagine. The problem is that I am perspiring. I am hot and bothered. I have come down with a coffee-induced temporary illness that I will term, in my late-night genius, “man-o-pause.”

And so here I am. Blogging. And trust me, with all the work I have, only man-o-pause would give me the sufficient motivation to blog instead of sleeping or working.

I had originally intended on blogging about the April 9 forum that I moderated. However, due to some more pressing issues, that will be saved for Tuesday. Tomorrow, I will blog about all of the recent hoopla and manufactured controversies about Senator Obama. So it will be a busy few days.

Today, I plan on addressing my church, the Chapel at Crosspoint, my pastor and the general problem of complacency in the Church. (I always forget which “church” is capitalized…oh well)

My Pastor is no dummy. That Jerry Gillis guy is no fool. He knows where the members of our church are in their lives and he knows that applause for bold words on Sunday morning does not translate into action on Monday. I’m sure he even has a pretty good grasp on people questioning what the clapped for in their seat as soon as they walk out the doors of the Church.

You see, I don’t know much about God, considering all there is to know, but what I do know is that Jesus Christ didn’t have a modest goal. Jesus doesn’t set the bar very low and God doesn’t have expectations that can be met if they are pursued half-heartedly. Jesus Christ didn’t walk away from Lazarus and go on a vacation because he knew he did something pretty sweet, so he could “chill for a while.” God didn’t commission believers to make the name of Jesus heard from where I am or where you are to the end of the block, he commissioned believers to spread the word of God and the Good News to the ends of the Earth. And so, it is a bit of a contradiction then when Christians are content with living in their own little bubble, doing their own thing, and patting themselves on the back when they finally build up the courage to say the name Jesus in public or to pick up the Bible around Christmas time.

Pastor Jerry Gillis is a visionary. He is an imperfect one. But he is a visionary with goals in line with the goals of God. It would be convenient for many sitting in Church for Pastor Jerry to stand in front of us and claim that the mission of God, and therefore the mission of Christians, can be fulfilled by writing a check to a homeless shelter every year. It would be convenient for him to stand up there and claim that the mission of a Christian is to simply read the Bible and make sure that you keep your head down and build fences and don’t sin and just make sure your children go to Church on Sunday so you look right…It would be easy. It would be easy to ignore the plight of the people living ten minutes from your Williamsville home in the second poorest city in the Nation, and just make sure that you are presenting yourself right.

And so when Pastor Jerry doesn’t say what we want him to, when he gets up there and talks about a broader mission that requires involvement and giving some things over and changing some things, all sorts of things come up. Just as atheists rationalize their belief in everything but Truth, we rationalize why we won’t participate. Why that mission is not for us. “Pastor Jerry, what is he trying to do? Make himself famous?” “That Pastor Jerry, did you hear him today? Thinking he’s better than everybody else!” And we never get around to dealing with the content of the message. We never get around to dealing with God’s Word because we’re so stuck in the trivial.

As a sidebar, this extends into how folks are thinking about politics right now.

But I digress…

Listen…I’ve been sensing something in my Church and in believers all over…All of a sudden my Church is clapping at the end of every song. We have people screaming out and making a scene, putting on a real show, as if to prove to the people sitting next to them that they are on board with whatever Pastor Jerry is saying.

If you are going to Church because the music makes you feel good, or the preacher makes you laugh, or because you get some kind of moral lift, some feeling of superiority out of it, you need to shape up. In addition, frankly, if you go to the Chapel, and you are walking in the opposite direction of the Church: you need to get out. If you call yourself a Christian because you like having a framework which you can use to justify your hatred of homosexuals or your political affiliation: you need to get out. I can put things a little blunter than Pastors who lead their congregation, I have no influence…So I will say this: If you haven’t noticed, the Church (all believers) is in a place right now where it is dragged down by dead weight. If you aren’t a Christian with a mission, you need to examine yourself or step aside. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to reject the temptation of deluding yourself into thinking that cafeteria religion is working for you.

I am a complete and utter failure in following Christ. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.

I worry my mind is not even a slave to God’s law, as I find myself at a loss for what that law is.

But what I do know is that my heart yearns to learn of it, even if my consistency in striving for that knowledge is despicable. And what I do know is that I am eager to use my life for God’s purpose, even if my commitment to that mission is often corrupted by that which wages war against what I know to be just and worthy.

It is time to inspect ourselves. Our own hearts. And perhaps we can all align our hearts with God’s will.

I encourage everyone to listen to the April 6 message and the April 13 message here.

Thank you for reading, and I will be back later tonight.

 

Hogwash!

Before I talk about the Democratic candidates…

I was walking down the street to go the library. Apparently, yesterday the Colonials For Life wrote messages on the sidewalk in chalk with Pro-Life messages…stuff like “3 times more African-Americans have abortions than caucasian women.” Well, tonight as I was walking, the “Stand Up For Choice” group was writing over and around the Colonials For Life groups messages. One of the messages in particular caught my attention: “Pro-Child, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice.” I asked the person, presumably the leader of the group, what the message meant. Her response was, “Well, it’s just meant to show that the three aren’t incompatible.” I said, “Well, how can you be pro-child.”

“Well, people on the other side say pro-choicers ‘hate babies’, this is just to show that you can like babies and protect a women’s right to choose.”

“Oh, so you like babies when they’re out of the womb.”

“Yes, when they’re not fetuses.”

Now you can be pro-choice, and I could respect that. I was pro-choice up to a month ago. Of course, I’d respect it. But your argument can’t be that pro-choice is pro-family, or that pro-choice is pro-child. That’s nonsense.

“…when they’re not fetuses.”

C’mon…so is a 3 month premature baby still a fetus for three months? Such hogwash.

I saw Barney Frank speak last night. He’s a knowledgeable, not-so-crazy guy. I don’t agree with him on the social issues, but I’m not a Democrat because of the social issues. I’m a Democrat on the issues that comprise 99.9% of policymaking.

I don’t think I’m going to have time to do all the Dem candidates, but I’ll try.  I have rehearsal in 15 minutes…ehhh I think I’m gonna go practice…Ya’ll will have to wait. Sorry!

 

I Turn A Shower Into A Storm…Joy Into Bliss

So…I have the lead in a musical.

“But Michael,” you ask, “I thought you had little to no time without this on your plate. Why would you do this to yourself?”

The answer is…Yes.

Yes I didn’t have a lot of time on my plate, but let me explain something to you:

I love theatre. I love performing. I miss the pressure. I miss the stress of having so much and so many people depending on you. I miss being able to touch people.

I passed auditioning when I saw the posters around school, but I received a message from the Director offering me a callback…I just had to do it. After receiving the ok and go-ahead from my sister, brother-in-law, and Melissa, I went callbacks today, and found out a half hour ago that I got the role.

The music is just wonderful. It feels like silk coming out of my mouth when I sing it. I just love it. I can’t wait to do a show again. It’ll be a pain time wise, but I’ll deal.

I’ve done so much reading this weekend. I’m so tired.

Melissa comes down in four days! I’m so excited to have her down here. I have so many plans…    

I think that’s it for this post. I’m about to write the entry on 2008…so you’ll hear from me in a couple hours!

 

So I Find Myself Returning…

So my sister’s incredible blog inspired me to get back to the blogging world. I had one on diaryland when I was in late middle school to early high school. That was a time of major spiritual transition for me. Then I had a livejournal for the last half of high school. Which…well that was a period all to itself…as high school is for most people. Except for those who never seem to get out of that period of their life.

I got rid of both blogs for the same reason: I am a moron. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I have no concept of discretion. I generally talk way too much and show WAYYYY too much emotion. I’m sure I’m just as emotional as ever, so I don’t think that I am totally safe from making those same mistakes. However, I hope I’ll be able to keep my mouth shut on things I shouldn’t write about on here.

However, I have no interest in a lifeless blog. So I will probably say things I shouldn’t…and I will probably, at times, be brutally honest. We’re on this journey together.

I suppose this would be a good time to introduce myself.

My name is Michael. I’m a freshman at The George Washington University. I’m from Buffalo, New York. I am a Christian. I have a beautiful, wonderful, refreshing, intelligent girlfriend named Melissa. I have, as I mentioned, a sister, Dana. Her husband is named…well K…I’ll call him K because that’s what she calls him on her blog. I’m not quite sure if it’s a privacy issue or something…so I’ll just call him K. Even though it’s kind of weird. That’s what my Grandfather called his wife.

Ok…weird transition. Yes, I have a Grandfather who died in July of 2005. He was the greatest man I’ve ever known and still shows up in my life at a regular basis. I’ll let you ponder for yourself just how I meant that…

I have a mother who just got married.

I have two cousins back home in Buffalo who I adore: Jennifer and Carrie. Carrie is just the sweetest thing ever, and Jennifer and I have been tight since we were babies. I admire her a whole lot, and worry about her just as much. Their parents are pretty great too and big influences in my life.

I have a cousin in Florida who I also worry about. He’s a great kid. Today’s culture has kind of gotten to him a little bit, but he’s still the kind of boy any girl would be almost giddy to introduce to her parents and he has a heart of gold.

His mother and I are real close. She’s one of my confidants. Charlie’s father is an amazing man as well…works his butt off for his family, and takes care of them like a man should take care of his family. He’s a good guy.

My best friend Joanna and I have been real close for about 3 years. I think about her all the time. She’s one of those people who inspire me daily. She has such an amazing character and goodness to her. I just am amazed at some of the things she does. Despite her being a year older than me…I kind of worry about her like she was my little sister. And she worries about me too, I think. I care about her and her family very much.

That’s all of an introduction for now…what I decided to do was offer four separate introductions…this is one, and then there will be three introductions on three different pages entitled: “Life,” “Life in D.C.,” and “Politics and Commentary.” In life, I will introduce more information on Melissa, my faith, and some info about my past, and what I think about my present and future. In Life in D.C., I will talk about…well, D.C. My internship, the academics here, the people here, College Democrats, my Bible Study…so on and so forth. In Politics and Commentary, I will talk about why I am a Democrat, what I think about the current Political situation, and what you can expect from me in future posts on such matters.

I’m constructing my blog in this fashion so that when I talk about D.C., politics, or some other facet of my life, you can just click on the page it fits in and their should be some background on it. So the pages are kind of like the basics, while the posts on the home page are the more nuanced, less dense (information-wise) entries.

I look forward to this discussion. I hope to pick up some readers, possibly some facebook people, and who knows, maybe we’ll journey somewhere together that we couldn’t have ever gone on our own.

We shall see…

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