It's a strange and wonderful age we live in. Growing up, I thought that if you were a Christian, you voted a certain way and that was it. Except for the South, for some reason. I really don't remember why. Now, however, you can follow Christ and vote (dare I say it?) for the party of your choice (I couldn't say it).
This can cause many red-faced arguments and frequent cases of spirited arm waving* during times of fellowship**. That being the case, I came up with some great common ground topics for the sake of health and harmony. Feel free to steal them as needed.
1.George W. Bush is younger than his father.
Am I wrong?
2.Celebrities have a lot of money.
3. One bratwurst is plenty for one person per serving.
If you disagree, your eyes are bigger than your stomach and you will soon be proven wrong. Don't test wisdom and experience.
4.The environment has a lot of green in it.
5.Canned soup somehow tastes much better when cooked on a stove top than in a microwave. How is that possible? It's a mystery for the ages.
6. Batman would totally win against Superman in a fight.
I had to sneak that one in there.
7.Having just six items in a list looks evil. Seven looks much better.
That was a close one.
* Why do we do that, anyway? Do we think that will help us make our point? Are we waving magical "I will convince you" wands? Another mystery for the ages.
** "Fellowship" is Christianeze for "pizza party".
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Warming Shmorming
I've been wanting to talk about the global warming issue, and whether or not it matters to followers of Christ. What if it's not as world-threatening as scientists say? Should we care?
Some thoughts:
I just found out second-hand smoke can't kill you, so I started blowing smoke in everyone's face.
Dumping all of our food waste and human waste in landfills is a good idea. Stewardship, baby!
Trees are over-rated. God won't allow us to cut them all down anyway, so we might as well go crazy with the chainsaws.
If you take care of God's creation you must be worshipping it. Shame on you.
Some guy told me the church could use an opportunity for witness by taking care of the earth God has entrusted to it. He was obviously a Druid.
P.S. This isn't directed at anyone in particular, just a general attitude I've seen growing up in an evangelical community. I hope it's the exception, not the rule.
Some thoughts:
I just found out second-hand smoke can't kill you, so I started blowing smoke in everyone's face.
Dumping all of our food waste and human waste in landfills is a good idea. Stewardship, baby!
Trees are over-rated. God won't allow us to cut them all down anyway, so we might as well go crazy with the chainsaws.
If you take care of God's creation you must be worshipping it. Shame on you.
Some guy told me the church could use an opportunity for witness by taking care of the earth God has entrusted to it. He was obviously a Druid.
P.S. This isn't directed at anyone in particular, just a general attitude I've seen growing up in an evangelical community. I hope it's the exception, not the rule.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Randomly Acting Kind
One of our teachers shared the following website with us recently, as February will be our school's random acts of kindness month. It has some great ideas, and I'm currently looking up verses to help share the why. I hope this site proves useful to others as well.
http://www.actsofkindness.org/
http://www.actsofkindness.org/
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Fun with Monologue
Our third grade teacher took advantage of a historic event and showed the inauguration ceremony to his class. After it was over, a couple of his students came to my classroom for ESL. We were waiting for the rest of the students, so I asked how they liked the video.
"Chaemi opso!" one young man exclaimed.
I explained what he said meant "It was boring."
"What's the opposite of boring?" the other student asked.
Interesting, I replied, then asked what he thought. Was it interesting?
"No. It was boring!"
He proceeded to give an impression of the speech. "Blah blah blah, yay!" , then he'd clap. He repeated a couple of times for emphasis.
Funny, I listen to speeches and hear the same thing.
"Chaemi opso!" one young man exclaimed.
I explained what he said meant "It was boring."
"What's the opposite of boring?" the other student asked.
Interesting, I replied, then asked what he thought. Was it interesting?
"No. It was boring!"
He proceeded to give an impression of the speech. "Blah blah blah, yay!" , then he'd clap. He repeated a couple of times for emphasis.
Funny, I listen to speeches and hear the same thing.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A Day of Service
This is a sort of open letter to the church. Tomorrow, Martin Luther King Day, is set aside as one of service to our community. I pray we as followers of Christ seek to extend this service, beyond one day, with purpose. I pray we offer the cup of cold water in His Name.
Serve as He leads.
Serve as He leads.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Defending Marriage
Let me preface this post by saying this will be a tough one, and if I offend anyone I'm sorry. Unlike the topic in the previous post, I take this very seriously. I also request that you read the entire post before jumping to any conclusions. Finally, any criticims I make on this blog include myself and then some. If I ever come out as the hero in any stories or illustrations, it's purely unintentional. I'm often the anti-hero at best.
The linchpin of the culture wars seems to be supporting legislation that reflects our religious beliefs. The government is called upon to "define marriage."
I do find it funny that while the wording of said proposition could be seen as an attack on religions that practice polygamy, that's not where the brunt of ungodly aggression goes. And yes, there's ungodly aggression on both sides of the issue, which show anger, fear and hate towards each other. Not exactly the fruits of the spirit.
Now that I said that, I want to move on. My point isn't about politics, or demanding laws reflect a Christian standard. I want to dismiss that right away and cut to the heart of the matter. The responsibility for defending marriage as God intended it falls on married couples who follow Christ. I'll personalize it: as far as I'm concerned, it falls on Beka and me. We have a responsibility to show what God intended marriage to look like. If only He wanted us to protest gay marriage instead, because as anyone who's been married knows, carrying a cardboard sign around would be easier. But one thing the Christian life doesn't display is convenience.
Marriage is hard work. Probably goes without saying, but you never know. Back when Beka and I were dating, we had cutesy arguments and couldn't talk about problems for too long before making some kind of joke. We never yelled. I was convinced we would be the coolest couple ever.
One recent evening we sat down on our bed after a good lungbuster of a disagreement. For those of you who are stateside, maybe you heard us. Anyway, we did enjoy a good laugh after we ironed out the communication difficulties and I recalled our dating years. "We were dirty stinking liers!"
Also worth mentioning: the vocal stylings of note followed a group for married couples. We were watching Love and Respect, a series I recommend. It did, however, bring up some unique issues for us, and to be honest, guys can be the most defensive and insecure creatures on the planet. I probably could of handled the discussion with my wife better, but that's part of the "hard work" deal.
Between then and the next group our communication improved at least somewhat. During the discussion after our video, one of the couples brought up God's intention of marriage--to reflect His character. That's a tall order, and I hope we're taking steps towards it.
A reoccuring theme when I think of Christlikeness is salt and light. Are we (my wife and I) striving together to preserve our own integrity and show what a Christlike marriage should look like? That would do more for His glory than any proposition ever could.
The linchpin of the culture wars seems to be supporting legislation that reflects our religious beliefs. The government is called upon to "define marriage."
I do find it funny that while the wording of said proposition could be seen as an attack on religions that practice polygamy, that's not where the brunt of ungodly aggression goes. And yes, there's ungodly aggression on both sides of the issue, which show anger, fear and hate towards each other. Not exactly the fruits of the spirit.
Now that I said that, I want to move on. My point isn't about politics, or demanding laws reflect a Christian standard. I want to dismiss that right away and cut to the heart of the matter. The responsibility for defending marriage as God intended it falls on married couples who follow Christ. I'll personalize it: as far as I'm concerned, it falls on Beka and me. We have a responsibility to show what God intended marriage to look like. If only He wanted us to protest gay marriage instead, because as anyone who's been married knows, carrying a cardboard sign around would be easier. But one thing the Christian life doesn't display is convenience.
Marriage is hard work. Probably goes without saying, but you never know. Back when Beka and I were dating, we had cutesy arguments and couldn't talk about problems for too long before making some kind of joke. We never yelled. I was convinced we would be the coolest couple ever.
One recent evening we sat down on our bed after a good lungbuster of a disagreement. For those of you who are stateside, maybe you heard us. Anyway, we did enjoy a good laugh after we ironed out the communication difficulties and I recalled our dating years. "We were dirty stinking liers!"
Also worth mentioning: the vocal stylings of note followed a group for married couples. We were watching Love and Respect, a series I recommend. It did, however, bring up some unique issues for us, and to be honest, guys can be the most defensive and insecure creatures on the planet. I probably could of handled the discussion with my wife better, but that's part of the "hard work" deal.
Between then and the next group our communication improved at least somewhat. During the discussion after our video, one of the couples brought up God's intention of marriage--to reflect His character. That's a tall order, and I hope we're taking steps towards it.
A reoccuring theme when I think of Christlikeness is salt and light. Are we (my wife and I) striving together to preserve our own integrity and show what a Christlike marriage should look like? That would do more for His glory than any proposition ever could.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Prayer: The Soundtrack!
This isn't a big issue, as it's more of a pet peeve. As some of you have heard me say before, one of my biggest irritations is that we can't think of a better name for things that annoy us than "pet peeves". Curse you, inventor of idioms.
Anyway, one of the things that annoy me the most tends to be background music for prayer. It's hard to pray with a soundtrack. I first noticed this in church, as the tradition is for someone to play music while the pastor prays. It isn't soft and in the background, either. It's dramatic, inspirational-sounding stuff. The natural reaction of the pray-er is to raise his voice a bit dramatically. It's unavoidable, as I later discovered.
The other day I was joining silent prayer in a group while the leader was playing the guitar. It sounded nice, but the result in my head was a more dramatic prayer in my mind. I don't know how silent prayer can be dramatic, but that's what happened. And dramatic does not = heartfelt, so I had to pray away the resultant guilt according to custom. And that's such a bother.
Like I said, this is a minor irritation. I just hope it doesn't become too popular, or we'll be seeing CD sets in Christian bookstores entitled "Soundtracks for Prayer", or something like that. Then we'd be talking a major issue.
Anyway, one of the things that annoy me the most tends to be background music for prayer. It's hard to pray with a soundtrack. I first noticed this in church, as the tradition is for someone to play music while the pastor prays. It isn't soft and in the background, either. It's dramatic, inspirational-sounding stuff. The natural reaction of the pray-er is to raise his voice a bit dramatically. It's unavoidable, as I later discovered.
The other day I was joining silent prayer in a group while the leader was playing the guitar. It sounded nice, but the result in my head was a more dramatic prayer in my mind. I don't know how silent prayer can be dramatic, but that's what happened. And dramatic does not = heartfelt, so I had to pray away the resultant guilt according to custom. And that's such a bother.
Like I said, this is a minor irritation. I just hope it doesn't become too popular, or we'll be seeing CD sets in Christian bookstores entitled "Soundtracks for Prayer", or something like that. Then we'd be talking a major issue.
Monday, January 5, 2009
White Jesus
Shane Claiborne recalls the time he was approached to play Jesus for a skit. The reason given? "We need a white guy." I was initially shocked at this, but not too surprised. After all, some people live in a pretty small world.
Lately, I've thought about skits, movies, and all other medium requiring the role of Christ being played. More often than not the choices for the role are white. I'm a benefit-of-a-doubt kind of guy so I won't call it intentional. But do many of us have that picture in our head? Do we realize how ridiculous that is?
Lately, I've thought about skits, movies, and all other medium requiring the role of Christ being played. More often than not the choices for the role are white. I'm a benefit-of-a-doubt kind of guy so I won't call it intentional. But do many of us have that picture in our head? Do we realize how ridiculous that is?
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