What, the Hell?

What up, blog readers? It's been a while.

No time for chit-chat, let's dive into something that matters.

Our beliefs about heaven and hell matter. Rob Bell wisely said something to the effect of "what you believe about heaven and hell matters because they reflect what you believe God is like."

So here are my questions for you, dear reader: (IF I get some good responses on this, then I will probably post my (partially formulated) beliefs on hell.)

Is there a place called hell? If so, what is it like? What is its function?

Is there place called heaven? If so, what is it like? Is it filled with spirits, humans, or something else? What is its function?

I look forward to reading your thoughtful responses.

Justin

Grateful

Grateful:

• For who I am
• For Whose I am
• For what I am
• For where I am
• For when I am
• For who I have
• For what I have
• For when I have
• For when I have not
• For what I know
• For what I will know
• For what I don't know
• For what I will never know
  

Have you been Subversively Reformed?

My friend Travis Keller recently made a post titled "Are you contemplative?" on his blog, Subversive Reformation. Semi-inspired by that post, I decided to write this one. It is in jest.

• Did you recently purchase thick rimmed glasses, regardless of whether or not your vision required them?
• Do you find yourself shopping exclusively at Express or its regional equivalent?
• Have you recently found yourself as part of a photo shoot in a graveyard?
• Do you have a young daughter whom you believe to be a profound theologian?
• Have you given a talk within the last 18 months regarding the color of specific fruits?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you may have been subversively reformed. You have two options:
1. Embrace it. If you're male, you may soon find yourself as an Oakwood RA, SLA, or SGA member.
2. Fight it. It may be emergent, and we all know that is bad. Call a dr. Preferrably a Reverend Doctor of the Old-school persuasion. He may be able to exorcise the emergent/post-modernism out of you.

My week

It's not that I'm not used to disappointment, it's just that it's so... disappointing.

The Christmas Season

That most wonderful of times is upon us yet again: The Christmas Season. Yes, it's Christmas time. Time to light a fire in the fireplace, sip some cocoa, wrap presents, and listen to songs about murder and infidelity.

"Murder and infidelity! What?!?!" you may say.
"Yes. Our yuletide airwaves are full of them!" I'd reply.
"Shocking," you respond.
"Indeed," I say.

What are some of examples of these songs that distract from the true meaning of America's favorite virgin birth?

Murder: Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Note the horrified expression on grandma's face as she realizes her impending doom. Click for the video. Ok, so maybe it's not exactly murder, but due to the fact that "our friend" Saint Nick failed to report this traffic related fatality, it's at least vehicular manslaughter or negligent homicide. Hey Kris Kringle! I do say there's such a thing as Santa, and I think you deserve 25-life!

Infidelity: Murder wasn't enough for this jolly fellow, Santa Claus. No. He had to hit on your mom, too. Click here to hear the shocking tale. Maybe this bizarre event was the one that drove Michael to become the strange man we knew in his later life. I know I'd be permanently scarred from such a shocking series of events. Hey Santa! Stay away from my mom. Maybe seek marriage counseling along with Mrs. Claus. Poor lady, she probably didn't even know until she heard the song...

This post is dedicated to Grandma, Michael Jackson, and all those discerning souls who are searching for the true meaning of Christmas.

The Myth of Christian Positivity

One of my biggest pet-peeves is what I call "the myth of christian positivity". This myth essentially states that it is a Christian's job to be positive at all times, regardless of the circumstances.

"Certainly there aren't people who are really like that," you might say.
But yes, yes there are. And they have the most loving intentions.

You see, many of these people are simply trying to be like Christ.

"We're called to be encouragers!" they might say.

Yes. Yes we are.

But aren't we also called to be authentic? I think that the world sees things that are fake each and every day. And they're great at spotting these things.

You know what I think we need? Christians that are authentic. That are honest with themselves and the world around them. Christians who recognize that some situations have shades of gray. Individuals who will recognize that sometimes circumstances just suck.

Let's offer hope and peace, absolutely! But let us also be willing to recognize that not everything's o.k. Let's meet people where they're at in their suffering and sit with them for a while. No one's happy all the time. So let's not try to be. People almost universally value honesty. Let's build a relationship and talk with these people about a person named Jesus. A person who sometimes drank; a person who met people in their suffering and engaged them.

Let's be Jesus and engage with honesty and openness and most of all, love.

Where?

Where is God in the midst of hectic schedules? In a life filled with reading, reading, meetings, more reading, and more meetings? In mandated chapel attendance, broken card scanners, press box burnings, and H1N1?

He's in an iced mocha from mcdonald's. He's in fake characters named Rick. He's in laundry that smells like Tide with a hint of lavender®. He's in health care debates and tort reforms and textbook revelations. He's in the occipital lobe and the cost of modernization. He's in distributional justice and fresh-cut grass.

He's all around. Do we notice him?

Summer Series: Entry 1

This begins what will be a series of questions that I have had and am currently discussing with a few friends. I'd love to have your feedback. I have some ideas of my own on these, but I'm genuinely interested in what you will have to add to the discussion. No real theme to these. Just honest questions of a 20 year old college student.

What role does/should the bible play in our lives?

How much authority should we give the bible?

Is the Bible fallible? How do you define fallibility?

Why are you a Christian?

Honesty

"I've been mad at you for a long time, ya know? It's been hard for me not to ask some really tough questions of you in the past 3 years. So many things have gone wrong. My best friend is gone. My parents are split up. My whole family kinda fell apart. There have been so many nights where I've just laid in my bed and tried to talk with you. But I haven't spoken with you- I've just spoken to you. I want to have a conversation, but I can't hear you."

"Things are still falling apart. I've called you so many times, but you don't answer. So I leave a message. But you haven't answered. I want to hear your voice, see your face, find you in this vast world, meet up with you somewhere- I'd go pretty much anywhere.

Is this a race that I just keep losing? Is this a test that I'm failing? If there's an expectation that I'm falling short of, I gotta tell ya, I'll never meet it. I know that I'm not enough, and I believe you want to be in a relationship with me, but I need to hear from you. I can't do this on my own anymore. I know that. iwanttohaveYouinmylife."

"I think you will find me. I just hope it's soon. Don't wait too long, ok? I need you."

Early morning
The city breaks
I've been callin'
For years and years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
Ya never send me no letters
You got some kinda nerve
Taking all my world

Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Where were you? Where were you?
Lost and insecure
You found me, you found me
Lyin' on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, you found me
Why'd you have to wait?
To find me, to find me
-The Fray

Current

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse.

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Jeremiah 31:3-4

When things go bad, people here at MVNU (as well as in almost any church) often say, "Don't worry! God has a plan!"

God's got a plan alright. But as far as I'm concerned most of that plan is dealing with how to fix stuff we screwed up.

Here's how I see it: Just because God has a plan doesn't mean it's necessarily going to come true. An omnibenevolent God does not have a plan that involves his creation falling out of his good graces.

He doesn't have a plan that involves millions of people dying from a preventable epidemic like malaria.

God's plan was for a perfect world, and we screwed it up. Fast forward to the good news- he has a plan for redemption. He's fixing things now and using crappy throwaways like me and you to do some of it.

But when things go wrong, don't tell me it's part of God's plan. I think God hates suffering as much as we do if not more.

Thanks, Cameron Crowe!

"You want to be really great? Then have the courage to fail big and stick around. Make them wonder why you're still smiling. That's true greatness to me."
- Elizabethtown

Home?

At church camp, which I attended every summer, the speaker would always say something on the last day about how hard it would be for some kids/teens to go back home and live their faith out. Some of them had home lives that were not very conducive to the christian life, others had families that were just unsaved, others had home lives that were just abysmal.

I always felt a certain level of empathy for these other kids. I could not imagine what it would be like to try to hold onto your faith with parents that did not believe or an environment that was difficult. "It must be something you have to go through to understand," I thought.

I was right.

Coming to Fostoria any more is hard. Both the town and my family have gone downhill. I've been staying at my mom's over break and it's actually really difficult to stay here. This place doesn't feel like home; my mom doesn't even seem like my mom. At least not the one I grew up with. I long for the feeling of home that was so present in my old house- when my family was all together. I miss the Christian mom I grew up with that loved Jesus and taught me to follow Him by living her life in a way that looked like Him.

I miss something that won't be back.

Even more motivation for me to be a strong leader for my future family. I want my kids to have a home that feels like home, and parents that teach them what to do instead of what not to do.

I'm ready to get back to school! :)

Welfare and the Church: A Reflection

Are welfare and socialized health care simply our ways of having the government take care of a problem we don't wish to deal with on a personal level?

Which requires more of us: Caring for the orphans and widows, the sick, the imprisoned, and the poor through our churches and our personal giving, or simply paying more taxes and having the government care for them in our stead?

Father, please help me to not be simply another question-asker amidst a sea of often answerless questions. Help me to FACILITATE the change YOU wish to see in the world.

Reconciling Reality

Today I said goodbye to the fourth member of my family who's left too early within the course of the last three years- my aunt Amber. Although we were not extremely close by any means I found myself taking the loss much harder than I thought I would. I found myself grieving not only the loss of my aunt, but the loss of my grandfathers, the loss of my best friend- and in some ways, the loss of my family.

The majority of my family is alive- but we are not together. For a lot of complex reasons much of my family is not really involved in my life any more; and this is a very sad thing. Some have distanced themselves from me and I've distanced myself from some. They may be living, but I have lost them in many ways.

I'm not alone- Jesus lost people in this way too. So, when I think of Jesus hanging on the cross I think not only of his physical pain, but also of his cognitive and emotional pain. What was it like to have lived an entire life for everyone else, only to have the majority of them reject your message outright? Perhaps what's worse was those who claimed to follow his message, but left him to die by himself. What was going through his mind? How much did it hurt to "lose" those closest to him?

I want to pursue my family- one of my heart's deepest desires is to have them fall back in love with the person who gave so much for them and allow him to draw us back together. Him, the only one who can heal our broken hearts and broken lives- the one who captured my heart so long ago. I've spent so much time at school trying to block them out of my mind so I can focus on what I need to do to better myself. At what cost was this? I come home now for the first time in four months to sisters who are taller, a brother who is smarter, a mother (who never calls) that I no longer know- and her boyfriend who I don't care to know, and of course a workaholic father who's life has fallen apart but is trying so hard to put things back together. I wonder if it is worth it; I truly don't know. All I know is that my response has been to harden my heart, avoid being worried about them, and turn off my emotions as much as possible.

This morning as I think about Jesus I think about the Jesus of the book of Mark. In Mark, Jesus is emphasized as the suffering servant. He ministers all of his life amongst a hard-hearted, cold people. They reject him; he dies naked, cold, and alone. I'm blown away by his pursuit of reconciliation despite all of this. While I'm not there yet- I know my hard heart will be, and is being, reconciled to his. I'm hopeful that those I've lost metaphorically and I will be reconciled someday. I know that this is God's will for us. And I'm hopeful that I will see those I've lost in the physical way again.

Some of the last word's Christ ever uttered were: "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do". These words come only be spoken because of what the Father had said to his people long before. "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt". Christ is our sole route to redemption and reconciliation. I will trust in Him

On a day like today

I can't help but be thankful for nothing more than the life I have been given.

I've had a lot of time lately for reflection and thinking- and although what occupies my mind most often are the trivial things of life, I've also been working through and thinking about that which matters most to me and perhaps should matter most to all of us- relationships.

Our God is a relational god. In the beginning He walked amongst us. When we screwed that relationship up- He still manifest Himself to us in other ways (e.g., a pillar of fire, a breeze, by stopping the sun, etc). When things started to look especially dim He came down and lived amongst us again through His son, Jesus. Time and time again, even though maintaining His relationship with us was difficult due to our shortcomings and sinfulness, He did whatever He had to do just to be with us- to fix our brokenness, to heal our wounds.

How are we like God in our relationships with others? Do we strive to help the wounded? Do we reach out to those who seem least reachable- or do we work with those most similar to us? not the lost and broken, but perhaps the Jaded and the Cynical- the middle-class American Christian. What holds the top priority in our life? Our time, our homes, our work, our money? What good are any of those things if we overlook the people we are surrounded with?

When I look back on my life at the end, I will not think about all the A's I got, how clean my apartment was, how many awards I won, or promotions I was given. It won't matter what my net-worth was, or who I voted for. What will matter is how I treated those around me. How was I Christ to them? Did I meet them at their point of need or wait for them to come unto me? Did I spend my time caring for people? Was my house available and open to everyone? Did I work as though I was working for the Lord? Did I use my money to reach out to those in need?

There's no time like today to start asking the questions that matter.

Injustice

How long will the faculty be kept in cages? Shouldn't they be free to roam about our beautiful campus? Why can't they eat where they wish? How long will this problem go on?

Intro Video

I like the Pope.

"Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us?...And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation....When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life." -Pope Benedict XVI

The Dark Knight Questions

1. Can a person deserve something "better" than the truth? What sort of context would call for this?

2. What is the difference between the leader (hero) a people need and the leader they deserve? How can you be the leader that is needed while becoming the leader that is deserved? Is this possible?