17 November 2005

Huh?

There are a lot of things that I do not understand in the Bible. Heck, there are a lot of things that I don't understand, period. But especially in the Bible. Mainly in the Old Testament, but even Jesus and Paul say some things that make me sit back and think, "Ok, I'm totally lost now." And don't even get me started on Revelation.

To tell the truth, it has always kinda scared me when I stumble across things that I don't understand. Especially in the Bible. It's kinda like, "What if I'm missing something huge here?" But then I started reading C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity (an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone struggling with any aspect of faith). In one of his chapters on faith, Lewis states, "Whenever you find any statement in Christian writings which you can make nothing of, do not worry. Leave it alone. There will come a day, perhaps years later, when you suddenly see what it meant. If one could understand it now, it would only do one harm."

What I believe that Lewis is getting at here is that when you run across a passage in the Bible (or most other books, for that matter) that don't quite click with you, don't panic. Don't tear your clothes and say, "Woe am I, for I am ignorant." Instead, drop it for the time being. Keep on going with your readings. Hopefully, you will come across something else that makes sense of what you read earlier.

Rock on.

12 November 2005

May the Geeks Be with You

Wow. I spent 15 hours watching Star Wars last night. My friends and I started with Episode I and watched all the way through to Episode VI. The fifteen hours includes intermissions where we broke out the toy lightsabers and hit eachother with them and the obligatory pizza and soda breaks (Warning: Eating too much pizza may be harmful to your digestive system).

We also kept a body count, keeping track of all of the body parts that were cut off (including only humanoids, there were like ten hands, two heads, and several arms). Creepy, eh?

During this marathon of geek-dom, I realized how incredibly pointless my Friday nights really are.

Rock on.

06 November 2005

Put Back the Stars, I'm Out of Place Tonight

Over the weekend, I went camping out in the middle of the boondocks. Among other things, I sat by the fire, ran around in the woods, and looked at the stars.

There is something incredibly comforting about looking up at the stars at night. Especially when you think of how the stars have always been used as a navigational aide. People today are seeing the same stars that guided sailors thousands of years ago. To me, though, stars serve another purpose. They serve as a constant reminder that God is with me; that HE will serve as my guide through life. As I stare down the long, dark stretch of road that is senior year, I become very frightened. It seems that every aspect of my life is presenting me with a choice to be made, a fork in the road to choose. Looking at the stars this weekend, I felt a sudden reassurance that God will get me through life and that He will love me no matter what.

Rock on.

(P.S. - For those interested, the title of this entry is pulled from the lyrics of Blindside's "Put Back the Stars" off of The Great Depression.)