Hey All!

For the last year I have not been using this blog but will keep it up for archival purposes.

The blog I am currently using can be found here.

Thanks!

Quick thoughts on Free Will

I have been thinking alot about free will lately. For most of my life I have believed that I am in charge of my choices and I have been endowed by my creator to do as I please and hope that it pleases Him as well. Lately I have begun to question whether I am free at all and maybe I am influenced by more than the "essential Justin" living inside my skull.

I can't escape that I am influenced by my family, especially my parents. My parents divorced when I was five and it has colored my life in both tragic and hopeful shades that I am just beginning to unravel. I would like to believe that my faith in Christ was a decision I made on my lonesome and I now "own" my faith but the rhetoric is failing. I owe my family and friends my faith more that myself.

I am influenced by world events that I can't control. If September 11th has not colored your view of the world then you have lived under a rock for the last 7 years. If you do live under a rock and you are somehow reading this then I guarantee that you live under a rock for reasons that are outside yourself. You made the choice but you were influenced more than either of us realise.

I can't escape my peers opinions. Most likely if I buy a shirt at the store and my wife thinks it is dorky I will not wear it. Or I will were it just to prove to her it is not dorky. Even my decision to buy the shirt is influenced by mass marketing and how cool the guy in the picture looks when he has it on.

How do I escape these influences? Should I? I think they are there for a reason. I am still trying to figure it out.

Travel Log: Brown County

The whole Bed and Breakfast thing is quite alien to me. You go to someones home and you stay there and then they make you breakfast. I always thought it was a cute idea, quaint actually but it was never something that I considered doing.

When my boss gave Linds and I a free stay at The Allison House in Nashville IN I liked the idea but I was a touch hesitant. I have never been one to turn down a chance for adventure (especially if it is free) but weekend time is precious time and you have to spend it wisely. With hope in our hearts we packed up our bags and headed south for the weekend and were pleasantly surprised. Brown county was quite beautiful despite it being late winter (I suppose if you were and optimist it is early spring). Nashville is full of the artsy local color that Brown County is known for. It sports a plethora of arts and crafts (genuine custom leather wristbands $5 baby!), the nations smallest movie theater and is minutes from Brown County State Park. The Allison House is a charming little place in the heart of Nashville. Jeff and September were great hosts and the conversation at the breakfast table was lots of fun. Its location makes it a great home base to launch out and enjoy what Brown County has to offer.

I would not recommend going in the off season simply because there is not as much to do but either way as quick weekend getaways go I still give in 4 out of 5 stars.

Thinking of writing again

Ok so I have been horrible at updating and thinking. The mundane has really been dragging me down this last year and I have not had the energy/discipline/desire to write anything in quite a while. Call it writers block with a mix of mild depression and constant moving. Linds and I realized the other day that since marriage we have moved around once every six months and in this last year we moved 3 times officially and a road trip or two in between there. It was a blast but in the end it we mostly escapism.

So here I am in front of the computer again in an apartment that is starting to feel like home and in a mid Lent epiphany I realized that I want and need to start writing again. I am going to change the format a bit...I might even change the location but from here on out I am going to be writing alot more. Some insights, some poetry, some drek about what I had for breakfast...either way I am going to be here more often.

Hearing God and being a pastor

“Only when we have ourselves absorbed its (The Word’s) message can we confidently share it with others” -John Stott Between Two Worlds

In the past I thought I reflected the Word to others pretty well. Any and every lesson I learned was neatly packaged and marketed. God's Word was spoken well but rarely absorbed into my life. I was a mirror without a sense of itself and a sponge that never got wet. I can remember times sharing in college and as a youth pastor and in the middle of a sentence that annoying still small voice would whisper, “Do you really believe this?” Naturally I would ignore this voice and go on with my message.

Doctor’s often ignore their symptoms and believe they can’t be sick and I think that the same can be true of pastors. I am not sure if it was the pressure to perform and uphold my reputation. Maybe I am just not good at planning ahead but rarely did I allow my messages affect me first. Even during times of self reflection and personal study, when God would speak to me I would quickly divert it into an idea for a message. I am left wondering that in around 3+ years of ministry have I grown at all. Have I just not allowed God to touch me?

As of right now I am not in the ministry in an official capacity i.e. paid. I am seeing this as a time to do some much needed study. Not for a message or to even share my fascinating revelations with everyone I see. I want to be absorbed by God for God’s sake not for my rep or my paycheck. I am so guilty of using God to make me look good and that could quite possibly be the reason that I have not heard from God in longer than I care to admit. I now believe that some of this silence could be due to the fact that His most important lessons I have not kept quietly to myself.

Indianapolis

After alot of thinking and reading and mental debate Linds and I have decided on a graduate school. We looked everywhere from George Fox in Portland OR to Denver Seminary in CO and Azusa in southern California. We debated and numbercrunched and prayed our guts out and in the end we decided...on IWU. I know what you are thinking. Why in the world would you go crawling back to the university that you did your undergrad in? I had some nice sounding reasons prepared but when it comes down to it it was about the money. I can get a Ministerial Leadership/Non-profi managment degree for about a third less that any of those other places. For a person who is planning on working and managing nonprofit organizations that was an offer i couldn't refuse. So Linds and I are looking for jobs in Indy and hoping to start school this november. It was a little hard to give up my dreams of living in the Pacific Northwest but this is definatly the best decision for us and we are pumped to live near so many friends.

We also just finished a month long road trip that started in Charleston SC and wound its way through Chicago, Montana, Yellowstone, and Denver. It was a blast! A good chunck of the trip we journeyed with Nate and Jenny Richardson. It was good to be with friends again.

I am planning on posting my reflections on this trip here soon. Wish us luck on the job search and see pics on Facebook

Justin and Lindsay

Discipline

Discipline always out of reach
It must be how they preach
How can I love more than me?
Enough to take the tree

Coldness of soul, desires heat
Content to hide behind veil and sheet
Tries to dig a little deeper
Sadly prefers the grace that comes cheaper

Reinventing Divinity

Jesus was too secular
So the saying goes
Such a thought spectacular
The right side says it knows

"Make Jesus sacred more and more
Wine meant grapejuice you see
Loving Him should be a chore
Cause He came to set you free"

Settling in Greenville

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. I can't think of any really good excuses so I will just use the standard, "We are busy." Things in Greenville are good. The weather is great but the locals think it is cold (what kind of wimps think that 60 is cold...Southern Softies).

Linds got a job at a local Starbucks (and surprisingly does not like it) I am working at the local Rib joint/blues bar Sticky Fingers(and surprisingly am loving it). No real word on Grad Schools yet. We are beginning a season of prayer for this...please keep praying for us.

Personally, I have really been wrestling with God and what it means to be called by Him. Nothing new there. Linds and I both just want to follow Jesus.

Keep Praying,

Love you all,

J + L

Leaving Whiteford

After 2 years of ministry Lindsay and I have decided to submit my resignation to Whiteford Wesleyan Church. We have had a great experience and have made some great friends but we feel strongly that God has called us elsewhere. We are excited, scared, releaved, nervious and a host of other feelings but we have an undeniable peace about the whole thing. We are sure we are doing the right thing, we are just not sure what the next thing is.

Please pray for us:

Pay stops March 4th and the plan is to move in with Linds parents and work while seeking grad schools. This is really humbling and a blow to my overinflated sense of self worth. I love Ma and Pa Miller but moving in with parents sometimes feels like defeat. Pray that I can have a healthy attitude about it and that we can use this time to be refreshed and ready for where God leads us next.

We need direction and peace about the next step. We are 100% sure we need to leave Whiteford and move to SC but it gets pretty foggy after that. We need to be freed from the shackles of having to see 5 and 6 steps ahead and be ok with waiting for God to direct and speak in his time.

We are actively looking for graduate schools but cannot settle on a field of study. Do we both get a degree? What kind? How long? Sacred (MDiv, Counseling etc.) or Secular (Writing, Business, Film)? The list goes on and on.

Thanks for your prayers,

Justin and Lindsay

God is crazy

“To whom much is given much is required” – Jesus Christ according to Luke

This phrase haunts me. I don’t think any other teaching of Jesus scares me more. As an American I have been given more wealth and opportunity than most people in history…what am I doing with it? As a mentally sane person (relatively) I have been blessed with intelligence and reasoning skills that some can only dream of…what am I doing with it? As a…well you get the picture. If I look at all I have been blessed with there really is no excuse for me not the achieve God’s wildest dreams for me.

God’s dreams are scary. When he called Moses, Moses was scared. When he asked Abraham to sacrifice is only son Isaac I am sure he felt knots and butterflies all the way up the mountain…imagine how Isaac felt about it. Jesus sweated drops of blood before he was executed. When we look at what God was asking of these people and apply it to “rational” thought we come to the conclusion that God is in fact crazy.

I think that we sell ourselves short when we seek to achieve our dreams because our dreams are too small. We tend to dream things that we can achieve just in case God does not come through for us. We call it “practical” but in reality it is atheism because we are living life like there is no God. We have been given so much yet we hold so much back in the name of reason (from the human point of view). What if we began to dream dreams that are destined to fail if God does not show up? That might make us crazy but I also believe that it makes us godly.
Following God is not for the faint of heart. If we cherish safety and comfort more than obedience we will be disappointed and I believe that God will then be disappointed in us. I don’t think it was ever meant to be easy. I think that it is supposed to be impossible. We then have to depend on a God who is crazy enough to specialize in the impossible.

For some further reading see Luke 12: 35-48 and 19: 11-27

Talk Amongst Yourselves J

Reconsidering the essentials

As most of you know (from previous articles) Lindsay and I have a lot of stuff. We are in the process of downsizing so moving is not such a pain. Everyone has to do it from time to time. You sift through your stuff, throw out what you have not worn in a while, replace or forget and repeat. One hundred years ago people would have said that you needed, food, shelter, heat, and clothes. Now we say you need entertainment, style, gift cards, and music. None of which will keep you alive or sustain you at all!

We seem stuck in an endless cycle. We start with the essentials and begin accumulating till the closet, floor and budget can’t hold anymore and then we purge only to begin again. It is like material bulimia. It feels good to own stuff and it feels good to own so much that you can through it out. We have actually begun to reconsider our move into a house. Did we do it for the right reasons or only because we had accumulated so much junk we needed space to hold it? We actually miss apartment living because you had to actually make decisions about what you allow in the home and what you do without because you can’t hold it.

We were talking about all this stuff over coffee and I began to feel very guilty. I could not really explain why until I began to see that this cycle has had me in its grip for years and it is more than just material. I do this to Christ all the time.

At its heart following Christ is about life and living as opposed to death and unliving (see/read Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly for an interesting dichotomy between living and unliving). Simple choices made day by day to follow God in the form of Jesus. We make it about so much more. We make it about looks, “Do I look and act Christian enough”, music “Did you get the new “prom songs” to Jesus album?” or voting “Vote Christian, Vote Republican” and a host of other crap that is associated with Jesus but is certainly not essential. It is time for a purge.

What kind of associated junk have we given Jesus that was never essential? Here is my list, what do you think?

Consumerism: “Jesus wants you to have health, wealth, and prosperity.” As I read it Jesus had nothing. Paul had nothing. Job had something and it was all taken away. Same story with Moses and Elisha. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I can’t stand it when I hear that Jesus wants me to be rich. I like money and possessions and they are not evil in and of themselves but I am not sure they would be the aspirations of your prayer life.

Style: “The pope may be French but Jesus Christ was English!” A silly quote from a silly time but we are still arguing the same junk. One side says we should have Hymns and the other Choruses. Some even say they have scripture to prove which is right. People in my generation whine and pine in house churches and the old folks sit in the pew and get older. Can we please get over it? Jesus was in his 30’s but found it in himself to reach out and give responsibility to 15 year olds. He also drank wine and he might have even danced. Stuffy stick-up-your-butt services and cybered up techno worship he neither endorsed nor condemned. Sometimes we miss “worship in Spirit and in Truth.”

Partisanship: “If you want to be elected you need a cross around your neck.” Jesus has turned into a brand name and a catchphrase. You have to admit that he was political. He said some very hot political statements but he was never partisan. In many ways he pissed off all political parties off equally, which made him a hero to the poor and the oppressed. If he were around today he would be the only person who could get a Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, and Islamo-Facist to agree on anything…they would all want to kill him.

I am sure that it could go on for a while but I don’t want this to be an indictment of the system or the “whine and pine” I mentioned before. I want this to tickle your thinker so we can begin to undress our religion and embrace our faith. What are some things that we have bound to Jesus that need to be loosed? What are some things we have done away with that you would like to see back?

Talk amongst yourselves

Number 28

Lindsay and I have a lot of stuff. I am not going to say who has more but I will say that our closets are bursting and our garage is getting there. Sometimes we look around and think, “Why do we need so much junk?” And that is really what it is. Do two people (or a family of five for that matter) need over twenty coffee mugs? Do we need a huge clunky entertainment center? Not really, but we like to own stuff anyway. I think that is why verses like those in Matthew 5 really jar our American sensibilities. “Blessed are the poor! No way! I need my stuff!”

In the Bible those who posses little seem to be held in higher esteem that those who are rich. Most of you will remember the story of the Rich Young Ruler who was asked to sell all he had in order to follow Jesus and it solidifies the point. Some even go so far as to believe that God does not want us to have money at all (well at least we think no one is allowed to have more money that us.J) In another story Abraham was given a promise. He was promised a son. Not just any son but a son who would be a part of God’s redemptive work in this world. When this son was born Abraham loved him dearly. He loved him more than anything else in this world, almost more so than the God who gave him the son in the first place. I cannot imagine how crushed Abraham must have felt when God asked him to sacrifice his son, his only son who he dearly loved, on an altar. We don’t know if he knew that God would stop him at the last minute. We only know that he willingly and agonizingly obeyed God and gave up possession of his child.

Would you sacrifice that thing you dearly love if God required you to? Most of us would have a serious problem giving up our DVD collection or iPod let alone our firstborn. I think the secret of the poor in spirit is found in holding our plans and possessions, even our very life loosely. Once we understand all is a gift from God and that we truly own nothing; that is when we have the capacity to own everything. We don’t like this idea because it crushes the American idol to the “Self made man.” Godly courage and sacrifice takes a different form. G. K. Chesterton said, “He who would find his life must loose it, is not some piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers…. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire to live with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to live, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life with a furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.”

Talk amongst yourselves J

Further thoughts: Genesis 22, Matthew 5, John 12 and The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Gnostic Stuff

By now, most everyone has heard of The DaVinci Code. We have already debated on the difference between what is fact and what is fiction. The question I want to ask is, “Why is the DaVinci Code so popular?”

Around the 2nd century began a heresy called Gnosticism. In large part it focuses, much like The DaVinci Code, on secrets. They say that the Disciples covered up who Jesus really was in their writing of the Gospels. One of the secrets that Gnostics think they have uncovered is the idea that the world is a nasty and dark place and that we must escape it. That is not Biblical Christianity.

As I read the Gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) I find that they are very much about saving the world and not about escaping it. I see them talking over and over again about the coming New Heaven and New Earth and the availability of those things here and now. The Gospels mark out the way to live in the New Creation Christ has set up with his Death, Resurrection and Ascension. For some reason the message is lost that we are living in the New Creation right now.

I believe The DaVinci Code is so popular because we do not want to believe that the world can be better. Humanity has a deep desire to escape from the hard things of this world. We like to sing the “Gnostic” Hymn, “This Earth is not my home I’m just a passin’ through…” while patting ourselves on the back for how Christian we are. When given a choice between fighting for this world and fleeing from it we usually run away from its problems and our destiny as image bearers for the New Kingdom. That brings me to my real point; the Left Behind Series. Left Behind, with its obsession with secrets, decoding the “end times” and belief that we must escape this world, appears to be a clear indicator about how deep Gnosticism has crept into the Church. Where are some other places you can see its influence? Do you disagree? Why?

Thoughts on the Kingdom

“For a group to be successful their goal must be more important than any individual’s goal”

Christ came to build a kingdom. You can’t get around it. Even a shallow glance at the New Testament will show us that Jesus’ main mission was to build the Kingdom of God. He said, “Turn from your sins (literally: change your mind about sinning) because the Kingdom of Heaven is open.” Almost every parable begins with, “The Kingdom of God is like…” He talks about it over 60 times!

It is obvious that the Kingdom is important to Jesus. He spent His short time on earth dedicated to it. He even died for it. He believed that a time was coming, and in some places had already come, where people really would love their enemies, pray for those who oppress them and be perfect as the Heavenly Father was. I find it interesting that we often filter this message out. We make following Christ all about where you go when you die and good moral choices (side note: That is what the Pharisees were so concerned about). He makes it about entering into a kingdom.

A kingdom is a dynamic thing. It is not confined to a textbook or a catchphrase. You can write all the books on American culture you want but you can’t understand what it really means to be American until you have lived here or met someone who has. Jesus came to reintroduce us to our true homeland. He told us what it was like and how we can get there. He begged us to be about building the kingdom with Him. He calls us to be His witnesses and ambassadors. That is what the Church is for.

We make the Church about a lot of things; I fear we don’t make it about the Kingdom enough. We have the goals of making our opinions known and “sharing information” about each other. We make it our mission to look good on Sunday, have the best behaved kids or upholding the status quo (the way things have always been). We are ambitiously gazing through the planks in our own eyes the point the finger at gays, abortion doctors and Democrats. I am not sure we care about entering into the present Kingdom of God. In short, I am not sure we care about what Jesus cared about. Maybe that is why the American Church by and large has been unsuccessful in the past century.

How do we get back on track? Why do you think Jesus set the Kingdom of God so high in His teachings? Why do we place it so low in ours?

Talk amongst yourselves J

Meeting needs at home

In Detroit you can see a lot of things; anything from nice museums and fine dining to the Pistons and the Tigers. You will also find lots of needs. Underneath Hart Plaza is a literal colony of the homeless. Prostitutes and drug addicts abound and there is plenty of violence and heartache. As I understand the scriptures this is Jesus’ kind of place. He had a knack for finding the worst of the worst. He was continually surrounded by unclean lepers, “beneath notice” fishmongers, street hookers and foreign invaders. Sadly enough the typical Christian today is nowhere near. The people we like to be seen with are not the type of people Jesus sought out.
We hide from needs, don’t we?…at least the ones that have nothing in it for us. We see a chance to show off our new dish at the potluck and we are on it in no time. We see a homeless person walking down the street and we quickly divert our eyes. We like to serve when it makes us look or feel good. We hate it and avoid it when it is actually…well…serving.
As followers of Jesus Christ we are charged with meeting needs and declaring good for all mankind. We are called to seek out those who are lost and hurting, to be the true servant and humble ourselves. Why is it that we fall into the trap of becoming the people Jesus despised the most?
There are needs in our community. Real needs that require real sacrifice and might even lead us to get our hands messy. There are opportunities to be the light of Jesus and never get noticed for it, on earth that is. How are we going to allow Christ to meet the world’s needs through us?
Matthew 25:31-46, Luke 10: 25-37

Control

The leaf lives its appointed time, and does not struggle against the wind that carries it away. The leaf does no harm, and finally falls to nourish new leaves. So it should be with all men and women. –Aram the Tinker

At first glance this quote appears to advocate giving up. “Just be like the leaf…go where the wind takes you,” offends our American sensibilities. “God helps those who help themselves,” is our motto. I am wondering if this is just a farce, a clever lie meant to hide the fact that we have no control. Maybe we are more like the leaf than we think.

I have been thinking a lot about control. Who is in control? We say God is in control but we also “help ourselves” so He can “help” us. We hate the idea of God determining our steps but we say He is in control. When life is going well we marvel at our brilliance; when it is bad we blame God and try to get out. Do we really even have a clue what we are talking about?

What can we control? We can’t control the weather. We saw that last week when our cities became rivers and our parking lots became lakes. We put so much effort into stopping the rain from damaging our stuff and we still get surprised. We can’t control life and death. Abortions go wrong and the child lives and fertility drugs can fail to come through for us. Some live to 90; some are lucky to reach 9. We can’t even control ourselves. Listen to what Paul has to say in Romans 7: 21-24, “It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?” Even Paul seemed to be out of control.

We all want control of our lives. We usually want control of others lives too. I am not sure we will ever get it. How can we? All out attempts to keep the rain out, to stay alive and to stop sinning fail. What choice do we have but to give control to someone who can do it? Paul says later that the Answer is held only in Jesus Christ our Lord. He did not deliver us so we could control our destiny. He liberated us so we could be a part of His destiny for us. When are we going to learn the lesson of the leaves?

Verses to ponder: Matthew 16:24-26, Romans 7 and 8, Job 38

Medication

“I don’t want medication, just give me liberation. Even if it cuts my legs right out from underneath…” – Derek Webb “Medication”

How many times have we heard…“Jesus makes everything better?” This seems to be the story we have all been told. Please don’t get me wrong, I know He makes all things work for the good of those who love Him. I simply think that we misunderstand what the good is and what making our life better really consists of. We think goodness equals a life free of conflict and pain. If things are going our way we believe/pretend that things are going God’s way too. All that suffering was good for Paul and Peter…it was a different time back then. Today we believe Christ has called us to health, wealth and prosperity, the American dream, etc. etc. I am not sure that this is the case.

Many times in my life, I have approached God like I approach a bottle of Advil. Something bad happens (an interpersonal conflict, bad news, I sin, whatever) and I go to God for a quick fix. “Deliver me!” I scream. I stop caring about how dealing with the situation might make me better. I just want out of it. I will minimize it, I will blame someone else, I will do anything short of actually coming to grips with the fact I might need fixing. I want Him to cure the symptom (the situation). He wants to cure the problem (me and how I react to the situation).

I wonder if it grieves the heart of God when I just want medication. Forget how this situation might make me more perfect or liberate me from a damaging attitude. I want God to make it better not make me better. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” goes right out the window when I am faced with a circumstance that makes me uncomfortable. I cite the founding fathers and pursue happiness when God demands holiness. Give me the pill…hold the treatment.

I see Christ continually challenging us to walk a narrower road and embrace a wider view of what making everything better means. It does not mean deliverance from all problems we face. It means being uncomfortably aware of our shortcomings and being forced to face life with the strength of Christ. Freedom in Christ will not come to the “spiritual pill-popper.” It will only come to the man and the woman who has the courage to face the death of self. We have to feel the burn and the loss of our comforts in order to gain the comforts and grace of God’s great kingdom.

Talk amongst yourselves

Does God speak out of context?

In colege I learned that when it comes to reading the Bible, “Context is everything”. In my 4 years at the ol' IWU I was trained so well that applying the “who, what, where and why” to Scripture is second nature to me. Linds and I are fortunate to have had a great education in this area. Most of the students in my youth group have not had this kind of training. I have had workshops and taught all the basics I can but stories like this next one always come up. This one got me thinking…

A student in our youth group came up to us and shared a problem she was having and how God spoke to her about it. She showed us in the Bible where she got her answer and it was way off. It wasn’t even a complete sentence let alone a complete though. We didn't want to embarrass her too much but it was ripped way out of context. I think that the first thought in both Linds and our minds was, “Out of Context: Commence Teaching mode…Execute.” Yet when she shared what God was teaching and directing her to do it was spot on with what we believed was the best and most godly course of action. She read the words incorrectly but she got the right message.

This and other circumstances like it have come up numerous times in our ministry. What are we to do? The way she was reading the scripture was way off but the Spirit of God still directed her in the right direction. Could it be that God can and sometimes does speak out of context? She needed a word from Him and He gave it to her without the benefit of context.

In this situation do we….

A: Put it in God’s hands. Keep quiet about it. She is getting the right answer; what does it matter. She is making a scholarly error and not a spiritual one. She is on the right track, context will right itself in time.

B: Save it for later. She got it right this time but what about another time. What happens when she reads something about handling snakes or connects concepts from opposing testaments to make a new heresy? Maybe do it passively but make sure that she knows the danger of reading into the text.

C: Nip it in the bud. Say something right away. Strike while the iron in hot. Commend her for coming to the right conclusion but take this time to teach her the best way to read and study the Bible.

Each of these has its own problems. I could hide behind A because I fear or dislike confrontation. The same could be said of B. If I take C I could be anal at best and most likely spiritually prideful.

What do you think is the best course of action? Is there something I am missing? Could there be something that collective biblical scholarship is missing by binding itself too tightly to context? How do you argue against someone else’s experience?

Thoughts on Star Wars

If I lived in the Star Wars Universe I would have a healthy dislike for the Force. Whether Jedi or Sith I would just not like them, here is why.

Every major war in the Universe has been fought by them. They are always fighting each other and everyone gets sucked into it. Even a cursory glance at Star Wars lore will reveal that when the Jedi and the Sith are at odds the whole universe has to suffer. It does not matter what else might be going on the Sith are seeking their Revenge and the Jedi their Return. Empires rise and fall, whole planets and ways of life are destroyed because they can’t get along.

You can’t trust them to care about anyone but themselves. This is especially true of the Sith but even the Jedi care more about the “mysteries of the Force” than curing societal ills and righting wrongs. They have some great propaganda but when the bantha poodoo hits the fan, they care about keeping and getting control. The universe is going to pot in the Clone Wars and it is all a ploy to get the Sith back in power. The Jedi have to destabilize the entire political climate because the Emperor happens to be a (you guessed it) Sith. “Oooo Luke you just killed the Emperor and destroyed the Imperial Regime. I am so glad you ushered in this new era of political and economic confusion.” I don’t think so.

There is no middle ground with them. You can’t be a Sith with Jedi tendencies or vice versa. I thought it rather ironic when Obi-wan told Anakin that only the Sith deal in absolutes. Isn’t that an absolute? There is no place for anyone outside of their structure and belief system and if you can’t use the Force you might as well resign yourself sitting back or dying a quick death by lightsaber. If you are not one of them you have no voice. Democracy by the people really doesn’t work when you have two absolutist groups wielding an all powerful and infallible Force.
Ok I admit it, I am a nerd. I love Star Wars a lot but I realize most of you don’t care so I will move on to my thoughts on Republicans and Democrats…