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chewydog
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Name: Joshua
Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 7/21/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: cooking
fishing
reading
gaming
lots of stuff
Expertise: Wasting Time, I am the master!!!! Think not? Taking me seven years for a four year degree, and I ain't stupid, just a little lazy...
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
12/3/2003
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| So I just spent the last 6 hours trying to get everything together to transfer the contents of 3 120L tanks into a 300L tank. And so far I have done nothing. Not my fault. I had to wait for them to find a 300L tank, then wait for it to be delivered, tehn wait as we found out that it was the wrong tank, and that the right tank was MIA. So now, 6 hours after starting, it has been decided that I do nothing, because we have to find the right tank. Go Team...... | | |
| So I am an avid Hary Potter fan, and of course read the 7th and final book with much enthusiasm. My wife did so also, however under the dissaproving eye of her grandmother and her friends, a group of close minded, conservative people. The whole Harry Potter is evil and teaches kids witchcraft etc arguement. I sometimes wonder where people get these ideas, these "concerns". Do they fully research everything, and then impart their judgement? Or do they look and see kids and witches mixed together and go " BAD!!!" Kind of funny how they burn Harry Potter, and applaud Lord of the Rings. So you may have noticed the rampant negativity towards churches, christians, etc lately in my posts. My point is that in a world where people judge others by minor things, public things, first impressions, the Church is showing itself no different. Where people judge Chirstians based on things like someone cutting them off on the freeway, flipping them off and speeding away with a nice little fish on the back of the car, many Christians judge in the same way. That is basically my main point. We are supposed to be "in the world but not of it". The world runs on greed, pleasure, money, power, what do you run on? The whole "Judge not, lest you be judged" thing seems to be forgotten a lot. If you sport the fish, the cross, the whatever your faith symbol is, remeber that it is screaming out that you are a christian, and all your actions will be attributed to that. The way the world views us is not the whole picture, but it is still a picture, fully supported by actions that it captured. I have friends who do drugs, have sex before marriage (like 95% of the population), and you name it and its probably covered by a friend or relative of mine. But its no reason to judge them, and make them feel worthless. I may dissapprove of their actions, but I am not gonna beat them down with the holy 2x4, they need to find their own path, make their own decisions. Judging them guilty and wrong is not for us to do. Remeber, that we are just as guilty. | | |
| So stemming off of the previous post, partly anyways, I will continue the rant about churches. Churches are on the decline, at least they are to me. Their public image is scarred and bleeding, and every time you turn around they're putting salt on their own wounds. I am sure most of you have seen the Pope's declaration that the Catholics Church is the only true church. The basis for this: ...um....yeah....you got me. Bloodlines from the Apostles? That's important how? I guess I am not smoking the religious incense with the sacramental wines for that eye opening spiritual experience. I suppose they think there is some divine right, or inherited ability to be more in tune with God? More likely its a power trip, and religion holds a great power over those who follow it. Especialy those who follow it blindly. Horrible thigns have been done in the "Name of God" by people viewed as holy leaders. Edics by Pope's in the past, crusades that spread only blood. The church as become a billion dollar industry lead by hungy wolves leading the sheep astray. I had a English teacher in college who was almsot finished with Seminary but quit, and is now a very staunch athiest. The idea that someone can go that far then realize that they don't believe in God is interesting to me, makes me wonder how many others go all the way, wearing the mask of piety, and going through the motions. Now I am sure there are churches out there that do not fit this category. There are always exceptions, but those are not the ones in the spotlight, not the ones that the world sees. And for those churches, where is their outcry against the darkness that is staining the name of the church? Division in the church has always been growing. People decide they have a different view, so they start a new church, splitting from wherever they were. A farily common occurence I suppose, look at all the denominations out there, and the Lutheran church has soo many Synods each more conservative than the next, its kind of rediculous. The Pope's declaration, basically a restatement of a paper he wrote years ago (so kind of old news) just adds to the division in the Christian church. Which to me is shameful. One People. One Faith. One God. If you were to look at the overlapping beliefs of all the denominations oof the christian church you would be looking at a Ven Diagram from hell on an acid trip. I would hope (but I know I would be wrong) that there would be a core set of beliefs that they all overlapped on. Divisions occur on so many ideas, interpretations, and levels that its mind boggling. The role of women in the church, if they are even given one. Pre-trib, post-trib, no trib. What exactly does "the" mean..... When it all comes down to it, most of what they argue about is meaningless periphera that if you focused on teh core of the religion would work itself out. Its kind of like political elections, the candidates get you focused on abortion, or clean energy, or gun control, when you should be focused on the economy, healthcare, unity. People ask me what religion I am. Often its are you Christian or Catholic....yeah....there is a difference to the general public I guess. Anyways...my response is Christian. The follow up is what denomination, or what church I belong to. To that I have no answer. People kind of stare at me, and are king of shocked that I don't belong to a church to have that community and all that. My response is simple: My faith is between God and Me, my community is whomever is around me, for God is always with me and where ever 3 or more are gatherd, so is He with us. Do I think that churches are a good thing, of course, gathering in the name of God is a marvelous thing. I just think that those who gather are not gathered for the right reasons, we are afraid to be weak in the eyes of our community, our friends, so all that we see is a smiling happy faces covering tortured, bitter hearts. We hide behind ourselves, behind our actions hopign no one will see our weakness. But actions are not faith, no matter how hard you try. And in weakness, we can only find strength in God. For anyone interested, Casting Crowns is a musical group that expresses many of these thoughts in their music. I would higly recommend their albums, there are an honest, and point of view driven testimony to the struggles of being a Christian, with some good praise tossed in as well. Ultimately for me, all you need to do is read the Bible and see what Jesus taught, what God presented to the Israelites. John Lennon had it right, "All you need is love." | | |
| So I have come to the conclusion that I am the worst person at staying in touch with pretty much everybody. Not necessarily a horrible thing, I could pick up a conversation dropped off ten years earlier at the same spot. I guess for me people never really leave, I just know they will be back, that we will meet again and have time to catch up and remember the good times.
But then I look at the facts: I haven't seen most of you in like.....almost a year. Frankly I guess I miss you all to one point or another. Except Gori. Man what an asshole. j/k I even miss the big smelly Italian stallion.
Life changes, and man does it suck. Working full time leaves less time to hang out, and as we split up and go off to new careers in varied places, its harder to keep the same level of connection. What's more, is I am technically clinically depressed. Not really, but the symptoms of "shift work" (which is what I do) struggling for sleep, feeling tired, moody, and a long list of other symptoms, are all the same as clinical depression. Kind of funny. Kind of sad. So yeah, you know me, motivation always lacking. That's the best part about my wife. Motivation. If I had half the motivation she had, all of you would be paying your taxes to me, first man to rule the whole world.
Strange this is, is that lately I have been feeling motivated. But motivated to do what, I am not sure. I thought it might be motivation to go to church. But it seems that every church has issues. I just don't feel God in those places. I feel people. Just being there. Oh there are a few moments of something more, but there is a huge hole in the church today. It is just not the home that it should be, and it makes me cry.
Part of it is motivation to exercise more, and I must say midnight walks are refreshing, especially when the day was 104degrees.
Perhaps part of it is trying to get me to write. Once upon a half decade ago, I had about 100+ pages of poetry. A few people had told me I should write a book. Maybe I should. Maybe I shouldn't. What would I write? Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas? There are plenty of those. I would need something original. Something that everyone wants but doesn't know. If only I could write a dream.
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So, like all times when you are forced to think about death, you tend to think about life. Your life. You see it all. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the OMGWTF was I thinking. Not always pleasant. Not always wanted. But always, always happens. You can try and be emotionless. Cold hearted bastards feel nothing, must be nice, maybe I'll try it. Except for the whole bastard part. Couldn't play that part very well for very long. Well maybe lets bury it and hope it gets lost under the rest of the crap. Works until God hits the flush button and the crap goes away, leaving everything you buried underneath.
So you just have to deal with it. For me that means every 6 months someone dies and you have to sit and cry for a couple hours. Yes, I said cry. I cry. Not very often. It is a rare occurrence, but sometimes you need to release, and the tears come. You feel great afterwards, well...after the 3 hours nap you take because you are totally drained.
The title and first comment of my previous post came from a conversation I had with someone at work. We were talking about funerals, losing family members, etc. I said the best thing you can do from now on is to take pictures, because sometimes, eventually, memories are all you have. Your memory will fade, but pictures capture that moment, capture that smile, that goofy grin, the food fight survivors, the sunburned explorers. It led into a great conversation about her family not having had a family picture since her brother died, and how she had randomly finally decided that it had to be done, now 9 years since his death. Pictures are important, memories even more so.
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