This is really cool.
That's all.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Winning!! (I have martyr's blood)
Read this article. I know I haven't proved to be consistent in my posting but this has to be one of the best Catholic blog articles I've had the pleasure of reading in a long time.
3 Failed Attempts to Troll the Catholic Church
I seriously couldn't have said it better than Marc (or even close to as well at all), but there are a few things I'd love to add in my own inferior writing style.
This is the awesome thing about being a Christian and (more specifically, with an even greater roar) a Catholic! The Catholic Church can't be stopped for a few simple reasons:
That was not a very good analogy for God's love, but you get the point: God wins so it must follow that God's Church wins.
I think God's asking, "How much are you willing to give up for Me? Am I crucial in your life, or am I trivial?" Life is a big YES with little no's to everything that is not God.
3 Failed Attempts to Troll the Catholic Church
I seriously couldn't have said it better than Marc (or even close to as well at all), but there are a few things I'd love to add in my own inferior writing style.
This is the awesome thing about being a Christian and (more specifically, with an even greater roar) a Catholic! The Catholic Church can't be stopped for a few simple reasons:
------------------------------------- (1) --------------------------------------
We are the body of Christ. Christ is God and God can't lose. Trying to beat God would be like the whack-a-mole machine whacking the inventor of the whack-a-mole game machine...it can't happen because the inventor made it so that he could whack moles.That was not a very good analogy for God's love, but you get the point: God wins so it must follow that God's Church wins.
------------------------------------- (2) --------------------------------------
Just because the Church is awesome doesn't mean it's not going to see hard times where it looks like we might fail. Suffering is redemptive and "pain shifts our focus from what is trivial to what is crucial" as Ennie Hickman would say. I love the fact that God humbles the people in His Church every so often. It's so easy to look at the Israelites in Scripture and call them a bunch of whiny babies, then forget that we are whining about our religious freedoms and gas prices and constantly right now.I think God's asking, "How much are you willing to give up for Me? Am I crucial in your life, or am I trivial?" Life is a big YES with little no's to everything that is not God.
------------------------------------- (3) --------------------------------------
We are led by the Truth, and therefore cannot be led astray. Now, He's letting us get bitten by the snakes a bit so that we have to look to Him lest we be swallowed by our currently ravenous culture that has an edacious hunger which cannot be satisfied without an ideological totalitarian monarchy over both (a) focused temperance and (b) the conscience by the relentless attack of Satan. (breathe in - breathe out) This attack is one of pride in the form of (a) total indulgence without consequence and (b) a denial of any truth that claims to not accept lies. There is only one Truth, and that truth don't accept NO lies.
------------------------------------- (4) --------------------------------------
Who is the only flawless masterpiece that perfectly directs the attention of her children always heavenward?
Who gets to hold her creator in the arms He made her?
What arms are better suited for holding the rest of the broken children of God than the ones that held the scourged Son of God?
Who better to look to than to Mary as we feebly mutter our imperfect yes's than the one who spoke with utmost integrity and love, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy word."
With Mary as our mother and model, let's pray.
Peace.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lenten Reflection (I couldn't come up with a more generic title)
Here's a few things that I came up with to ask myself:
1) Has there been a change for the better in my prayer? Not so much in content or feelings received from praying as much as more effort and desire put toward being in prayer. I think that this is one way to see if I am personally making the sacrifice of time that I need to be making for the Lord.
2) Have I complained a bunch about my fasting or brought it up as often as I could in conversation? Fasting isn't really fasting if we're complaining about it. How can the glory of fasting go to God if all the attention of fasting is on me. Not only am I turning my own attention away from God, but I'm pridefully turning the attention of others toward myself in a time meant solely for growing closer to God. I think that's feasting in irony/vanity; not fasting in humility.
3) Have I given any alms at all? The third thing Lent is about shouldn't be forgotten, even by so-called "poor college kids". I think if we fast correctly, then giving what we save in fasting should make almsgiving easy. It doesn't though. All of the sudden there are so many other opportunities to spend money where we couldn't before. No more of that. Give in humility and trust that God will do good with the gift.
4) Do I have a beard yet? Men, this is too often overlooked as a necessary component of Lent. Grow one. (Don't let this take away from the sincerity of my other questions.)
5) Have I done a reflection on the stations of the cross? Although this isn't explicitly mentioned as a necessary part of Lent, I see no better way to prepare for to join in Christ's sacrifice than to meditate on the depth of that very sacrifice. As He goes to His death, so we go to ours. As He rises victorious, we are raised by His victory.
Hope this helps a bit.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Perspective (Read it. It's short)
I'm a little embarrassed at how much truth I've forgotten in a time of struggling. How can we read the Scripture and despair? What's so bad about a little bit of rough time? Last night I had a little bit of an awakening in my perspective. I've had hints of it but I let my worry push it away. I was at Adore and Ennie reminded everyone there that the battle is already won. That us Catholics should be the most joyful people in the world right now. Why? Cause when the going gets rough, that's when God's getting us ready and doing something big.
Read these: Numbers 21, John 3:14-16 (16 means so much more in context)
There's online Bibles. Pull this one up: NAB Bible
(No excuses now)
When our pain is lifted up in front of us so that we have to focus on it, that's when our focus is the most fine tuned. When we look at Jesus lifted on the cross, even though we've been bitten by the serpent and even though we've willingly let the serpent to bite us, we don't die and we certainly don't despair.
"Pain shifts our gaze from what is trivial to what is crucial." - Ennie
We need to truly understand that God is the victor to have real hope. There's just a light at the end of the tunnel that we can barely see, but we've already been told what the light is. We know the ending so worry is is vain.
Pope Benedict XVI said that "We are not made for comfort; we are made for greatness."
Let's believe in that today.
Read these: Numbers 21, John 3:14-16 (16 means so much more in context)
There's online Bibles. Pull this one up: NAB Bible
(No excuses now)
"Pain shifts our gaze from what is trivial to what is crucial." - Ennie
We need to truly understand that God is the victor to have real hope. There's just a light at the end of the tunnel that we can barely see, but we've already been told what the light is. We know the ending so worry is is vain.
Pope Benedict XVI said that "We are not made for comfort; we are made for greatness."
Let's believe in that today.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
A few thoughts on the desire for control
"The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers."
Cardinal Dolan said this in reaction to a sit down he had with White House officials. In the meeting, the White House essentially tried to convince the Catholic authorities present (who were chosen by the USCCB) that they were and continue to be wrong in their interpretation of THEIR OWN Catholic beliefs! In brief, Catholics should get with the times. Also, it has been made clear that any adjustment, exception or compromise is off the table. This might seem oversimplified, but it's the truth.
Ok, so how can we look at this and understand what's going on here. What have we seen throughout history that there seems to be a norm in relation to power as it is found in daily life as well as in politics. It is one of our prideful human flaws to exercise power that we find ourselves in possession of and expecting others to accept it. Not only that, but when we get a little taste of power we often desire more of it so that we can have a firmer grip and a fuller control over whatever it is that we already control. Now, before you say, "Not me!" just hear me out and I think that you'll find it's not only true, but that it is possible to resist this temptation through a loving perspective.
Take, for example, one of the most potentially beautiful/destructive categories of relationships: siblings. The older sibling finds him/herself in a situation of power and while this is important to note it doesn't give the older sibling the right to control the younger sibling. Yet, without fail, every older sibling I have ever met has at some time sought to control different parts of their younger counterpart's lives. Granted many of these things are small, like snagging the last cookie away from the younger brother cause he, "Had too many already...". Silly, but it's part of control. Be it through verbal manipulation, scare tactics, the old "I'll tell if you do/don't" or the even older brute force strategy, the desire to mold the will of the other to one's match one's own will is seen manifested clearly and uncontroversially in siblings and that's why I chose this example. With four younger siblings, I confess that have used these and more in my selfish actions and it is these types of actions that deny my siblings at least part of their free will.
We see this in every stage of life, be it in high school when popularity is power, in the workforce where money, position and influence are power, in abusive marriages where strength and the ability to provide security (outside of abuse) can be power, in politics where political office, media platform and money are power and in the divisions of the international world where military power provides the means of control. Why does this seem to be a natural tendency and why is it wrong to want to control people in the first place?
This is where that loving perspective I mentioned earlier comes in. In order to take a "love"ing perspective, we must first ask the question of what love is? The very best and most concise definition of love that I've ever heard is the one I've gotten from a St Mary's Campus Minister for Texas A&M Marcel LeJeune and it is this:
It's free will. Love simply cannot exist without the presence of free will. Why else would God allow us to sin? Why would he let us turn away from Him even though it is better for us to choose God and to praise Him in everything we do. God doesn't need praise; we do. So what we can understand is that IF God made us and was controlling our every move so that we did not sin, it would mean that we would have no free will then we would not be our own persons but only extensions of God. That would mean that God doesn't love us. "Gasp!" "Kill the heretic!" Hear me out.
The thing about God is that He does love us, and Jesus is living, dying and rising proof of that. Love can't exist without the allowing of the free will of the one being loved. It follows then, if love is impossible without free will and the permission of free will, that where love doesn't exist a loving perspective is impossible. Confused yet?
So how does this all relate back to the desire for control? Well, basically what I've been getting at is that with a loving perspective we are able to withdraw from the want to control others so that they can experience freedom.
Freedom. If our country was founded on a single value or idea, it was freedom. It was liberty. It was the ability to know that we will be free to live our lives as citizens of the United States, made up of people from all over the world with every different faith. There can also be peace between people of all faiths and non-faiths. That we can live together without having our free will be stripped away. This is what the United States was made to mean but the desire for control is gripping those who find themselves in positions of power.
Some people within multiple branches of our government do not see that the beliefs Catholics profess against contraception are beliefs that can be considered permissible. This is an undermining of the most important principle that our country was founded and it is a result of some who have power who refuse to respect my faith and the faith of over a billion.
So, what our government lacks is a loving perspective or even a tolerant perspective, but I don't blame the government because they are a reflection of us as a culture. A culture that wants to be purely secular and many of those (many of us) who have faith are too embarrassed about our religious beliefs to boldly defend them. I think that all of this represents a spiritual and intellectual immaturity, and ultimately it boils down to the desire for control. Spiritually, we have no understanding of what true love is, and even less of a will to carry it out. Intellectually, we can't see that historically and logically when the state starts taking away freedom, little by little the country will take more and more control. We can see this in any relationship where an entity with power uses it to control a weaker or less devious entity.
You know how people say power is addictive? Well, I think I think they're slightly off. I think it's control that's addictive. It's not the ability that people crave. It's exercising control to better their own cause that drives the desire to control. I could write about this forever but I think one thing needs to be said.
Control is not freedom. The forced buying of anything, much less something believed to be evil is not freedom.
No Freedom = No Love
Lovelessness = Godlessness
Godlessness = Serious Problems for Everybody
Cardinal Dolan said this in reaction to a sit down he had with White House officials. In the meeting, the White House essentially tried to convince the Catholic authorities present (who were chosen by the USCCB) that they were and continue to be wrong in their interpretation of THEIR OWN Catholic beliefs! In brief, Catholics should get with the times. Also, it has been made clear that any adjustment, exception or compromise is off the table. This might seem oversimplified, but it's the truth.
Ok, so how can we look at this and understand what's going on here. What have we seen throughout history that there seems to be a norm in relation to power as it is found in daily life as well as in politics. It is one of our prideful human flaws to exercise power that we find ourselves in possession of and expecting others to accept it. Not only that, but when we get a little taste of power we often desire more of it so that we can have a firmer grip and a fuller control over whatever it is that we already control. Now, before you say, "Not me!" just hear me out and I think that you'll find it's not only true, but that it is possible to resist this temptation through a loving perspective.
Take, for example, one of the most potentially beautiful/destructive categories of relationships: siblings. The older sibling finds him/herself in a situation of power and while this is important to note it doesn't give the older sibling the right to control the younger sibling. Yet, without fail, every older sibling I have ever met has at some time sought to control different parts of their younger counterpart's lives. Granted many of these things are small, like snagging the last cookie away from the younger brother cause he, "Had too many already...". Silly, but it's part of control. Be it through verbal manipulation, scare tactics, the old "I'll tell if you do/don't" or the even older brute force strategy, the desire to mold the will of the other to one's match one's own will is seen manifested clearly and uncontroversially in siblings and that's why I chose this example. With four younger siblings, I confess that have used these and more in my selfish actions and it is these types of actions that deny my siblings at least part of their free will.
We see this in every stage of life, be it in high school when popularity is power, in the workforce where money, position and influence are power, in abusive marriages where strength and the ability to provide security (outside of abuse) can be power, in politics where political office, media platform and money are power and in the divisions of the international world where military power provides the means of control. Why does this seem to be a natural tendency and why is it wrong to want to control people in the first place?
This is where that loving perspective I mentioned earlier comes in. In order to take a "love"ing perspective, we must first ask the question of what love is? The very best and most concise definition of love that I've ever heard is the one I've gotten from a St Mary's Campus Minister for Texas A&M Marcel LeJeune and it is this:
"Love is willing only good for another, despite the cost to oneself"
Short and easy to remember, but also very deep. I should note that willing the good of others includes action and not simply good intentions. Now, what is the one factor that goes into love that, without it, love has no possibility to exist or even to grow into existence? Selflessness can be developed. Courage can be mustered up. Good intentions can come to be through empathy, but what is the one thing that is absolutely essential for love to exist?
It's free will. Love simply cannot exist without the presence of free will. Why else would God allow us to sin? Why would he let us turn away from Him even though it is better for us to choose God and to praise Him in everything we do. God doesn't need praise; we do. So what we can understand is that IF God made us and was controlling our every move so that we did not sin, it would mean that we would have no free will then we would not be our own persons but only extensions of God. That would mean that God doesn't love us. "Gasp!" "Kill the heretic!" Hear me out.
The thing about God is that He does love us, and Jesus is living, dying and rising proof of that. Love can't exist without the allowing of the free will of the one being loved. It follows then, if love is impossible without free will and the permission of free will, that where love doesn't exist a loving perspective is impossible. Confused yet?
So how does this all relate back to the desire for control? Well, basically what I've been getting at is that with a loving perspective we are able to withdraw from the want to control others so that they can experience freedom.
Freedom. If our country was founded on a single value or idea, it was freedom. It was liberty. It was the ability to know that we will be free to live our lives as citizens of the United States, made up of people from all over the world with every different faith. There can also be peace between people of all faiths and non-faiths. That we can live together without having our free will be stripped away. This is what the United States was made to mean but the desire for control is gripping those who find themselves in positions of power.
Some people within multiple branches of our government do not see that the beliefs Catholics profess against contraception are beliefs that can be considered permissible. This is an undermining of the most important principle that our country was founded and it is a result of some who have power who refuse to respect my faith and the faith of over a billion.
So, what our government lacks is a loving perspective or even a tolerant perspective, but I don't blame the government because they are a reflection of us as a culture. A culture that wants to be purely secular and many of those (many of us) who have faith are too embarrassed about our religious beliefs to boldly defend them. I think that all of this represents a spiritual and intellectual immaturity, and ultimately it boils down to the desire for control. Spiritually, we have no understanding of what true love is, and even less of a will to carry it out. Intellectually, we can't see that historically and logically when the state starts taking away freedom, little by little the country will take more and more control. We can see this in any relationship where an entity with power uses it to control a weaker or less devious entity.
You know how people say power is addictive? Well, I think I think they're slightly off. I think it's control that's addictive. It's not the ability that people crave. It's exercising control to better their own cause that drives the desire to control. I could write about this forever but I think one thing needs to be said.
Control is not freedom. The forced buying of anything, much less something believed to be evil is not freedom.
No Freedom = No Love
Lovelessness = Godlessness
Godlessness = Serious Problems for Everybody
Monday, March 5, 2012
St Padre Pio's Body
This is one of the most amazing things you will ever see: an incorruptible. The body of a saint that does not decay.
This is the link!!
This is the link!!
Where Have all the Good Times Gone?
Bible verse theme of the day:
"And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, 'For the kingdom of this world, it shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever more.' " Revelation 11:15
In related news:
Sometimes I freak out about our world and how I feel like it's going down the drain. Sometimes it feels like there is no hope and while I try to trust in God I fall short too often and take on a despairing attitude with which I bring those around me to the level I'm at. That is the dumbest thing we can do at a time like this, when it feels like our freedom is being stripped away and that no one is on our side.
I was reminded of how to combat this perspective a few days ago of this by a witty tweet off twitter that lifted my attitude to a more acceptable and hopeful level. Ennie Hickman tweeted:
"On the Mount, God says "It's about to get crazy, but fear not. I got this." I need to be reminded that He hasn't exited His throne in 2012."
"And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, 'For the kingdom of this world, it shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever more.' " Revelation 11:15
In related news:
Sometimes I freak out about our world and how I feel like it's going down the drain. Sometimes it feels like there is no hope and while I try to trust in God I fall short too often and take on a despairing attitude with which I bring those around me to the level I'm at. That is the dumbest thing we can do at a time like this, when it feels like our freedom is being stripped away and that no one is on our side.
I was reminded of how to combat this perspective a few days ago of this by a witty tweet off twitter that lifted my attitude to a more acceptable and hopeful level. Ennie Hickman tweeted:
"Historically, when it gets bumpy, God is up to something big. Don't worry, trust in Him and enjoy the show."
How true and insightful. I'm not sure, but I would say that Ennie posts things online that he feels he needs o hear himself, but that might help others find a little truth. I think we need to do the same thing. We need to tell ourselves something like this and actually believe it. Stuff like this pumps me up because it (1) let's me know that other people are feeling the same way as me and (2) gives me the right perspective as far as how to approach whatever it is that is in the way of life at each moment. Then Ennie put this gem up today:
God hasn't left his throne. Duh. When I hear that I do a face palm and think how great of a God we have. He is on His throne and the kingdom of this world will indeed become one in the same with God's kingdom. He's got this, there is nothing to worry about and the fact that I worry and stress just tells me that I don't trust God enough. By this, I'm reminded of the first chapter of J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Silmarillion". It's basically a cosmology and creation story that I'll briefly summarize.
Where do I start besides with Illuvatar, or Eru, who is the God character and he is the supreme creator and director of all things. Secondly, we have the Ainur who are Tolkein's angel characters and who play in Illuvatar's symphony. One of these, is Melkor, who is the Lucifer character. This is an almost insulting to the book in it's simplistic explanation, but basically Illuvatar conducts the Ainur in a masterful harmonic symphony. Every noise fits in perfectly with all the rest and nothing seems out of place. Simply put: it's beautiful. Then, Melkor proceeds to have thoughts not aligned with Illuvatar's set directing which he "weaves into his music". There is immediate discord and chaos in the music and many of the Ainur are thrown off by this and many even join in the Melkor's own devious theme. To this Illuvatar just begins directing his own theme that he had not previously revealed and Melkor's discord and chaos, to his dismay, became once again perfectly in tune with the music and the plan of the great maestro.
When I read this for the first time, it blew me away and I loved it because the who time Illuvatar is in control. So too is God always in control. What do we have to worry about when we know that God has read the ending of the story. He knows exactly what is going to happen and not only that but he planned it from the beginning. We all all just a single measure in the symphony that God has written and completed. All the chaos will happen but it's nothing the Divine Author hasn't seen. There's not a single being out there powerful enough to affect the grand finale that is God's victory. No one gets to change the ending of the last chapter that's already written into eternity. It's done. It's over, we just get to "enjoy the show" now.
P.S. Not only is it done, but it's a really freaking good song.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Priests are Legit
Statements like "you'd better knock us out now cause you've awakened a sleeping giant" pump me up and remind me first of my mom explaining how the Church works to me but also of a few metaphors for the Catholic Church which are both frustrating as well as powerfully inspiring.
The Church is like a glacier. It moves oh....soooo......slowly.... in pretty much all of it's actions, decisions and rulings. Like a glacier though, the movement is constant and unchanging flattening anything in it's path. However I'll clarify for fear of being too simplistic. Has any nation survived as long or successfully as the Church? No. So it's more of an outlasting than a flattening.
The Church is also like the Ents from J. R. R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings". They take forever to decide what to do and yet when they are forced into action Saruman, the servant of the evil one, stands no chance at all. Notice that by the provocation of the Ents by the burning down of the forrest Saruman brings the Wrath of the Ents, who were frustratingly predisposed to inaction. When the Church, then, sees the burning of souls by servants of the evil one, have no fear, the Church will release the dams and the waters of the Holy Spirit will rush into the world. How this will manifest itself, we shall see in due time. It might take longer than we want, but that's the nature of the Church, and ultimately...it's not about us. This was obviously an intentional symbolic metaphor by the Catholic Tolkein.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Homily Response to the Mandate
This is a lesson in preaching the truth.
Now, I'm not a political guru and I never claim to be the smartest man in the room, but I do see the obvious. I think most of us see the obvious. What is happening right now is wrong and we need to get fired up about it. There should be some righteous anger, but before we go activist let's all remember Matthew 5:44: "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Make no mistake the Church is being persecuted, but our first action in response to this needs to be to pray for those attempting to impose so blatantly on our liberties. Love is always our goal but hate and/or sin can never be a means.
With that said, I just want to put an excerpt from an awesome blog called Bad Catholic and this is directed at Protestants. This doesn't just impose on our rights as Catholics, but it tramples upon all Christian beliefs, at least according to the founders of the first few Protestant denominations. These are a few possible responses to the biblical argument that contraception is wrong.
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Really, where in the Bible does he take back this particular divine action? The Early Church certainly couldn’t tell:
“Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted” (A.D. 195, Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2).
“…on account of their prominent ancestry and great property, the so-called faithful [certain Christian women who had affairs with male servants] want no children from slaves or lowborn commoners, [so] they use drugs of sterility or bind themselves tightly in order to expel a fetus which has already been engendered” (A.D 255, Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies 9:12).
B) But the Early Church was all corrupted by Catholicism, Martin Luther reformed all that!
Actually, Martin Luther was much meaner about the whole contraception issue than any one I’ve read so far.
“[T]he exceedingly foul deed of Onan, the basest of wretches . . . is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a sodomitic sin. For Onan goes in to her; that is, he lies with her and copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen, lest the woman conceive. Surely at such a time the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed. Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful crime. . . . Consequently, he deserved to be killed by God. He committed an evil deed. Therefore, God punished him.” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 5, p.332)
C) But John Calvin–
Nope. “Deliberately avoiding the intercourse, so that the seed drops on the ground, is doubly horrible. For this means that one quenches the hope of his family…” (John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis.)
D) But John Wesley–
Stop that. “Those sins that dishonor the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile affections. Observe, the thing which he [Onan] did displeased the Lord—and it is to be feared; thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displease the Lord, and destroy their own souls.”
E) But some one –
No. Not one, single Protestant denomination before the 1930′s held that the use of artificial contraception was anything but sinful. May I ask, what on earth has changed, besides the fact that we now live in a culture that really, really wants birth control?
D) But I —
Precisely.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read Marc's whole article here.
You see. We're all in this together. We need to unite in prayer. Then unite in action. This is a scary situation so we can't afford to be divided on this anymore.
Great article from Aggie Catholic Blog
Cardinal Dolan's update on the fight against the HHS mandate. He's really standing up for us here.
(I stole the pic from the article too.)
Extravagant Love
One of my favorite songs is "Your Love is Extravagant" (which is surprisingly by Casting Crowns), mostly because of one word: extravagant. Why? Well, first of all it is quite a fun word to say so as you read say, "extravagance". Try it fast. Try saying it slowly. Now try it with an accent. Fun, but that's not why I like it.
Extravagant means "exceeding the limits of reason" or "lacking in moderation, balance and restraint" or "extremely or excessively elaborate" and that's beginning to come to why I do truly enjoy this word. I read a lot of atheist writing - I admit it is my guilty pleasure - and the most universally accepted atheist idea is that there is no reason, no evidence to believe in God or basically that it doesn't make sense to believe in Him. Now, I obviously believe in God and I find that believing in Him is completely reasonable but that's not what I want to talk about. However, I want to talk about the part of God that doesn't make sense to me, and it actually boils down to His very identity and the purpose of His every action.
His love doesn't make sense. It just doesn't. How can anything, even something that is an all powerful creator love anyone, much less everyone, with an infinite quantity and quality? How can someone never stop loving extravagantly? Are we aware of how much effort extravagance takes? Even there, these questions are limited by searching for an answer while the answer exceeds even the possibility of perceiving (forget comprehending) God's extravagance. I guess what I mean is, when I think extravagance I think this:
His love doesn't make sense. It just doesn't. How can anything, even something that is an all powerful creator love anyone, much less everyone, with an infinite quantity and quality? How can someone never stop loving extravagantly? Are we aware of how much effort extravagance takes? Even there, these questions are limited by searching for an answer while the answer exceeds even the possibility of perceiving (forget comprehending) God's extravagance. I guess what I mean is, when I think extravagance I think this:
But when God thinks extravagance it's more like this:
Sorry if you got excited for a second, but there is no image I could find for it, mostly because such an image does not and simply cannot exist. My point is we cannot perceive infinity and so God's love shouldn't make sense to us. It, God's love (and God is love so I could just say God), is the definition of extravagant. It exceeds the limits of reason. So, in the same action, it exceeds the capability of our intelligence to comprehend how or why his love is so immense or even what the extent of the identity of God is. We don't even understand who God is! So not only as Christians do we believe that God is all powerful, all good and present in every second of time and inch of space, but we also believe that we will never understand Him or why He is the way He is other than that He is the way He is because that's the way it is (and He is the Way by the way).
Notice: English students and teachers please excuse that last sentence because I think it was a disastrously crazy run on. Do this because, in my super, very, really humble opinion, it was epic and you should read it again.
Now, if God's love is so infinite and we do in fact believe in this crazy lover, then our love should be like His, right? Our love for Him should try to be as great as His love for us, right? Yeah, so we build stupid big buildings (like that one of St Patrick's Cathedral above) covered in the finest art the human race has ever produced, then we worship Him in it, and that is the sole purpose of the building, right? Right. Yes. Makes total sense. He deserves our best. Ok, great. Got it. We'll build and worship to glorify God as best as we possibly can. That's good. It'll be hard and will take a while, but we can do it and we love You too, so this is no problem.
I think most, or at least some, Christians would agree that glorifying God in this way is great, but we can't just live in a cathedral and never leave. Plus, our God is pretty smart and He gave us each our own little portable cathedrals: our bodies.
Side note: Does that make a pregnant lady being in a cathedral building like Inception? A cathedral within a cathedral within a cathedral? What if she has twins? ...ok, done with that.
You've heard it before, "Your body is a temple," and it is if you're Jewish. Just kidding. I'm really ADD right now. How do we possibly get back on point from here.
Well, here's the question: What is a temple or a cathedral or church building for?
Here's the answer: We use them to worship and love the Lord.
Second question: What's so extravagant about my body?
Second answer: If you don't know, you're not doing it right. (Disclaimer: I don't actually do this right either, but it's easy to say once you've heard smart men like Ennie Hickman say it first)
God's love doesn't make sense. We constantly turn our backs on Him, spit on His laws and disgrace his sacrifice and yet He has the greatest love that we will ever know. Our love should be similar to His since He is the perfect model of love. As we go through life, we should be doing things that don't make any sense whatsoever. People should (at least sometimes) look at us in absolute bewilderment because the things we do are so radically loving that they don't make sense. Why doesn't this happen more often?
Galatians 1:10 ~~ "Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ."
We're not given our bodies to please men, but rather to deny our earthly brothers' and sisters' expectations by turning to Christ. Sometimes that means physically turning toward those we would normally pass by and have a conversation. If a beggar walks by my car expecting nothing or at most very little, why do I not turn to Christ and obliterate his expectations by showering on him whatever I can give. When I sit in class and everyone is complaining about something, why do I not have positive and uplifting things to say? Why do I do what everyone wants me to do which is complain? When I have nothing else to do why do I sit on Facebook judging people or finding the prettiest girl's page to lust over when I could call up an old friend for coffee or write nice things on other people's walls? Why do I even have to do that on Facebook, and why don't I, instead, write uplifting notes to randomly hand to friends or even strangers? Why is it so hard to buy the person who is in line behind me a lunch and sit and get to know him or her? Why don't I work at the soup kitchen every weekend or even once a week after school? Why have I never traded shirts with a homeless guy? Why can't I have a decent conversation or even get to know a little about the guy who sits next to me in class because I think he is a little awkward to talk to? Why? Why?! Why?!?!?!
Answer: Because I cannot love without any moderation, balance or restraint on my own.
I know you don't have all day to sit and read this, so here's the thing I think God want us to understand. If we are predictable and normal, we're doing it wrong. But, if people CAN'T understand why you do the good things that you do, and if your loving actions "exceed the limits of reason and necessity", then it's not your love at all. You're doing it right. You've let God in and He's in control because you want Him to be.
Because you know that you can't love extravagantly.
But, you also know that He can.
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