Hammock

The timid groan of tense rope delicately swaying
    lulls lovers laying sweetly.
    Lunar light laps softly
         over clasped hands,
         across serene souls sleeping.

What if you were an atheist...

Hey Christians, have you ever thought about that? ...what if you were an atheist? ...what if you didn't know what to believe? ...and you started thinking, maybe there is a god somewhere out there?

**Unnecessary Disclaimer** This post is directed at a Christian audience, but all are welcome and encouraged to read and respond with their own genuine responses rooted in whatever belief, unbelief, semi-belief or unfettered skepticism that you subscribe to.

What would you do, Christian folk, if you were an atheist, agnostic, deist, etc. who began to see a thread of what might be divine presence in our world?

What if you even thought that maybe Christianity could be somewhat plausible?

Where do you go from there?

I'm not here to say that there is not a right answer, and I'm definitely not saying it's beyond possibility to find that answer and to have that answer be the correct one. I do believe that it's possible to find the Truth (capital T) and I do truly believe that the responsibility for each human individual to find Truth ultimately falls to himself or herself. I'm not saying that that responsibility is in any way limited to the individual, just that it's the responsibility of every person to be an honest seeker of the truth.

That being said, how the hell are people supposed to know where to start looking if they see Christianity as a viable, realistic devotion? 

Say Wikipedia is accurate (in an approximate sense, of course). There are somewhere around 41,000 denominations of Christianity. Now add the ridiculous amount of "non-denominational" Christian denominations who differ in doctrine. We've all been in situations that we felt were win-lose, win-lose-lose, or maybe even lose-lose-lose-win, but have you ever gone into a win or ("lose") x (41+who knows how many)] x  10100 situation? It's doubtful. It's also doubtful that I wrote out that scientific notation correctly. For those, who struggle with algebra, I can surely sympathize so let's simplify: that's a really freaking big number. Discouraging is nothing less than an unbelievable failure of an adjective for that seemingly hopeless situation.

Was Jesus human and divine? Was He two separate persons with two natures (divine and human) or one person with two natures? Did He actually die on the cross or was it an illusion? Salvation by "faith alone" or by "faith and works" or by "works alone, guided by faith" or (this is a new one) by "diversity"? Is Mary the mother of God or just the mother of the human part of Jesus? Was she a virgin before Jesus was born? How about during His birth? What about for the rest of her life? What about the Pope or Augustine of Hippo or Martin Luther or Matt Slick or Joel Osteen or Thomas Aquinas or Jonathan Edwards or Gustavo Guttierez or Al Sharpton or Duns Scotus or Stephen Furtick and on and on and so forth. What about the Trinity? How does that work?

There are thousands upon thousands of questions and disputes to bring up here, and that's a problem. I'd be the last one to say that these things aren't important. They are, but our disputes and divisions over these doctrines are human in origin. It's our fallen humanity that leads us to segregate ourselves from each other and this contributes to the reasons why people are becoming less pious in devotion to prayer and Sunday worship. Anyone who says that these things don't matter and that we are already "one" is either hopefully oblivious to or willfully ignorant of reality. We, who profess that we're called to join Christ's unified body, in remaining a broken people, join the persecution of the Church or at least permit the tearing apart of Christ's members; we participate in the scourging of that body at the pillar of our own stubbornness.

At this point you're probably thinking, "What a drama queen! Soooooo negative. What is this Jacob guy's deal today?"

So what's my point? If you think it's turning out to be a kind of depressing one, you're right. All of us Christians should care more than I feel like we do though, so I'm trying for that.

We have failed non-Christians in giving them a giant stumbling block to faith. We have failed to be one body. We've decided erroneously that Christ's body isn't a human body but a ficus as Christians go about "planting" separated "churches" carelessly as seeds, when really we're planting ourselves, the limbs of Christ that we've hacked off His holy Body. We do this with not a thought to Christ Himself, with blindness to its effect on non-Christians who desire to to become believers and ignorant indifference to Christians who want to know the one Truth. What part of "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism" (Ephesians 4:5) do we not comprehend?

No amount of good intentions, holy people and some limited results in evangelization are no reason to ignore this embarrassing reality of increased separation. Sure, it's all nice people trying to follow Christ, but we forgot one thing Christ and the apostles told us to do: follow Him together. (cf. John 17:11, 20-23, Ephesians 4:1-3 and other places in Scripture) 

If I was an atheist, I wouldn't know where to start. I'd be turned off when I read scathing comments on articles in my quest for Truth (wait, that already happens). 

Evangelization, though God somehow works through our brokenness, is severely hindered in our continued disunity. We have to passionately desire unity and pray in relentless hope for for God's intervention in this self inflicted handicapping of the Church by amputation that has reached it's darkest low-point in modern western Christianity.

John 17:11, 20-25 makes it clear:

Disunity fails evangelization; a people who are one in the Father and Son is the reason people will believe and have faith that the Father did truly sent Jesus.

Disunity fails and makes a certain lie of the oneness we profess. We profess Christ in our word, yet we are not one.

Disunity fails our personal relationship with God. Unity with God means unity with each other in Him. Personally, we're estranged from a more perfect relationship by our disunity with other Christians

Disunity fails the Father, as His children estrange ourselves from each other and therefore His will, which is for the world to know Him in Christ, yet we selfishly reject unity with our brothers and sisters.

Disunity fails the Son, Who came so that we might be one. Our sins tore His flesh once, physically, and now continually for 1500 years. Christ loves so that the world can know Him. Love is total self gift. How can Christ love through us if we reject parts of Him? We damage Christ's ability to love through us by our disunity.

I promise, I set out to be brief. I'll try harder next time. Here's the home stretch.

I say all of this is not to wine in despair, but to convict myself and any Christians who read this. Also, to let you Christians who are struggling to choose from the many who should be united that this isn't how it should be, but to know that those who fight for Christian unity in Truth fight for the true Church. That's an essential box to check.

Also, this is to let any non-Christians, whether or not they see a shred of truth in the current divided Christianity, that our division is our fault; it's not God's. We believe that we are sinners. We know we suck, or those of us who believe Jesus believe that we're broken. Many of us understand where you are and why it's an overwhelming task to try and find faith in something in such disrepair. We get it, and you will never hear someone with love in their heart tell you that you're less valuable or less of a good, caring human being for not being a Christian. We do think having Jesus in your life will be of unparalleled benefit to you, but we also know that we've made it difficult for anyone to see loving unity among our divided groups. We are sorry. You deserve better from many (if not most) Christians.

Union will be found in Truth, since there is only one. Subjective truth is an oxymoron. If Christians, non-Christians and non-believers strive with genuine hearts and minds to search for the one Truth, we will surely meet each other there.

I ask you again, Christians, what if you were an atheist? Would you look past the wrecked relationships of brothers and sisters and ask to be adopted into their family? If you said yes, you're lying. If you said no, treat people who are unsure with the understanding we owe them. I'll try if you do. Cool? Cool.

Peace,
Jacob

Prayer for Christian Unity

Lord Jesus, 

at the last Supper You prayed that all should be one.

Send Your Holy Spirit 

upon all who bear Your name and seek to serve You.

Strengthen our Faith in You and 

lead us to love one another in humility.

May we who have been reborn in one baptism

 be united in one faith under one Shepherd.

Amen

(From Bl. John Paul II's encyclical "Ut unum sint")

Lent is here. Now be quiet.

(borrowed image)

Are you giving up sweets or every drink besides water?

Are you giving up meat for the whole 40 days?

Are you giving away one belonging every Friday?

Are you praying a specific prayer everyday?

Are you lending a hand to someone who needs it?

Are you going all out this Lent doing only bread and water?



...wait, don't tell me. That defeats the purpose.

Aside from maybe family or a close friend or two telling people jeopardizes the possibility of actually growing. To put it as briefly as possible, it runs the risk of doing it out of vanity instead of piety. Telling is not quite moaning on the street corner, but it's definitely not praying in private. So, don't tell me. Don't tell anyone.

If you did tell people already, I have an idea. Do whatever you told them you were giving up in front of them, don't say anything and sacrifice something else that day. They'll think you messed up, you'll know they think you messed up, and you'll get a small slice of humble pie to chew on. **Disclaimer** Be prudent about that. We don't want to cause scandal.

Lent is here. Now, be quiet about your secret and, if you don't mind, please pray for me.

Peace.

Why isn't Kevin Heider Famous Yet?

     I don't know why I haven't done this yet, but I'm doing it now. Last fall, I went to a little house concert in Steubenville, Ohio. I didn't even know about it until about 2 hours before it started when a missionary friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join him in going. Little did I know that I would meet two insanely talented singers who are on their way up.

     The little shin-dig was actually an album release event for the wonderful Alanna-Marie Boudreau. This was her first official release on iTunes, I believe. Her voice inspires contemplation. Listen to her stuff. Here's a sample. Buy her album. You will love it. Every guy in that room, who hadn't met her before, immediately fell in love.

     Ok, so she's just starting out and I get that it takes time to build your name, but what I don't get is why the guy who opened for her isn't a household name yet. Ok, I realize that's asking a lot but please understand that Kevin Heider is truly an amazing songwriter. I really don't know how to describe his style, because it's so diverse, therefore I have concluded that his genre is "awesomeness". He can be poetic, funny, catchy, inspirational and thought-provoking all at once, and then hit you with a reality check, forcing you, all of the sudden, to view the world differently.

     I realize that this is high praise, but I mean it sincerely. He is one of the best lyricists I know of. Oh, and the melodies and music are amazing as well. I just have a hard time describing them because the variety of styles he uses, like I said before, range more widely than most artists.

     I know that all of this seems like exaggeration, but I really do feel an obligation to spread his music, so here:

His latest album: "The Spark" (If nothing else, listen to "Enola's Wake")

His website

His YouTube channel

I don't know what else to say, except that I can't stop listening to his stuff.

Peace.

Fratricide

Survey the battle's aftermath

The eery sight its grounds behold.

None victoriously noble.

All those who fought have now gone cold.

Brothers became arch-enemies

Self-righteous, closing open doors 

Unforgiving and impatient

Fought their battles, forgetting wars

One darkly bore an evil sneer

Found the opportune flame to tend

Fraternal wrath he did cajole

Their bond, the brothers would not amend

I have no time for civil wars

No room for selfish, spiteful kin

If legions spar among themselves

They'll die before the feuds begin

Nothing Special

Everything I’ve ever thought was, long before me, thought already.

Everything I’ve ever said, said years before my thought was ready.

Everything I’ve ever done, done prior to me and done by many.

I have of yet paved no new ground. My life is just stale miscellany.

I’m made of commonplace experience

Of the unromantic I am rife.

I lack any sort of new adventure.

I've mastered not fiddle or fife.

Oh, give me reason now to try and do my best for all my life.

For what‘s the worth of bland achievement when it costs me so much strife.

I am given maps written for me by those who do what I cannot;

By those who preach of this and that, how to live life and how to not.

I know this map is incorrect but it’s the constant lesson that I’m taught.

But then again what else is there?

For no thing have I ever fought.

Drop the map and change your course for freedom remains the better choice.

Let Life’s eternal melody ring, in harmony with your unique voice.

Countless affairs have brought me sorrow; for each and every one I’ve cried,

But nothing draws my mourning more than self-loathing lives that never tried.

On Telling Our Friends We Hate Them

      I've been noticing (for quite some time now) a particular trend in certain friendships and I'm sure everyone has noticed and possibly even talked about the kind of relationships that I'm about to discuss. Before I get to deep into it I just want to show the little pic that I've seen 50 or so times that prompted me to write about it.

     I know this is just a fun little graphic, and I know this is going to hit home for a lot of us so trust me when I say it's not something I necessarily want to dissect myself. I don't really want to take a deeper look at this for two reasons: first, because this might be offensive to friends and I have an embarrassingly deep wanting to receive affirmation from people who like what I do and, second, because some of the best of friendships that I have had in my life are resembled by this graphic, at least to a certain degree.

     The first thing I want to question is why we're ok with forming relationships like this. I know that this is not the healthiest way to form relationships and I feel like it's not just me that feels this way. I suppose before we get any further I should clarify that I don't know to what extent these sarcastic and joking insults are ok. It's hard for me to take a position on tolerating them at all for myself, and yet it's had for me to say that there is never a place for it at all in personal relationships. I grew up not seeing it as harmful and I see how sarcasm can be used to make a point with emphasis but Jesus did say, "Let your yes be yes," didn't he? Is it really ok speak insincerely in any way, even when feigning annoyance or dislike? I'm not sure.

     I expect the first counterargument to all this ruckus I'm raising is that it depends on who you're talking to. If I know someone well enough to the point that they know when I'm joking, it's no big deal. Maybe, but what if the comments are negative even if the intention is positive? First off, I'd say that's a huge risk to take because we can't know for sure that we're not feeding insecurities of our loved ones making them more self-conscious. After all, those we love most can hurt us the most, right? So joking with those people closest to us about how stupid they are might have more of an effect that we can see when they pretend to laugh it off.

     The other day I was reminded about how what we do effects our own beliefs and outlooks. Pascal said:

"If we do not live the way we believe, then we will end up believing the way we live."

     So not only could we negatively affect our family and friends through sarcasm and insults, but we can even change the light in which we see them. Without even noticing, we can develop a lack of empathy and a subliminal annoyance in ourselves toward those we treat with "playful" disrespect. This inevitably results in all sorts of problems to popping up in our relationships. You don't think it's true? Just ask my little brothers about my "playful jokes". I went from joking around,  to picking on them to actually getting annoyed by more than half of the stuff they did. They didn't deserve it, but I had transformed myself into a highly efficient criticizing machine. Now I literally can't joke like that with them at all because it stirs years of built up anger. It's easy to assume somebody is going to just get over something  when you're the one throwing the punches.

     Now I realize that my situation is different since they are my brothers and I'm the older one, but a lot of times that's how friends are too. Some friends are able to dish it out but can't take it. Are you willing to risk ruining a relationship over not wanting to put the effort into being a positive and loving friend? That's the real point of this little piece. Of course, there are some people who can get along just fine with all this and I guess that's up to each of us. I just wanted to point out that I don't see this approach as a very loving way to go about making and maintaining friendships.

     This probably hits home for everybody. I know it does for me, but I say it because I think it's important that we NOT be ok with where we stand as a society. Just type in sarcasm to a google image search and look at the plethora of memes to choose from. We obviously hold sarcasm and this style of friendship in high regard, but why? I'm just writing to challenge that notion, get 20 or so people thinking about it. The facts are: we're gonna mess up and I'm still not completely sure whether or not I think a little bit of sarcasm is ok to mix in with the rest of the humor in our relationships, but here is the point:

I think we ought to build up loving friendships instead of tearing down bland ones. 

I think instead of being proud of ourselves, we should be ashamed that we treat family and friends the worst.