if you need me today, you’ll find me in the ANGRY DOME.
(an interesting change from my previous post)
Month: July 2009
i woke up at 5am today.
it has been quite some time since i’ve seen 5am. i honestly can’t put my finger on the last time. there’s a better chance that it was a late-night-bar-hopping-home-at-5:30am event rather than waking up to the sun.
it’s not my fault. i brought my brother in law to the airport.
its abstractly fascinating to feel awake, and see the clock ticking off numbers that i don’t recall seeing while being functional.
i’m eating well; lots of fruits and vegetables, minimal (but still there!) meat, very few sugary drinks or processed garbage. that means day to do, i feel great, and even when i wake up this early, i still feel good and ready to go.
my brain is near its peak, if not at it. work drags sometimes; but that’s work. im quite comfortable with, just myself right now. i’m 100% able to go for a walk, bike ride, fishing, all by my lonesome, and be happy and content. some may say, so what? thats lame, i CELEBRATE alone time, its not hard! for a massive extrovert such as myself, being able to be quiet, alone, and peaceful without your brain running in thousand different directions wanting to see a thousand different people is a significant feat.
im content and peaceful with life; i have a path before me that i choose to take. i have been blessed by god, and i know i could reject the path, find another, and that wouldn’t work out poorly. but i choose to accept the blessings i receive right now, bask in them, and be peaceful, thankful, joyful, and full of love.
life is heading in wonderful directions. i do have a few selfish thoughts of what *i* want to happen. i’m interested in seeing how i handle it when the direction of my life shifts AWAY from what i want. i love basking like this, and i fervently hope it prepares me for the next storm, whatever form that may take.
My morning commute was interrupted by this:
My initial reaction was frustration and anger. I quickly realized that was useless, and, ultimately, incorrect. Why isn’t my initial reaction to smile at the glory and beauty of nature and be comfortable relaxing for a few minutes watching a wonderful scene?
There were probably about 50 geese altogether. They decided to walk across the road at that time in that place. There are some things in nature and life you just can’t control. I need focus on not just accepting that, but fully embracing it to see the beauty and peace of not being in control.
This is has been stewing in my brain for awhile, resparked by a conversation I had with a fine female last night.
To inform you: I rarely cite. If you don’t know where something is from, then be BETTER READ. Or just type the phrase into Google and it’ll give you all the necessary background. People don’t actually read links to source pages anyway; you might as well do your own research to find out if I’m correct rather than relying on my interpretation anyway.
What is the purpose of the Church, specifically, the Church in America? Henceforth, Church will be spelled lowercase, but I do think I mean for it to have an uppercase connotation.
If the Bible is interpreted in the traditional sense (as you, dear reader, surely do!), then worship that God finds acceptable is taking care of widows and orphans in their distress (and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world).
God’s working/mission has always been directed towards the poor, hurting, sick, grieving. The church’s primary goal is to accomplish God’s goals; hence caring for those who need it (widows, orphans, those being eaten by the **AAs, etc).
Roughly a third of American paychecks are eaten up by social security, medicare, etc…a variety of social welfare programs instituted in the Depression era to “…promote the general welfare [of the American people]”. Pre-Depression, I’m pretty sure America existed. We got started in the sixteenhundredsomethings thanks to the French, right? There was no nationwide healthcare coverage, unemployment, social security, etc. People STILL flocked to America to work hard and make it big. So, what’s the deal with this stuff now?
That’s not my point though. My thought was more…what happened to the unemployed/unemployable? Well, they found jobs. Granted, this was easier when there was a manufacturing infrastructure in place. For a laborer, there was labor to be had. There wasn’t an aversion to what are now “tech” jobs. Plumbers, electricians (did God invent electricity in that time period? I hope so.) and the like were fine, noble professions. People did work, and there was something to PRODUCE. Not just empty marketing, advertising, redistributing of wealth based of off fake money/credit as there is today.
However, people get hurt. Caretakers die. People get sick. Life situations happen to screw people up, and there was not government social programs to take care of them.
The church was able to do its job. It could take care of those who needed help, and watch out for the poor and homeless, as Jesus did, and as God mandated. But now, religious institutions are neutered. Caring for these folk is now in the public domain, and religious institutions can’t even be directly involved, where it was once their primary purpose to BE the involvement.
Now, churches are free to develop their building projects, debate endlessly over the type of music to sing, and argue over the color of the carpet in the new building. And that new girl is so incredibly awesome. I think I’m going to try to date her.