I Have an Awesome Friend

I have an awesome friend, who invites me over to talk when no one else wants me to. I have an awesome friend who loves me at my worst. I have an awesome friend who feels pain when I fail, but loves my return to grace. I have a friend who challenges my call to ministry by his incredible example. I have an awesome friend who pushes the limits of my quest for God and his never-ending love. I have an awesome friend who is not there too often, but he has been there when no one else was there.

Who else would be as goofy as him?

Thanks for listening to my philosophical musing, it was fun.

nate. (to M)

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Poisonous Mango

There will always be "that guy". At least until heaven, the church will always have that individual who claims the guise of Christianity, but has no real desire or intentions to live accordingly. By no means does our works determine our salvation. Under such constrictions, I am set to burn for a long time (in hell that is). But James effectively addressed this concept of faith vs. works as follows: "Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself." (James 2:17) Faith is the undercurrent of a lifetime spent pursuing God, and the product of such a lifestyle can be no other than the fruits of the spirit. Love, patience, kindness, and self-control are but a few of the many qualities that the Holy Spirit in you, sanctifying your life, can produce. God's abounding grace is that he allows us to experience this sanctification, although we deserve to suffer for eternity.

Tonight I ate a mango and it was delectable.

If the mango tree was poisoned, I would probably die or become violently ill, as many people do when poisoned. In the same way, how can the church allow poisonous fruit to infect the Body of Christ? (meaning the church body) There is probably at least one person whom we know is "that guy". This instant judgment is probably the vain judging that we do as humans, trying to place ourselves as greater than our friends. It is this initial judgment, however, that can potentially reflect a lifestyle that our misguided friend may not be pursuing--namely, a lifestyle of pursuing God. Priorities and decisions over a period of time often reflect the deepest desires of an individual, and we must confront our friend if these decisions reflect a consistent willful desire to sin. If there is no repentance after individual peer-to-peer assistance, confrontation by a small group, and eventually confrontation by the church, the behavior of our peer is demonic.

My human emotions cringe as we see "that guy" leaving the doors of our church screaming "F this place!!", or even as he walks out silently. At first glance, I can't stand the unloving attitude that this process seems to portray, but whom did Jesus attack most severely? Pharisees, and others who claimed faith, but had no desire to live a life governed by God. He uses some of his harshest language and most frightening actions to clear his temple of such blasphemers. Though rejecting demonic activity within the church is not always necessarily intuitive, it is biblical.

Beware of "that guy"

Don't eat the poisonous mango

nate.

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Republican or Democrat... Nah, Jesus For President!!!

Earlier this evening, a fellow student spoke the following words in reference to the current election, and it pained me: "My dad hates Joe Biden, so I do too." As much as my conservative upbringing screams for me to follow suit and accept judgments on blind faith, I cannot accept such ignorance. Though I do not consider this friend an ignorant individual, this comment reveals an common theme I have seen within the church--a lack of questioning. Students generally take whatever their parents say and hold to it, almost never thinking or deciding for themselves. The conservative circle has enveloped the Christian faith in a bubble of ignorance and allows no deviance from the policy that is not necessarily biblical or correct. Any who try to question or leave the bubble are either labeled an "ignorant liberal", "stupid", and even "non-christian". How dare we. The church has, first and foremost, no authority to decide for everyone what the right path is. Input is useful in coming to a decision, but this barbaric manner of decision making reverts back to the days of Catholicism. During the days of Martin Luther, the church primarily used a Bible written in Latin, not because there wasn't a translation, but simply because the masses could not read Latin. Therefore, the church had ultimate authority to decide the interpretation of the truth. As the masses could only see the Bible through the selective lenses of the clergy, corruption ensued and subsequently the Protestant Reformation came about. In this same way, we must look beyond the so called "political truth" that our spiritual leaders proclaim, not forsaking their insight, but simply being sure that the ultimate decision is ours and ours alone.

Vote for Yourself

nate.

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Let Me Be A Liar

I'm so thankful that I am not God.

I consider all of the pressure of such an esteemed position.. then I consider all the times I cave in under pressure...

I ponder the stretches of God's power... then I consider my personal weakness...

God asked Job, "Do you have the arm of God?" I cannot even speak to answer that question.

I realize how he painted the stars with his fingers... then I realize how I can't even paint with a brush..

"Let God be true, and every man a liar." (Rom 3:4)

Oh Lord, teach me to be humble

nate.

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On the Human Stamina

The incessant bear of scholastic activity that pervades the entire adolescent existence.
A way to advance learning.
How to fit more into school curriculum.
An occupation of a youth's potential free time.
Busy work.
School work.

Homework

Glancing through the above list of descriptions, some positive, some very negative, I question as follows: What is homework to me? By no means is this a moral appeal as another teacher saying "be optimistic! homework is extending your potential for learning!", this is a plea to consider the role of homework in your life.

From personal experience, homework means staying up long past my ideal bedtime, it means allowing Greensboro Day to invade my sleep habits and to use its claws of authority to pick up my life and drop it a few hours past midnight for the next 8 months. Not only does homework involve the drudge of busy work and endless odd numbered calculus problems, but homework includes the tedious assembly of your demonstration of mastery. By this I mean to say papers and projects. Laboring over hundreds of pages of a literary text or covering yourself in paint and glue in the making of a poster. all this is not even mentioning examination. Oh, examination! I defy your existence. After night after night of busy work preparing for the final chapter test, the eve of the examination is not spent in quiet hope for the coming of the next day, but instead a fearful apprehension over what may be the undoing of all your hard work.

Now that Freud's Id has had its say, I must give the rebuttal for my emotionally driven paragraph of quibbles. In contrast with what one may believe of me from the above writings, I enjoy school work for the most part. By no means can I claim to enjoy the pains of the learning process, but it is the most strenuous school work that has taught me the most. Lessons of perseverance, integrity, self-control, and most importantly the development of a work ethic have been the bi-products of the Greensboro Day nuclear reaction of stress and overworking. As my maturation has gradually taken place, my person has not only undergone changes of character, but the values to which I ascribe have been modified. By this nondescript phrase, I mean that through the GDS furnace of homework and stress, the importance of relaxation and meaningful friendships has been refined into a fine gold.

As humans, there is no question that we are made for work. One of the punishments of the human condition of sinfulness is that we must now "work the land"(metaphorically and literally), for the entirety of our existence. It is important, however, to realize that we are meant for so much more. Life is, as Plato taught, centered around discovering the golden mean--finding the balance between obligation and want. Where there is no place for developing inertia in laziness and sloth, there is also no place for working to the death. The human stamina is not meant to be abused. We must respect our bodies and minds and therefore give ourselves over to a healthy balance between work and relaxation.

In the words of esteemed philosopher Stephen Puckett,

"Don't let school wear you out."

I really can't put it more simply than that,

nate. (thanks stephen!)

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Freud v. The Bible: Who Wins?

I have heard one person after another, who claims Christianity as their own, viciously renounce the research and claims of Sigmund Freud. This eccentric psychoanalyst who revolutionized the field of psychology has created vast controversy as a result of his views that sex is the basis of everything that happens in life and are the basis for our actions as humans. Though this is obviously wrong from the perspective of biblical truth, it is unscientific to completely discount his valuable research on the human psyche and it's influences. As a Christ-follower, it is incredibly difficult and mostly unreasonable to accept any Freudian ideas, but truth is still present to a degree.

Freud, beyond his sexualization of life, is most notably known for his division of the human psyche into the Super-ego, the Ego, and the Id. In a battle of the Super-ego against the Id, the Super-ego represents obligation created by the moral code of the human mind. In essence, Super-ego is the legalism that everyone experiences at one point or another, when guilt overwhelms us and an individual feels obligated to do the morally right action. The opposition to Super-ego is the Id--our most primitive impulses and desires with no restraint. This portion of the psyche is impulsive to no end and is generally pleasure seeking regardless of morality or consequences. Lastly, the Ego is the balance between the two that is most often seen in humans. Most people we encounter daily are ruled by their Freudian Ego, the balance between hedonism and legalism.

Though these ideas seem purely secular in nature, God is omnisciently pervasive throughout creation--even into the human psyche. Paul addresses the conflict of the human mind at the end of his letter to the church in Galatia.

Galatians 6:15 - Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.

When Paul talks about circumcision, he is addressing a group of Christians in Galatia, called the Judaizers, who believed that to be saved and acceptable to God, one must accept Christ and also follow the whole Jewish law. This philosophy is more commonly known today as legalism, and it is something we have all been faced with at one point or another. Obligation is one point that the modern church emphasizes subconsciously, as we seem to put too much emphasis at times on the "do nots" of life. Additionally, spiritual prowess is equivalent to being visually active in church activities. Freud's Super-ego is the exact parallel of this influence on human behavior, as the Super-ego is the formal embodiment of legalism in the human mind. By placing obligation over a joy-filled relationship with our loving creator, the legalism of the Super-ego cannot give a person the full satisfaction of life.

Uncircumcision also represents another group of people in Galatia--the Hedonists. Since hedonism has such a negative connotation of being grossly overindulging, it goes to represent our most primitive desires for pleasure and personal satisfaction. The Hedonists followed a form of Deism, where God is like a clockmaker who creates the world as a giant clock, then simply leaves it to function on its own. If God does not permeate every portion of life, there is no need to follow our moral law and we are able to give in to our pure desire for pleasure. Freud named this section of our human psyche the Id--our impulsive journey for personal gratification. A philosophy following the Id has no need for personal responsibility and gives no heed to innate moral law or the consequences of not following this code. This is how the majority of modern men live: for their personal betterment financially, emotionally, physically, and in all other ways. Though we are not meant to live as emotionless machines, there must be some purpose and moderation in all of the pleasurable pursuits that life has to offer.

Lastly, both Freud and Paul search for the middle ground between the two. At one end lies the endless stretch of guilt and oppression within moral obligation, and at the other resides a filthy pit of unrestrained human indulgence. Freud finds his middle ground on a see-saw, a continuous game of tug-of-war between the conflicting portions of the human psyche. The Ego represents our "sense of self", our identity, that we can only have when mediating the struggle between Super-ego and the Id. In theory, this balancing act is feasible, but Paul realizes that humans cannot do this alone. The Freudian Ego in Paul's letter is represented by the "new creation" that we can be in order to have freedom through God's saving love. By relying on God's power to mediate our conflicting Id and Super-ego, we receive incredible intellectual and personal freedom through the power of Christ's death on the cross. In essence, all that is required of us is to simply be dependent on the power of God to create our Ego--our own unique identity. In this, we can experience the incredible freedom of living the Ego that God has for us.

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Distance is Darkness

Distance is darkness. This has been one of the guiding factors in modern relationships--that to have a successful relationship is to be as close physically and emotionally as possible to one another. A distancing of the friends or lovers is never seen as beneficial. How could separation of strong friends bring depth to the friendship they share? John Donne examines how a friendship can endure change in this poem and presents two incredible metaphors to demonstrate the reality of the matter.


Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home

Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

(John Donne - A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning)

First, the metaphor of gold. I love the way that Donne portrays the gold, which must endure a distancing of itself by being beaten and flattened in to a different form. In this way the gold is stretched thin, but it is still beautiful and valuable, and, most importantly, it is still intact. This can be a friendship that has changed. Though two individuals are not close in the same way they were when dating; their friendship has been flattened out like the gold, and the relationship has taken a different form, just like the gold. But once again, the important piece is that the different relationship can still be intact and wonderful. I really think that a good friendship is able to withstand metamorphosis as the individuals go through different stages of life. The best friendship can still be intact and even more beautiful when it is beaten into a different form by life's circumstances.

Second, the metaphor of the compass that Donne uses is so indicative of a strong friendship. He says, if "they be two, they are two so", as lovers who become just friends again are separate for all literal purposes, but are still together in friendship like the two independent points of a compass join together in the middle. As one point of the compass moves, the other remains still connected, though both points do not necessarily always stay in the same place. Also, one point is not always the only one making the motion. Both points are capable of being the point of motion at different times. This is parallel to friendship, as, at different points in a relationship, the two individuals are on their own respective journeys and have their own struggles, but the points are still connected. Even though one point or the other may be running in circles, they still end up connected to the other, no matter how close or far the compass, or the relationship, has been stretched. Lastly, as the compass moves, it must compact or extend to fit the situation needed. This is identical to friendships, as the relationship must often evolve to suit the current situations of both individuals. Though the relationship changes, the compass is still connected and the friendship is intact.

This is the question we must pose to our culture:

Is Distance Really Darkness?

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