A Difficult Thought To Swallow

Ok - when I came to this conclusion for the first time, I cried. And that's saying a lot, because other than that time, the last time I cried was almost five years ago.

**Bear in mind that I have taken no theology courses, I am not a pastor, and I have come to these conclusions merely based on the bible knowledge that I have and how I applied that knowledge in my thinking. Don't take my thoughts as fact. It is merely something that I thing should be thought about.**

I'll begin by giving my view of eternity. Most people define eternity as forever. In fact, eternity is not the same as forever. Forever, while it may be a very long time, still is in relation to that one word: time. Eternity exists with God: outside of time. God has existed, yes forever, but more, before forever started, for eternity. If you are a little bit confused, that's good. I know I am. We will never be able to comprehend eternity as we dwell on this earth. Time is something that we have always known; to imagine something completely outside of time is impossible for us. This is one of the reasons that we cannot comprehend God.

That, though interesting, is not what made me cry. That is merely one of the two facts that made me come to my conclusion. Here is the second:

Think about this: What is the punishment for one sin? One tiny, miniscule sin? Say, you deliberately stay out an hour past your curfew. What is the punishment for this dishonor to your parents? Eternity in hell. Do you know what eternal punishment will be like? I don't claim to have any idea, but I know that it will be pain beyond anything we have or will ever experienced in this life. It may not be physical pain, but it will hurt. For arguement's sake, I'll try to define a punishment that will give some idea of what hell will be like. Let's say you burn your finger. This isn't touch a stove, pull finger away quickly. Let's say you deliberately press your finger against a hot stove for 2 seconds. That would hurt a lot, right? Now imagine that pain over your entire body. Now multiply that by 100. This is what Hell will be like. Except that it won't last 2 seconds; it will last for eternity. there will be no end.

Now to my conclusion. I have no way of supporting this, and because eternity always is, was, and will be, I never will. For one sin, the punishment is eternal damnation. What is the punishment for two sins? For us, it is the same: even our spirit cannot exist in multiple eternities. But is it the same for Jesus? He paid for our sins: Every. Single. One. He didn't simply die on the cross, and that was that. He actually took our punishment. All of it. My conclusion is this: For every sin we commit, Jesus spends another eternity in Hell.

Good reason to stop sinning, isn't it?

Bruce, I know you read this, and you have much more theological knowledge than I do, so I'd love to hear any input you might have.

The Best Lesson I Ever Learned

I was thinking today, and I remembered alesson that my Dad taught me when I was learning how to snowboard. It was in regard to not running into things. The basic concept is this: if you focus on the thing you're trying not to run into, you'll hesitate and crash. However, if you choose an alternate path and stick with it, you will avoid whatever you were going to crash into. If you focus on not crashing, then you'll surely crash, but if you instead focus on keeping going, you'll succeed.

Doesn't it seem kind of lame that the best lesson I ever learned was a snowboarding lesson? I thought so. But then I realized that this concept can be applied to any goal in life. It can be applied to stop us from sinning. If you want to avoid some sinful behavior, when temptation comes, don't just sit there and fight it. You'll lose every time. Instead, actively fight it. Recite a relevent bible verse. Pray. Sing your favorite worship song. It is much harder to sin when you remember that God is on your side and will be very dissappointed if you fail. If you are doing something about it, the temptation will go away.

Lunch

Today at lunch we had an interesting conversation. Somehow we got onto the topic of how guys and girls are different psychologically. Everyone knows that they are. Most people know how they are. But one thing that we discussed that I've never heard before is how we can apply that knowledge.

Throughout our discussion, our definition of guys and girls boiled down to this: guys are concerned with how things are. Girls, on the other hand, are more in tune with how they feel about it. The discussion was based on a description of a joint connection group that a brother and sister group had. The girls had talked the whole time, while the guys didn't say a word. We tried to find the differences betwee how guys groups operate versus how girls groups operate. It came down to the fact that guys begin discussion with a statement about what is, which is followed by another group member talking about what he thinks is. In contrast, girls groups talk about how they feel about an issue, and why they feel that way, which is followed in the same way by another girl.

The difference between guys and girls means that there will be a difference in how they interact with others, both of the same gender and of the opposite. Guys make friends by doing stuff with other guys. If you play a game of basketball with someone, that is how you are able to get to know them. You may not know their beliefs favorite color, birthday, etc, but you get to know their character, their personality, their temperament. By contrast, girls make friends by talking to one another. I'm not a girl, so I can't say for sure, but I would imagine that this is how girls find out the same things as guys do playing a game. To be perfectly honest, I truly don't understand how, but that simply emphasizes the point that we are different.

As to interaction between guys and girls, this means that they will not get the same meaning out of the same experiences. Girls tend to read more into things that are said than guys do; guys take it at face value. Guys tend to read more into a girls actions than girls do; girls take it at face value. As to application of this, I think the best interaction between guys and girls should be active, but also quiet, so as to give opportunities for conversation. Exxample: Walks. On walks, there is always something to distract when conversation trails off. On the other hand, they can also provide plenty of conversational topics. Everyone's happy.

Most of this was discussed at lunch today, but some of it was me thinking it over and analyzing it a little more later in the day. Let me know your thoughts.

Going Backwards

Today I was thinking a little bit, and for some reason I thought back to my Pine Cove interview. For those of you who don't know, in September I interviewed for a position leading worship at a camp in Tyler, Texas. It will (hopefully) take up my entire summer, and I believe that it will be an amazing opportunity for me to grow and to help others grow in Christ. Anyway, the interview was fairly short, but they asked some pretty personal questions, as they should, given that I will be impacting the lives of literally hundreds of kids throughout the course of the summer. Wow- I actually hadn't fully comprehended that until I just typed it. Wow.

In the course of the interview, I was asked to give my moral convictions in regard to several different, fairly controversial issues, such as homosexuality and abortion. For some reason, I keep catching myself thinking about the issue of abortion. Here's my take on it:

Murder is a sin, as well as a federal offense. Therefore, killing anyone is wrong. That's the simple part of it. The more complicated part is defining unborn babies (here the term "unborn babies" will refer to any fetuses anywhere between conception and birth) as a part of anyone. To be straightforward, there are truly no bible verses that are completely clear on the issue. While there are some that refer to us being loved "in the womb," that does not necessarily mean at conception. There remains the possibility that God begins to love us at some point during our development in the womb. I could be after conception. There is no verse that says "Life begins at conception" or the equivalent. That would make it too easy, wouldn't it?

However, through my own research, which you should NOT take my word on, as I am merely a college student majoring in engineering, I have found a few bible verses that I believe point towards life at conception, and possibly before. The one I will use is Psalm 51:5:

"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

My argument based on this verse is that it is impossible for someone who doesn't exist to be sinful. Because they are sinful, they exist, and are human. If they are human, they would qualify as anyone and be able to be murdered.

Ok, let's assume that, for some reason, you don't believe that all scriptures are completely valid, or you think I'm reading too much into that one. Or you're not Christian at all and are laughing at me right now because all I can find to support my argument is an obscure, out-of-context scripture passage. Here's the scientific reasoning behind my argument.

Conception is the point at which the egg and the sperm are joined and the DNA that each is carrying is put together. At this point, the embryo has all of the information that it will ever need to grow into old age. The color of its eyes, its height, when its hair will begin to turn gray or if it will be bald, whether it will contract cancer that it inherited from its parents, are all predetermined at the moment of conception. To argue that it is not a person because it has not developed organs, bones, etc, is like saying a 7 year old isn't a person because they have not yet experienced puberty.

Now to the hardest part of the issue: What about if the conception was a product of rape?
I believe that I have already answered this question. I believe that, whatever the circumstances of conception, the unborn baby is still a person, and it would be murder to abort it. I think this sounds cold, and I understand that I will never have to deal with the issue for myself, but I believe it to be true. First, the reason you are aborting it is because it is an inconvenience to you. This may be a gross understatement, but the essence of it is correct. Now, think about why a murderer kills. I'm not talking about serial killers, only murderers that have a motive, as most do. A murder kills, in essence, because the person they kill is an inconvenience to them in some form or another. Second, while I realize that rape was not your fault, you have been given a baby to take care of, and you should take care of it, or at least put it up for adoption when it is born, instead of killing it. If you found a baby on your doorstep, would you bury it in the back yard, or would you make sure that it found a home, whether it was with you or someone else? I would hope you would choose the latter, as the former is, most definitely, a sin.

Right Brained vs. Left Brained

Okay, so a few minutes ago I was (very) surprised to discover that I am, in fact, right brained. That may not mean much to you, but that means that I am more creatively inclined than I am intellectually inclined. I had always thought that I was left brained - I was always good at science and math as opposed to English and art. But, I DO play guitar, and enjoy drawing somewhat. I'm also fairly random and disorganized, which is not a characteristic of a left brained person. Here's a list of characteristics of both sides:

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Heres a link to a test that I took telling me that I am, in fact, right brained:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html

FG Retreat Reflections

This past weekend, I went to the Freshman Group retreat. It was awesome- amazing people, amazing speaker, amazing worship. I especially liked Friday night. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really think much about the message that Austin gave that night, at least not immediately. Not that it wasn't good, it just didn't immediately hit home with me. He spoke on the first few chapters of Hosea, Where Hosea is commanded to marry an adulturous wife, Gomer, and remain faithful to her. I left out a lot, but thats the gist. If you want the full story, open your bible. He told the story in way that I will get to later.

That night, through an interesting set of late-night events, I found myself bored and completely awake at 4:30 in the morning. I really didn't feel like going to bed, so I decided to read a book called Life on the Edge by James Dobson. Iwas reading a chapter called "Love Must be Tough" when Austin's message hit home with me. The chapter isn't about our relationship with God- it refers to human relationships, specifically dating, though it could be applied to others as well. Here are my notes on basically the combination of the two messages that I was given that night:

When most people read Hosea, they put themselves in the place of Hosea: Sacrificing his own weel being to do God's will. They view him as the one that should be imitated. Austin showed it a different way: He told us to put ourselves in the place of Gomer, which in truth is who we are more similar to. We are sinful, yet God takes us as his "bride." We cheat on Him by sinning again, yet still He loves us and askes us back into his arms after we have repented.

I took Austin's basic concept of thinking of God as a romantic relationship, and applied it to the chapter I was reading in Life on the Edge:

The basic concept of this chapter is to play "hard to get," but not too hard. Be willing to accept it if something you want to happen happens, but don't ask or beg for it. I have to wonder if this is what God sometimes does for us: plays "hard to get." If he spoke to us (audibly) constantly, asking for our love and attention, we would get bored with him. And I think, in that case, we should: is God that needs to grovel and beg for our attention really worth our worship and love? I think he sends us subtle signals to his desires, but wants us to come to him, asking what He wants of us. This way, our worship is truly worth something to Him.

The Boredom Song

Alright I really only posted this one for a little humor. This is a song I wrote my first week at Iowa State. I was bored, so Valerie told me to write a song about how bored I was. So I did. It was written to be kind of annoying, and it really is. I regretted writing it because afterwards I had it stuck in my head for a couple of days.

I’m bored, and there’s nothing to do
But sit here, and write this song
I can’t, wait for eight ‘o clock
‘Cause then there’ll be something to do

Cause bored is how I feel
Apathetic, at best
The only thing I know,
Got to get this off my chest
Need something to do
I swear I’ll do my best
Maybe I’ll go study for a test

I guess, I could just sit here
Maybe, take a little nap
Who knows, I could go for a jog
Or maybe get something to eat
But no, I’m not hungry
And I really don’t feel like working out
I sit here, I can’t fall asleep
Maybe I’m just meant to write this song