Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Deleting Friends?

Well, maybe they weren't all friends, but lately I've been purging my FaceBook lists. anybody that seems to start political or religious arguments I get rid of. why? well, obviously I'm not there in person to banter back and forth with all the ideologues that share the wrong POV, so rather than coming across as a cantankerous old kook I remove them. I hope you have people like that because as great as they are to debate in real life, they're that frustrating on FaceBook. And I can't just leave well enough alone. It's always said that the 2 ways to start a fight are to begin a discussion about religion or politics.
Are you like that? Is it just cause I "stay at home"? I've always thought that "liberals" are people that generally aren't working for a living and therefore find it easy how to tell everyone else how to spend their money as well as what's important globally.
I guess the longer I live, the more I want people to be responsible for their own actions. As a school teacher I was always in disbelief when seniors preparing for graduation wouldn't bother doing assignments on time, didn't study for tests, missed excessive classes, etc. And their parents would come by and say "Why didn't you let me know?" I don't know ma'am, why isn't your adult student responsible for his actions?
I hope this still fits with the theme of the blog. I expect the best of myself and, for some reason, I still expect the best of others.
So says the guy that's sitting here watching My Name is Earl.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Amusing Ourselves into Great Christianity

I have to teach Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman and What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza and wondered if anyone out there had ideas. I emailed Doug Groothius at the Constructive Curmudgeon after seeing that the Postman book was one of his favorites and even saw that he had the class do a media fast and write about it. 10 days with nothing but books and magazines. I think I'd DIE but are we becoming dumber and dumber because we don't read about the faith or culture? Do we just copy it? I know with Twitter which I don't use there's FaceBook that I do use and both make it easy for me not to interact with others or ever do much reading. I'm doing my best to read my Bible but I did take last week off. And I am moving through Mere Christianity slowly, but by and large I'm on the computer and probably on FB.
The D'Souza book will be a little easier to teach but I want to make it engaging. Have you had anything that has recently profoundly affected your spiritual life? Anything that made you notice God in the world? Movies or music? I think I already talked about Count of Monte Cristo again but I'd love to hear from you. I'll give you full credit!
Come Lord!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

He believes in you

I didn't go to church today. That's kind of a big deal for the family because we've been here before. This isn't the first time I've been run off from the ministry and the family, which was smaller at the time by one, quit going to church for a time then too. It was just too hard to go for the sake of going and God hadn't given us anyone to minister to and no one was there to talk us through our pain. It's a little like now, but I'm still praying for God to give us an individual or family that we can bring through something.
This afternoon I'm also watching the new Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel. Jill and I cried as Caviezel and Richard Harris talk as the old priest is dying from the tunnel cave in. The priest tells Edmond not to waste the rest of his life on revenge because of God's plan for his life. Edmond states that he doesn't believe in God. The dying priest says,"It doesn't matter, God believes in you."
So that's what I hold on to today. I have struggled often lately, but it doesn't matter. God believes in me. Biblical of not, just what I needed to hear.