I try to stay up just long enough every night to watch David Letterman’s “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches” bit. It really has to be the funniest thing I’ve ever watched.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch this comedy bit, here are a few links to You Tube compilations:
Great Moments in Presidential Speeches
Enjoy!
I find myself this week in transition. Friday marked my last day of work for Washington Mutual; Saturday marked the signing of a new lease for a new apartment (first time I’ve moved in three years – big change from college); and Monday the 19th marks my first day of employment with JP Morgan Chase.
It is amazing the places one’s mind can take him if he lets it during these times. I suppose it is the wonder of the unknown. Sure, I will be doing the same type of work with Chase as I did with WaMu, but it is still “new” and you have to wonder when and where the next step will be. Sure, it is just another apartment and it won’t be permanent, but one wonders when it will be.
I think transition is a good time in life. It causes one to ponder, reflect and evaluate.
I’m excited.
I enjoyed this post by Rick.
The GRE is over. I took the test this past Saturday. I did not do as well as I had hoped. The question now looming about is, “Do I take it again?” It is a hard one to answer because I still feel that I have no direction currently.
Do you remember in Pirates of the Caribbean (maybe the 2nd movie) when Jack’s compass (a compass that was supposed to direct you to that which you wanted most) was always moving? It would never set him a course to sail. That is how I feel. I have many desire and aspirations, but I do not know which one to follow. It doesn’t seem possible to follow all of them, because they seemingly lead in different directions.
So, do I take it again? It depends. If I want to enter grad school, as opposed to a seminary, to study religion or theology or history, then yes, I will take the GRE again. If I want to enter a seminary to study these things, then, no, I do not have to take it again (most seminaries do not require GRE test scores). If I want to go to business school, then I have to take an entirely different test – the GMAT. It is all quite complicated.
The past few weeks I have been plagued with a question a friend of mine posed some time ago. When I asked him of his opinions regarding my wanting to go to grad school and such, he answered with a question. More or less he asked me this:
“Do you feel that your life purpose is to build up and strengthen the church or to be an evangelist and a prophet to the lost?”
My answer: “I don’t know.”
The question is a good question, but at the present, it is quite annoying.
You see, I have gone on a roller coaster of a ride the past year and a half (almost two) regarding my thoughts on ministry, on religious community, on faith and life, on who God is, what evangelism is, etc. At times, I have wanted to stay as far away from institutional christianity as possible. At other times, I have felt that being on the outer rim wouldn’t be so bad. I know now that I could never be that person in front of a congregation sermonizing or leading people in music (I have done this before), but I don’t know if I want to completely remove myself from “christian ministry.”
Lately I have thought a seminary degree (typically reserved for those folks engaged in sermonizing and such) would be a great degree to have. It might open up doors that might not have opened before. It would prepare me for a type of ministry that might be palatable for me – something like urban ministry in an inner-city or cross-cultural church planting. It would still allow me the opportunity to teach in a college or university (which would be the point of the MA/PhD route in grad school). More or less, I no longer loathe this option. It has actually become kind of comforting to know that I could go this route.
Ultimately, as I have pondered my friend’s question, I have learned that I do want to see the church strengthened and I do want to see it grow – not in her religious structure, but in her relationship to the godhead. However, I have no idea what that means.
I guess that is why they call life a journey.
In studying for the GRE, I have run across a fun little website: www.freerice.com
The site simply gives you a vocabulary test. The list of words range from moderately to very difficult. Another cool thing is that for every word you get right, the UN donates 20 grains of rice to the third world. Its the classic “kill two birds with one stone” case – increase your personal vocabulary and help end world hunger by doing so.
Your skill is measured and this is what keeps me coming back. So far, I have made it to level 43. Can you beat me?
As I was reading this morning, I ran across this passage in Galatians 4
9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11I fear for you…
Leading up to this place in the letter, Paul had addressed the Galatians on matters of the Law. Particularly, he had made mention of how it is no longer to be lived by nor given heed to. They (and the rest of the ecclesia) is to live by faith through Christ. He gives an imperative stating “not to rebuild that which [you] have once destroyed” (namely: law).
It seems to me that Paul’s great concern (not only addressed in the epistle to the Galatians) is regarding Faith juxtaposed with Law. Continually he urges not to follow (or live by) the Law, but to live by faith. In my pondering of law and what it is, I have come to the conclusion that not only was law understood as those rules listed on a couple stone tablets and parchment, but also the rituals and rites under which so many of the Jews (and Gentiles I will argue) were enslaved. Galatians 4:10 gives evidence here. They were observing days, months, seasons, and years.
I was thinking as I was reading: we are still involved in the same trappings as the Galatians (and others) were1900 years ago. We still observe holy days and seasons (i.e. Lent, Easter, and Christmas). In some ways I wonder, have we not created these as another law unto ourselves as others were to the Galatians? Are these days and seasons necessary for faith? Or have they become a part of a religious system that has only created new obligations for us to be aware of?
I typically do not enjoy Valentine’s Day. I mean, I always enjoy the time with the one I am with (which has happened to be the love of my life the last 5 years), but it is not a day that I look forward to like Thanksgiving or Christmas. It just doesn’t have the same quality in my opinion. I suppose I am one of the cynics out there that think it is purely a marketing conspiracy. Well, what can I say.
However, this year has been different. I still did not look forward to the holiday with any anticipation, but I did think much more about my wife and my great love for her. I really have been blessed lately in my thinking of her and our marriage. All I can hope for is that it continues to flourish and that I could be continually cognizant of the greatness and mystery of it.
Wishing the same to all you lovers out there.
So, it has been a really long time since I have posted – 3 months now. It doesn’t seem that long, but the calendar doesn’t lie. I am a bit disappointed in myself because I really would like to be a regular blogger. It makes me stop and think about what is going on in my life and in my thoughts. For instance, the last post was one that I was actually really interested in writing more about, but time got away from me and nothing else was written. Maybe it will be rekindled on a later date.
Where have I been? Starting just before the Thanksgiving holiday of 2007, my schedule became ridiculously tight. I sing in a choir here in Dallas and we sang Beethoven’s 9th for a week straight. It was really grand and I enjoyed every minute of it. If anyone is reading this and enjoys classical music, I recommend you download the Boston Pops version from iTunes. After Thanksgiving, our Christmas concert season began. The choir had 11 concerts in a 15 day period. I sang in 7. For the Christmas holiday, my wife and I enjoyed a trip to New Orleans with my family. It was a nice and needed vacation from work. During all of this time, I was still working a full-time job which required me to often times hop into a tuxedo at work before leaving to go to a concert. It was quite a tough stint.
One of the biggest reasons I have not blogged as of late is because of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). If I received free time during the evenings or days, I tried to occupy myself in study for the GRE. In fact, I should be studying vocabulary words as I type (but, alas, I am not). I am intending to apply to graduate school for matriculation in Fall 2009. Where? we do not know. In what? religious studies (specialization in Early Christian history).
Maybe there will be more posts to come.
I found the first article entitled, In God’s Name, to be very good. The writer basically gives a synopsis of the world and the nations within it and the various political agendas found within each. As one might expect, much of those agendas found their motivation in religion. With much of the Middle East, various sects of Islam influence the political arena. In the States, the religious right involves itself in politics with arguments about abortion, marriage, and issues of faith in practice within the public and state institutions (schools, town hall, etc.). In the Far East, keeping religion out of politics (and life in general) is the preoccupation of those governments.
What intrigued me the most about the article was the author’s mention of modernity’s role in the re-introduction of religion into politics.
Four and five centuries ago, philosophers and scientists began introducing a new era called modernity. Modernity, through modes like the scientific method, was to usher the world out of the antiquity, the ritual and tradition, and the hocus pocus that was religion. Science would rule and God and faith would take a back seat if not become extinct all together.
However, The Economist points out that the newest form of modernity is globalisation. More or less, globalisation has allowed for the entire world to become one community. With the click of a mouse, I can know what is going on in Hong Kong and India and Russia and the Middle East. With incredible technology in avionics, within a day I can be across the world and back again in some cases. In every corner of the globe, exporting and importing is occurring. This is all a product of modernity. Modernity has provided a vast array of possibilities.
What was pointed out in this article is the fact that with possibility and choice (made available by modernity), more people in the past two-three decades have become more interested in religion. In turn, religion has played a bigger part in society once more as it did in antiquity.
Why do I find this interesting? During my short time in seminary, I was turned on to the study of the philosophical paradigms of pre-modernity, modernity, and post-modernity. I became preoccupied with thinking of the church within these paradigms. (I’ll bore the readers here with those thoughts in another post.) That preoccupation has lead me to the study of the early church. Furthermore, my study of the church has found that early on in her life, political agendas intermixed with religious/doctrinal agendas is what helped form her. What I find interesting today is that 2000 years later, politics and religion are still intertwined. It matters not how much we try to keep religion out of politics or vice versa politics out of religion, it is going to happen because it has always happened.
Does it make it acceptable? I’m not quite sure, yet. I want to say no, but I still don’t know. Jesus seemed to want to keep them seperate – “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s…” – but a closer look at even his ministry might show otherwise. I suppose the question is: should the gospel permeate politics as well as other aspects of life and culture? And if so, should we help it along or shall we allow it to affect things all on its own as the kingdom of heaven spreads throughout the earth?
Or could I flip it: Politics and the Religious Agenda.
November 3rd’s issue of The Economist magazine published a very interesting special report. The front cover read: “The new wars of religion: an 18 page special report on faith and politics.” It caught my eye and I have spend the last week or so reading and musing about what it has to say. Several articles are very interesting others are kind of boring (mostly because I am uninformed about the subject matter). However, I have decided to write a few posts on the subject in order to parse out my own thoughts. Therefore, the meaning of this post is primarily to force me to come back and write some more (something I have had a hard time doing over the past month).
Here is a link to the report. I am not sure how far you can get online without a subscription, but try anyway. From what I can tell, you should be able to get most of it. Each article’s link is located on the right side of the page.
The Economist: Special Report on faith and politics.
More postings to come.
