Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Prayer for the day...
Lord, make me and instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred... let me sow love,
Where there is injury... pardon,
Where there is doubt... faith,
Where there is despair... hope,
Where there is darkness... light,
Where there is sadness... joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek,
To be consoled... as to console,
To be understood... as to understand,
To be loved... as to love.
For,
It is in giving... that we receive,
It is in pardoning... that we are pardoned,
It is in dying that... that we are born to eternal life.
Where there is hatred... let me sow love,
Where there is injury... pardon,
Where there is doubt... faith,
Where there is despair... hope,
Where there is darkness... light,
Where there is sadness... joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek,
To be consoled... as to console,
To be understood... as to understand,
To be loved... as to love.
For,
It is in giving... that we receive,
It is in pardoning... that we are pardoned,
It is in dying that... that we are born to eternal life.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Quote of the day...
"Too many people don’t listen to their dreams at all. Or they listen but allow the dreams themselves to get drowned out by the desire to fill their homes with stuff or even just to play it safe, or – and this is more likely – they listen to their fears.
The culture we live in would rather watch great stories on movie screens than live them. Why? I think it’s fear of risk. The bigger the risk the greater the potential reward but also the greater the potential for “Oh God, Oh God, we’re all going to die!” or something similar. Fear is the loudest voice in many of our lives. Fear of rejection leads us to buy some crazy stuff, as well as keep our voice down when it should be loudly telling others “I love you.” Fear of the unknown keeps us close to home. Fear of fear keeps us in therapy. So we’d rather watch Braveheart and imagine ourselves with that kind of courage than risk finding out for ourselves if we have it. Makes sense. Afterall, Braveheart gets horribly disemboweled at the end. But while our hearts swell with resonance as William Wallace says “All men die but not all men really live,” we wash it away with popcorn and sodas and go back to sleep."
- David DuChemin
The culture we live in would rather watch great stories on movie screens than live them. Why? I think it’s fear of risk. The bigger the risk the greater the potential reward but also the greater the potential for “Oh God, Oh God, we’re all going to die!” or something similar. Fear is the loudest voice in many of our lives. Fear of rejection leads us to buy some crazy stuff, as well as keep our voice down when it should be loudly telling others “I love you.” Fear of the unknown keeps us close to home. Fear of fear keeps us in therapy. So we’d rather watch Braveheart and imagine ourselves with that kind of courage than risk finding out for ourselves if we have it. Makes sense. Afterall, Braveheart gets horribly disemboweled at the end. But while our hearts swell with resonance as William Wallace says “All men die but not all men really live,” we wash it away with popcorn and sodas and go back to sleep."
- David DuChemin
Getting hitched/ tying the knot/ etc.
Wow. 39 days, 14 hours, and 8 minutes until I get married!
That my friends is a daunting thing. Not like daunting as in disheartening, but as in THIS IS A BIG DEAL! And from what people who have been married a long time have told me, marriage is the biggest deal (after of course accepting Christ), even bigger than choosing your profession.
It is in this time leading up to the big day that I am feeling more refined. Those impurities of self-worth issues, doubt, insecurities, and selfishness come to the surface. Living a single life for 33 years it is easy to carry around those burdens, never addressing them. But when you're sharing life with another those things must be acknowledged. Thankfully I have an amazing woman who is willing to talk through my "issues".
While insecurity and personality impurities aren't the funnest thing to work through I can definitely see that I'm becoming a better man. A post I wrote back in January still rings true, and I am further convinced that a healthy - Christ centered relationship will not only draw us closer to Him, but also reveal His character.
Well I should get to bed. I thought I had more to say, but the words are failing me, or I'm failing the words. Either way I'm not accomplishing much.
"Next to God's Word the world has no more precious treasure than holy matrimony."
-Martin Luther
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Mixed messages...
The verse on the shirt reads:
"For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you
against your enemies to give you victory." Deut 20:4."
So much for not being of this world! This makes me sick, and I mean the kind of sick where you're hugging the toilet sick. This is not the Gospel. This is B.S. This is picking and choosing verses to serve your purpose at its finest.
I guess we need not take any heed to Christ's red letters to us saying that "blessed are the peacemakers", or to love/ pray for/ feed/ clothe our enemies. What about our battle not being against flesh and blood? I'm sure Jesus if he were here today would be found at a gun show stockpiling weapons, or traveling with the USO doing standup for the troops on the front lines. Is that sacrilegious? Sure. Just as much as this American nationalistic -"Christian" propaganda.
I will "pray for our troops", well, NOT that they have success on the battlefield, but that they come to saving and life/ career changing knowledge of the real Christ.
Quote of the day...
"So much of punk was just ‘destroy everything’ — except you can’t destroy (things) if you don’t have a vision for what you want to put there in its place."
-Mike Ness of Social Distortion
-Mike Ness of Social Distortion
Saturday, April 16, 2011
I continue to be a fool...
Back on 03-14-11 I wrote a blog post which perpetuated a rumor. That being, Mr. Richard Skorman, who is running for Mayor of Colorado Springs - is gay. While I feel that it would be easy to write this off by saying "I'd heard this for years," that is an inexcusable cop out. I was wrong.
A friend contacted me the other day after reading that very post, and told me Mr. Skorman is NOT gay; that he has spent time with Mrs. Skorman. That sent my head spinning because I have definitely told people that he was. I looked into what he and other candidates believed, and stood for, yet I did not even stop to consider whether or not his "gayness" was fact or fiction. Fail.
After talking to my friend about what he knew of Mr. Skorman, I decided to email his office and ask about the rumor. Only makes sense to go right to the source to clear up a rumor instead of relying on 3rd party/ hearsay information. That's what got me into this predicament in the first place. That was 4ish days ago now and I haven't heard back. I guess they don't know me from Adam and it is wiser in this political climate to not provide any "ammunition" to someone.
I guess the rumor began about Mr. Skorman because he has supported and loved the gay community here in Colorado Springs. So, If people want to spread a rumor that a I'm poor, homeless, gay, Muslim man - because I love those people, so be it. But I was wrong to label anyone anything because someone gave me false information.
Mr. Skorman,
I'm not sure that you'll ever read this, but I am genuinely sorry. I was wrong in continuing a rumor about you. One that paints you to be a very different person than you truly are. My allegations may have caused people to make up their mind to vote for another candidate when I believe you're the best person to be Mayor of The Springs. As a Christian, even one that some find "liberal", I failed to represent Christ by becoming a liar. I hope that you can forgive me.
- Tim K.
A friend contacted me the other day after reading that very post, and told me Mr. Skorman is NOT gay; that he has spent time with Mrs. Skorman. That sent my head spinning because I have definitely told people that he was. I looked into what he and other candidates believed, and stood for, yet I did not even stop to consider whether or not his "gayness" was fact or fiction. Fail.
After talking to my friend about what he knew of Mr. Skorman, I decided to email his office and ask about the rumor. Only makes sense to go right to the source to clear up a rumor instead of relying on 3rd party/ hearsay information. That's what got me into this predicament in the first place. That was 4ish days ago now and I haven't heard back. I guess they don't know me from Adam and it is wiser in this political climate to not provide any "ammunition" to someone.
I guess the rumor began about Mr. Skorman because he has supported and loved the gay community here in Colorado Springs. So, If people want to spread a rumor that a I'm poor, homeless, gay, Muslim man - because I love those people, so be it. But I was wrong to label anyone anything because someone gave me false information.
Mr. Skorman,
I'm not sure that you'll ever read this, but I am genuinely sorry. I was wrong in continuing a rumor about you. One that paints you to be a very different person than you truly are. My allegations may have caused people to make up their mind to vote for another candidate when I believe you're the best person to be Mayor of The Springs. As a Christian, even one that some find "liberal", I failed to represent Christ by becoming a liar. I hope that you can forgive me.
- Tim K.
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