a message to the masses

please note: i have absolutely no verification or reason to believe that anyone has even stumbled upon this site. this is all the more reason that i be all the more real and sincere that i can be. i am not trying to make myself seem any better or righter, and i have no reason to, especially since i have no account of anybody reading this.

i fell today to lust. went to friday night Bible study and it was only us six guys, but it was nice, and we watched a Nooma video called Trees about how we are called to be alive. how our lives right now, aren't just waiting rooms for something called eternity. we're not waiting for anything - we're not supposed to. the gospel is relevant to today, and we're not just waiting out this life so that we can start anew in heaven (though that is sorta what we will do). we aren't supposed to wait for this new life, our new life started when we turned to Christ, so as Christians, we are called to live.

we aren't supposed to find success the way the world defines success. aren't supposed to be happy the way the world knows happy. in fact, our Christian lives are supposed to be so radically different from the lives of the world that there should be little similarity - ours should come as a shock, to be in love with our neighbors and our enemies and to truly embrace people and not get really mad really easily and be impartial. the world shouldn't be able to comprehend us, just as the "darkness did not comprehend the light." Rob Bell, who does Nooma, not to mention wrote Velvet Elvis and pastors one of the fastest growing churches in American history (Mars Hill), made the main point that the lives we live right now - they are relevant. we aren't waiting to start eternity and to have eternal life then - as Christians, we are called to live. and that doesn't mean live like the world thinks it means, which might include a lot of drinking and sex. we start living, meaning we start being like Christ, finding Christ, because Christ is love. we start learning how to embrace people and love people and that, by itself, is something amazing. we have fun in fellowship and we play worship and we do things that are meaningful, rather than playing videogames all day and repetitive zombie-like motions in school.

we talked a little about how we should be more ready to leave our convenience and our homes in order to take charge and spread the gospel - that we can't just be sitting around telling people to come to us for God, because that is much less likely to happen and we will become spiritually obese in that case. we have to leave our city on a hill and pursue people. we have to leave the world and the system - the whole idea of what life should be - because God is calling us to His life, His eternal life. we have to give up competition and being the best and being self-sufficient, because once you start playing that game, that doesn't leave much room for God and God's plans for you. when you get down to it, there isn't much variety, spontaneity, or fun in what the world calls a successful life. but all of those things are present in God's calling - there is freedom in this light.

after all of it, we played Texas Hold Em and yang was on fire. it was really relaxed and fun, and we played long into the night until matt left. we listened to the same KJ-52 compilation about three times. when matt left, billy, richard, and i played ERS with Uno cards (adds to 10, 6-9, 7's, doubles, sandwiches, top-bottom) and after that, we played Ziggity and just talked about how much fun we had last week at church. when i came home, i ran a quick mile and swung on a swingset in the rain. i think this is cool, because on our missions trip, i saw one of the girls (who went with my sister to Urbana) swing on a swingset and it was just really cool. she pretty much totally zoned out. she would get really high, she would swing for like 20 minutes and wouldn't get tired or bored of it...she would just do it and enjoy it and i have no idea what she thinks about or even if she's thinking, but that's what she does to escape. swing...i think that's amazing.

i think...choosing God should be simple. a yes or a no. we complicate things.