It's amazing how influential things that happen in everyday life can create how we live and affect other parts of our lives. For example, how you are raised by your parents. It's amazing, or maybe not so much, how much we take from, or aviod, their life styles. We were around them everyday for 18 years, so we see lifestyles, actions, philosophies, etc., and observe. If we like it we keep it a part of our own life and if we don't then we do something different. But that is pretty obvious, I think, but there is so much more in our lives that make us, me for sure, act in ways we probably don't think about too much.
School - concepts, theories, written tests, memorization. Now, don't get me wrong there is more to school than that, but how has school made you who you are. Personal little tangent, I think that school should be more into the basics than it is, up through high school...maybe, and college should be more like becoming an apprentice to whichever job you would like to do. Anyways, something important from that tanget, the basics are probably the most important. We use those on a day to day basis, but how much of school do we use on a daily basis. Sorry, I'm not getting to my point. My point is that we learn a lot things for the reason of knowing and not for using. I see this mind set is very much a part Christianity. Sometimes I think we have turned Christianity into school, one of the easiest classes ever. You have class one day a week, you don't really have to read the Book(but it's good if you do), sometimes homework is given from time to time(but never graded), and a great way to boost your morale. Also, we all know what's in the Book; who the people are, the stories, and a lot of what it says, but what do we do with it? Math book, you do math, and balance the checkbook someday. Practical, right? Bible, you read it, "That was really good, what does it mean?" It's a story we can apply to life today. Just as practical, but our "homework problems" aren't problems in a book, they aren't papers we have to wirte about a book, they are problems in people lives that we don't want to risk getting right or wrong. If you have a problem with your "homework" ask the Teacher, I'm sure He would love to help.
American. Being American affects our life so much. Granted there are wonderful freedoms, services, and people. Sometimes, though, I don't think people realize where some parts of america are, and how they got there. Why are there so many homeless and orphans, why are Native American Reservations some of the poorest places? Selfishness. Becoming ingrown on ourselves. Becoming better than others. How does this selfish, ingrown, american-ness cross over into Christianiny? How often do we make Christianity for oursleves?
Little bit of information, this blog post has been waiting in my drafts waiting to be completed for about three months now. Why? Not 100% sure, but I think the main reason is that I wanted to say the "right" thing. I wanted to cover all of the ways in which this could be said, read, interpreted, etc. so that no one would take offense to or read this in a way that I wasn't intending it to be read. I am learning and have learned very well, especially from being on a college campus, that someone, somewhere will see something in a different light than I do, think that something else should go a different way than I do, and the list goes on. Point being, why should we try to appease everyone that might possibly have an opposing opinion or view about what we might say, write, do, whatever.
Perhaps, most likely being, the reason that I am going on this little rant is from all of the aranging, planning, and talking that happened today. I think that I would have liked to convey them in speech but it's not my strong suit. I don't think that I even said what I wanted to say in a way that makes the most sense, but oh well. Let's just do things for the sake of doing them and let God take care of the interactions that take place. What have we become that our purposefulness, probably not a word, will actually be what we imagine it to be. When we purposfully give that thing to God, it happens. So, let it happen.
On the note of the original topic, DC Talk has a wonderful song portraying the jist of what I was trying to say in the beginning, just not in the same broken down fassion, but it hits the topic as a whole amazingly.
'What Have We Become'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4anVFuOWD_U
A preacher shuns his brother
Cause his bride's a different color
And this is not acceptable
His papa taught him so
It was love that he'd been preaching
But this was overreaching
The boundaries stretchin' further
Than his heart would choose to go
Like an angel with no wings
Like a kingdom with no king
What have we become?
A self indulgent people
What have we become?
Tell me where are the righteous ones?
What have we become?
In a world degenerating
What have we become?
Speak your mind, look out for yourself
The answer to it all is a life of wealth
Grab all you can cause you live just once
You got the right to do whatever you want
Don't worry about others or where you came from
It ain't what you were, it's what you have become
Mom and Dad are fightin'
As Rosie lies there crying
For once again she's overheard
Regrets of their mistake
With Christmas bells a-ringing
Little Rosie'd leave them grieving The gift she'd give her family
Would be the pills she'd take
An inconvenient child
She wasn't worth their while
What about love?
What about God?
What about holiness?
What about mercy, compassion and selflessness?
You know it's true
He is there for me and you
Doesn't matter what you do
What have we become?
Have we come undone?
What have we become?
Have we come undone?
What have we become?
Selfish...
With selfish...
Selfish people
When you gonna learn?
Everyone of us
Gathered 'round in trust
What have we become?
