The Tension

We live in a world of color, 3 primary colors. (I know this because my daughter has discovered Elmo on youtube and has watched this OK Go video a lot of times… be careful, these Sesame Street songs can easily become mentally embedded.)

They say, however, that we only perceive about 1.5% of the wave spectrum, of which red, blue, and yellow are a part of.  So, it would appear that we also live in a world of infinite shadings.  Most of which we cannot even perceive.  It’s hard to make sense of this.

But, I am convinced that Truth lives on the asymptote…

Justice and Mercy are opposites.  The Truth is in their equal and balanced coexistence.  I’m at a loss for an equation here.

In Christianity, the Trinity is a conceptual understanding of the 3 aspects of God.  Hindus have millions of aspects of God.   Sounds a bit like primary colors as compared to the spectrum, actually…Interesting at the least.

I struggle with acting like I think I know everything… I’m working on it.  However, I am convinced that ultimate reality is asymptotic.  Absolute truth becomes incredibly nebulous when an attempt at explanation is made.  It is transcendent. I’m convinced we are all connected–in one of those literal metaphysical kind of ways.  I’m also sure that love brings life (which probably needs another word to describe what we’re actually talking about here, or at least an alternate definition).

And life is the answer to the ultimate why.

when — = +

So for Lent, I decided to give up the seemingly obligatory Alcoholic beverage food group. (In retrospect, switching that around, like this guy, would have been much more interesting!)  I did this mostly because I thought I’d been drinking too much in the months leading up to Lent and not really because I thought this would be a big sacrifice.  So, I’m not sure it counts.  However, I bookended this fast with another fast which I refer to as a fast from “video games”.  If you invited me over to play xbox, I would come.  This is not that. This fast is from mindless solitary games that I would waste hours upon hours after I got home in the evening, particularly, the Settlers of Catan online.

If you were previously unaware or I had you confused, I am a dork.

This fast has been of great benefit.  I’ve read 4 books in 4 weeks for one.  My wife would say that I cheated on the last book by extreme reading–staying up until 2:30 am multiple nights–but the intention was good, as was the book!

2 things have struck me.

I have wasted an unbelievably inordinate amount of time doing what amounts to nothing remotely productive.  I understand that we all need to check out for awhile after a long day, but for me?  Come on, I started this blog on a Tuesday afternoon at 4:19 and after a 2 hour lunch with a couple of my friends…

I think that wasting time leads to depression which leads to wasting time.

The other observation I have had is the ease of the fasting in general.  I have not had an issue with longing for either of my two subjects.  I have arbitrarily created a rule that I cannot do X, and I would only be cheating myself if I broke the rule.  So it hasn’t been an issue.

The absurdity and much larger issue, which has been thusly exposed, is my constant cheating of myself when I am comparatively free to do whatever I want.  Presently, I’m not convinced freedom is good for me.  It ought to be.

If this is strictly a personal problem, is there a magic pill for this?  My fear is that contemporary thought seems to be that no one is perfect.  That they can’t be.  That this is an impossibility due to factors beyond our control.

If true, this system needs to be changed.  The world we live in is an utter inacceptablility when it comes to living as we ought/want/need, and needs to be rectified.

God are you listening?

oh the ignominy

So depending on your circle, you may or may not have heard of a new book, entitled Love Wins, by a theologian named Rob Bell.  Suffice it to say, the book has caused a bit of a ruckus among many of the establishment Church.  A lot of people didn’t like the guy’s theology before this book, but now are incensed.

I find this derision among many mainstream personalities quite interesting.  Wasn’t Jesus himself crucified by the establishment because they didn’t like what he was teaching?  Yet it was true…

I wonder if we’ve got a bit of that going on right now as well.

I honestly think that Mr. Bell has offered some very keen insights.  I think we will find Christian theology massively affected over the next several years and it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Go read it for yourself.