Forgive my ugly feet oh Lord
and the blood upon my tongue
forgive my belt of lies
and the bow I’ve left unstrung

Forgive the hedge I’ve trampled
and the white flag I’ve flown
forgive the dimness of my lamp
and the beating of the stone

Quicken the coal that burns my lips
Quicken the fire that chars my bones
Quicken the oil that wets my hair
Quicken the wound that takes my life

May your wind blow my soul.

10 Reasons Obama is Better than Jesus

1. Obama will fix the world in 4-8 years, Jesus has been at for 2000 years and counting
2. Obama soothes us with eloquent platitudes, Jesus spoke in confusing parables
3. Obama has the moral courage to be both against the death penalty and for abortion, Jesus only had courage enough to face the Romans
4. Obama wants to appease the world, Jesus was way too melodramatic and just died for it
5. Obama intercedes between me and my wallet, Jesus is all nosy and intercedes between me and God
6. Obama cares for the poor by stealing from the Rich, Jesus tells them they are better off poor
7. Obama renders unto the government everything, Jesus was way stingier and only rendered unto Ceaser what was his which is kind of lame, because how was Ceasar supposed to build the new personal aqueduct without taking all of your money?
8. Obama knows how to party and used to get high, Jesus is just a lame old High Priest
9. Obama will sell all you have and give it to the poor, Jesus can’t handle controversy and just asks you to do it politely
10. Obama prefers to sort out his dealings with manufactured rhetoric, whereas Jesus was rude enough to drive tax collectors out of the temple with a whip, clearly Jesus should have initiated 4-party talks before taking unilateral action

I was raised in the faith, attending the same non-denominational church from my birth to my eleventh year, at which point my Father, an elder, and my Mother left the church over its management. Finding no replacement that suited their tastes, we simply stopped attending church, and my participation in the Body became sporadic and rare. The situation was not rectified in any meaningful way for more than five years, until a friend invited me to a Bible study. Such a simple event would not likely have had any effect on me if I had not been first primed by the vagaries of tragedy that accompany life. Divorce and death took their toll, illness added its measure, but the depths of my distress were plumbed by a car accident on a small two-lane highway in humble Poth,Texas. Never in my life and faith have I ever experienced a turning point that matches looking down at the battered crippled form of my Mother. Never in my life had I encountered such a powerful reason to doubt the goodness of God, and never had I experienced such complete and total helplessness. It may sound strange that the most formative event in one’s faith is merely endeavoring to survive an intensely painful event, but it is in suffering that we most easily learn to rely on God. At the center is the example of Jesus, who, while being the most powerful being to ever walk this planet, endured such suffering that our own pales in comparison. In the suffering and triumph of Jesus we find all the hope that we could possibly need. That simple Bible study invitation brought me bit by bit back into the Body of Christ. I attended for a couple of years the church that sponsored the bible study, until moving to my current church home. I began my journey with Windsor Park when a professor told me he was going to pastor a church on the brink of collapse. I wanted to be of service to the mostly geriatric congregation, and so I signed up. Since joining, I have served in a number of different areas; I am the clerk, Secretary of Corporation, Chairman of the Property and Maintenance Committee, and I have served in a ministerial capacity by visiting the elderly. While I feel that an aspect of my calling is service to the needy and frail, I feel most called to the teaching and instruction of the church in an academic setting.  I desire greatly to lead others to a knowledge and understanding of the Bible that promotes a Christ-centered worldview.

This is my essay response to this question on a college application:

Reflect on your past Christian experience, including the most significant spiritual event/influence in your life, the role of Christ in your religious experience, the effect your faith has on your worldview, your involvement in Christian service, your perceived gifts/calling for ministry, and your reason(s) for attending your church.

The response was supposed to be approximately 300 words, but 435 was the best I could do.

This is a short story I wrote. It’s about the Church and industrial orphans.

Mr. Kanazawa walked down the street as he did every morning, in quest of caffeine and the resultant rush of awareness. As he passed one of the countless alleys of the city, he barely noticed the stirring of cardboard that made the blue dumpster it contained so very unlike all the others. As Mr. Kanazawa continued his search for caffeinated satisfaction, a small boy emerged from his home of refrigerator boxes and discarded clothing. (more…)

Sorry about the slew of youtube postings, but let me share one more before I get back to my regular musings.

Not much to report on this front at the moment. It seems that I too have fallen prey to that most vile of attackers: the cold. I tried to beat my body and make it my slave, but its gone all Spartacus on me. And so, I was forced to go to the Doctor who gave me some antibiotics. The only side-effect of the medication is nausea, but the meeting had its own side effects. When I explained the horrendous effect the last sleeping medication that was prescribed had on me, he decided to give me something new, and he gave me like 30 tablets for free. That was nice. If it ends up fixing my sleep problem, then it has certainly been worth it to get sick enough to force me to go to the doctor. In a way, that reminds me of how the Lord operates. I’m not saying that all calamity that befalls us is a result of sin or some reproof from God, but Jah has been known to crack some skulls to do heart surgery. Coincidentally, the antibiotic I am on is also used to combat E. coli., acne, Lyme disease, Chlamydia, and Black Plague. I’m all for God working mysteriously, but let’s hope there are no STDs or Black Plague involved in this one.

I’ve got a period of inactivity here that has convinced me to get back in the blogging saddle so to speak. I can promise more of my “Contrarian musings of a Calvinist Mystic” as my esteemed friend Doug Jackson put it. Hopefully, I’ll figure out how to post on a positive that exists in the church before I end up sounding like Holden Caulfield decrying all the phonies. On that note, let me reflect on something I have been thinking about lately. My church contains a number of different demographics, but at the core exists a group of grey-haired meeting attenders. There are many things about this group that I find enigmatic like their aversion to my beloved ballcap or their ability to describe in shockingly precise detail the groanings of their joints, but also their ability in the face of constant pain and degradation to wake every morning with renewed trust in and love of the Lord. I have learned much from them, everyday things like just because an old guy doesn’t have a leg doesn’t mean he lost it in the war, and that a fair price for an A/C unit is 25 bucks. Also, I have learned what it looks like to live faithfully for God into the twilight of your life. The calm assurance in their faces and in their prayers reveals to me a God I do not yet now: the Grey God. The one who teaches his children patience in the wait to glorification. Here I am, 22, thinking about school and marriage, and right next to me in church, is an elderly man patiently waiting for his Lord’s embrace. I hope that I will someday look with knowing eyes on the God of my infirmity, and wait patiently for him, a lover waiting for embrace.