Language, or Lack Thereof (from the book, Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think by Jane Healy)

What distinguishes humans from lower forms of life? Is it the capacity for emotion, community, or motor skills? Can a chimp convince his fellow ape as well as any orator or lawyer? Do the gorillas have their own Cicero or Demosthenes?

My seriously pointed questions simply serve to alleviate the tendency that we have as individuals in a thoroughly modern society to continue to kick our own language to the curb, so to speak. Speaking as one guilty of this practice more than I'd care to admit, what is the point of listening to our iPods for hours? What does it create but monotonous rhythms and, for the most part, some of the most simplistic uses of the English language I've ever heard. Though any pop music today could be victimized for the purpose of illuminating my point, I'd rather speak to the heart of what this tendency creates.

Have you ever had that feeling that you're just not able to get your point across? I might say that I've met people who live their whole existences not having the capacity to communicate well. Is this yet so strange? A life of being taught by our televisions or society's rock stars can produce nothing but such a grasp on the English language.

I'm aware by taking this stance that there are those that would seek to defend this supposed unrighteous victimization of that which they hold dear. Why shouldn't they? I would too if my life was bent around the things which these individuals have chosen to influence their minds(and I would say that at some times my mind has indeed been wrapped around simplistic pursuits). Hear me out. The brain is separated into two halves, right and left. The left is in control of the logical/analytical concepts and the right in control of imagination/emotion. Music and television, that simply serve to entertain or grasp your attention, rarely engage the left side of the brain. Because we as children were opened up to the world of such media at such an early age, it remains that much harder for adults to enforce good learning/education habits that will last longer than the classroom. How can teachers or parents fight against the juggernauts of pop music or the action movie? A song with a completely repetitive chorus edges itself into the now right-emphasized brain of a teen/college student much easier than a quality book or an important thesis.

So what can we do? Well, this is a message to anyone in charge of younger kids, who have this chance to make a difference. Because only so much can be done for older children who've already made up their minds on matters of the mind. Let's not make the intellectual an endangered species before their time.

Suffering

Romans 5

That's pretty much it, we suffer because God deems us able to endure and continue to improve in all things beneficial unto ourselves. What I mean here is one of two types of suffering. There is one that you can experience and then learn to live with in the future and then there is the one that is solely destructive of a person. Non-Christians and Christians alike are often confused as to this sort of dichotomy as if God wouldn't want people to go through the second type of suffering. Often we as Christians are all too eager to defend the first kind because we can "see it coming" or at very least we can "explain it away." But honestly, isn't that the same sort of thing that James talks about when he says even demons believe in God? Even the most hardened atheist can attribute good things to be taken from hard experiences. What the hardened atheist can not reconcile is what happens when a love one dies or when an individual learns of a terminal condition. To this they can only shrug their collective shoulders and chalk your situation up to Darwin being a jerk. Love God for the hard times, for it is there that he is at his closest. You may not feel it, and if that's the case I kinda want to blame you but compassion is something that I already struggle with anyway.

God is there! He wants you SO much to love Him. He's there in the troughs and valleys of life! Oh...my gosh [insert Ross Dixon's voice]. I'm yelling now because this is my prayer as well. It's my prayer recently to pursue God in a way that shows how I'm relying on him when I face struggles. But yeah, it's not easy. God supposedly gets this rap as being unapproachable and there's this book called God's Way of Peace by Horatius Bonar that takes this problem and discusses this beautifully. Because what we don't want to realize is that it's our fault, or at least Adam's. Sin distances us from God and creates strife in our lives. God says that we can find rest in him but this thing called sin has distanced us. Christ and his work on the cross is THE way and THE truth and THE life for peace in a world that's too messed up for any other explanation.

Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray...

Quick Hit: That line for my title is my favorite semblance of words in the human language. From Milton's Paradise Lost, it's part of his Invocation to Light, a work which I have memorized on two occasions but can only remember one and a half stanzas interestingly enough.

I digress, the real reason why I'm posting up here is that I haven't for a while and that I would like to get the creative juices flowing before I'm to be expected to write full-time for school. Life's been awesome and God has been there the entire way. Between being cool enough to bring some great friends into my life and providing the opportunity of a sweet job for me to put my energies into, God has been faithful to equip me with all I've needed this summer. In the end, there's very little I wouldn't have wanted to happen this summer that did (minus almost being laid up twice with bee stings, but hey, it happens).

Also, favorite song recently has been The Last Night by Skillet. They played it at Rock the River and I thought it simply rocked.

Hmmmm

So, if God is love, than it sounds to me like the description of love about being patient and kind should apply to Him. Thus, there's that whole thing about not holding a record of wrongs. Now, how does this coincide with purgatory? The entire concept doesn't ring completely true for me. Also, the idea that I can bring myself closer to God through my own actions aren't exactly kosher either. My view of it all is this; God wants nothing more than to have a relationship with his children. Our sin and subsequent attitudes prevent us from fully accepting this amazing gift and thus forcing ourselves to live on our own (think Moses striking the rock). The more we allow God to work on our lives, the more we are able to do three things.

A. We gain a better appreciation of God's love for us.

B. We get a better understanding of the work God did through his Son, Jesus Christ.

C. We end coming closer by sacrificing more of the control over our own lives and embracing the confidence we gain by knowledge of our relationship with Christ

I just can't see how anything I actively do can allow for any more grace or a better life after I die. I feel like that would limit the faith I have in God and the cross.

When It's All Gone

Life as it is

God is awesome, just wanted to put out that APB if any doubters were out there. For those close to me, it has been hard for me recently because I've simply felt pretty down on myself because of my failure to maintain a solid relationship with a girl. And I know that it's dumb, but I felt empty when there wasn't this other individual that I could feel a bond with. And there were so many reasons why, that I just couldn't see why God was holding this away from me. One wouldn't be interested in me, another I only liked as a friend and knew that it wouldn't last, and another woulbe simply be with someone else and I'm not going to be "that" guy, y'know?

Oh well, either way, I was and am tired of it. But you know what? God's timing is so above and beyond my own that I can do nothing but give it all to him. Because I've learned this in the last year that when I sacrifice any of my own persona and pride invested in what I try to accomplish, then God may do great things with it. And why not do the same with my dating relationships? It seems so obvious at this low point for me that I can't help but chuckle. Because there were so many opportunities for me that I either effed up or just let go by.

God, I'm here at this point and frustrated to no end. But you are great and exalted above all others. You are the ultimate lover and relationship-leader. You are faithful to a fault and more caring and tender than the most passionate lover could ever be or write on a page. We can only grasp blindly at and come so short of how You held your bride to your breast and never let her go. I've been broken down and humbled to the breaking point where I was ready to explode and destroy any possibility of hope. But you are faithful to forgive and raise up your servants when they sit in the desert place bereft of love and peace. Why was I so easily able to just take my relationship with you for granted and push it away? Well, it didn't work out well as you must have known for now I sit here like Jonah after the weed withered away in my own filth and feel silly for it all.

Lord, I've failed in all regards. I've taken girls for granted and slandered the names of those I cared for by engaging in all sorts of porn and what not that I didn't deserve their care from the beginning. I give it all to you and reside in your care for the time being. Hold onto my heart and let not a girl take it away as if it were something for sale or barter so easily as I would be taken for her at the first moment. "Love at first sight" will not be in my vocabulary. God, I'm yours wholly and fully. Do what you will and give me the peace you promise to all those that call your name. Amen.

Cheesy song to finish up with but I like it

Perhaps

Perhaps I don't think as much during summer. Maybe other people are just more constructive with their time. Nevertheless, I haven't written almost anything to this blog in the past month or so. Working a lot tends to do that to you. Anyway, relaxing recently for me has been dusting off my Rome: Total War disks and playing a mod of the game called Roma Surrectum ("Rome Rising") which took great lengths to make it seem as if you're really fighting as Rome. I'm also part way through Michael Curtis Ford's "The Sword of Attila," about the last days of the empire up to the Hun invasion. It's really good but I can't read it for too long without wanting to live it out myself through RTW. Oh well, at least I don't have battle formations going through my head when I mow lawns at work. Oh wait, I do.

It's a dangerous thing, walking out your front door...

Well, I must first apologize, I haven't read anything of substance since summer started. Working 40 hours a week tends to do that to you. I'm burnt out every day and only really want to get some bball work out in afterwards. On the other hand, I'm filling out really well. Fingers crossed that I can gain between five and ten pounds of muscle before the end of the summer. Unfortunately, my dreams of playing Div-I bball as a walk on are slowly diminishing as I get better, ironically enough. Every time I play well with the guys I usually hang out with, I realize how much harder I would have to play to get to the level of guys who live, sleep, and breathe around the rim (Kim English, a fellow sophomore, for one). Either way, I'm going to look to be one of the better intramural players next year and hopefully build on that going into Junior/Senior year. I'm also gonna need to get a solid team together that's dedicated to getting better every year as well. Oh well, it all takes work, something I'm taking a deep breath from today with all this rain. Soli Deo Gloria.