Comfort

In this time of mourning words alone cannot convey enough comfort or solace to the families who have suffered such great loss at Virginia Tech. Instead, let us lift up prayers for the victims and their families to God in this season of mourning, who alone can provide comfort and who will ultimately wipe away every tear.

"Cast all your cares upon him, for He cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:7

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

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Why the world is more like the World of Warcraft than you think.

I have hesitated with this post really because as I thought about writing this I realized that this was more for me than for other people. Nonetheless, I feel that this post may provide some insight to others.

I've been playing a little game called World of Warcraft online for a few games and have been losing sleep playing it for the past few weeks. While I was trying to stay awake driving after a long night of battling demons and beasts I started to have some thoughts about how the game bears a striking resemblance to life in general. However, to have it make some sense to people who don't play the game an explanation is in order. For those who have played the game, you can quickly move on to the next paragraph. For those who haven't I’ll break the game down and try to do it some justice.

World of Warcraft (WOW) is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMPORG). Basically you play this game entirely online in a medieval-era fantasy world that has been created online with other players around the nation. As a character in this world, you fight either alongside other characters against computer characters or against one another. As you spend more time fighting you gain experience making your fighter faster and better (increase in available spells or increased attack or defense... among other things). Players not only just fight monsters but have opportunities earn cash and better armor and weapons. While that is the main thing that your character does in this world, there are little intricacies that make the game as addictive as it is. Your character can choose 2 professions such as blacksmithing or tailoring. These professions allow you to create items that can give you an edge in battle. Because of the number of people in the game, people not only trade and buy weapons and armor but also food and the services of their profession creating an intricate economy. Players can also join large groups of players called guilds and as the players get better, more players get added, the guilds get bigger and start to have reputations of their own. This then sows the seeds of an intricate social network. Basically, if the creators were attempting to create a game where people could feel like they were transported into another world they did a pretty good job of it.

One of the reasons why I think this game is as popular and as addictive as it is because people have the chance to live almost a double life in this game. Coupled with the fact that one of the things that resonates particularly well with the male soul is the whole idea of being in a something bigger. Its the reason men get teary eyed watching William Wallace fight in Braveheart or when their team wins the Superbowl. This game allows men and on occasion women to experience something bigger than themselves and experience the feeling of being needed and important separate from reality where people often feel unappreciated in their jobs and their families.

One of my criticisms of the game before I got insanely addicted to it, was the fact that people spend hours of their lives on the game, forsaking actual food and water, time with their spouses and friends, in pursuit of things that are intangible. Ultimately all the money that you earn in the game or accolades means nothing in the real world. Who really cares, except the people who play the game, that you have a level 70 paladin or mage. The logic being that there is something more real than the World of Warcraft that is actually worth spending time on. However, when I started to apply this logic to our lives and this thing we call reality, I realized that the Jesus and Paul talked often about the fact that there is more to this world than what we can experience with our senses and that we aren't truly seeing the whole picture.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about the fact that we need to put on the armor of God in our lives because "we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms". Jesus also told people store up your treasures in heaven when rust and thieves cannot get to it and then asks what does it profit a man if He gains earthly possessions and loses his soul. All essentially saying, "Hello?! This life is not it!"

So before we become quick to wag the finger at my fellow WOW junkies, ask yourself this. Are you living with the reality that there is more to life than this stuff around you or are you lost in the pursuit of worldly things. Because if you are than you are no worse than someone wasting away in front of some massive computer game called life.

So what the heck are we here for if this reality is not it? What do we have here that is worth the time and our effort? The redeeming thing about World of Warcraft and our world is that in both of those we have relationships. Relationships with people and with God. Both of which resonate closely with the heart of God and which God says actually matters. With that I leave you with the words of three wise men (Toby, Michael, and Kevin-Max)

"I've never heard a dying soul
Wish that he had taken
More time on his portfolio"

- from the song Wanna Be Loved by DCTalk

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What we all need (the second thing) - part II

What is community though? Or more specifically what is a Christian community? I think one of the problems with the western church is the fact that we have turned the church into an organization. Churches are getting bigger and i am not knocking the fact that looking at the church as an organization is bad. But when you look at the church solely as an organization you miss out on the essence of the Christian body. The organizational mentality seems to promote this idea that the ones at the top look after those at the bottom. Not the other way. Hence, one of the reasons why i think the whole fiasco with Ted Haggard happened. This guy is above us. He is the shepherd we are the sheep. He should be good and not really need us watching his back. Right? Wrong.

What are we then missing? When we look at the church in the days when it first began we catch a glimpse of what church looked like. At the end of the second chapter of Acts we see the early Christians, shared everything (whatever is your is mine and vice versa), ate together, went to the temple together. It seems that all of them felt like they all had equal stake in the community of Christians. I am not my own but I am my brother's keeper. And in this the church grew. I think this defines what it means to be a Christian community very well.

When we go back to the beginning, God at some point in Adam's search for a partner says "it is not good for the man to be alone; i will make him a helper suitable for him" and then God creates Eve. Enough said.

Another product of Western individualism is that it has seeped into our churches and made us lone rangers. Our base of scripture memory verses often extol the virtues of us depending on God alone and hardly on one another. Except when it becomes convenient (do not give up the assembling with others - Heb 10:25). We overspiritualize what it means to be Christian and make this a faith of hand outs, when God has designed it to be a faith of loving and being loved. Give and take. Relationship.

So I guess my whole point of me writing this is to say to people. Don't ever think that you are not important in the body of Christ because you are. The guy who decided to shack up with his girlfriend or the girl who just got pregnant before marriage are just as important as the pastor in your church or Billy Graham. Just because one part gets more esteem or praise doesn't make it more important (1 Cor 12:22-23). In fact the surprising thing is that the lesser part might actually be more important. Ultimately, you who are reading this are important. It says that when one member suffers all suffer (1 Cor 12:26). The body needs you and can never be all that it is called to be without you. You have something to give no matter where you are at.

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What we all need (the second thing) - part I

What is the very thing we need the most aside from God? To every Christian it seems obvious what the very first thing is. We were created by and for God. We were created to be in a relationship with God and created to enjoy Him. But what about the next thing after our relationship with God? What is the very thing that resonates deeply with every heart across nations and cultures?

To really explain this answer I am coming from the understanding that when Jesus says that the first and most important commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, that He is also saying that this is also the very thing that will make you truly happy in life. I don't really think that is a huge jump of the imagination unless you subscribe to the view that God is a sadist, not truly good, and takes pleasure in our pain.

With that as a base, Jesus says the next important commandment is to love others. Which leads me to believe, the next thing that we need is each other. Besides most of the bible addressing how to relate to God, it does secondly address how we relate to each other. Don't steal your neighbors cow. If you do you need to pay him back.... blah blah blah. So we see Jesus telling us your relationship with your neighbor is also important.

I had a pretty deep conversation with a friend the other about how I have felt on some level disconnected from the church I call home. How despite the fact that i serve there, i didn't feel like i belonged. As I sat there in that car, depressing myself out of my mind, I realized something about how a lot of the problems I faced would be so much easier if I had felt like I was in a community and truly belonged. This in essence seemed to boil down the second human need for me. We all need community or people around us.

A few observations seem to back this up.
1) We have language. Other animals don't and yet do fine.
2) Prisoners often describe solitary as one of the worst experiences in prison
3) I worked at a place, where if necessary, kids would be "locked" in a safe room if they proved to be too violent (a person has to press down on a switch the whole entire time to "lock" the door). Kids often described this experience as worse then being placed in a physical non mechanical restraints. They haven't had to use it in my experience and where they have it usually isn't that long.
4) In my Psych 301 class, my professor talked about an experiment that was conducted where they simply asked participants to stay in a room with no one and with nothing to do. The participant that lasted the longest lasted 2-3 days and came out pretty disturbed by the whole experience while the next person after him lasted a whole 25 mins.

In my more personal observation, I have a friend who is gay and had a very bad experience with his church. He had asked for help from his church only to receive rejection and was told in "biblical language" that he needed to leave the church. He wasn't asking for them to accept his sin or to change him. What he wanted was a community to come round him. He then commented that people can live with being single but who could really live without community.

In an effort to show mercy to the ADD people such as myself. I will flesh this out in Part II.

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God will make thee

I was just wondering a little the other day about what God wants me to do eventually. I have always been rather jealous of people who seemed to know exactly where they want to be or even where God wants them to be early on in their life. This is no exactly the first time that I have thought or wondered about this. Then God impressed upon me a verse....

"Follow me and i will make you fishers of men".

Now it wasn't the part about being fishers of men that impressed me so much as much as Jesus saying to these bunch of fishermen, "I will make you...". At that moment i felt like God was saying, don't worry about what you are going to be, I will make you. Don't worry about the how. You follow me and i will make you. If you look at Jesus ministry and the 3 years that he was with the disciples, He wasn't exactly concerned about teaching these guys the Hows of the Christian faith. He focused more on relationship than anything else. Our relationship with God and one another. In essence, what God seems to be concerned about is not how you are going to do it. He just wants you to come to know Him and in so doing you will reach your destiny. So I leave you once again with these words.

"Follow me and i will make you fishers of men".

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Demanding a larger view of God

There is something weird about our conception of God.

I always make it a point in my time of talking to God to thank Him for all that He has done for me and to praise Him for some of the stuff He has done outside of me. So I praise Him for the weather, praise Him for the beauty that surrounds me, the stars in the sky. And after awhile I feel stuck. I feel almost weird doing that. And I guess today i've kinda figured out why.



My conception of God, while it has grown bigger, is still a box compared to the magnitude of who God is. Think about this.... the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is approx 1 light year away. Meaning if we travel for 1 year at the speed of light we will reach alpha centauri. I don't know about you but sitting in a car for 1hr is enough to drive me freaking nuts. 1 year in a shuttle? And that’s the nearest star. What about traveling in an actual space shuttle? Well if my calculations aren’t off, it would take us 39,000 years to get there. Just for giggles what about a car? Say we travel about 100mph. Try 6.5 million years. Let’s say we want to travel across the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is about 80,000 to 100,000 light years in diameter. Now if we travel at the speed of light that would take us about 80,000 years. If we traveled by shuttle (and I don’t mean the Forty Acres one, it would take us 3,097 million years. To top that off and to get an idea of how vast this universe is our galaxy is like one of the 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe (OBSERVABLE!!!!!). I can’t even fathom the fact that there are 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy alone, let alone 100 billion galaxies X 200-400 billion stars in the universe.

So what’s really the point of all this. Well I’m just trying to say that honestly sometimes our perception of God really pushes the bounds of idolatry. Why do I say that? According to Merriam-Webster, idolatry is worshiping a physical object as a God. When you think about it though, idolatry isn’t really about just the physical stuff though. We commit idolatry on a regular basis when we worship money, fame, or sex. However, I would define idolatry more like having a perception of God that is inaccurate or not true to his nature. Of course now all my Christian brothers and sisters are going to throw their hands up, gnash their teeth and pick up their stones. But… this just means that all of us (especially me) need to strive everyday to see God for who he really is. Not only just the raw physical power of a person who spoke everything into being. But the full depths of God. His love. His ability to bless. His ability to do things in our lives that not even we can do. .

The next question which comes to a lot of our minds and probably hits closer to home, is not is he able? It’s is he willing? I am such a small being. Who am I that God would even think of me, much less bless or love me. God says in Psalms that he knew you before the day you were born and the thoughts that he has towards you outnumber the sand (Psa 139:18). That’s a lot of sand. Someone attributed the number of stars in the galaxy or the universe to about the number of grains of sand in the earth (someone correct me if I’m wrong). But that’s just to get into the same perspective. It also says in Jeremiah that God knows the plans that He has for you, plans of good and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Yes he is big and powerful! But the cooler thing is despite the infinite amount of things in the universe. God is personally concerned with your life.

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The Real World

So i'm watching this video in my social work class about chemical dependence. And its basically this documentary about people who are abusing drugs or alcohol. Their family and friends have enough of it and basically want this person in treatment. They get a group of family and friends who are willing to support this in getting treatment and kinda tell him that they care for him, that they remember better days with this person when they weren't abusing drugs or alcohol and how they miss that person. By the end they are saying get help or we will have to disconnect ourselves from you.

The interesting part in all this for me comes when i hear this final story. Tim is this guy who has been abusing drugs, i think. They find him in a storm drain crying and pretty much really going through a terrible low after whatever it is he was doing. They get him out make sure he is sober and then meet with his family and his girlfriend. Each person says their peace. And then asks him do you accept this gift of treatment. He then says that before he goes for treatment it doesn't make a drippity drop of sense for him to go to treatment if his girlfriend doesn't too. Apparently, Madyson (his girlfriend) is not really but an abuser but she is considered "co-dependent" (won't go into the details of what that is). Bottomline is she too is in need of some sort of treatment of help.

First thoughts i have is, wow this girl is pretty! what is she doing with this washed out druggy? Then when the guy is all cleaned up we actually find out hey he is really good looking too. SO they look like a regular ken and barbie set.

She says yes i will go for treatment. He says yes i will go too. He goes for treatment and gets clean. He gets a job playing piano for a local bar near the treatment center. He makes this video for and plays this song that he wrote for her. WOW this guy plays and sings. He has a really good voice too. So he's singing about how the world was standing before him (his girlfriend) and its this amazing amazing song. And then in subtitles they tell about what happens after this video.

Normally in most hollywood type productions or even some of the media stories they would tell you. The subtitles would read Tim finished drug rehab. Goes out. Does everything right. They have kids, they marry, he stays clean, happily ever after. The end. However, this is not what happens.

Turns out Madyson refuses to go for treatment. Tim gets out and moves in with her against his counselors advice. He stays clean. Keep in mind they are revealing all this information while he is singing this amazing amazing song that he wrote for her. Not the picture perfect story but at least he stays clean, right?

And you can tell everyone in this class is just like just locked in to this story. Cos this professor is like fast fowarding through the tape to get to the parts that are relevant to the class but everyone is like, "NO WAIT! What happened there?"

The other three cases in the video were similar in nature. They do some stuff right. They mess up. If you gone to enough social work classes you see a lot of these videos. They do some stuff right. They mess up on others. On the extreme, some have died. I saw one where this girl did almost everything right but ends up dead in someone's car. Not exactly the stuff of Hollywood, right?

Basically, i'm saying this to get to the point that life is really not like Hollywood (as much as we want it to be). They are like social work videos! We don't get life right all the time. And in fact we probably get it wrong then we do right. We get so attuned to life as portrayed by Hollywood that these stories just don't seem right. Its so..... unresolved. Every time i watch these videos i'm like, "so what the heck happened to those people?" or "so they turn it around and become happy right?". And i think life is really like that, we have so many situations that are unresolved. We are so used to seeing the whole story that we can't stand it when we are in a difficult situation in life cos its so..... unresolved. Don't get me wrong. I know that God has a plan for my life and that he is going to turn every mess around for good. Its just that when we are in the moment it doesn't feel so great, we don't really see the light at the end of the tunnel and we feel like the story of our life is...... unresolved.

All that i think we can really do in those moments is accept that for the most part that life is going to be.... unresolved..... then move on and thank God for the things that we have and have been blessed with. Remember the blessings in life, trust that He is good, that He will turn all of it around "for our good" (Rom 8:28), and that He will save us from ourselves.

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So much for anonymity

So this trying to be anonymous has proven to be rather lame. I figured to blog, i don't have to post a chronicle of my life. Its been eternity since I've tried to post anything. So to catch up i'm posting a few things that i have written over the past year on facebook.

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