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| I was walking to the shower this morning when I started to think about patriotism. With Obama getting the nod from the Dems, the struggle for leadership begins - and as voters and citizens we begin to reevaluate what issues are primary.
No pun intended.
Who’s a patriot? What is a patriot? What constitutes patriotism? Wikipedia and the Dictionary told me it’s basically a strong loyalty or allegiance to a particular country - ones ‘fatherland’. So the question I was asking myself this morning was: ‘is patriotism loyalty to a geo-political state, or is it a submission to a particular morality and way of governance?’
If the latter is the case, then which time period do we pledge allegiance to? To which of the ethical convictions of the founding fathers do we consider worthy of our ‘patriotism’? Shall we consider ourselves patriots upholding the moral convictions of our current State?
If the former be the case, there are many more questions to be raised. Does this promote an imperialistic mentality? Is that really what we want, Francis Schaeffer? I think this is often the case as we use and attempt to define ‘patriotism’. Advance America as the ‘last best hope of Earth’?
I am glad to live in the United States. I value my freedom and liberties - and I believe they ought to be afforded to all men and women regardless of national affiliation. But.. does patriotism have to be an either/or? Might we release our elitist mentality and begin to see ourselves as parts of a whole?
Can patriotism be felt towards a Kingdom citizenship? What if patriotism was for a fatherland that encouraged unity and a holistic mentality to value a global social equality?
What do you think? | | |
| I was informed earlier today that I am long overdue writing something eremitical. After some pondering (read: looking through my ‘To Blog Thoughts’ sidenote), I decided to explore a quote from Calvin I had Cmd+P’d a while back.
So here’s the quote:
“Because we are not yet participants in the glory of God, thus we cannot approach him; rather, it is necessary for him to reveal himself to us according to our rudeness and infirmity. The fact remains that since the beginning of the world when God appeared to mortal men, it was not in order to reveal himself as he was, but according to men’s ability to support him. We must always keep this in mind: that God was not known by the fathers. And today he does not appear to us in his essence. Rather he accommodates himself to us. That being the case, it is necessary for him to descend according to our capacity in order to make us sense his presence with us.” (Calvin, [ca. 1555] 1980:52-53)
John Calvin at his best – human depravity/inability contrasted with the ineffable overwhelming reality of God. Obviously a little out of context, but a big enough block of text that I can run with it and make a post.
I disagree with the overarching statement Calvin is making here, primarily because of his overemphasis of the future promise of participatory glory as opposed to the present reality of our justified/sanctified oneness with God in Christ.
‘We are not yet participants in the glory of God, thus we cannot approach him;’ – are we truly not participants in this glory? Are we not instructed to now boldly approach the throne, because we have been made holy through Jesus’ sacrifice?
If we truly believe the Kingdom of God is a present reality, it should change the way we live, think, and experience God and his attributes. He has chosen to make Himself known in a plethora of ways: his creation, the Bible, Jesus, through humanity, etc. Of course, by virtue of his identity of God he will always retain mystery - but isn’t who He has revealed Himself to be just that?
The more the Lord reveals aspects of Himself to me, the more I am convinced that He is in, through, and without everything – a Singular Dharma, if you will permit mingling of terms. Because of this reality, I am finding God can be known and experienced through everyday life – including our failures.
A while back, I wrote about experiencing God through sin (can’t find the link since I migrated to this theme).. Why can’t our lives be holistic expressions of our relationship with God – from His blessings, to His forgiveness, His judgment, and His mercy? We say that we believe ‘God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose’, right?
Personally, I’d rather be guilty of looking for God in too many places than not recognizing His work enough. I digress some from my original point, but it’s my blog so I can write what I want.
On the other hand, I appreciate (how poorly words express emotions!) the ethereal and awe-inspiring majesty and terribleness of God. The fear of the all-powerful Creator adds a significant dimension to the Divine relationship with creation.
I’ve been taking David Crowder intravenously for the past couple months – one of the songs I’ve especially enjoyed is ‘Here Is Our King’. The chorus goes like this:
“Here is our King
Here is our Love
Here is our God who’s come to bring us back to Him
He is the One
He is Jesus”
What an blessed realization – God is everything we need at once:
Here is our King – just, sovereign, powerful and mighty.
Here is our Love – passionate, tender, faithful and intimate
Here is our God – holy, mysterious, terrible and gentle.
We sense His presence through His interaction with us because we were created to be in relationship with Him. We love Him because He first loved us. He makes Himself known because He wants to be known – and we delight in the knowledge of Him. ‘Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life.’ (via the BG) | | |
| I’ve been enjoying Netflix a lot. Not just ‘this is pretty sweet’ a lot, but ‘dude, this is almost as cool as steak wrapped in bacon’ a lot. I’ve had steak wrapped in bacon, and it’s quite possibly the most manly combination of food in the universe - and therefore it does max out the delicious scale. So what I’m saying is that on a scale of 1-10, Netflix is definitely up there.
And now I want beef.
I put ‘Juno’ in my queue a while ago and forgot about it. One of those ‘huh, I’d like to see what that’s all about’ movies - so when it showed up last week, I let it sit for a couple days before I watched it. I had other movies like Batman and The Recruit to watch before some chick flick. Bah.
Anyway, I finally sat down and watched Juno. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s about a 16 year old girl that gets pregnant and decides to put the baby up for adoption. The majority of the movie is what you might expect, a sort of comedic tension leading up to her decision to keep the baby (complete with awkward Christian girl protesting outside an abortion clinic), her parents reaction, and the life of a pregnant high school student.
The last time I remember seeing Ellen Page was in X-Men 3 as a sort of third wheel love interest.. Not particularly standoutish in either role or ability. Juno was definitely a better role - I liked her quirky sense of humor and jocular one-liners that characterized her attitude towards life in general. At the same time, that was really what threw me off. Throughout the whole movie, there’s an oddly casual attitude towards pregnancy and sexuality - like its something to be expected and dealt with as a component of normalcy.
During the search for good adoptive parents, Juno has a consistent “I just want to get rid of the thing” quote that chafed me like emo jeans after going through the dryer. During the ending credits, I sat on my couch and the only thing I could think of was ‘what am I supposed to do with this?’ The film, while well acted and produced, seems like a poorly veiled propaganda flick for Planned Parenthood. Or condoms.
I think it’s a good movie to watch, if for no other reason than to be culturally aware and informed - but I don’t really understand why so many people are saying it’s one of their favorite movies. It’s like loving the way everyone dies at the end of Saving Private Ryan - it’s dramatic, but deep down you’re disappointed Tom Hanks doesn’t get to back and teach history or whatever.
I’d give Juno a 3.5 out of 5 for good acting and a cool sketched intro credit sequence, but I don’t really jive with such a tawdry approach to teen pregnancy and sexuality. | | |
| Aside from youth pastor-y kinds of things, I’ve also been working as the nighttime janitor for the M-F daycare we have in our church building. As I’ve emptied trashcans, swept floors, vacuumed carpets and sanitized bathrooms I’ve been amazed at how randomly messy kids can be.
The bathrooms are usually the cleanest area in the whole building - while somehow, they manage to spill cupfulls of milk down the outside of the trash can liner. You’d think aim would be a skill carried across the board, but evidently it’s not.
Since the daycare runs until about 5.30, and I’m usually in the office until then - I don’t start cleaning until about 9 or so. This works out fine most of the time, but Wednesday night was an exception. Because of youth group and being hungry, I didn’t start until about 11 - which was just about the time I wanted to go to sleep.
For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to drink a 32oz energy drink to help me get through 3 hours of cleaning. It did, but it also got me through the rest of the night. And the next morning. Nothing like going to sleep at 5am.
Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted the next day (the rest of the day, rather). I got some stuff done, then decided to go to Costco to get my blood flowing and some stuff for the youth group. After procuring the desired saccharine-filled goods, I went to stand in line at the check out - which was roughly as long and as exciting as ‘Pathfinder’.
As I was standing there in line, trying not to fall asleep or throw up on the person in front of me, I looked up from my cell phone to see a group of 3-4 girls walking into the store. Noticing that they were particularly attractive, I did what most guys would do - quickly returned back to my cell phone.
After pretending to study some important document (i.e. Bejeweled), I looked back up to see if they had passed by yet. As fate would have it, I happened (I swear!) to look up directly into the eyes of (in my opinion) a very pretty member of the group. As soon as we made eye contact, she smiled at me.
Not one of those pity smiles I’m so used to getting - but a real, honest, maybe-she-thinks-i’m-cute smile. It was sweet.
In timeless Kierkegaardian form, I had to reflect on my reaction to receiving a smile from a pretty girl. Mere moments after she had left the area, I felt an surge of energy - no longer was I tired and weary. I didn’t even mind waiting in line. Very much.
So I think the lesson to be learned here is that female smiles are good and should be practiced with dedication to the well-being of young men everywhere. | | |
| What's yours?
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