Blogging

This is a poster from www.despair.com that I think will describe my blogging experience perfectly. I only hope I'm always saying something worthwhile, however few I'm saying it to.

Anyway, I have now copied every poster on the site, and set them as my background picture, changing every 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get my Dad and/or myself a calender of these hilarious, yet somewhat depressing posters, sometime soon :-)

I'm Tired of the "Reason for the Season"!

I'm sure the first time this phrase was used it was used correctly, that the person uttering or writing it was actually talking about worshiping God for his incarnation, that he (or she) was referring to God's love, and a time that should be spent reflecting on one of Jesus' greatest miracles: the very fact He, eternal God, became one of us.
That's not the "reason for the season" that has tired me out. No, that's the only reason that I'm not out burning "Christmas" trees, punching Santas, kicking elves...

I'm tired of hearing multiple different "reasons for the season" that are lies, or only partial truths. No mr-self-esteem-guy, Christmas is not about feeling good. No mr-get-our-economy-going-guy, Christmas is not about giving as much to as many as you can. Christmas is not just about family, not just about loved ones, not just about giving to and getting from each other.

Also, we tidy up the Christmas story a lot. When was the last time you actually thought of Jesus Christ, God's Son, being born? Isn't it amazing that he would humble himself to coming out of a woman's body? Actually being born, no sudden apparition, no coming into existence clean and well-groomed, but being born to a young woman who just rode cross-country on a donkey... wow Mary, sorry, that must have been a bad day... except for the God's Son thing...

I don't know, I haven't had a special revelation here or anything, but I bet Joseph had to deal with some anger when there was no room in the inn. How did he feel that this woman, that angels, God's messengers, talked to him about, would in all likelihood give birth among cows, donkeys, and goats?

How about the good people of Bethlehem? When the shepherds ran through the streets proclaiming a king, how many of them cursed those shepherds for waking them? Then again, I wonder if the shepherds doubted the angles as they came into town, "swaddling cloths"? "manger"? ... that's not where we'd expect to find a king!

However, doubts aside, they went, and they found a newborn child where there should be cow's food, they found him in the smelly stable, where a king's dinner should be born, not a king! They saw his parents, worn and weary from traveling, a carpenter and some lowly young woman. I really doubt Jesus was glowing like he is in all the pictures, nor were Mary or Joseph. No, it wasn't that the baby looked special, that the manger or the strips of cloth wrapped on him looked exceptionally kingly, it was God's word, given through angels to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds, and their faith in that word, that revealed God's son to them in this child.

Sorry if I recounted too much of the story, I'm sure most of you heard it earlier this evening, but I just wanted to say, it's not a pretty story, but it is an awesome one. It's not about making us better, it's about making us right with God. It's not about gifts, it's about God preparing his sacrifice, born, surrounded by smelly animals, in a stable.

Allegory of the Sheet

This is something I wrote some time in November on a blank sheet of printer paper... I still have the paper, the writing covers about half of it, and I thought I was going to explain on the second half of the sheet, but so far I haven't... I don't know if anyone is reading these posts, but if you are, I hope this makes you think some, whether you agree or not. Comments of any type are more than welcome!

--- Allegory of the Sheet ---

Blank, white, pristine. Not anymore, I've broken it. I've torn a hole in the perfection and given space to meaning, to conversation. I've made mistakes, I'm not perfect, this page will never be homogeneous, pure. It can never again be what it once was, but I am already appreciating it more this way. It has more worth to me now that it's unique, now that I can look at it and call it mine. Even if I eventually trash it, for it will not become good enough again, even after it is gone, I will still care more for it than a blank sheet. Even when it's broken, useless, gone: even then it will be a testament to my existence, to my creativity, to my ability, to my nature. But what if it becomes what I intend? What if I make of it a small version of myself, something that I can relate to, something that interacts with who I am? Then, by all means, I shall frame it, keep it close to me, cherish it. If my work in it is received, if my purpose is fulfilled in it, I would keep and remember it as long as my memory holds, and I would parade it, my creation, in front of others, not because I want to hear them say how good it is, but so they would enjoy it the way I do, and they would know me better. If it shows itself as mine I will continue my relation to it, as creator; if not, I will cast it far from me. This will prove my love of the one I keep and my devotion to what is good. It will also allow me to have a special relationship with the work that reflects me, allow me to enjoy and commune with my good creation without the presence of those works which failed me. However, even I, as an imperfect creator, corrupted composer, know some things need a second chance. I am willing to re-create, willing to refresh or re-form an idea, a work, which shows promise. I will continue a tale if its end shows promise, as only I, the author, could know. I'll check my spelling, edit errors; search for holes, unexplained questions in the tale, but even then, if the story is too far gone, even after hours and days of work, if the story no longer reflects me, it must be trashed, I do not recycle.

Learn to Love

I just watched episode 12 of "John Doe", a 2002 TV series about a guy who has amnesia, but somehow knows everything from the migratory patterns of Canadian geese to the checksum of a disk image of the first linux distribution. However... the specifics of the show are not really what this post is about...

This episode really pricked my interest with the last few words that were said. John and his love interest, Rachel, are deciding to continue their relationship, and this is portrayed by each of them saying they will "learn to love" a food that the other likes but they don't (John, licorice; Rachel, vienna sausage). At first glance it's just a "awww that's cute" moment, but it really struck me, because of the way it portrays love.

Most of the time TV, movies, and even books (and especially magazines) tell us that love is something we cannot control, that love is a flush, a rush, an explosion of feeling that we cannot deny, cannot stop, cannot temper. To me, that makes love seem very much like a bad temper... and I really don't want to love the way I get angry, because I never stay mad... and what would that say about my love?

No, love is more than just emotion, more than just a thing our bodies tell us and we are helpless to create or resist. No, love is a choice, something to seek education in, to "learn to love", to continue to experience, to work on, to spend yourself in. Like anything we build, time must be spent on it to make it beautiful, and it shouldn't be thrown away at a moment's malcontent.

Interestingly, I am now thinking of more than just the type of "love" that we see in various media, really, I'm talking about any relationship or friendship too... We need to be friends with more than just the people we "click" with! Learning to love, learning to care for people, to empathize, that's what being truly Christlike is! I really hope that we can all learn to love this Christmas season, learn to bear each other's burdens, take other's sufferings on ourselves, just like Emanuel, God with us, came to be a man, and take all our deserved pain on himself.

C.G. & D.

I snitched my Dad's pen during church today and wrote the title to this post on my hand, CG&D. My Dad looked at me questioningly, but he always looks at me that way... I'm a weird kid...

Anyway CG&D stands for "Common Grace and Darwin" (I'm glad I remembered, or this post would have turned out a good bit different). I wrote that on my hand shortly after my pastor mentioned that Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey... Really, it was after that, and after the thought in my head that "haha, guess some Presbyterians buried Darwin once and for all." Although, that only really explains the Darwin part...

I think pastor must have also said something about "deserving" and I forget exactly when it was that I wrote on my hand, but here's the connection: I believe that God holds all things together, that the we, the world, the universe, cannot exist if it were not for the Creator also being the keeper. Were it not for common grace, God's willingness to keep evil at bay in the world and deal with a world that is in rebellion against Him, Darwin would never have been able to extend the ideas of natural selection into a theory of evolution. In fact, if it were not for God's common grace, Darwin would never have come to be at all. If God were not good, He would have been done with man long ago.

Darwin was a recipient of God's common grace, and we are too. Darwin gave many people the idea that they had "proof" God does not exist, and God let him live his life. I know there are days when I am even worse, because, professing to be a Christian, I live in a way that turns people away from truth, giving them all the "proof" they need to reject Christ.

I guess this has become an appeal, so I'll end it like this: We all, like Darwin, Newton, and all those buried with them, will die and rot. Thanks be to God for dealing with us for as long as He has, and for providing eternity for us!

Wonder if I'll ever use this...

So, my name is Chris, but I bet you won't end up here unless you know me already, so why did I say that? Well, I might as well keep on the roll: I was born in Ohio, lived in Scotland for two years, and have spent most of my life in Georgia. I went to a private Christian school from fifth grade through high school, and am now pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Anyway, I've attempted to write poetry and song lyrics since middle school, and have had limited success (in my opinion). Now I have 80+ poems and one song, and I want to do something with them, so I might be posting some on here... maybe... I might also just make this first post and then decide that I would rather make it all a website instead of a blog (as I have started to do on My Website ).

Whatever I do, I pray it is all to God's glory. I pray that my poetry might speak to people about their needs and desires. Sometimes I say some pretty hard things to take in, many times I make challenging statements on purpose, but I do not mean to injure anyone, and I am more than willing to discuss anything that I have written.

Well, however this turns out, I have a blog now... hooray!!