Giving Thanks

I’ve been in the Mitten for the past week and sleeping for 10 hours has never felt so ama-za-zing. It’s been great to get a break from school/work and remember all the ways that the Midwest is different from the South (both in a good way and in a bad way).

The other night, I was driving through Ann Arbor and started to get teary eyed about the darkness of the city (teary eyed does not equal crying… cause I’m a man and men don’t cry unless they’re being stabbed or something…). But in light of it being the time for munching down pounds of turkey and whatever the heck constitutes stuffing, I wanted to run off my thankful list.

• I’m thankful that Michigan will beat that Ohio school for the first time in about a decade and I can finally tell my one Columbus friend to kick rocks really hard without any shoes on…

Beezy's French Toast is MAGICAL!!

• I’m thankful that Chris Crump, Jimmy Needham, and David Crowder* Band actually know how to write/sing/play an instrument and give me running music.

• I’m thankful that UnderArmor makes insulated running gear because it’s ALWAYS cold in Michigan. 

• I’m thankful for compression shorts J.

• I’m thankful for Bee’s French Toast, Pound Cake, Key Lime Pie, real (not instant) Coffee, and the fact that if you combine all three it negates the calories (I was an English major).

• I’m thankful that the Chronicles of Narnia will always be greater than Twilight even if kids these days don’t know what the former is.

• I’m thankful for musicals, plays, art galleries, and jazz and all the other artistic expressions that I took for granted as a kid.

Even though they're in the NorthEast, it's good to have good friends

• I’m thankful for friends that stay friends even when they live in different time zones and moms who mail goody bags to kids trapped in smog.

• I’m thankful that College Basketball > lockout.

• I’m thankful for newly married friends who get me super excited whenever I see them just because they’re married even though it means they have to ask their wives whenever we want to hang out :-/.

• I’m thankful that teasing them about this never stops being funny…

• I’m thankful for the Bobby Kelly’s, Terrence Quinn’s, Dr. Foster’s, Micah Caswell’s and Elliott Hill’s who poured into me, helping me mature and see what it means to be a man.

• I’m thankful for CLMI and the fact that there are people who truly love God and truly want to know him even when life gets tough.

• I’m thankful for Bethel Church and the fact that there are people who are eager to rebuild.

• Most of all, I’m thankful that God saw it fit to write himself into our story by sending his son to redeem an ignorant and lost people.

I think it’s important to remember the little things. They say life is filled with them and I for one am grateful that my life is filled with that instead of stuffing.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Running Man

This past weekend I ran the San Antonio Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I finished at a decent clip. I had spent the past couple of months training with a friend and, although we had never run further than 8 miles, I was able to run the whole thing without taking any breaks (except for a serious bathroom pit-stop… but that doesn’t really count does it? Especially since I was doing the happy dance for 15 mins). The race was different than I’d expected it to be. The crowd of people never thinned out, I never was able to find a group of people running at my same clip, and spent most of the time wandering through the mob of runners while trying not to collide with any of them.

Finishing is a great feeling. You cross this imaginary line, which tells you that you’ve allegedly run 13.1 miles (Google told me that I’d run 13.5) and worm your way through crowds of people for random snacks, photos, and bottles of water only to find out that you’re hurting in places you didn’t even know existed. But none of that matters. You don’t care about the fact that you smell like an 8^th grader’s gym-locker. You don’t care about the fact that your hamstrings feel like snapped rubber bands… the race is over and now you can eat ice cream and relax.

My mind is constantly drifting (when you’re running for 2+ hours you’ve got a lot of time to think). Most of the time I’m trying to process all the stuff I choose not to deal with. But on this sunny Sunday morning, running made me think of heaven. It would be a severe understatement to say that life has been complicated lately. Changes at my church, changes in friendships, changes in general… Change changes things. And in the end, I’m left looking forward to finishing the race...

Don’t get me wrong: there are some great things about this planet. However, despite the beauty of sunsets, amazement of aurora borealis, and the splendor of mountain ranges it just doesn’t compare to an eternity with the savior. I have so many questions to ask him…

I guess that’s my comfort through the grueling moments between the starting whistle and the finish line… soon it will all be over and the celebration will definitely top a couple orange slices and protein bars. When this race ends, the celebration never will. And that thought brings a smile to my face that trumps all the pain and confusion and silences the chaos. And maybe, just maybe, it will give me the strength to dance across the finish line… call it pre-gaming.

The Stupidity of Objectivity

 Looks good enough to eat...?

Last Saturday while serving pancakes at Rice U., a student told me that he didn’t like C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity because it wasn’t object enough. He told me that it didn’t adequately present both sides of the argument (atheism vs. Christianity) from a objective perspective.

Truth is a philosophical question, not a scientific one...

While at first glance, objectivity sounds like a sound idea… I mean who wouldn’t want an unbiased perspective on Christianity vs. Atheism? Theoretically, it would allow us to make an accurate assessment on which idea is “more sound”… but honestly, that’s dumb. I would like to dress up the “Theory of Objectivity” with more PC terminology but the very idea of wanting to be objective is a complete conflict with a culture that has immersed itself in post-modernism. How can you believe that no one is objective and no solid definition of anything exits (Post-Modernism) while at the same time stating that truth can only be found from an objective perspective (Objectivism)?

If you believe that there is no God, all of your theories, ideas, perspectives of life/creation, and understandings line up in accordance with your “theology” (or lack thereof). You can’t accurately write from the perspective of a theist because in your mind they’re irrational. The only way to understand their perspective would be to start believing in a God but then you wouldn’t be an atheist anymore!

Objectivity in this case would be the line between believing in God and not believing in God... now what is that exactly? You either believe in Yahweh or you don’t. For those who do, everything changes. For those who deny His existence, everything changes. The two positions are at odds with one another so there can be no common ground.

For the Christian, God’s word is the only objective truth. If science says one thing but God’s word says something different, science is wrong (as it has been in the past and will be in the future). But that’s another conversation for another time.

The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. His Word is not illogical and won’t appear to be so unless we approach it with faulty logic.