Category Archives: Higher Powers

Sep 18 0 comments
Higher Powers, Ins-and-Outs

disappointment

I’ve been generally disappointed with life and people in general. I’m not sure why… but I’m sure it’s because I’m not happy with much lately.

To say that I’m stressed is probably a little bit of an understatement (and here I am spilling all about this here, when I have things to do). I work full-time and I’m in school full-time… actually, that last part isn’t true. I’m in school more than full-time. I have 21 hours this semester. The horrible part is that some of my classes occur during the day, causing me to have to be away from work. So, now my work schedule looks like a complete mess. And, that I hate. Even more, it stresses me out, because there are only 3 days a week when I can really tackle large projects so that I have time. So, there is stress point #1.

#2 remains in the fact that I’ve got school requirements out the wazoo to think about right now. My grad school application is due Nov. 1 for the spring. I’m not sure what I will do if I don’t get in, except to work on a second bachelor’s. However, my plan for school has been altered because of my car, and the fulfillment of that loan… in order to pay it, and everything else, I have certain salary requirements. So, that means, to get to Washington, I have to have a certain pay… and most of those government positions, say in the Archives, require a Master’s Degree to get there. So, that is my plan… work on the Master’s now, and then move maybe next August or December. If it all works out, it will either be the same plan or 3 months later. But, I will have the Master’s and start working on a Ph.D. at some point when I move up there.

#3: To get into grad school, I have to take the GRE. I’m due to take it on October 3… a Monday. So, I take that at 10 a.m., which means I have to miss work. I can’t find one on a Saturday. I’m terrified to take the test in the first place. But to miss work means I might be thinking about what I’ll have to do when I get done.

#4 lies within work. My boss recently left… that leaves me in the hands of other supervisory figures that aren’t always around, therefore have no idea what my work schedule really is, or what I’m doing and if it is actually worth the time. I’m supposed to sit down this week and discuss ‘life’ with one of them. I do know this… work is not the same. To add to it, it is continually changing.

I’ve dropped most of my non-school and non-work functions, except for church obviously and COYM related events. I’m on the Spiritual Growth committee. I love being there, and I love the work I do. However, I feel like I can’t really contribute 100% to it because of my time constraints. This is my #5 of stressors. I’ve got such a full plate, I don’t know how to get rid of it. While I will finish my commitment with them, I realize that I should have withheld this year.

I feel so different than I did a year ago. So much has changed, little has remained. In such a turbulent atmosphere, I feel entirely too vulnerable. I think that is where the stress is supplied. Inside of me, there is a longing that I can’t decode. I’m so frustrated and unhappy with things as they currently are. And I can’t figure out if they are a result of my little time for myself to decompress or if it is a general discontent with where I am right now. Maybe time will tell… if I can ever find some.

Aug 04 0 comments
Higher Powers

corporate v. self

today at staff breakfast, we had a fantastic devotion. it was based on the book ‘praying like jesus’ by james mulholland, and discussed the differences of corporate prayer found in the Lord’s prayer versus self-oriented prayers of the ‘prayer of jabez’.

corporate prayer, such as the Lord’s prayer was intended to be prayer for others, but also WITH others… to maintain connection to humanity as well as to God.

there are 4 different areas that prayer covers:
1. it is a corporate prayer asking that God bring his kingdom down to the face of earth, as compared to the old thought that we want to get closer to heaven in death.

2. we corporately ask for daily bread… it’s usually thought that this is for ourselves, but what if its intent was to remind us that we as a body of Christ are responsible for the needs of all of God’s people as well as our own? now, THAT is social justice at the core.

3. forgiveness… yes, we ask for ourselves. but, if we mean it like we think it, we’re asking God to forgive us as we do others. that isn’t very good forgiveness and diminishes the concept. instead, we as a church should practice this type of forgiveness for ourselves and the church, using what God meant by the prayer… in short, WE change how WE forgive to the way that God forgives. it’s beautiful, isn’t it?

4. corporately, the church asks for deliverance from all things that may tempt us or hold us back. yes, it is an individual need to ask for help from temptation, but think of the picture God paints for the body of Christ to be free from temptations such as acquisition (big buildings, etc.) to focus on giving to missions or poverty.

the human forgiveness factor was broken down into 4 areas as well (how we forgive):
-eyedropper: we’re hurting and need temporary relief, so we go to God and ask for help… we lean back and expect it to burn a little, but then we go about our way
-teaspoon: we’re sick and need medicine to help our ailment, and only need it temporarily
-cup: drink as much as you want, but it could be sour if it sits too long and will be empty upon our fill
-cup with 2 straws: again, with the same intent of the cup, but with the thought that we only drink as much as the other [we only forgive as deeply as the other party]

instead, God’s forgiveness is poured from a bottomless bucket. it never goes dry or is based upon actions or reactions from another… completely disaffected by outside sources.

man, what an incredible portrait of what grace and prayer truly is… now imagine that portrait if we all took part. it would be breath-taking…

Jul 29 0 comments
Higher Powers, Political Slants

disillusion

Here’s a really deep and provoking thought, from a point of view not usually explored:
The Best President We Never Had.

Tonight, as I sat watching “Dead Man Walking,” I couldn’t help but only be reminded of how our country has completely depleted its social concern. It’s explored in the article above, in the media and in our respective societies. In Alabama, it’s overwhelming at times…

Color me socialist in thought, but the situation needs major attention. The executive office/capitalism has mutated into our own extremist policies of domination via military power, economy and intimidation. At what point will it end? With a new president in 2008? A new party system? Or will the end even be a choice… will it be in the form of our own demise? Our own selfishness?

I’ve become completely disillusioned with the path of our society. I know that I am walking a possibly completely separate path, with faith-based social justice intentions and a tendency to always lean a little left in order to benefit humanity, but seriously… How can anyone NOT see the wrong in all of it? As long as governments (namely our own) keep suggesting that their way is the only way, no progress can be made, especially if that government isn’t willing to consider the people involved instead of the profit.

Jun 27 0 comments
Higher Powers, Political Slants

intertwinings

I was searching the web and checking email, and I came across a letter from the DNC. In it was a link that I really liked… Howard Dean on the Daily Show on Sunday night

He said something truly profound… “The philosophy of the Democratic Party… really is to love thy neighbor as thyself, and you don’t get to choose your neighbor.” The goal for the democrats in the next year is to call the GOP’s “B.S.”, for example, renewing the Voting Rights Act instead of just visiting black churches and rallying for support of the GOP party just because you’re Christian.

I’ve been reading “God’s Politics: How the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It” by Jim Wallis. Probably the most profound thing that he stated in the entire book so far was at the very beginning of the book, in regards to the “God is not a Republican [or a Democrat]” campaign they ran in the 2004 election. Wallis claimed that the candidate’s faith was a huge piece of the vote in the election, saying that it “directly challenged the single-issue voting that comes from shrinking all our religious and moral values down to one of two issues, and said that all candidates should be examined by measuring their policies against the complete range of Christian ethics and values. On that wider and deeper list… were poverty, the environment, war, truth-telling, human rights, our response to terrorism and a ‘consistent ethic of human life’ that included abortion, but also capital punishment, euthanasia, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, and genocide around the world.” He went later on to say that he had “never seen such an outrageous behavior by a political party in trying to manipulate religion for its own agenda while so disrespecting the faith of millions of other believers who disagree with the Republican political agenda.”

The “God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.” campaign stated the following beliefs:
• We are not single-issue voters
• We believe that poverty – caring for the poor and vulnerable – is a religious issue
• We believe that the environment – caring for God’s earth – is a religious issue
• We believe that war – and our call to be peacemakers – is a religious issue
• We believe that truth-telling is a religious issue
• We believe that human rights – respecting the image of God in every person – is a religious issue
• We believe that our response to terrorism is a religious issue
• We believe that a consistent ethic of human life is a religious issue

I found it very interesting that the book didn’t tell you which side these statements chose. In fact, when each issue is observed with much depth, you’d find that either candidate would have suited each belief, or lack thereof. The beginning of the list said that “Christians and other people of faith can choose to vote for President Bush or Senator Kerry – for reasons deeply rooted in their faith. If only I knew about this sooner… even my own family criticized me for voting the way I did. I voted for certain reasons, and against certain reasons.

An article in RELEVANT magazine was talking about how people view Jesus… lately there has been a revival of “Republican Jesus.” Well, since Roe v Wade anyways. In the article, it said that “republicans took note and began treating religious people and their ideas with a lot more respect than the Democrats seemed to. Soon, evangelicals and Republicans were indistinguishable. The GOP evolved into a party of traditional values. The Republican platform became the biblical one. Which would be a good fit for Jesus, if He spent large chunks of the Gospels worrying about abortion and gay marriage. Or, for that matter, exhorting James and John on the need to support American foreign policy.”

Compelling stuff… there is proof that you can be a Christian and vote the Democrat ticket in the South. You’ll face ridicule, for sure. But the next time I get asked how I could possibly vote the way I did, I’ll be sure to bring up the fact that issues like poverty, HIV/AIDS, genocide, etc. are issues in my book as well… not just whether 2 or 3 televangelists tell me it is God’s will to vote for someone.

There is always an issue of separation of church and state here in Alabama. People believe that we were founded as “one nation under God” and we were created because “in God we trust.” I keep wanting to suggest to them that each of those phrases were added later… or even the simple notion that many of the founding fathers weren’t Christian, but deists. I’m sure that would rock their world… or they’d claim heresy and want to know where I grew up because it was obviously in the liberal socialist regime. But, not quite… I just know the history behind it. Like the fact that the colonies were formed because they were disgusted with the entanglement of church and state, after the English Protestant Reformation/creation of the Church of England/insanity of Henry VIII/puritans went nuts on the high church goers.

George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” If only we’d learn from history, we might not be in the mess we’re in…

Can we load all of our Puritans (see: Roy Moore) up and ship them off?

Jun 26 0 comments
Higher Powers, Political Slants

beginnings…

In my attempts to see the world in a better perspective, I try this… It’s probably going to be a mess, but, it’s my mess, right?

So, I live in Alabama… yeah, it’s nuts, but work with me. In growing up as a stout southern Baptist, now turned Methodist, one might wonder what shift has occurred. If you guessed extreme right to extreme left, you might be on the right track.

It wasn’t until the election of 2000 that I really became involved in the political world. So, now I’m 4.5 years, going on 5 into the interest. In 2000, I won’t lie… I did vote for Bush. Why? Well, at that point, I believed what my church told me, and that was that… end of story. Pathetic, huh?

After 9/11, and the (what seems to be never-ending) war in Iraq, I began to re-think a lot of my strategies. So, maybe the better word is THINK about the strategy of politics. I realized I had my own viewpoint, and that it might be important. Upon seeing that the war had NOTHING to do with its original intentions, I really started to wonder. I started researching both parties… before I knew it, campaign season had begun again… and I went full-fledged into it.

I watched both conventions, checked out websites and really researched each candidate. What began as a gut feeling to vote the Democrat ticket began to really swell up and become more than just a vote. With each day that went by, I found myself agreeing more and more with the blue platform.

This is good… especially since I’m Methodist. Ha!

Anyways, being a democrat in an overwhelmingly populous red state can be pretty frustrating… and this is the attempt to relieve said frustration. Here’s hoping it might work.