Monthly Archive for January, 2008
Remember how crazy Tom Cruise is? It just got worse.
This is a video made for scientologists for scientologists, so to be fair it’s gonna sound crazier to a non-scientologist. Just like showing “Witnessing To The Lost: Practical Steps for Bringing the Kingdom*” would sound crazy to a atheist or non-religious person.
Tom talks about SP’s. This is basically a term L. Ron Hubbard came up with to describe people with anti-social behavior. Though not the psychotic type of anti-social behavior. This is mostly used to stereotype any person(s) who has anything negative to say about the Church of Scientology.
*Not real, but is a great book title.
I go to most likely one of the “coolest” churches around. It’s in a nightclub with a shark tank. Worship is sorta like a U2 concert and then one of the many under-40 pastors comes up to speak. It’s always relevant and usually challenging. After he finishes there is another 20 min of music. Where you can sing-a-long or sit, meditate and pray. The majority of the attendees are 18-24 and the crowd looks like they could be the same people in line from the night before. If your a college age Christian looking to get married and you don’t go to my church, your in the wrong place.
My wife and I ride our beach cruisers to church and then meet friends at an outdoor health food cafe called “The Gypsy Den”. This is usually followed by a short shopping trip at “The Lab” coined the anti-mall (though it’s owned by the same people who own the mall). The Lab is the den of hipsters of all kinds. I think the most inexpensive store there is Urban Outfitters (which isn’t saying much). So why am I saying all this? To show how cool I am? No.
I recently visited NYC with my wife (still not bragging) and while walking the streets we ran into St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I’d been there before but I thought she should see it, so we went in. It was basically just another attraction to visit on our tour of the city. Until I stepped inside. I was doing the usual tourist stuff (touching things, taking pictures) and then I started to notice people sitting the pews, heads bowed, some in silence while others whispered prayers. I stopped taking pictures and just stood there for a second, trying to “get” whatever those people were getting from this place. There was something more to this building than beautiful architecture or painstakingly crafted stained glass. It wasn’t simply the mood lighting or vaulted ceilings. I made up a history in mind, how this cathedral was built out of devotion for a holy God. The sculptors worshiped that God with their attention to detail. A feeling suddenly came over me that I don’t actually feel that often. Reverence. My thought process went like this:
There is an amazing God who crafted this earth and the least we can do is create beauty in it to praise him. Not for our fame or fortune. Simply because he is God and deserves it.
It was a pretty powerful and enlightening feeling. Not that I don’t try to have some type of communion with God regularly, but its usually on a different level. My communications are structured. I have three different topics that all get covered in bed before I go to sleep: Give, Protect, Thank You. This “feeling” feeling didn’t fit anywhere in my categories.
A.J. Jacobs, the author of The Year of Living Biblically has this same sort of revelation while visiting Israel
I have my head bowed and my eyes closed. I’m trying to pray, but my mind is wandering. I can’t settle it down. it wanders over to an Esquire article I just wrote. It wasn’t half bad…And then I am hit with a realization. And hit is the right word…Here I am being prideful about creating an article in a mid-size American magazine. But God -if He exists- He created the world. He created flamings and supernovas and geysers and beetles and the stones for these steps I’m sitting on.
“Praise the Lord.” I say out loud.
This is one of the authors first real connections with worship. For the first couple hundred pages, he follows commandments and does his religious “duties” but there in Israel he comprehends reverence.
The truth is, that cathedral was built as a seat for the bishop. Thats what the word cathedral really means. It was a seat of power. This doesn’t ruin it for me because I got a taste of something there.
Yes, I love the relevance of my church and my “version” of Christian life, but I definitely could use some reverence.
So my brief stint of trying every blog software out there and also completely jacking up my theme is over. I learned an important lesson. It’s easily summed up in oh so simple words of one of our founding fathers:
Don’t go chasing waterfalls, just stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to
So now we have (hopefully) a readable design and good content. Now all we need is readers.
One a sidenote: I will continue to keep up my tumblr blog and use it from time to time. My tumblr blog imports all my posts from wordpress (minus the comments) so you wont miss anything here is you only check there. I am going to try and keep this guy updated and we’ll see if we can keep the discussion going.
Not sure you want to watch celebrity American Gladiators Fear Factor Dance-Off? Watch Daxflame.
If you care, watch the apple keynote live.
UPDATE: That site is having major issues so you can follow along with this live blog.
For every question you get right, the poor get rice. The way these websites work is that they sell advertising according to how many persons visit the site and use the money to feed the poor. So the more people you tell the more effective the site is. So get out there and spread it around. Everyone needs a 10:30 break anyways.
This makes me never want to eat those mints.
I love it when people don’t take themselves too seriously. This is one of the reasons I like comics (the people) because it’s usually part of their personality to make fun of themselves. Below is a Kanye West video staring Will Oldham and Zach Galifianakis. Its pretty funny. Though it does contain at least one instance of explicit language.
