Passion, Intellectualism, Detraction

I find it funny how the human mind works... things I mention often such as the need to comprehend things.  (Comprehension is a form of control and well... blah blah blah we don't need to go on to all that but I could if I wanted to.)  The human mind does feel a need to understand the non-understandable though.  I don't think things present themselves as non-understandable and people out of sheer audacity and pride try to do it anyway out of a need to prove something (although that is the case sometimes), but certain things, and most notably the ideas of God, present themselves as uniquely "self-evident" and our humanity cries out and rocks our awareness with a need to capture, to assimilate the framework, to eat the whole thing.  To understand or learn it.

Keep in mind.... our sinful minds (interestingly enough) do not cry out for a need to KNOW something that is non-understandable, mystifying or amazing.  Knowing something is different from understanding it.  I know my father.  His name is Nelson Mir, born in Queens, NY ca. 1955 and raised in Cuba until the age of 5.  I could recite the rest of his life story, but the more time I spend with the guy, the more I realize in my deepest parts of understanding that I do not understand him.  I understand a little bit.  I certainly know my father.  But I don't understand the ENTIRE THING, and this is the singular frustration of man's relationship with God, we know Him but we don't understand HIS FULLNESS.  My question is initially this: If we cannot fully understand another man, (or as in my illustration, the closest of people to us) how can we attempt to understand God, who as the Bible says authored knowledge.  That, my friends, is absurdity.  And our frustrations become poignantly inflamed when God  acts outside of our framework (this is usually a result of asking God to do such a thing in prayer.)  Suffice to say this, if I were to say that I could perfectly understand any human around me, it would be absolutely insulting, so we cannot and must not engage those attempts with God.

Now that I've set the stage, this is what I really want to talk about. Our initial interaction with God comes in full, raw experience that satisfies the mind (the conceptual) and our hearts (the emotional).  We get it; we know what we need to know and we truly know it... an abundance of information and profundity surrounds us at every turn.  Our minds are alive with the life of God empowering them to understand, Him and Himself in all things.  Our fear of the Lord begins our path to understanding!  (Prov. 9:10)

Our emotion.. whoa.. our emotion has never been so scintillated.  Our minds and hearts course with pleasure, love, joy, happiness, longing and mostly all these things come through at the same time!  It is an explosion.  Meeting the true and living God through faith in Christ is awesomely similar to a first kiss with someone you love... where the consummation of longing, loving, intrigue, passion, and sharing are exercised in symbolic action that is perfectly representative of your mutual feeling. 

Now with all that mush said and done, I hope I've left no room for intellectualism. 

 Intellectualism and emotionalism are two highly active functions of the mind, but I feel it is important to know that they are not mutually exclusive.  Perhaps this is the mistake we have made in our compartmentalizing western culture.  Is there a marriage of the two?  Do the two compliment each other or are they pitted against each other? I will say that the former example listed previously is a result of the Spirit and the latter is the flesh.

I have found that there is a place for emotionalism in my life and it is not to be discredited.  As a matter of fact, the book I'm reading right now, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero argues that emotions are extraordinarily important and should not be discredited, lest we suffocate our humanity or our soul.  Emotions are important, thank God we have them as they are a gift and God help us when they take us to dark places.  I can't explore the deep topic of emotions now, but there is a world of truth and lies that we experience through our emotions.  

The intellect is a tool, given to us by God to be more than just reactional, visceral beings. (Psalm 32:9)  Emotions join together with and inform the intellect so that we can process and experience life.  Now here's the problem; The various traditions of Christian faith found throughout most of the world have sided with either emotionalism that ridicules people who only operate only on a rigid method of understanding while mistakenly throwing out their soul as well, or rigid intellectualism who view the more emotional trends of faith as having discarded the very truth of God itself, looking only to experience to validate their views.  But where does real faith and following Jesus fall? These two depictions of following Jesus do not do justice to what God intended our walk with His Son actually meant do they?  Of course not.

Following Jesus is what it is without being confined to one of these descriptions or the other.  Our mind's eventual conformity to the mind of Christ is a cooperation, and total, uncheated engagement with the fullness of our emotions and the pleasures and benefits of rational thought.  We are allowed to go crazy in passion for God, even to the point of making fools out of ourselves and being subject to public ridicule.  Jesus is ok with that =).  We are allowed to discuss the greatest and highest being in the loftiest terms, without sacrificing our integrity or pretending to be anyone but ourselves, and Jesus is ok with that. We can sing, dance, pray in tongues, fall, cry and scream in joy, pleasure, repentance and suffering, and we can elaborate, meditate, postulate, extrapolate and explore the riches of His wonder, while knowing that He is completely beyond comprehension! And by the way, being beyond comprehension is not a bad thing, it is a great thing for this reason; When I say God is unable to be fully comprehended the operative word is fully!!  This means that we have a full life, of exploring and finding out and knowing more about GOD!!! And never being bored, or watching a rerun in the Spirit, but that every day, up until and including the day we die, we will dive deeper and deeper into the heart of God, and Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.  It will never end.

And when we meet Him face to face, a new pleasure arises.  A great unveiling of new mysteries.

Religiosity... kind of like a double rainbow - What does it mean?

Well, despite my love for the double rainbow song (and original video), there is a serious topic intended in this post.  Let's see if I can carry it out.

Religion is quickly becoming, to most people I converse with, a buzz word with no positive connotation associated with it.  More and more, the mention of the word "religion" either bites back at the person trying to use it in a positive light, which leaves them feeling downcast by the traces of shame it leaves.  It is either the quickest renounced association by Christians who are attempting a novel approach (quickly following that Christianity is not a "religion its a relationship"), and finally those who suffer from angst toward God.  There is one last remnant which still touts the term with a personal pride that thinks it remains untouched by any pain the word can bring, nevertheless, they are the most afflicted by the term of all.

But my goal here is to clear the air.  Religion, like many words in the English language has an original intended meaning, yet through cultural context, over/under/or misuse or just good old fashioned ignorance, loses that real meaning and is redefined with an inferior and much less wholesome definition.

The History of the Word
Get out your earl grey tea.. its time to get classy! Just kidding, here's what I dug up from some popular word etymology sources regarding the word religion. (This tends to get boring so I'll keep it brief)
Popularly, religion means a worship of a higher being.  This is not how the word started, however.  The origins that hold the most credibility indicate that this word means "to bind together" or put another way "to bind fast".  I find it important that the origins of this term do not necessitate worship of God or a theological structure in anyway, although general connotations in mostly every case make this connection.

Popular Use, and Where We've Wandered Away
"It's not a religion, its a relationship"

I apologize to every Christian in advance who has a t-shirt or bumper sticker that says this, this statement is about to be grotesquely mangled, and personally, I hope its never used again.  Why? Because I hate Christian bumper stickers? Wrong. I hate all bumper stickers, I also hate this phrase, but neither of those are the reasons why either. It's because this statement is grossly untrue.  You see, if you go to church (or some sort of meeting place), personally assign a set of beliefs (especially if they dictate some kind of moral code) meet with people who believe the same and do this routinely, well let me be the first person to tell you; you are following a religion.
It's true that Christianity, especially for me, goes above and beyond what I believe other people experience as "religion".  It's also true that the word religion does not do justice to the totality of life that is permeated by my conviction of the existence from God and my service to Him.  However, all things considered, I do follow a religion.  If you follow Christ, so do you.


You know its true!  We've all faced the frustration of the many existing and sometimes incompatible denominations that fit under the umbrella of Christianity.  But each of those denominations, along with each of its followers, assigns itself to a set of core beliefs that unites, or "binds together" its followers across the entire churchscape of denominations.  This is what is known as orthodoxy, which are the main tenets of Christianity that cannot be compromised if you still want to retain the name the title of Christian.
Some example of these core beliefs are as follows:
The atoning death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
The Virgin Birth.
The doctrines of the Trinity.
The sole belief in one God.
The final judgment of all people.
The return of Christ.

Part of the move away from the use of the word religion, I suspect, is the negative connotation that religion is hard, oppressive, boring, outmoded or irrelevant.  In an attempt to restore the word religion, I'd like to think that Christianity, if practiced rightly, is an exciting, joyful, fulfilling and vibrant experience.  As far as whether its irrelevant or not I would ask you to consider this; since when are the topics of your eternal destiny, your purpose on earth, the meaning of life, and the existence of an afterlife EVER irrelevant? I would conversely argue that they are always relevant and realistically, very pressing matters.  You're passionate and energetic pursuit of their answers may cause you ridicule from some of your peers, but to find the truth has potential to yield an eternal reward.

Religion and religiosity simply address the parts of your life that discuss personal practice (inward belief and outward exercise) of your beliefs toward God.  We all have them.  It could be argued that atheists and agnostics have religious convictions.  It's certain that they have beliefs toward his non-existence, which in effect constitutes some kind of belief system, and by its very nature directly affects morality and purpose.

There's more to this story but I'll stop here, I'm pretty tired of writing, but I'd like to conclude my thoughts on religion by discussing characteristics of religion, the influence of religion, and respond to the argument made popular by Christopher Hitchens which is "Whether Christianity is a plague to the world and religion a detrimental establishment rather than a helpful and benevolent one."

See ya soon, thanks for reading!

Psalms of Thanksgiving

This is an excerpt from a paper I'm writing right now on the different genre's of the Psalms.  Two genres are mentioned here, the Lament and the Thanksgiving Psalms. Just found myself way encouraged while reflecting on this, Psalm 18 is the operative Psalm here which I'll post at the end for good measure. Love ya =)

Thanksgiving Psalms

            Psalm 18 is an excellent example of the Thanksgiving genre.  Interestingly enough, it begins by saying “I love you, Oh Lord, my strength.”  The Psalm continues in grateful ascents, expressing demonstrations of God’s faithfulness over and over in concrete ideas.  A notable characteristic of the Thanksgiving genre is their bond to a previous lament of some kind, and the conclusion of that lament for which the Psalmist gives thanks.  Verse 6 of this Psalm says “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple.” This serves the spiritual purpose of creating assurance in God’s impending salvation and his forthcoming answer to prayer.  It also assures us that God is concerned with our outstanding conflicts and desires to bring resolution to them.  Lament Psalms are written out of impatience within God’s timetable.

Excellent article explaining "The Flaw of the Excluded Middle"

Check this out for more info on the concept I brought up on prayer night about 3 weeks ago regarding the philosophical notion known as the flaw of the excluded middle. Very good article articulating the origins and details of this concept.. worth a brief read. Hope you enjoy!

Click Here to Check Out The Article

Sunday -- Labor Day Weekend 2010

Church lets out and I start my car up and get ready to drive my brother on and go into a soul coma of xbox 360 gaming and movies, sprinkled with a few episodes of Scrubs. Not the divine intention of rest. Before I leave, however, I had to run up to my living room to get something. I notice this kid standing on my porch. The nerve..
This kid.. standing on my porch! Why is he standing on my porch? I go up the porch to be greeted by a host of kids on the other side of the railing. With a mix of DJ Meisch thrown in there. All of them staring at a black raven. There are no brown ravens.
Well, they're all crowding around this raven and wondering, why is this majestic beast sitting here calmly, not moving, while people are VERY excited, talking and bustling around it. Why doesn't it freak out and fly away. It just sat there. Calmly. Had its eye on everyone!! Which was funny, but very calm. Reserved even.
So I go in, come out. with my nerf gun. Toy with the idea of shooting the raven. The temptation is so strong. The result would be amazing. It would be the closest I would ever come to hunting for sure.
I shoot the kid instead.
He says ow! I shoot another kid.
The raven watches.
True story.

This one's for you... cat fans

When I should be working and buying books for school... this happens instead

Jesus and Joy

At the times of greatest inner conflict, deep in the moments of bitter frustration, when heartache and other companions like shame, guilt and pessimism are ruling the day, finding a thought that somehow resembles joy can feel like utter impossibility.  I know the feeling.  I know how it feels to have an emotional state that is consistent with joy feel like it's oceans away.  Why?

I have a sincere motivation to write some things in the near future about the topic of sin head on.  This is mainly inspired by a first complete watching of the movie Schindler's List and my personal and intellectual response to the brutality portrayed in that film.  Of course, the brutality portrayed is not far from the truth or in some circumstances maybe not close enough to the truth.  Regardless, it brings about in everyone's mind, (I mean a serious look at the holocaust) the fact that we must face the reality of sin.  In looking closely at man's inhumanity to man and a total disregard and dispassionate concern for life the reality of sin stares you back dead in the face.  Hungry for you.  In some ways, revealing you're own heart.

Getting back to joy...
I feel like Jesus took great pains to let us know in the Bible that one of the things that would result from following Him would be joy. (John 15:11, John 10:10)  First, think about the things that rob your joy.  Most of them combat what God would have for you.  Maybe 90% of the things that interfere with joy, with happiness everlasting, are because of sin - the fallen imperfect state of something.  That's one way to look at it.  The other way is to look at Jesus and very simply... receive joy.  Sound to simple to be relevant?  I'd like to challenge that notion, but before I do.  I'd just like to think of Jesus right now and know that I know Him.  Ahhh... Joy.  I'm not kidding real joy right now, in this room.  Where sin and affliction and self-love over God-love was prevailing; the joy of Jesus has just overrun.

I dig this one part in Braveheart a whole lot. It's at the end when Hamish (the big guy) is treating his father who is dying from a strenuous battle lost at Stirling. His Dad looks at him and through the tough facade that he has throughout the whole movie, he breaks down and says "I'm dying."  As Hamish begins to refuse this reality his father looks at him dead in the eye and gives it to him straight saying: "I've lived long enough to live proud... free. I'm a happy man."

Here's the point of all of this.  When we see our sins and what has been visited upon them by our faith in Christ, and we look at the reality of Jesus in us and conquering our sins, our fears, our everything that assaults our opportunity of joy, then we connect with the joy that Jesus provides.  If inside we give life to our pain, if we routinely sow to the flesh and if we think about what we're really worth we'll come away battered and bruised.  If we see Jesus conquering everything and if we allow ourselves to be conquered by Him, our joy becomes more and more full.  If you're life were ending now, would you look the present company in the eye and say with full sincerity, "I'm a happy man."?