Learning.

Well, well, well. It's been close to 3 months since I updated this thing. The problem with not posting for so long is that, in the interim, so many things happen that it's hard to even know what to say when I do finally write. So.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about deeper things. God's been working. When He works (or I allow Him to), that tends to be the case. A conversation with some friends last week got me thinking about many of the dividing issues among Christians; predestination, baptism (is it necessary in order to "be saved"? No.), speaking in tongues, worship, and some other topics all came up. As I've been musing on them throughout the week, and talking about them with my brother/boss/pastor/friend while we work, the natural outcome of thinking about them so much has been to bring them up in conversations; with my sister Sarah, with my parents, and last night, with my friends after a long day of playing volleyball.
Friday night I stayed up later than I wanted to because I kept getting caught up in watching just one more Piper, Driscoll, or Keller youtube clip; I brought up Mark Driscoll saying that the hit movie Avatar is "satanic and demonic," and how it had made me question how I watch movies. Am I willing to just accept a movie as an enjoyable thing to see or story to be engaged in? Subsequently, I gave an example of a movie that I have felt rewards revenge as a means to an end: The Count of Monte Cristo.
At that point, my friend brought up a great point. One of my favorite movies having to do with romance, love, and chick-flick-ishness is 500 Days of Summer (starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel). Anyway, my friend, knowing this, asked me how I could feel like the Count of Monte Cristo is based on a false premise and dislike it when one of my favorite movies is based on perhaps an even worse worldview. Oops becomes--> Dagger--> becomes --> Touche.

The point of all this? I need to be aware of the conclusions I come to, and then apply them to my life. I need to be careful to analyze not only the movies that I am less likely to love, but also the ones that I can easily identify with. I need to look at the log in my own eye before seeking to take out the speck in my brother's. God has been teaching me so much. I have so much more to learn.
Lots to think about. I hope to share more of the thoughts that have been pinging about inside of my brain, soon.

Late night thoughts from the slouch on the couch...

I have been realizing lately a lot of things about myself. Some things are little, others insignificant, others painful, all the product of having tons of time to think about myself. Two days before Christmas now, and I think I have just enough brain power left in me tonight to post some fragments that have been floating around in my brain.

Fragments like this:

*I love to use "....."s They are fun. And a good way to drift off into nothingness. Now, when I am talking to you in person, text, email, twitter, and you notice a pause, there is an unwritten ellipsis there. Whoops, you know my secret now. Oh well...
*I have a natural tendency to be gloomy, depressed, depressing, discouraging, etc. And I am in a dangerous place, because something in me likes to be in that state. Maybe it's because of the attention I get from acting that way, maybe it's because gloominess has a lot of music that goes great with it, but I have been "down" a lot this year. It's definitely because I am a sinful person.
*The times when I am not down are the times when I get my eyes off of myself and on God, and through that on others. The times when I am not focused on myself are the times when I am happiest. And I am happiest when I am making others happy. Even in my "Scrooge" or Eeyore mindsets, making people like my nephews laugh makes me happy.
*I love music. This is not a new revelation. I especially love great music: music that blends artistic instrumentation with well-written words that I can identify with. I will give an example of music like this at the end of this post.
*I get annoyed with people too easily. Way too easily. I think sometimes that I have my emotions and feelings under control and don't realize how wrong I am. When somebody talking too loud gets on my nerves, something is wrong.
*I have an amazing family, no matter how many things are going wrong. I will never fully realize how blessed I am, just like I can never really understand what God has done and is doing for me.
*I am not a very thankful person. It's easy for me to see ungratefulness in others, but I am just as guilty myself.
*I am a sucker for interesting words. Like introspection. Reverberate. Etcetera. Magnetic. That's what words are to me...and perhaps this is why
*I could spend my life in bookstores around the world. I am haunted by the allure of books, music, movies...and this is why I am a shameless Half Price Books addict. I think I have been in a Half Price Books store at least three, maybe 6 times in the last week. And spent a lot of money there, too. I am not just a browser. I am a consumer.
*I care what people think about me. A lot. I will hopefully address this more in another post, but this is the reason that I am deeply saddened when people don't like music I love, when people make fun of me, when I don't fit in or am no longer part of a group or a friendship I have known my whole life.
*I need God. This is what I need the most and forget the most.
*I hate exercise without purpose, or exercise simply for the purpose of exercising. I need a game or sport to occupy my attention and brain.
*I am not going to show you the contents of my thoughts any more tonight.


Here's a song like I was talking about. It's from a beautiful movie called Once (rated R for lots of language) which has an amazing story and incredible music. Highly recommended. However, I am claiming ownership of having found this band in my family: The Swell Season. They are my most listened music currently. There is not a lot of hope in their music, but their most well-known song is probably one that a lot of whoever is reading this blog can identify with: Falling Slowly. Enjoy. And merry Christmas. Maybe I will write a post about Jesus' sacrifice another time.











I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You'll make it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

Switching things up...

I thought I'd vary the patterns around here and post some pretty sweet quotes from a wide spectrum of people and ideas. And then you can post favorite quotes in the comment section, and it will be fun. Perhaps I'll do some elaborating on some of these quotes, too, but I think I'll just see what keys my fingers hit and go from there.

We'll start off with quotes from a series of movies...try and name them:

"No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, the ones I love will always be the ones who pay…"

"If promises were crackers, my daughter would be fat."

"Whatever comes our way... whatever battle is raging inside us, we always have a choice. My friend ___ taught me that. He chose to be the best of himself. It’s the choices that make us what we are... and we can always choose to do what's right."

What movie series is that from? I inserted quotes from all of the movies in the series. :)

Here are a good few from Ben Franklin:

“If you would not be forgotton as soon as you are dead and rotten, Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

“You may delay, but time will not.”

“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

“Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices”

“What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people, is that they don't want to discourage it completely.”

“Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.”

And then one from J.R.R. Tolkien:

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

A quote post would not be complete without C.S. Lewis:

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

Even Robert Louis Stevenson has good things to say:

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”

I could go on for a long time with quotes, because God has granted men to think and say some beautiful things. But it's late, and I still have things to do. I think it would be fun if we had a comment sextion on this one and talked about our favorite quotes, so feel free to leave favorite quotes in comments, comment on quotes I put out, and name the movies the first quotes are from. But let's end with this quote:

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control. -Ogden Nash