The Trinity of Manliness

   Authority: He acts like he knows what he’s doing, because he actually does know what he’s doing. He’s too awesome to view himself as your big brother, so he views himself as your father. He is constantly going through what can only be described as the opposite of a midlife crisis. He gets respect from everyone, and has the ability to inspire confidence in everyone he talks to.

   Time: He is never late. He arranges his life so that he effortlessly spends time with people he wants to spend time with. If he doesn’t want to spend time with someone, they know why. When he says, “Call me anytime,” he actually means it. If circumstances stop him from spending quality time with someone, he informs them about it right away, and lets them know they can go to work with him or crash at his house if they want. When he is spending time with you, he asks fearless questions that get to the heart of conversations in record time. A one hour talk with him is the equivalent to a one-year relationship with anyone else.

   Hugs: If you go for a handshake, he will go for a hug. And he will not be ashamed about it.

Head Full of Doubt/ Road Full of Promise (The Avett Brothers)

   This song sums up my experience with politics in ten words, and then goes on to much more important topics.

 

 

The Founding Fathers were Pansies

   If you ever watch the news  with the members of the conservative community, there will come a time (many times, actually) when the people around you shake their heads and mutter, “That wasn’t what our founding fathers intended.” And by that, they mean, “The founding fathers meant us to live in a nation where prayer and the Bible are promoted in schools and there is no gay marriage and things are all-around better.”

   And there’s no real way to argue with this. I’m sure the founding fathers were much more conservative than most people today. I’m sure many of them would not have liked the notion of gay marriage or prayer being banned from schools. However, the founding fathers knew that they were forming a new country when they were writing the Contisution, and they knew that unless they specifically stated something in the Constitution, the changing tide of people’s opinions would lead them to enact policies that they did not intend.

   I am of the firm belief that the founding fathers wrote into the constitution and the Bill of Rightsall the things they deemed especially important.

   You know what they deemed especially important?

   Separation of church and State

   You know what didn’t make the cut?

   ALL of the morally convervative issues based on the values of the church

   Who’s fault is that?

   I would say it’s the founding fathers’ fault. They were too cowardly to uphold their own morality in the Constitution. They spent so much time compromising and planning the logistics a country that worked well that they skimmed over the moral aspect of what drives a society. If I was planning a country, I would get rid of the whole “separation of chuch and state” nonsense. Everyone has an opinion about what is right and wrong, and those opinions will always carry over into political offices, no matter what politicians say. And if you can’t get a nation to accept Biblical morality (or some other clearly defined moral code of conduct), there will never be an end to the fight between liberals and conservatives. Both parties have to be standing to the same moral ground to come up with a good solution.

   If I fathered a country, the end of its Constitution would look like this:

* When interpreting the above document, use the Bible.

   Now that I think of it, I should probably end all my written statements like that.

Wake Up (Arcade Fire)

   I probably like this Arcade Fire song more than all the other ones. And it’s probably because, in addition to fitting in to this week’s theme, I feel like I understand 50% of what they are talking about. As opposed to the 10% I normally understand.

Life Lessons from TV, the Bible, and Experience

1) Be good. Get a toy.

2) Do work. Get a gold star.

3) Eat your vegetables. Get dessert.

4) Stay quiet while Mom is working. Go to the movies later.

5) Get last place. Get a participation trophy.

6) Follow your heart. Your dreams will come true.

7) Follow your heart. You will go to hell.

8) Confide in your parents. Go to a counselor.

9) Have sex with a girl. Marry her. 

10) Be successful. Your father will love you.

Give a Little Love (Noah and the Whale)

   The chorus and the title are so simple, but so hopeful. Plus this song has one of the best non-official videos.

 

Dry Bones (Gungor)

   Sometimes in the winter, it is midnight and even though I’m tired and I have a lot of work to do, all the emotional things I struggle with keep me from thinking straight. Then, I’ll go out into the dark and cold and run as fast as I can through the woods. And whenever I’m running during these times, this is always the song that blasts its way through my head.

 

Hopeless Wanderer (Mumford and Sons)

   Many stories has a moment where the main character has no real clue exactly where he will go or what he will do next, but he has trust that everything will work out. I feel like that a lot in real life. And this song is always a reminder that there’s always God or someone who knows the way, even when I have no clue what I’m doing.

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The Problem with the Church

   You know what the real problem with the church is?

   Blog post and senteces that begin the way this blog post did. Undoubtedly, my church has many problems. Your church probably has problems too. But when someone comes up next to you, and says, “You know what the problem with the church is,” negativity explodes from their condescending words like shards of shrapnel that cut right into your heart. So many adults have said that phrase around me, that I always grew up with it lodged in the back of my mind.

   You know what the problem with the church is?

   That question sticks with people, especially kids, and even though the question is quickly answered by the one who posed it, the listener will answer it in many other ways throughout his life. At least I know I have. And the worst part is, the answer to the question is rarely followed up by a hopeful solution. But now I realize that “the problem with the church” in Christianity equivalent to “the problem with society” in the rest of the world. However, a lot of times, your mind will confuse “the church” with “my faith,” and things only go downhill from there.

    I’ve probably posed this question to people myself, but it needs to stop now. Instead of spreading negativity with the problems of the church, we should start spreading hope with potential new ways we could follow the Bible better- as a church. It’s time to replace the negative problems with positive solutions.

   What problems . . . I mean solutions for the church have you thought of recently?