It's Just One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where it is like a dream? Not a dream in a sense that there are abnormal or supernatural things happening, but in a sense that you are outside of your own self and viewing the day go by, but it's as if you're not in control. Today was one of those days for me. The entire day I kept doing things, saying things, and feeling things that I don't think I usually would and I'm not sure why.

On a lighter note, Christmas is only six days away. Here's a little clip from "A Christmas Story" to get everyone in the "Christmas" spirit.

Can't Buy Me Love

Or can you? I can't get enough of this book, Blue Like Jazz. I was reading a chapter today about loving others. In the excerpt I'm giving you, Don (the writer of the book) was at a lecture at an alumni event (even though he wasn't alumni himself). The professor was discussing the power of metaphors.

"Mr. Spencer then asked us about another area in which he felt metaphors cause trouble. He asked us to consider relationships. What metaphors do we use when we think of relationships? We value people, I shouted out. Yes, he said, and wrote it on his little white board. We invest in people, another person added. And soon enough we had listed an entire white board of economic metaphor. Relationships could be bankrupt, we said. People are priceless, we said. All economic metaphor. I was taken aback.
And that's when it hit me like so much epiphany getting dislodged from my arteries. The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money."

This hit me like a ton of bricks. I love people as if it is something I have to distribute and to those who I believe "deserve" it. God showed me today that I shouldn't do that. So look out for some lovin' - World.

Rational Reality?

I read this passage from Blue Like Jazz, dealing with worship, last night and it spoke to me in an enormous way. It reads:

"It comforts me to think that if we are created beings, the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it. It would have to be greater than the facts of our reality, and so it would seem to us, looking out from within our reality, that it would contradict reason. But reason itself would suggest it would have to be greater than reality, or it would not be reasonable."

I am a very realistic person. Logic is a key to my life. If something doesn't make sense I attempt to make it. I like the fact that God doesn't function on a level the same as mine. If he did, he wouldn't be God. My logic and strains to put this crazy world into a working system is pointless compared to what God can comprehend and achieve. So often I try to put God in a box so that I can understand him, or as Don Miller puts it, "we attempt to chart God, because we want to be able to predict Him, to dissect Him, to carry Him around in our dog and pony show." I am cool with God as long as he fits my standards. God is awesome as long as he doesn't interfere with what I think is right. It would be preposterous to think that God knows what's best, and I am the stupid one. If for just one second I could take my selfish eyes off of what I want and focus completely on God, he would show me so much. Thank God for his saving Grace.