Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

I was thinking that there may be a connection between the sense of God that everyone has and the struggle for freedom. This is an extrapolation of an idea that C.S. Lewis had about the issue we all seem to have with time (i.e. how time just seems to fly by). He surmised that this struggle against time is due to the fact that God has placed eternity into the hearts of all people (Ecclesiates 3:11). I would think that I would be very comfortable with time as I have been born into it and have been subjected to it since the beginning of my life. But, there is this uneasiness with time as I often act and speak in a way that communictes that it is more than a little foreign to me. This is, most likely, because I, as a man, have been fit for eternity and not for the life I know today: one subjected to time. Then there is the struggle for freedom. Again, I would think that I would be more than a little comfortable with opression and domination as I was born a sinner and, as such, am in bonda...

Brian:  "Oh I quite like the way you just said that I think I will use it." Me:  "No problem - I won't even require attribution." Brian:  "You are rather good with words. Did you go to some rhetorical or political school when you were younger?" Me:  "No. I just talk a lot so, eventually, something intelligent is bound to come out." Brian: [Laughter] [Because he knows I talk a lot] Me:  "It is like having a bunch of monkeys banging on typewriters for a long enough period of time...you'll eventually get War and Peace." Brian: [Laughter] [Because he knows of my fondness for tire swings in cages]

"I'm gonna stay...nineteen forever" - Joe Jackson, Nineteen Forever "Well, that was your mother  And that was your father  Before you was born dude  When life was great..." - Paul Simon, That was Your Mother Are these words nothing much, or a trip into nowhere? A longing for something I used to own, never owned, or an affront to God's provision in my life? Something for my flesh to snack on or harmless reminiscing? Stepping out, or stepping down? Crazy. It seems like it has been altogether crazy lately and the days ahead are only going to make me even more dizzy. If I am not careful I am going to miss it all in an attempt to make it to that Saturday morning when I get to sleep in a bit. Even at my best I can't even begin to construct a past life that is more glorious than the present one I have - not even through nostalgia or a thousand wishes. Knowing that I am exactly where He has always intended me to be and that I am on the edge of where He wants ...

I'm sorry for the way I've been, God please wash away my sin Look down upon my circumstance and Please give me a second chance. I am just a man - I am just a man, Undercover Recently I heard a report on NPR about some journalists and an ex-Army Ranger that challenged members of Hezbollah to paintball. It was absolutely fascinating to hear of the account and the events that transpired both pre- and post-paintball. Now I do believe that Hezbollah's place in history is well-cemented and is a terrible, sordid one, but their specific war with the nation of Israel and Jews and Christians in general is not the point of this post at all. I found the ex-Army Ranger's observations and the powers-that-be in Hezbollah's reaction to the whole event to be much more applicable to me and my life. The Army Ranger's summary of their opponents in the paintball match is best expressed in a quote from the NPR article : "One thing he now believes, [Andrew] Exum said, is tha...

About a month and a half ago (I think...it is a bit of a blur) we noticed that the upstairs toilet had a crack in it and was leaking. We caught a nice new toilet on sale at Lowes and I installed it. Everything looked good until I went into the basement to check out the drain pipe that runs from the upstairs bathroom to the sewer. I noticed that when someone flushed the toilet there would be a dripping from that pipe onto who knows what and into who knows where. I thought that I borked the toilet installation so I did it again. Same result. And again. Same thing. Lather, rinse, repeat about seven times over the course of the last 6 weeks. You'd think we lived in a mansion with the number of toilets I installed. Alas, it was like running on a treadmill: lots of activity only to arrive at the same destination. I really like the toilet though so on Saturday I determined that this was the last time I would install the thing before calling a plumber. Well I noticed the dripping again so ...

Hope. That is something I could have used at a particular time in my life when my faith in God was almost shipwrecked. It was an issue that so many teenagers like me were facing and it seems rather insignificant now. Yet, when I was going through it, it seemed all but insurmountable. I had been planning a trip to Niagara Falls during the Summer between my Junior and Senior year in high school and I had a ton of friends lined up to go. It was going to be big and I was pinning a lot of who I was on the success of the trip; a success that which was largely defined by how many people that were accompanying me. Then, one by one, my friends dropped out for various reasons. Most of them seemed like they had good excuses, but I saw every one as a personal affront to me. I was so self-absorbed that every time someone backed out I knew it was due to something I lacked or something I had that was not attractive to them. I wondered where God was and why He thought that this was the best path forwa...

I may be making too much of this, but I would think that God would have to be a trinity. If He weren't, He would have to point to something outside of Himself, or something in addition to Himself, for the model of a true relationship. He would almost have to have had created Adam to solve the dilemma that would bring. God's isolation surely could not reconcile the relational aspects of our lives and the declaration that we are made in His image and, therefore, unique in the universe. We could not have been created in His image and relate to other people. And then what of the fall-sullied relationship that we have with Him now? Would we (and He perhaps?) be forever doomed to measuring the quality of our relationships with other people through the lens of a mere two and a quarter chapters of Genesis plus the longings of a God that loved and then lost love? It would smack of some level of impotence I would think. We know that He moved and continues to be moved by the love that He ...

I usually don't do this, but I thought I would try to add to the collective knowledge on the world wide web concerning live trapping animals that have invaded a dwelling place. Recently we had a chipmunk that took up some sort of residence in our basement and hilarity ensued...er...attempts were made at trapping him, driving him 10 miles out of town, and releasing him into a new environment. The first trap I purchased was a lot like this one:  http://www.amazon.com/Havahart-1040-Two-Door-Muskrat-Opossum/dp/B000BQW65A/ref=pd_sbs_lg_3  and I bought it because it was the smallest one they had at the Home Depot. It said that it was all right to use for chipmunks, but the chippy that frequented our basement in the coming days never sprung the trap no matter how many different ways I tried to position the bait. It all seemed rather hopeless. I did some investigation and noticed that there were some cracks in a cement wall (not the foundation...long story) that the chipmunk was. most...

Growing up I hated the Good Friday service. It is not that I minded going to the service all that much, but I hated the part when we had to read the passion and assume the part of the crowd shouting for Jesus' execution (really murder). There was a part of me that knew I was the one to blame (I had enough sin in my life to know that if I was the only one here he would have to die in my place) and I hated the fact that I killed my friend. There is no doubt that the solemnity of the Good Friday service produced a longing in my heart for the unmitigated triumph of the Easter mass. The celebration filled me to the depths of my being and, after having finally been rescued from my sin in college, the Easter celebration grew even more meaningful filling not only my heart but my soul. So what of it now? Now that I have been saved these many years I never grow tired of the presentation of the Gospel: that I am a sinner that deserved to die and be separated from God forever in Hell that God ...

Let me first say that I am not even relatively concerned about the additives in my food. I know I need to be but I have not devoted any time looking into the additives that are in my food and the potential effect that they can have on my body. I was listening to a news story this morning that really caught my attention. It was about hamburgers that are served in a school system (I forget where) that have more than 20 ingredients to them. Now, I was not sure about how many ingredients a hamburger ought to have, but it seems to me that 20 is a little on the excessive side. At any rate there was a parent who was against the excessive additives in the hamburger and in many other foods served to students that said if he did not know what an ingredient was he did not want it served to his children. This sounds great at first blush. Believe me, I wash my hair with chemicals I know nothing about and I am sure I ingest some of them as well. But, the more I thought about it, the more this gentle...