Hobby Lobby...and some random thoughts.

I haven't spent much time in looking into the details of the court ruling that is being called the "Hobby Lobby" ruling, but a few thoughts came to mind, and I thought up this...

Let’s say I choose to have a garden.  It’s not a necessity that I have this garden, but I like it and I want to continue having it.  But one of the consequences of having the garden is getting rabbits.  Some people know that is a consequence and are OK with that…maybe they even want rabbits.  But some people don’t want to have rabbits as part of their life and they want to have methods available to them to get rid of the rabbits.  Some of these people think the government or even employers should pay for the ways to get rid of them.  You could trap the rabbits.  You could use deterrents.  Or you can choose to not have the garden at all.  You could even pay for a guy who will kill the rabbits to get rid of them.

So…should other people have to contribute to the methods of getting rid of the rabbits for you?  Is it OK to make an employer have to pay for the killing of the rabbits, even if they only are OK with the other methods?  The methods that block or deter the rabbits, they are fine with…but maybe they are animal activists and they don’t want to be forced to pay for the killing.

Just some thoughts…not meant to anger some or cause arguments.  Just looking through a different lens.

Marriage, Gay Marriage, and Divorce. (and C.S. Lewis)

I love C.S. Lewis.

I am amazed not only by his fictional writings, but his writings on Christianity and theology as well.  Lately, I have been jumping between his "Space Trilogy" and "Mere Christianity".  Both wonderful and challenging in their own ways.  I really think he hits so many things square on the head. 

Today I was reading Mere Christianity and I came upon a section that I wanted to focus on, that I believe sensible when it comes to how we should approach the idea of marriage.  Maybe I share this because it's the way I have felt about the issue, and reading it just justified my reasoning more.

Mere Christianity: (p. 102 in my version. Chapter called "Christian Marriage":

"Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question — how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mahommedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognise that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not."

I, for one, think this is fair.  The issue of gay marriage is a pretty big issue currently, and I think we could easily, as Christians, see it the same way Lewis states above.   I also think it would release many for the idea that Christianity is too judgmental. 


And really...I think too many forget this one thing:

Matthew 7

 ¹ “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Agree?

I Made Music...

Many years ago, I bought a fancy keyboard.  I never had any training of any kind, nor did we have a piano in our house growing up.

I bought this keyboard after a year of playing music with my good friend Curtis Mayrand, who is a drummer and one of my roommates at the time, Dave Cheney, who played guitar.  We played, never rehearsing any songs, just jamming and recording.  It was a lot of fun.

So, after that, I got this keyboard that you can record on tracks on a sequencer.  Basically, I could hit record, play a selected instrument, hit stop, hit record again and play a different instrument sound, and repeat this process until I "liked" the sound...or just plain got bored.  It was pretty fun, but difficult at the same time since the thing made me play drums and percussion on it since there were no pre-recorded drum tracks to use.

Anyway, I never practiced anything--I just sat down and recorded.  You know...like Ross on the show Friends. 

So, needless to say, it is far from great.  Pretty far from good for that matter.

So why would I make a Myspace page for it and put it online?  Basically because I like to not take myself seriously and am generally pretty self-deprecating.

Here is a link to it.  I called it Stormbecker (based on a GI joe band my brother and I made using the Dreadnoks action figures). 

Listen to the madness here:  http://www.myspace.com/stormbecker

I have eight songs featured.  What's funny, (or not...depending at how you look at things) is I have about 40 songs recorded.  So, enjoy!  And feel free to laugh all you want.

I think it's funny!

Missing the mark.

“The “sin” word that is used most frequently in the Bible is hamartia, “missing the mark”.”

I recently learned this, and it really helped my prayer life and how I pray.

If I think of “sin”, I tend to think of “lies, stealing, lust, murder, etc, etc. But realizing that when “sin” is talked about in the bible, that quite a bit it is talking about “missing the mark”, and it certainly gives me a lot more to talk to God about. How easy it is to miss the mark, when it comes to being like Christ. Thinking like this makes the little things that we may be unaware of, the little “missing the marks”, and that gives us a whole lot more to pray about and be thankful for our redemption.

A try at digital art.....

So, I agreed to play an RPG campaign with my brother and his friends.  He has been asking me to try for a long time now, probably 15 years or more.  We got together Saturday and talked over the setting and started the creation of characters.  And we laughed a lot and had a great time.  I made a ranger.  I was a bit lost on how to go through all the steps but it was fun.

Anyway, I wanted to draw my character and I wanted to try on my digital drawing tablet that I got for my birthday.  I started by drawing the character with a pencil followed by drawing the major lines with a pen, making it lineart.  I then scanned it into the pc ad then I colored it in photoshop. 

I kinda like how it turned out.  See below. Original 1st, then the final.

 

An ironic learning moment.

     My dad gave me this book not long ago and I am reading it in bits and pieces right now.  It's the kind of book that is good to read in chunks, and then chew on what you've read and allow it to sink in a bit.

     So this morning I was reading this book, "Prayer" while taking care of necessary business of the #2 persuasion, if you get my drift.  (On a side note, this is where I get a good majority of my reading done.)

      "We think that we must help God to fulfill our prayer.  But this has never been God's intention.  We are to pray.  God Himself will take care of the hearing and the fulfillment.  He needs no help from us for that."

     Now, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that earlier the author talks about our expectations in the answers of the prayers.  We often don't get an answer in the timing we expect or in the way we expect, which can cause us to lose faith or become frustrated with the whole process.

     So, this thought process is running through my head.  Since I am home with the kids, I have the reality of having to use the bathroom with the door open since I need to be aware that all is ok throughout the house.  This gives my boys plenty of opportunities to barge in and hand me toys to put together, complain about their sibling or make requests of me to get them something.  today, my youngest was asking me for "letter cookies"--one of their favorites.  I told him I wasn't able to, but would get him some soon enough.  So he happily walked out, but came back with the same request in seconds.  Again, I told him he'd have to wait.  He whined/asked again, and I answered his request again.

     "Honey, I know exactly what it is you want, but you are just gonna have to wait for Daddy."

     Then it dawned on me...and I chuckled.

      That's probably what God is saying to us a lot of the times that we pray.

Why Don't I Eat Better and More Often?

It's really hard to convince yourself to eat healthy.

     Well, at least it is for me a lot of the time.  Nutritious food just doesn't taste as good.  It's harder to prepare and harder to shop for.  Making a healthy meal is harder to shop for and to prepare.

     But when you finally get smart and start trying to eat healthier, you can tell right away.  Just last night we had Tilapia and green beans.  It was prepared with health in mind; not drenched in butter and creamy sauces.  And you know what, I could tell right away. 

     I said, "You know, we should eat healthier more often."

     I tend to have more energy and I am in a better mood after eating well.  And I know I am getting the vitamins that my body needs that I am sure I am low in.  I start to realize that the healthy foods can actually taste pretty darn good.

     So, with all of this being said, I think the same thinking can be used in spiritual life and the soul.  You start feeding it what it needs, and it feels better.  It fills what seems to have been lacking.  If I am able to start my day with reading a bit of the Bible, it sets my course for the day to think about things a little more in line with my spiritual walk.  I may pay more attention to my thoughts or actions and where they are in line with a God-focused life.  What's sad is how easy it is to veer off course.  To get involved in unimportant worldly things that so easily distract.  So I pop a vitamin and read a verse.  Or I'll plan a meal and pray.

     I'll try to be better and focus on Christ.  Because I know if I feed myself the right foods...I'll be better prepared to face the day.  And the more I eat healthy, the easier it is to get into the habit of eating the foods He wants us to eat.  He makes the ingredients.  I have to lean how to cook with them.