Marriage Trust
It’s my 7th anniversary and it seems that on each anniversary my wife and I tend to analyze and try to figure out why it works as well as it does. Of course my dashing good looks is the cement that holds our relationship together (second only to our vows to God). This year we discussed trust. How we both know that neither of us is ever going to leave the other for any reason. This makes a huge openness in our relationship allowing for honesty even to the point of pain. No hiding things that could start building our relationship on lies. But I think we are very fortunate. This trust certainty isn’t in every marriage, even some Christian marriages lack this. I can’t imagine the fear and uncertainty I would have if this trust wasn’t there....
The whole gay marriage thing
I want to know what you think and why you think it. I kinda sit on the fence on this mostly leaning toward I really don’t care. I just find a lot of rubs with some of the arguments I hear against it, things about keeping marriage sacred and stuff like that (really with a 50% divorce rate I think we lost that a long time ago). Marriage is defined as the union between a man and a woman. While I agree that this definition should remain in the church I am not so sure it needs to in the government. I don’t think the church should marry a gay couple, since homosexuality is a sin but I don’t think it is a job of the church to force its moral doctrine on the state. I don’t see it as a job of the state to deny someone who is living as a couple the...
Tired
I’m tired. This past week I’ve been putting myself under a lot of unnecessary stress. It’s like littlest problems become huge monsters ready to eat me alive. Anxiety disorder will do that to you. But I’m sick of it all. I’m tired of struggling with my demons. I’m tired of living in a world full of trouble and turmoil. I’m tired of all this fear and loathing. I’m tired and I want to go to bed. It’s times like these when I think about Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest.” What does this rest look and feel like? Sometimes I naively think it means God will take away all trials and pressures out of my life, but that’s...
Open Handed
At one of our last summer youth meetings, I went up to our host and told him thanks for letting us come and over run his house. His response although quick and most likely something he has said multiple times has been poking me in the side since. He simply said, “It’s not my house, it’s God’s”. There is a lot of power in that statement for me. It’s so against everything I feel like the culture is teaching me. It’s all about me, I should do it all for me and put myself first and man that just comes naturally for me. To see my possessions not as my own and not something I earn, but instead as a gift from God to further his glory and kingdom even when it isn’t convenient for me or what I want to spend my resources on is...
Fasting From Opinions
One of my favorite bloggers, Rachel Held Evans, is currently going through an ‘opinion fast’. She recently admitted she can be a little too opinionated sometimes. “Opinions are not inherently a bad thing, of course,” she writes, “but I get such a high from interjecting them into conversations that sometimes I talk over other people. Sometimes I don’t even listen to those with whom I disagree. Sometimes I don’t really care about learning or growing or building strong relationships, so long as everyone knows that I am right.” So for the past few days, instead of expressing her opinion, she has chosen to interview people about their views on Calvanism, conservatism, and gender rolls (which are usually her three biggest...
His Constancy is a Tower of Refuge
So the last couple weeks have been somewhat rough at work and it seems that the adversity of life always seems to teach me a thing or two about God. When I work lots of hours in a given week, reality seems to take on a odd, otherworldly sense where nothing makes sense. Family relationships get strained from lack of time spent, sleep gets rare and your body starts acting funny with situations like waking up in the middle of the night with adreliline pumping. The thing that I learned this past rough season of work is that God is to be worshipped for His constancy. He doesn’t change like the humans nor does his love for his people falter. This isn’t to say that stuff is going to go great for us. Actually Israel was slaves in Egypt for 400 years...