Conviction

I have been taking a class this semester entitled Letters of Paul, so far we've only had two classes but I am beginning to see the course take shape. Paul has always impressed me. One of my classmates described him as a jerk...I asked him why and he said because Paul is always so "this is how it is". I acknowledged that I saw this person's opinion and where it was coming from. However, I tucked this thought into my mind for later consideration.

It is obvious to me that it wasn't that Paul thought he was the ultimate man...there are many passages in which he acknowledges that hey, I don't have this all figured out. He knows who he was and the only reason he was in the place of apostleship was through God's grace. What I do think Paul had is something that many Christians lack today....conviction.

Paul was willing to break off what he'd been taught as he grew up (the Jewish Pharisee way of thinking about the Scripture) and let a new school of thought enter his mind (the gospel of Christ). Better yet, he was confident in his thinking, confident that is was consistent with what he had experienced (a personal transformation). I believe that some Christians today are content to go with the status quo. Whatever there pastors or parents or trusted friends say is what goes in there minds. Maybe they latch on to everything their favorite contemporary theologian says. I see this as almost a sickness. I don't believe God expect us to blindly obey his Bible. I would argue that while the Bible is inerrant and divinely inspired, God made it with the expectation that His people would question it and wrestle with the issues contained within it.

Now, I realize this may seem to contradict some of my previous posts, talking about finding the gray areas of the faith and how we all need to get along better (especially politically and find our middle ground). However, I believe that this idea of having strong convictions fits well into this. I believe that most people will simply latch onto another's thoughts without taking the time to process what they know. Basically, our society is full of closed minded people. How sad...I really believe that when we as Christians open our minds to consider new ideas about God and Jesus we can better understand who He is and how we can better relate. We must have our own strong convictions that lead us to question things...to refuse to just believe something, just 'cuz. Let us bring our questions to God and ask. I believe He will give us a greater understanding if we begin to break the mold and start to think about Him outside the box created by other believers.

Hiatus

So I was surfing the web and remembered I had a blog. Life has been flying by since my last entry. I am officially heading to USD next fall for med school....woo hoo! Other than that I've been trying to finish strong in my studies here at USF. Life has been good.

I've done much thinking during my blog hiatus. Some of it has been political, much of it spiritual, and some personal. I'm saddened to see that our nation will not make needed changes in health care due to partisan squabbling....not that I think the bill offered was the best solution, but hey at least it was something! I hope that in the coming months Republicans can reach out with their own ideas to help make health care happen for us all. They say that they have had great ideas that have been ignored...well the time has come for them to speak up! Let's make something happen!

Spiritually, I've done a lot of thinking about who I am in relation to God. How do I struggle with the desire to sometimes take a hiatus from my daily spiritual life. Isn't it funny how the most life giving part of our lives is the part easiest to skip out on? Also, I've been reading Genesis a lot lately and am continually reminded of what a God lover looks like. Someone who is extremely flawed (See: Adam, Abraham, Jacob, etc), yet faithful. I pray that I can be a man of faith that others can learn from. I struggle at times to be a good example to others, it is so easy to conform to how others act just to be "a part of the group". I pray that the fact that I belong to something bigger...something better will spur me to be a non-conformist to the world. That my faith in Christ will be what others notice about me. Basically I'm discovering that God is a God who looks for chances to shatter our world's ideas about what life and power look like. He always points us to something better, to Him be the glory!

Personally, I've gotten back into weight lifting and cardio exercise. I've already added 15 pounds to my bench and about 30 to my squat. I hope to continue this into the summer in a goal to lose weight and body fat.

Hopefully, I will keep more current on this, I enjoy writing out my thoughts.