Compassion

So, about a month ago I posted a blog on my myspace profile asking people what their beliefs on god are. I promised I was going to do something with it, but I decided to not. The responses were so varied that I feel it accomplished everything it was supposed to. If you'd like to read it, you can go check it out; it's titled "An Open Invitation." To avoid stalking and what not, I'm not going to link to it, but the link to my profile is to the right.

Instead of posting what my own thoughts are on "god" directly, I'm going to go about in a bassackwards way by talking a little about what's been on my mind as of late. I'm going to start off with a passage from the book Matthew and for sake of typing it all out/not copying and pasting right, I'll give ya the link; Matthew 5:38-48.

This comes from the Sermon on the Mount, or what is also a portion of the Beatitudes. Before I go further, what is beatitude exactly? This is the first definition from the Oxford English Dictionary (much better than Dictionary.com); "Supreme blessedness or happiness." Kind of interesting that the things Jesus talked about on the Sermon on the Mount are called this, isn't it? Read again the passage I posted; notice that in it Jesus is giving people more or less a framework for how we are supposed to live our lives. The entire Sermon on the Mount is in effect on big lesson in how to act in the world not only differently, but correctly (this of course is dependent on whether or not you accept Jesus as God and the Christian scriptures as holy and all that jazz; for those of you reading who don't, are they so bad at being moral guidelines?). Now, what do you see in that passage I posted? You see Jesus calling us to live a life of compassion. It's all over the Sermon on the Mount and all over the gospels. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (44)," "but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also (39b)." These two chunks of scripture have at their core the idea that we are to love one another. Let's look at what Jesus says is the greatest commandment; Matthew 20:36-40. Love God with everything you are and "the second is like it;" love others as yourself. God knows that we as humans think we are pretty hot shit. As much as we like to put on a facade and say that we aren't, we definitely think that we are pretty cool. Most of us like ourselves and would not intentionally put ourselves in harm. So the command that we are to love others as ourselves is a huge one. Think about it, if we truly loved our "neighbor" as ourselves, then we'd think pretty highly of them. We would want to treat them the same as we treat ourselves. It is also in doing this that we affirm not only our love for God, but our faith in God. If we love God with our whole selves and we love others as we love ourselves, we are in fact loving God in loving others. We are also serving God when we love others. Let's go back to the beatitudes; in it we find Jesus giving us the way in which we have supreme blessedness and happiness and where is it found? In compassion and love to God and to others.

Hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever. So, uh... Happy Holidays!

Welcome to the groove machine!

Hello everyone!
Long time no post. While there has not been a lack of material that I can comment and write on (as I have four unfinished blogs on this site), my life has been markedly busy and intense. So this blog here I am deeming the "update/life blog." I have another, less pointless blog that I am going to post later, but for now this will do.

Over the course of this, my fifth semester at the University of Northern Colorado, I have had a wealth of experiences and life "changing" moments. For starters, the band (Marriage of Convenience) has been doing really well. We've played over 10 shows, had one cancelled, competed in two battle of the bands competitions (one we advanced in, one we didn't) and we are currently getting ready to write some new material (if I can get my ass down to the Springs!). Things are going well for the band and I hope they continue to. I hope it still remains fun. Naw, it should always be fun.

Back to my school life, I've seen my grades and they are... well somewhat satisfactory. I guess the point is that I passed, right? I didn't do horribly (far from it) but I keep thinking I can and should do better. Damn me and my need for not failing! Well, January 16th begins another semester so I will do better this time around. Outside of school, life has been good. I've got great friends, a great church, dating this great girl and been living pretty stressfully, yet comfortably. Interesting phrase there, "stressfully, yet comfortably," isn't it? Lately, we've been talking about peace at Atlas, the idea of "Shalom;" a time of rest and peace and meditation. I can honestly say that if I had any inkling what "peace" really means in my life, I'm experiencing it. Or perhaps, I'm experiencing a small portion of peace, just enough to understand what it's like. Stress and peace usually don't go together though, do they? Well, not in any sort of logical way but being peaceful is not the same as "having it easy," something I am reminded of constantly. I'm not sure, but right now, as stressful and hectic as my life has been I've felt this strange sort of contentment. This feeling of being exactly where I need to be at the present time. It's been awhile since I felt like that and now that I think back on it, I'm not sure if I ever was. It's strange, this contentment, this peace, is not even dependent on my circumstance. There have been plenty of times these past few months where I could have been depressed, stressed to the point of banging my head on a wall and in general just ready to say "fuck it!" I think back to where I was a year ago and how I hated being in Greeley; how much I wanted to leave and quit school and play in a band and forget all this nonsense. How un-happy I was. I was in a dark place for sure. However, looking back on it I see that I was at the tail end of it and while it still seems strange to me that I am in Greeley and actually enjoying being here, it blows my mind. One of the biggest lessons I learned over the summer, when I was stuck at home with no job, no car, no money is this; I am a temporal creature. I am a being that lives in the here and now and no matter how much I try and look to the future, I can't tell you anything about where my life will end up. So I need to exist in the here and now. I need to realise that I am put here on Earth, in this time and this place, for a reason. I may not know that reason, but God does. I do not know the future, I know the here and now and it's all about what I do with the here and now. Matthew 6:34; "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (NASB)." Hmmm... The beatitudes... I think in my attempt to read through the Old Testament, I'm going to re-read and study them. Every time I look up a verse or two in them, I see something new.

Wow, talk about a brain dump. Peace and love to you all.