Relevant My Ass

My sister beat me to the punch on this post, but I figured it was too good to exist in only one place on this great thing called the internet. Christmas Eve day, my sister and I went to church and, while in the parking lot, I noticed this scene. This picture is unadulterated and yes, the kazoo says "Jesus Loves Me."
While doing some reading for one of my classes this quote stuck out to me, it seemed applicable somehow: "the majority of current church practices are cultural accommodations to a society that no longer exists" (Eddie Gibbs & Ryan K. Bolger, in Emerging Churches)

Christmas

Well, Christmas is over, and as Jenny insinuated, I’ve been a deadbeat in the realm of posting. Funny how I just said I was going to be back and then disappeared for 3 weeks. I’ve been thinking about why I put off on posting, and the best reason I can come up with, besides a certain amount of lethargy is fear. I have decided that I am afraid of people’s judgments. So here is my attempt to say, “screw it” and write unafraid of people’s assessments of me.

But back to Christmas, This year was one of the best Christmas’ I think I’ve had in a while. I don’t think that I can place one thing that made this Christmas any more Christmassy than the last, but somehow it came off that way. But in an attempt to share why my holidays were good here is my list of favorite Christmas ‘things’ from 2006:

1. Relaxing in my basement with friends, sipping tea/coffee, watching the fire on my TV and listening to Christmas music.
   
2. Playing Crokinole with my family around the kitchen table while listening to the Sufjan Stevens Christmas album.
   
3. Waking up without the sound of an alarm in my ear.
   
4. Hunting for Christmas music. Here are my top ten favorites of this year (in no particular order):
   a. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Sufjan Stevens
   b. We Wish You A Merry Christmas – The Muppets
   c. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Coldplay
   d. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Deathcab For Cutie (or U2 for that Matter)
   e. Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth – David Bowie & Bing Crosby
   f. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kristy McCall
   g. Put The Lights On The Tree – Sufjan Stevens
   h. Joy To The World – The Trans-Siberian Orchestra
   i. Happy Holidays (Beef Wellington Remix) – Bing Crosby
   j. Darcy The Dragon – Roger Whittaker
   
5. A Christmas Day fondue with some family friends that involved 4 different types of fondue.
   
6. Playing Settlers of Catan.

All in all it was a good break, one that restored and refilled me to the point where I am now looking forward to the coming semester. The thought of another 3 1/2 months of school is no longer something to start a spiral down into depression. I get to be a Teaching Assistant in class that excites me, I get to take a class with a brilliant man whose knowledge of the Bible is scary and highly interesting and I have less on my plate so I’ll be able to take moments to breath and enjoy being where I am, something that often got lost in scheduling last semester.

Merry belated Christmas and happy New Year.

Return of the brother

I’ve been gone a long while. At times it has pained me to be gone, at times I could have cared less, but now I have a desire to return. Some have referred to returns such as this as the “second season” of their blog, don’t know if I buy into the fact that my blog even had a first season, but here is the second.

Tonight marks the end of the first semester of my final year at bible college, as I drink my now cold (and therefore disgusting yet irresistible) Starbucks coffee I can’t help but feel that my return to this blog is due to some Stockholm Syndrome-like attachment to writing after 7 semesters pumping out paper after paper. Well, no matter the cause, I’m back and, in this, the “second season” of Shifting Shifted Shifty I think I’m going to try things a little differently than the first time round. I am starting out this time round nobly attempting to not have another stint of Whining Whined Whiny. May not happen, I have no shortage of material around about which to whine, but I’ll try gosh darn it.

Bruce Campbell has nothing on me when it comes to campy

These past couple weeks have been interesting. They have been chocked full of wonderful experiences. Actually, since my last post things have been quite a bit less frustrating. I had a couple really good conversations soon after that restored my faith in humanity.

One of the good conversations I had was with a friend that I have worked with for the past couple summers at camp. The question of whether I am ‘compatible’ with a Christian summer camp has been running through my mind for the past month or more. I just am not Mr. Evangelism. Not to say I ever was, but now I wonder if how some camps (there are some camps out there that are pretty good with the whole evangelism thing) do the classic evangelism thing is even really ethical. Is it right to build conversion into a big emotional event that makes an alter call more like a feeding frenzy than a step in a journey towards God? Is it right to just present “the Gospel message” over and over while neglecting the fact that “the Gospel message” is one point along a difficult process and that there is a lot more to Christian life than praying the prayer?

As for being compatible, I have no clue if I am, but I do see the potential for change and growth around me. The conversations I’ve had, like the one with my friend, have gotten me excited about the future of camp.

That being said, its now time for my next rant. Peace. I think that is one of the most overused words in Christianity. Every bloody chapel at school and half the conversations I have, all of them end in “go in peace” or “I hope God gives you peace about ______” or “well, whatever you do, make sure you have a peace about it.”

Here’s my question? Why do I always have to be at peace? When I hear that, I think of all the cases in history where nations or people or organizations have been “at peace” and have grown complacent because of that. They have ended up stagnating, or being left unprepared when a real struggle comes. The fall of troy pops into my mind (I know, I know, probably wasn’t a giant horse...) they got complacent and felt at peace and look where it got them. I frankly don’t mind being uncertain about my decision to go apply at camp. I have many doubts and fears, I don’t know if I’m the best person for the job but I feel like that is where I should be. In many ways I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to have to deal with potential staff who may be ‘trouble’, I don’t want to have to deal with constantly struggling against what I see as a system that could be improved, I don’t want to have to experience the potential piety of people who haven’t faced the shit in their lives. But, that being said, I definitely experience an excited energy when I think of what could happen next summer.

Mad

I’ve been meaning to write for a while, but I’m not exactly sure what to write about. I feel like all my frustrations have lost focus and I’m just banging my head for no reason any more. I find myself getting mad at things in church and school and in friends and I don’t even know why.

Today I sat in on a chapel about lamenting the sucky things in life and how there is hope on the other side. For my school that is mighty impressive, typically the concept of God not feeling near is something to be dreaded at all cost. Going through “the dark night of the soul” (man that phrase has started to chap my ass) today seems to be something to get out of as soon as possible and to dread more than Godzilla. But today I actually heard someone say that it was an okay place to be. It blew my mind, and I should have been jumping up and down for joy but I was still pissed.

Despite the chapels better message however, I couldn’t look past the low lights, interpretive dance with a candle involved. I couldn’t see that the service was actually a move to something I see as a more ‘authentic’ (for lack of a word that buzzes a little less) faith. There were no delusions that life is going to be great as a Christian. No one during the service pronounced that God heals all your troubles, at least not blatantly, instead they focused on hope that things will probably get better.

Maybe I was blind to the positive because in the class I had just before chapel I had to contend with someone talking about how if you become a Christian God will save you from your alcoholism. I nearly punched the guy. He later went on to say that God heals all and if all we do is pray to God than we’ll have a rosy life.

WHAT THE HELL! Does this guy lived in the world as we know it? Its messed up, I spent 5 years of my life nearly house bound because of Chronic Fatigue. Did I get better when with the unshakable faith of a 9 or 10 year I prayed for healing? No, I spend years struggling with being sick, depressed and otherwise shitty. Did God heal one of the few people at a church that is about to die who could actually help heal the church? No and now his family doesn’t have a father.

I have to say, if you’ve never dealt with a chronic illness or anything really serious in your life or in your family’s life than you should just shut the hell up about things you haven’t experienced. If you have never eaten an ice cream cone, how can you help someone else understand what it is like and how to do it? At least you can’t and be correct. Be careful all you who have had a fairly painless life so far, recognize how lucky you are and don’t claim that there is some quick and simple fix to everyone else’s life.