Life, you are funny

Post Office clerk: Yes, may I help you?
Martin: Yeah I just put a sealed letter in that blue bin mail drop box outside...and uh.....realized it had no stamp on it...and had no address on it either. Can you get it out for me?
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Martin: Man, Brittney Spears has gone crazy.
Joseph: That just goes to show you Martin that you can have fame, have success, have plenty of money.....but once you have a kid, your life is over.
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(Martin, Joseph, Roger walking through Macy's)
Martin: Holy cow! Look at those dresses! They're amazing!
(long pause)
Martin: I think that's the gayest thing I've ever said.
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(Martin and Peter showing the problems with our upstairs heating circulation to the Heating Repair Man)
Martin: Here's the problem: In this room, the heat is pouring through the vents. It's really hot.
Peter: Sorta like a really hot Christmas tree.
Martin: But in this next room, it's freezing cold.
Peter: Sorta like a freezing cold Christmas tree.

*Recommended Sermon* Update

I just added a new sermon on the left side bar: Rob Edwards - The King you serve will shape the way you serve

Here's one of the main points:
You either serve a king who constantly demands things of you, which makes you very insecure because you’re not sure if you can meet those demands. Or you serve a king who provides for you, which gives you a lot of confidence and security.

Adoption

Even though I don't think this girl is Chinese, this is one reason why I hope to some day adopt a Chinese girl.

Other than adopting them for their vocal talents, there's something very Gospel-like about adopting a Chinese girl. You are taking a girl with no parents, no one to care for her, who has done nothing to earn your favor (other than maybe being cute) and taking her in, claiming her as your own, giving her a family. You are taking a girl from a society where she is deemed not valuable because of her gender, a society where most of the love and respect must be earned, and replacing this life with an environment where she is loved and valued unconditionally (as much as a fallen human can love like that). And all this is free for her, but thousands of dollars for the adoptor.

Who knows, I may never end up adopting. But it makes me think how we should be relating the Gospel to people in every day circumstances. We don't have to go adopt someone to show them the Gospel, but we definitely should be giving more unmerited grace, more undeserved forgiveness, more unconditional love to people than we currently do. The Gospel is incredibly shocking. I am sure that if we treated people the way God treats us, they would be shocked, taken back, and maybe even see a glimpse of the true Gospel for the first time ever.

Not to us, but to God be the glory

Interestingly,

Christianity is the only religion that takes its heroes (Abraham, David, Moses, Jacob, Jonah, Isaac, Noah, Peter, Paul, etc.) and bashes them, exposing their flaws.

Cupid, draw back your bow... (love the song, but hate archery)

Three things bothered me this Valentine's Season:

1) Kroger advertised "If you're wanting to be originial and not get her the cliche Valentine's gift, try getting her a Kroger gift card." Yes, original; but a Kroger gift card??!! In that case, Kroger should change their slogan to "Kroger: We ruin relationships."

2) I don't like how all the Valentine's day advertisers equate being in a relationship with being in love. It's as if having "feelings" for someone means you love them. But, I guess it's unrealistic for advertisers to say "Show that special someone how much you sorta care until you have to commit."

3) I don't like how all the Friends re-runs on Valentine's Day evening have a Valentine's Day theme. I guarentee you the majority of people sitting at home watching those episodes have heard more than they'd like to hear about Valentine's Day already. Come on Television, know your target audience.

No, I am not a bitter single male...regardless of how much I listen to Dashboard Confessional. My Valentine's Day was great. I had a lovely dinner with my mother at Waffle House and got to make life better for our waitress. And then watched LOST.

How Christian schools harm Christianity

What I fear about Christian schools:

- You have to be a Christian
It is expected of everyone to care about God. Which means, that some people have to fake it. Which means that real Christians notice that some people fake it, and consequently, tend to judge them for it. The people who are openly indifferent towards God see the hypocrisy in all those that fake it, and the Christians that are condemning, and end up hating Christianity all together.

-Because of the overall school attitude and discipline system, it is easy to confuse Christianity with good grades, good behavior, and following the school rules.
The students who get good grades and suck up to the teacher are somehow viewed as the best Christians as if Christianity has anything to do with good grades. The teachers and principals tend to reward these students by handing out "God points" or giving awards like "Most Christ-like" and "The Godly Award" which was really just given to some quiet girl with good grades. Ironically, this reward system/mentality harms the actual quiet girl w/ good grades the most. The person starts to think as long as they follow the rules, they're good with God. Christianity then starts to become more about what you do and don't do than what God has done. The more they think their morality holds merit, the less they think they need Jesus. The rest of the students see this and start to believe what the rest of America has believed all along: that Christianity is just about following some rules and being a goody-goody and therefore, is unattractive and irrelevant.

- They have Christian history books, Christian grammar books, Christian spelling books, Christian economics books, etc.
It may do a decent job of making sure Christian students are not "of this world" but it does a poor job of equipping them to make an impact while they're in this world. It may do a decent job of showing the subject through a Christian lens, but it fails to show the lens that the rest of the world, the world we are commanded to make disciples of, looks through. All truth is God's truth. Meaning the athiest geologist, who knows tons about rocks, knows a great deal about God's creation whether he acknowledges God or not. Meaning a painting of a sunset is just as "Christian" as a painting of Moses. By Christianizing spelling words, etc., two things are happening: we are furthering the gap between us and the people we are trying to relate to in order to show them Jesus, and we are stunting our understanding of the big picture that God has created everything and has come to redeem everything. We are secluding ourselves into this Christian bubble; if we continue doing that, how are non-Christians supposed to see our good works, our love for each other and give glory to God? How is a person supposed to engage the non-believer in an evolution discussion when they haven't been told a single thing about it, nor do they know where the non-believer is coming from? How is a person supposed to engage the unbeliever in a discussion about any topic when we've only heard the Christian point of view? How is a non-believer supposed to relate to us when we can't speak their language?

- Rules that are established in the name of promoting spiritual or acedemic growth, when in actuality they exist merely to protect the school's saintly image.
For instance, every guy's hair has to be no longer than a certain length. Because, of course, it is more godly to have short hair than long hair. Again, it is more important that we maintain our stereotypical Christian image than allow for individuality and freedom. (this is sarcasm for those of you who come from a Christian school (sorry, unneccessary cheap shot))
Another example, expulsion for getting pregnant. In other words, "If you commit one of the big sins on our list (not a list from the Bible), there may be forgiveness from God, but there isn't forgiveness from us. Since we can hide our sin, but yours is more visible, you make us look bad, so we must ask you to go."

(although honestly, if I were a pregnant girl, I would want to leave anyways because of all the condescending looks I would get in the halls. But still, let that be the girl's decision, not the school's.)
You may be able to argue and give me some good reasons why these rules are in place. Ok maybe so. But if one of the primary concerns is that students understand the beauty of Christianity, then the school must do everything it can to communicate this instead of possibly communicating the opposite. The way the school treats its "sinners" says everything about their Christianity; it says everything about their Jesus.

You've got mail

To all Future Teachers, People-Pleasers, Presbyterians, water consumers, Agnostics, Kindergarteners, and Apathetics, over the age of 16:

Please read the book Searching for God Knows What by Don Miller. Yes he's a Christian author, but the information he presents (especially in chapters 3 through 8) is the most profound, insightful articulation of the human race I have ever read. A quick snipit, if you will, to tickle your tastebuds: "Evolution may explain how humans came about, but it does nothing to explain why we wear clothes." (this is not a book about evolution, nor does it talk about it)

Your caring friend and fellow seeker,
Martin

Fox Hat

For some reason, this video reminds me a lot of Daniel Boone. Probably, because of his great wit and love for beer.



*thanks Jason Bennett

Need Advice

This Cherokee 16yr old girl Leticia, who my church and I have visited the past 4 summers, called me several months ago telling me she "got saved." Very glad. So is she.

However, she sends me these text message chain letters every so often. Here is an example of one:
***Jesus never fails. Send this message to 9 ppl and u will get good news tomorrow. Don't neglect this; u never know when God is testing u.***

This saddens me because basically nothing about this message is Scriptural (a.k.a. true). It's basically treating God as a genie who you have figure out some hidden formula to get good stuff out of Him. For those of you who have an opinion, what, if anything, should I say to her? I want her to know the truth without coming off as a know-it-all, a lecturer, or angry. Any input or thoughts would be great.

The past two days' highlights

-Tommy and I drove around with and worked along side two Mexicans all day yesterday, Juan and Martin. We listened to spanish 105.3 in the car and all sang along with the music as the white boys pretended to know the words. I really wish I knew Spanish. I also wish they knew English.

-Watched the movie The Last Kiss. Glad I watched it; wouldn't recommend it though. The dad in the movie said one of the most profoundly accurate things (interesting how it's basically just the message behind 1 Cor. 13 repeated):
"In love? Every fool in America says they're in love with something. Saying you're in love doesn't mean a damn thing. What you feel only matters to you. It's what you do to the people you say you love. That's what matters. That's the only thing that counts."

-Chatted w/ Joseph Davis about what does and doesn't make us happy. Interestingly, our opinions and experiences are the same. More to come on that latter.

-Had to completely shave on Wednesday for the Career Fair. I felt so unbelievably naked without my facial stubble, especially when I took my morning shower. (yes that was corny, i am aware of that)

-Career Fair: two companies made me feel great; one company stomped on my confidence like woah...i'm still feeling the affects of the 'woah' company