Dichotomy

Defined as dividing something into two mutually exclusive halves.

How can a Sweet-Tart be both sweet and sour?
How does a loving God let awful things happen? (Did I get serious too quickly?)

I was sitting in church yesterday and the pastor asked the question, "Isn't God good?!"

To give you some context to this story, twenty minutes of open-mic had just wrapped up, in which person after person talked about their troubles, their trials, their pains, and their heartaches.  Do you sense a dichotomy yet?

How does a person talk about the goodness of God directly after that?

The theologian Lee Strobel talks about building a case against God.  He talks about opening a magazine and finding a picture of a mother, holding her malnourished, dead child in her arms with anguish in her eyes.  The child died for lack of water.  Strobel asked of God, "Was it so difficult to make it rain?  Was it too much to ask?  How dare you!?"

This reminds me of a verse in the scriptures: Matthew 5:45 - "... He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."


Here-in lies the problem.  Do you need a God that only allows good?  Or let me ask it a different way. Do you need a God that only allows good things to happen to good people?


What would that say about God?  Would that make Him a better God, more "just" and more "loving"?  Or would it cause a mass-flood of people to worship Him simply for financial and personal gain?  Is that love, or is that bribery?


I wish to return to the original story.  There were people who recounted stories of hardship in church, and the pastor asked, "Isn't God good?!"  What I didn't tell you was that each of the stories told was ended the same way.  Before the pastor ever took the pulpit, each person ended their story with praise to God.


Why?


God is NOT good because He blesses you. God is not good because He gives you things.  God is GOOD because He sustains you.  He is GOOD because He is your portion.  Only a God greater than our circumstances and greater than our pain is worth worshiping.

Only a person who has tasted and seen the faithfulness of God through hardship can say "God is GOOD".  It appears as foolishness to those that do not know, but is an indelible mark on those that do.

la vida loca

Quiero explicar algo que probablemente no sabes.

Hablo Español, y durante mi juventud, vivía en Chihuahua, Mexico.

Por eso, pienso como Mexicano.

También, no entiendo la "cultura pop" de este país. (no se dice así en Mexico)

Casi todos los días, quiero volver a Mexico para vivir.

Solo pensaba que quisieras saber.

(Mi hermano y yo)

India Trip Update

Can you believe that our trip is only five weeks away!?  These final weeks are filled with preparations.  We are putting the final touches on the programming, taking the second round of immunizations, and translating the lessons into Tamil so the kids will understand the stories.  (We even did a luggage simulation to prepare for our trips through airports and bond as a team!)

There is an even closer deadline, though, and that is our support deadline!

Today is the final day of our India Hopes & Dreams Trip fundraising.  We have definitely felt the Lord stretch us as we decided to go on this trip, and mostly because it has been a rushed timeline.  We had the challenge of raising $3000 each, and thanks to many generous friends and family members, we have raised well over half of that in a very short time.

However, the final push is here, and the only time left is today.  If you have not had the opportunity to give yet, today is the best day to do so.  Two separate gifts have been pledged that will match any donation today.  The first one is designated toward any SpringHill staff member (up to $500), and the second is for anybody else (up to $500).  If you want in on this, please leave a comment below saying how much you can give, or go online right away: Online Donations.  (You will have to create an account (super easy), and make sure you designate who receives the gift!)  

Don't miss out on this opportunity to double your money for the Kingdom of God. 

Lincoln, NE

After those acid trip sunsets, that’s the thing about Lincoln that rocked my world. That you can’t really mess up too badly. You can marry too young, get a terrible tattoo or earn $12,000 a year, and the sky will not necessarily fall. The housing is too cheap and the folks are too kind for it to be otherwise. Moreover, when you live underneath a sky that big, it’s hard to take yourself too seriously. Its storms have a way of sweeping into town and jolting your life into perspective. That jolt was Lincoln’s gift to me. It comes in handy every day.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Lincoln-Nebraska-Home-on-the-Prairie.html#ixzz1biya2pJ7

This article was in the Smithsonianmag.org and if you have a few minutes, I recommend reading it.  It made me proud; it made me sad.  I think you’ll like it.

Hitchhiking

The act of hitchhiking has nearly disappeared in America.  You can drive from Los Angeles to New York without seeing a single person "thumbing a ride" on the side of the road.  I ask the question, why is that?

Let's be honest, we all wish that we lived in a world where anybody was trustworthy enough to give you a ride somewhere.  It was not long ago that America was a country where hitchhikers were commonly seen.  What is the cultural shift that makes the "art" of hitchhiking nearly extinct?

Before I ask any questions, I'd like to share my personal experiences.  

In 2006 I started a social experiment.  I wanted to see if hitchhiking was a lost art, or if it was still alive in the world.  To start, I decided to hitchhike to class every morning.  I lived 1.5 miles from campus and it saved me money if I didn't pay for parking.  Biking was an option, but my bike was impounded by the city after parking illegally in front of a fraternity, so every morning I would start the walk to school, and usually within 5 minutes, I would be picked up by someone heading the same way (I always had my thumb in the air).  On various occasions, nobody would pick me up, and I would find myself on campus after walking the whole distance (only 20 minutes).

I decided to take this experiment outside of Nebraska, so in 2009 I hitch-hiked in Mexico, in 2010 I picked up a ride in Washington DC, and in 2011 in Michigan.  The story across North America is consistent: in 5-20 minutes someone will always pick you up.

The question is this: is it safe?

There must be horror stories.  I invite anyone to share a personal experience of either themselves or someone they know that was personally injured or wronged in this practice, but I would venture to guess that most of the prejudice against hitchhiking stems from fear and speculation.  In my experience (and reason would tend to agree), the people driving by you are a subset of the population.  They are just going from A to B, and they are just as likely to be looking for a fight as you are.  This always gives me a sense of security.  The "bad-guys" who would be looking for a chance to harm me are probably not driving down the road thinking, "Gee, I wish a hitchhiker would present himself so that I could steal all his money."

That being said, the question can be turned around.  Is it safe to pick up hitch-hikers? 

Again, my experiences tell me that it is safe, but in this arena, i would understand a slight hesitancy.  The person thumbing the ride is doing the act pre-meditated.  This means that if they had the motive for evil, they would be able to set the stage appropriately and disguise it in innocence.  For that reason, I understand a person who passes by me (as I'm hitch-hiking) without stopping.  

I could elaborate on this subject for hours as I find it both fascinating and highly revealing of today's culture and society.  However, I am very interested to hear what others think.  If you have a different experience, or if you want to challenge any of my comments, I fully encourage it.  Leave a comment if you want to join in on the discussion.

Until next time, happy trails.

Legacy

Think Different Campaign (Apple - 1997)

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal.They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people.While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. 
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Think Different. Apple.

Financial freedom

Here is a thought for the night.  Freedom can be thought of as "unfettered by constraints".  This is a useful definition when you think of what Matthew says: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  So if your treasures are tied up in assets (house, car, hobby, etc...) you will find your heart is tied up in those things too.

Now consider the command that Christ claimed was the FIRST and FOREMOST: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and mind."

Can you claim that you love the Lord with ALL of your HEART?

Where are your treasures?

When you have extra money, do you store up eternal wealth, or earthly wealth?

When you have free time, do you spend it pursuing God, or on Facebook/TV/books/etc?

To bring this full circle, if your wealth is tied up in assets, or if your heart is attached to temporary treasures, then you will never be free.  Your heart will be inextricably tied to this world.