SHARED IGNORANGE

So I've been sick for the last 9 (count them, 9) days, and have had a lot of time on my hands to do absolutely nothing......my least favorite thing in the world to do. I've had the flu, and any of you who have had that know it is bad....real bad.

So in the times that I wasn't asleep, I decided to catch up on some movie and tv watching, music listening, and book reading to pass the time while the anitbiotics supposedly did their work. The following will be a rundown and critique of some of the entertainment I digested. I will rate each piece on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest.

I'll start with the movies I watched, in no particular order:

1 - The Incredibles - This Pixar film about superheros was on Disney last Saturday, so I watched it (after all, what else did I have to do). It's really funny, and cute to an extent. This was at least my second time watching it, and I was surprised by some of the adult humor and themes throughout the movie. All in all, I give it a 7.

2. Double Jeopardy - This came on FX Friday night. It was made in 1999, and I saw it shortly after it came out, but had forgotten the plot. It was good though, and any movie that is filmed in New Orleans now intrigues me a lot since I am somewhat familiar with the town (given my endless education that draws me down there about twice a year). I give the movie a 6, and the sherbert that I ate while watching it a 9.

3. The Simpsons Movie - I giggle through almost every Simpsons episode I watch, and the movie was no different. It was really funny, and it seems the writers try to get a laugh out of every line. It works for me. However, I will say that it was just like watching a really long Simpsons episode (what else could one expect I guess!?!?!) I am a Simpsons fan, so I'll give it a 7, but I will say if you don't like the 30 minute show, you won't like the 90 minute movie!

4. The Ultimate Gift - This is one of those cheesy Fox Faith films. However, even though it was a cheesy, girly drama, it wasn't so bad! I actually liked it. One of our dear church members brought it over with a pot of Taco Soup, so that was the best part! I give the movie a 6 and the Taco Soup a 9 and 1/2.

5. Along Came Polly - Seen this one a hundred times and it is still really funny! It was on USA yesterday, and nothing else was on, so I watched it. I can't say I'm a huge Ben Stiller fan. He, like Adam Sandler and others,seems to always play the same character in a similar situation as every other movie he does. However, some of the lines in this one crack me up, even when I have the flu. I give it a 7 and a shout out of "Let it Rain!!!"

6. Rush Hour 3 - What can I say, I am a sucker for Chris Tucker. I had actually forgotten about this movie, but when I was at the movie store, it jumped out at me. Besides, I was in the mood for some action/comedy, and Jackie Chan is a sure bet. This movie is just the same movie as Rush Hour 1 and 2, it just takes place in a different city. But it did help pass the time. I give it a 6.

7. Transformers - HOLY COW!! Yes I realize that I am like the only person in his mid-twenties (notice I am saving late-twenties for when I turn 29) who hadn't already seen this movie. And after watching it, I was kicking myself for not seeing it in the theater! This movies rediculously awesome. I realize that the plot is completely unrealistic (what with Alien Robots....thats a combo), and the human acting barely up to par, but man the action sequences and the whole good transformer vs. bad was really cool. I thought that the ability to make me feel sorry for an Alien Robot was quiet a feat...one they accomplished in fine fashion (poor Bumble Bee). I also thought the choice of music during the action scenes was superb. All in all, I thought it was the best movie I had seen in a long time. I'm gonna go ahead and give it a 10.


There were probably a couple of more movies in there over the 9 day period. What can I say movies pass the time. Some movies that I wanted to see but either couldn't afford, or just wasn't in the mood for include Rescue Dawn (w/ Christian Bale), Amazing Grace, End of the Spear (I know, I'm not a good Christian since I haven't seen that one already....I have no excuse) and Daddy Day Care (kidding of course)

I also caught up on my day time TV (no not Soup-Stupid-Operas). I watched a 2 hour session of Home Improvement most days, followed by an appropriately titled Just Shoot Me hour, followed by an hour of Yes Dear, mixed with a little Full House, King of Queens (which is relatively funny) and Sabrina the Teenage Witch (what a horrible horrible show...good grief...and I'm not even talking about the whole witch thing, I mean the acting, the plots, ad nauseum). Home Improvement gets a 6, the rest get 3s or lower!

Just before I got sick, I picked up the latest Number One Gun record. It's good. The guys a pop rock genius if you ask me, with a special knack for catchiness! The record overall seemed to lack substance though, so I give it a 6. I am looking forward to picking up the new Edison Glass record next! Other stand out songs for me right now include Happy Day (TIm Hughes), All Because of Jesus (Steve Fee), Thriller (Michael Jackson), and Hello (Lionel Ritchie).

Finally, for entertainment while spending countless hours on the couch, I counted my fingers. Still have 10 of them, so I give that activity a 10! I encourage you to count yours, you never know when you might have lost one!

Ok so that is all for this installment of the Entertainment Edition. I leave you with one piece of advice. If you get sick in the near future (and I pray you don't) go grab yourself some movies and watch them. You'll be glad you did!

I had a really great conversation a few days ago with a member of my praise team. I stumbled upon the fact that she is a Talking Heads fan, as am I. How did I discover this? Well, to try to make a long story short, we played this game at a choir gathering, where we each had to say our name as way of introduction while at the same time do a physical motion. So my choir member, said her name "Lisa" and acted as if she were cutting her arm into a filet with her other hand (this will only make sense to those of you who have seen the video of the same title as my blog by the Talking Heads, where David Byrne was singing "Same as it ever was, same as it ever was" while making the same motion.)

Anyway, so we were talking about how delightfully strange the Talking Heads were, and how unique their music was along with the unusual antics of David Byrne onstage. Lisa informed me that he was very close to a nervous breakdown several times in his career. This is where it gets interesting. She said that she thinks that someone like Byrne, with his edge-of-sanity-creativity must have been given by God a sort of 6th sense of 3rd eye to see that of God's creation which most folks cannot see, thereby driving them almost crazy! I thought it was a brilliant explanation.

You see I really truly believe that all creativity is just a huge gift from the Creator himself and is just a reminder that we were indeed made from the beginning in His image. Don't get me wrong, tons of that creativity has been used in the exact opposite way than intended, but if we believe that God created everything, including humans, and that everything began in Him and lives because of Him, then reasoning demands that creativity itself is from God. And inside all of the creative music, or abstract paintings, or forms of dance, or moving poems, or stirring films, or can't-put-it-down novels lies some truth of the Almighty. At the very least it is the truth that a loving God made human beings to reflect his glory and to bring him pleasure, despite the fact that we try ever-so-hard to deny it and use our gifts for our own gain.

I also resonated with what Lisa said about Byrne. I am not by any means the most creative person in the world. I don't know that I've ever had an original thought or idea, and I know that none of my art will ever change the world. But I do tend to see myself as having a bit of an artistic bend. Because of that, I also seem to see many things very differently than a lot of people, such that I feel as though I go misunderstood sometimes. It's like I see things, and then I try to explain them, and it just never comes out like I intend. This may be a whole different problem than creativity can produce, but you see what I mean. The creative process does not, or at least should not, allow for mere status quo logic or reasoning. It searches for depth and deminsion that has heretofore not been seen, thereby often alientating itself from what is thought to be reality (this could become a slippery slope really quickly and could get really silly.....humor me will you!).

All I'm saying is that I think Lisa is right. Creative people are given a different bend, a different view of the world, and a different take on life. I think it is God's way of shaking it up a bit....not for the sake of just shaking it up, but for the sake, I believe, of revealing His beauty and creativity. That is where we as creators have the ultimate responsibility....to be sure that what we create in fact does point to the Creator, not because it always preaches a message, or wears a Christian shirt, or because it is slapped with a Christian label, but because it has redemptive value, full of integrety, originality, truth, insight, etc.

I'm not saying that I am on the verge of a breakdown......yet. All I am saying is that, if nothing else, you should definetly go grab a copy of "Stop Making Sense", it really is a fascinating expereince. Who knows, perhaps you'll even see a bit of God in it.....

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. School has started back up again and things are a bit busy to really sit down and blog, which will also explain the shortness of this post. I wrote this well over a week ago and am just now getting around to posting it.

I did want to take a second to recommend a book I just started reading last night at 11:00 and couldn't put down. It is possibly a book you read while in High School. The book is called Night by Elie Wiesel. It is a memoir of Wiesels experience in the Holocaust, what he saw, and how it affected his life and particularly his faith. I read for 2 hours straight last night, before realizing how late it was and how I needed to go to bed. It is an easy read in terms of length and writing style, but not so much in context. I have never really read or studied much about the Holocaust, and to some small extent I've known how horrific it was , but to read this account of a first-hand experience opened my eyes anew to the suffering, pain, and pointless trajedy that was the Holocaust.

I haven't quite finished it yet, but I did want to point out one interesting thing about this book. Throughout his story, Elie talks about how the brutality, murder, and torture that he saw completely distroyed his faith in an Almighty and loving God. As I read, I began to sense myself asking a question that I don't ask much, or that I tend to just brush off. That question was "Yeah, why did God allow that to happen. Why did he seemingly stand silently by while millions suffered and died horribly. In fact why does God allow such trajedy to happen at all?" I know that it's not my place to question God. I know his ways or not my ways and that we live in a fallen world. But it was just interesting to see how someones story and their view of God can affect my thoughts about God, and challenge what I really believe.

Again, let me encourage you to read this book, as it will definetly stir some questions in your mind.

Ok, now I offically feel like I should have been on Reading Rainbow...anybody remember that one? "Fly high in the sky...."

Have a great weekend!

So I said I was going to be posting a series of blogs about a book I was reading. Then I realized that it didn't have to be published on the Internet, but rather turned in as a hard copy. So I wound up doing my posts in a word doc. Sorry I told a fib, but it wasn't intentional. And truthfully, I probably spared you a bit, because unless you were reading the book along with me, you would have probably been lost to what I was saying. However, I will recommend that you read the book. It is by Mark Matlock and it is a really easy read and it discusses the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. The book is called "Living a Life That Matters".

In other news, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I haven't even posted since the world turned to 2008. I will try to get back to more regular blogs, since things should start to regain some since of normalcy...whatever that is!

For now, I'll just tell you some things I am looking forward to in 2008!

1. Karen's graduation - That's right, this year, Karen will become a nurse! I am really excited about that, excited for her, and excited to see the next chapter for her life. Will she work full time? Will she go on to get her BA? Will she become a mom? May will at least close one chapter and open another!

2. My graduation - It won't actually happen in 2008...more like 2009, but at the end of this year I will have one more semester left (for those of you keeping count that means I have 3 more full semesters left with the addition of several more workshops). But having it down to one last semester will feel really good at the end of this year!

3. Choir - I never thought I'd being doing this, but this year we will be starting a worship choir at church. Beware, this isn't your grandma's choir, we're still contemporary in music style. However, this will offer greater opportunity for more to be involved. I am really excited about the challenge!

4. New Porch Railing - I fully intend to stretch my handyman status this year by replacing our front porch railing. It has long since buckled and pulled apart at the seems, and is in dire need of being torn down, torched and being rebuilt! Anyone who knows me knows that this will probably be a hilarious sight, filled with mistakes, mismeasurements, and a few quiet expletive....that is if this little project goes as usual.

5. A new guitar - I recall this time last year thinking that 2007 would be the year of my new guitar. Well I find myself again saying that very same thing. It's amazing how priorities shift when you get married/grow older. However, the savings race has begun and I am 1/25 of the way there. I intend to, by years end, have a sparkly new Taylor 610 or 614. Here's praying that I can keep the car and truck intact, the house standing, and our health together!

6. Another year full of blessings....or not - If I were really honest, 2007 went off without a hitch. It was really a squeaky clean year. Even more so, if I were to count my blessings, it take all of 2008 to do so. I am very thankful for all the good gifts that God has blessed me and my family with. I am dually thankful for protection and provision. And I expect that 2008 will not be different. However, if for some reason, the bottom fell out, and life as I knew it was turned to shambles, what could I say. If at the end of this year I looked back and saw that everything bad that could have happened did, still I would hope that I would remember that God is good, he is in control, and BLESSED BE HIS NAME. I think about that a lot. I've been spared so much of life's troubles....I mean I've had bad days, but on the whole, life has been way too good. No tragedy has befallen, no sickness overwhelmed, no accident stricken......it's almost to good to be true in this old fallen world!! Don't get me wrong, I am thankful. But you never know when life will take it's turn, and so I always want to be prepared. And even if bad times come in 2008, I think I can still say I am really blessed!

So there you have it, just a short list of what I am looking forward to about 2008! Until next time.....

Karen finally finished up this semester of school which means only one more semester to go! For those of you who don't know, Karen is in nursing school, and will graduate in May as an RN. It has been a tough road -- lots of stress, studying, sobbing and other s-words that go along with higher education. However, she has done a fantastic job and she really works hard to do so well. It's different for me, I don't do a very good job of studying, but I have a pretty good memory so I can cram and at least make decent. And for me a B is great, a C is ok.....and as long as I pass everything I am good.....well let me take that back a little...I have to keep at least a 3.0 overall to begin my doctoral work (if I can survive my graduate studies to get there). But Karen, she studies night and day, and works and works so hard to get her grades. And she usually does exceptionally well.

Anyway, I am telling you all this to tell you that the strangest thing has happened in my life since I have been married, and it is magnified in Karen's pursuit of her nursing degree. I am going to be brutally honest here and admit that I am a selfish person. It's not something I am proud of, but many times life can be "all about me." To say that, I also have to say that I am fully aware of this flaw and want to work on it. However, I remember when Karen finished her core college classes and was applying for nursing school, how we prayed that she would get into Northeast (the school she is now in in Rainsville, AL.) She had applied to two schools but Northeast was the better and more established program, which made it much more desireable. And we prayed that if she didn't get in to nursing school God would just make it clear what He would have her do. And I remember when she got her acceptance letter to Northeast how I was so happy for her, and how I felt as though God had just laid out the next step of his plan for Karen...and I remember tears coming to my eyes....it was the strangest thing.

And then at the end of this past summer's semester Karen had not had such a great experience with tests and was afraid she wasn't going to pass. She was so worried when the grades were posted. We both checked grades together, hoping with all that was within us that she would at least have passed. And I remember when she pulled it up and it had a huge B on her grades, how we rejoiced, and cried together. It was the strangest thing.

That brings me to today. Again Karen and I checked her grades together and this semester she had a bright, beaming and glorious A! And I have never been so proud in all of my life I don't suppose! It was the strangest thing.

Everytime we go through this, I come away feeling overwhelmed at this bond I share with this other person, my wife. I've never felt this way before for anyone. It's so wonderfully strange to me that her defeats are my defeats and her victories are my victories. As I mentioned before, I can be quite selfish, but when we go through these times together, I could not be happier for a person.

Karen WILL graduate in May and become the most wonderful nurse, in part because she sees nursing as a way to show the love of Jesus to people through personal care. I think she is amazing, and I am so proud of her accomplishments up to this point. And I can't wait to see her succeed in the workplace....I kid all the time about all the money she'll make and how I'll retire....but truthfully, I don't care what kind of money she makes (though it will be an added bonus). I just want to see her continue to follow God's calling in her life and serve Him as I know her heart desires!

My point is that I never imagined in a million years that I could feel the way I do about another person. To share life with one other person and to do it all as a team, as partners! Man, I am so thankful that God established marriage as he did. And I am even more thankful that he, in his wonderous knowledge and forsight, made Karen as my partner, my wife!

As I mentioned in my last post, be on the lookout for book information in the near future (this is my way of reminding myself that I really need to do my homework before it is, as they say inproperly in Alabama, everlastin' too late).

I just got done watching a fascinating episode of CSI Miami. I'm not a huge fan of the show and hardly ever watch it. And I wouldn't encourage anyone to watch it either. The acting is so sub-par....it's ridiculous. However tonight I am glad that I chose it over the Dog Show on ESPN. I'll try not to bore you with all the details, so to make a long story short, the investigation of the night for CSI included the murder of a woman who turned out to be 10-12 weeks pregnant. At the moment of discovery of the now deceased fetus, the lead detective, in a most melodramatic tone said "Well one murder just turned into two."

Immediately I thought "now that's interesting. CBS just admitted that a baby is considered a living human being at 10-12 weeks." But the problem is that every day, living human beings at the same age of 10-12 weeks, in the mother's womb, are being brutally murdered and the murderers go unpunished.

To be honest I was going to blog about this issue a while back after watching a debate among the democrat presidential hopefuls. I forget exactly which debate it was, but I do recall the question asked had something to do with a woman's right to choose. Choose what you ask. Choose to murder their unborn baby is the real answer. However, each candidate, when asked their stance on the women's right to choose, (to be read "the woman's freedom to murder")answered by saying something like "I believe in the right to privacy." The most memorable answers were given by one John Edwards and on Hilary Clinton, who both when asked point blank on their stance on abortion, said "I believe in the right to privacy." In other words, I believe that a women should have the ability and the right to murder her own child (who is now, by the admission of the liberal media, namely CBS, a living human being who, when killed by another person, allows that person to be tried for murder) and not have to tell anyone about it. If your needing more clarification, that means that at least John Edwards, Hilary Clinton, and most every other democrat, including one so-called Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani, believe that woman should be allowed to murder her child and go completely unpunished.

For the record, I believe in the right to privacy too! I believe that ever child conceived should have the chance to live life privately!!!

I can't think of one reason, argument, or terribly wonderful characteristic that a candidate can display that could make up for their stance that a woman should be allowed to murder! And listen, my beef isn't with women, it's just that that stance is particular to women, what with women being the only gender capable of carrying a child....but if a candidate stood up and said "I believe in the right to privacy for a man to be able to kill his 2 year old son or daughter" we'd all be outraged! And rightfully so. SO why aren't we more outraged about the fact that democrats, and politicians, and people in general find abortion OK? If there is one single case that has ever been tried where an unborn child and mother were killed and the murderer was tried for two murders, then abortion should be COMPLETELY OUTLAWED!!! It's a no-brainer! Yet, we change our vernacular, cloud the truth with fancy semantics, and killers walk free everyday, while the politicians are tauted as hero's for women's rights! It makes me sick. And while I can think of a whole host of other reasons to never vote for a democrat, that is the tipping-point issue for me.....or for anyone democrat or republican who takes that stance.

OK, so I just had to get that out.

In other news, my blog will be changing in the next couple of days. I have an assignment for a class I am taking where I am to blog about a book I am reading. So I will be using the current blog to complete that assignment. I will give the details of the book with all needed information in the first post of the assignment. For those of you who don't know, I am still in seminary, and I am taking a Jan. workshop to continue that pursuit. The book is good, and is about Solomon...so it could be a potentially interesting blog...or not. Just wanted to give any regular readers the scoop before I get into the assignment!

So, in conclusion....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

As you've probably already heard, there is a new movie coming out this weekend called the Golden Compass based on a trilogy of children's books. Christian groups across the country are up-in-arms about the movie and there are talks about boycotting the movie. Phillip Pullman is the writer of the children's books and is an unashamed, self-described agnostic and atheist. New Line Cinema, the company producing the movie, has claimed to have toned down the apparent atheistic overtones evident throughout the books for the big-screen in order to appeal to a broader market. The argument coming at least from the Catholic camp is that the move is to make money for the production company, but will ultimately lead to unsuspecting parents purchasing the books to find atheism and agnosticism being pushed on their children.

Now that you get the idea, I just want to share a few brief comments. First of all, I do find it a bit unnerving that movies like this, with a disbelief at best and a complete hatred at worst towards God, are making the mainstream. And I think parents especially, but also all movie-goers, should make careful choices when it comes to movies and entertainment in general.

But what I do not get is why when these types of movies come out, so come out the Christian alarm-blowers yelling "STOP THAT MOVIE" or "BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT." Again, I don't like the underlying theme of the movie, but really should I be surprised that this type of entertainment is out there? I am not only NOT surprised, I have come to expect nothing less from Hollywood, the entertainment business, shoot...even politics and the like. I realize that it is often the extremest, God-haters that get the sandwich-sign-wearing-bullhorn-carrying-siren-pulling boycotters out. But where are they when every other weekend a filthy, blood-soaked horror film comes out that is just one sawed-limb short of an R rating that is marketed towards teenagers? Where are they when 50-Cent or Kanye West put out yet another rap album degrading women and promoting all types of materialism and debauchery that is specifically designed to sell to kids between the ages of 8-18? Where are they when Britney Spears.....OK I'll stop there.

Here's my point. At what point do we as Christians (even right-winged fundamentalists kooks) say that the world is only doing what it is and has always done? And at what point do we say that this is what the world always will do! When are we going to understand that the darkness is just that. I think it was C.S. Lewis that said "You'll never scrub this dirty world clean enough to live in it." It's like every time a movie like the Golden Compass comes out, we as Christians come out and say (in Brian Reagan-esque voice) "The dark is being dark! The dark is being dark!" Meanwhile, the darkness turns to us, the ones who are supposed to be the lamp on the lampstand, the city on the hill, laughs, and wanders further away from what is now becoming less of a bright light and much more of a forgettable flicker. Listen, the darkness is going to be dark. The sun has not once said to the night sky (at least within my hearing) "Lighten up! Be more like me. Stop being so dark." Instead, every morning it pops it's head over the horizon, and pushes it's way further into the middle until all of the darkness fades away, and the light encompasses the entire sky. That's what we as Christians are supposed to do. We aren't called to be whistle-blowers, or tattle-tailers. We aren't called to point out how bad the world is getting. Instead we are called to be "the light of the world." We are called to shine bright the light of Jesus such that those wallowing in the depths of sin and darkness see our light, and can't help but be drawn to it. And it is all because we hold our light not in their eyes to blind them, but in front of them, to light there way to Jesus. John 3:17 says that Jesus came not to condemn to world, but to save it. And he wants those of us who have been blessed of God to have seen HIS light and received his gift of salvation to light the paths for others.

The Golden Compass is just one of the many many movies that have and will continue to come out that will try to deny that God exists, and try to make others believe that as well. And for some, it will work. However, instead of standing outside the theater yelling at people not to go to the movie, and instead of whining and crying about the fact that Hollywood and the entertainment industry is pushing their evil ways onto us the general public, let us as fully devoted Christ followers push back with generosity, love, patience, kindness, humbleness, and self-control and begin to shine our light, the Light of Jesus Christ, in dark places!