For Every Reaction...

Okay, I finally found something that I can write about. Yes!

You see, I think that some people are a little confused. To me, there is nothing more inspiring, or more frustrating, than a person who is passionate about their faith.

Now you might be saying "Woah, woah, woah, Spenc! How can being passionate about your faith be frustrating to someone like you?"

Well, I plan on enlightening you.

I love seeing people eager to spread the Word. I love seeing people who want to share the love of Christ. I love seeing people eager to bring another soul home.

Butttt

I hate! And I mean HATE- seeing Christians look down upon others who are not saved. I hate seeing people bash non-believers over the head with verses and pamphlets scaring them into salvation.

Who has ever been truly won to Christ by being told that they are a terrible person doomed to burn in Hell for eternity?

We are supposed to act with love, and if you ask me, (which I suppose you sort of are since you're reading my blog)scaring or guilting someone into salvation is going about it all the wrong way.

If you know me, you know I am adamantly against Abortion.
But you'll never see my car sporting a bumper sticker that says "Abortion is Murder" or any other similar 'catchy' phrase.

In doing so, I could likely turn away people who otherwise might come to Christ through a relationship or influence with me.


My favorite comedian, Demetri Martin, put it most eloquently:

“A lot of people don’t like bumper stickers. I don’t mind bumper stickers. To me a bumper sticker is a shortcut. It’s like a little sign that says ‘Hey, let’s never hang out.’”

That's exactly the way I see those bumper stickers. By placing such a blatant (although true) message, you are potentially ruining any influence you could ever have had on that person.



For every action, there is an equal and opposite same reaction.


"Woah now Spenc! Not again! That's not how Sir Newton put it!"

But that's because Newton wasn't speaking of how people react...


People react in kind. If you show love towards someone, they will return it. If you show (or they perceive) hatred, or any sort of malice, towards them or their actions, they will react in much the same manner.


Simply put- If you give love, you get it. And vice-versa


So think about it. What kind of a message are you sending to potential future Christians, directly or indirectly? Is it love, or hate?







P.S. And about that 'Prosperity Doctrine"... WHAT?!

Dear Facebook Users,

I do not want to know every second of your day.
Just because you have a cool phone and can update your status every 5 minutes, please refrain.
I do not care if you think Valentine's Day is lame. Write a blog about it, don't clutter my home page... sheesh.
I do not care if you have the hardest test tomorrow. Study retard, don't be on facebook.
I do not care what hours you are working today.
I do not care if you are getting a haircut.

However, if you have to update your status, make it something witty that might make someone smile.

Oh and P.S. The 25 random facts about you- I DON'T CARE!
I'm not going to thank you for tagging me in a pointless note, thereby cluttering my already hectic home page further.

haha i sound pretty upset in this... honestly, i don't care about it that much, it's just frustrating sometimes. i just felt i needed to rant and rave a bit.

If you're not in a relationship then nobody loves you. Sorry.

We're called to be in the world but not of it, but that unfortunately means that we are still subjected to all the skewed views and ideals this world has to offer. It frustrates me a lot of the time. Once I thought that it would be much easier if we could, as Christians, go live in a remote mountain area away from the world, but then I realized that people already do that, and they're called cults... So I pretty abruptly stopped that train of thought.

Lately I've had one particular topic on my mind a lot- relationships.

Here's how it seems to me.

WORLD: Hey kids! It's your old pal World here! Today we're going to be talking about a very important, very fun thing, relationships. The purpose of a relationship is to have fun. You should try to have as many girlfriends or boyfriends as you can. If you're not in a relationship, then there is likely something wrong with you... reject.

Okay, that wasn't quite serious. But I am serious about this stuff.

The worst part is, so many believe that, or at least something similar to that. Today's society has created a new generation of people that are so needy. They are practically depressed when they're not in a relationship, which ironically happens a lot since they jump at every poor opportunity to have a significant other. I look around, and I see all these people that either are in terrible relationships just for the sake of being in one, or I see the people who don't get it, the people who just can't seem to figure out this whole dating thing.

It's the people who don't get it that worry me. They are told, day in and day out, that unless they have a girlfriend or boyfriend, they aren't loved or cared for. Eventually, they begin to believe this. What could be further from the truth!?

Don't get me wrong, relationships are amazing!
...if you do them right.

They're not something that should be rushed or jumped into. They need to take time to develop. Don't date someone to get to know them. Get to know them, then if you're still intrigued by something other than those teenage hormones, contemplate dating them. Make sure it's somebody you can mature with, somebody who won't drag you down.

Create standards. Stick to them.

And so to my generation I say:
Have more self-worth! You are loved, no matter what your relationship status on facebook says! I'm pretty sure I know of a guy that is pretty good at loving, and filling all types and sizes of holes, you should talk to him.

You might wanna think about this. In the world, there are over 6 billion people. Out of those 6 billion, there is likely one person that will meet your criteria, so DON'T COMPROMISE!

Time.

Time.

What are you?

Sometimes you drip, slowly like the broken toilet in my downstairs bathroom.
Other times you seem to pass with a flash.

Why is it that when I want you to pass, you linger?
Or when I wish you would stand still, you run away?

Because of you, the sad are doomed to live long and sorrow-filled lives.
The happy never quite have time to enjoy what they have.

If time is money, then the happiest are poor.

If the happiest are poor, then why do we seek riches?

You're a cruel thing, Time, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather live an hour in an instant than a lifetime in a year.

Here's to short lives and happy people.
Here's to the instants.

I was reading this today, and it really struck a chord with me. Not quite sure what it is, but most of Seamus Heaney's poetry stands out to me.

Casualty

I

He would drink by himself
And raise a weathered thumb
Towards the high shelf,
Calling another rum
And blackcurrant, without
Having to raise his voice,
Or order a quick stout
By a lifting of the eyes
And a discreet dumb-show
Of pulling off the top;
At closing time would go
In waders and peaked cap
Into the showery dark,
A dole-kept breadwinner
But a natural for work.
I loved his whole manner,
Sure-footed but too sly,
His deadpan sidling tact,
His fisherman's quick eye
And turned observant back.

Incomprehensible
To him, my other life.
Sometimes on the high stool,
Too busy with his knife
At a tobacco plug
And not meeting my eye,
In the pause after a slug
He mentioned poetry.
We would be on our own
And, always politic
And shy of condescension,
I would manage by some trick
To switch the talk to eels
Or lore of the horse and cart
Or the Provisionals.

But my tentative art
His turned back watches too:
He was blown to bits
Out drinking in a curfew
Others obeyed, three nights
After they shot dead
The thirteen men in Derry.
PARAS THIRTEEN, the walls said,
BOGSIDE NIL. That Wednesday
Everyone held
His breath and trembled.

II

It was a day of cold
Raw silence, wind-blown
Surplice and soutane:
Rained-on, flower-laden
Coffin after coffin
Seemed to float from the door
Of the packed cathedral
Like blossoms on slow water.
The common funeral
Unrolled its swaddling band,
Lapping, tightening
Till we were braced and bound
Like brothers in a ring.

But he would not be held
At home by his own crowd
Whatever threats were phoned,
Whatever black flags waved.
I see him as he turned
In that bombed offending place,
Remorse fused with terror
In his still knowable face,
His cornered outfaced stare
Blinding in the flash.

He had gone miles away
For he drank like a fish
Nightly, naturally
Swimming towards the lure
Of warm lit-up places,
The blurred mesh and murmur
Drifting among glasses
In the gregarious smoke.
How culpable was he
That last night when he broke
Our tribe's complicity?
'Now, you're supposed to be
An educated man,'
I hear him say. 'Puzzle me
The right answer to that one.'

III

I missed his funeral,
Those quiet walkers
And sideways talkers
Shoaling out of his lane
To the respectable
Purring of the hearse...
They move in equal pace
With the habitual
Slow consolation
Of a dawdling engine,
The line lifted, hand
Over fist, cold sunshine
On the water, the land
Banked under fog: that morning
I was taken in his boat,
The screw purling, turning
Indolent fathoms white,
I tasted freedom with him.
To get out early, haul
Steadily off the bottom,
Dispraise the catch, and smile
As you find a rhythm
Working you, slow mile by mile,
Into your proper haunt
Somewhere, well out, beyond...

Dawn-sniffing revenant,
Plodder through midnight rain,
Question me again.

unlovable

You turn away from them, stab them in the back, then watch them run away.
everything feels just fine.

You turn away from them, stab them in the back, then watch them come running back to you.
it hurts so much more.

As Christians, we are not only supposed to, but we are commanded to love. Love everyone.

I write this as a failing Christian.

What do you do when you yourself have contributed to the hypocritical stereotype of the church, where you turn your back on those who don't have the perfect record? The church is supposed to be a refuge for all, most especially sinners. If the church is closed to them, where can they go but back to their sin, that welcomes and embraces them?

We are not taught to only love those who are easy to love.
We are not taught to feed the satisfied.
We are not taught to embrace the beautiful.

We are taught to love the unlovable.
We are taught to satisfy the hungry.
We are taught to embrace the wretched.

What purpose is the house of God if not as a haven for those steeped in their sins? Have we lost sight of the true ministry? Jesus didn't avoid the company of the unrighteous, he relished it. He sought out the miserable, the sickly, the pitiful. He held company among the adulterers, the whores, the liars, the beggars. And here we are, with barely the ability to reach out to even one soul in need.

I'm guilty of a crime of omission.

The Bible says that if you know the right thing to do, and still you do not do it, then you have sinned.

I am so guilty.

Tired

I'm tired of being told how to live. I'm tired of having social expectations. I'm tired of people always looking to blame anyone but themselves. I'm tired of Political Correctness. I'm tired of everybody being afraid of offending someone. I'm tired of the silent majority and its counterpart, the screaming, and unfortunately irrepressible, minority.

Get out.
Say what you believe.
Offend someone.
Become the majority with a voice.